Stability itself is destabilizing. This is one of the defining ideas of the economist Hyman Minsky. And it matters because when we have periods of relative stability or happy results in the stock market (like now), we start to tell ourselves little stories. For example, we might believe that the stock market will behave like…
Ten years ago, I tracked every penny of our family’s spending. That’s good, right? Over time, however, I lost sight of why I was doing it and eventually stopped. Recently, I decided to try it again, and I find myself having the same mental conversation every time I sit down with my receipts. “I don’t…
Ten years ago, I tracked every penny of our family’s spending. That’s good, right? Over time, however, I lost sight of why I was doing it and eventually stopped. Recently, I decided to try it again, and I find myself having the same mental conversation every time I sit down with my receipts. “I don’t…
Individual investors have been busy the last few months. TD Ameritrade saw a 30 percent jump in daily trading volume compared with the same period last year. Other discount brokers reported a similar increase in daily trading volume. I spoke to TD Ameritrade, and it said this number represented a broad-based increase in trading. The number of…
Last week, I wrote about the documented evidence that trading activity results in lower returns to investors. This is equally true for those people we think of as professional investors and for people day trading in their parents’ basements. As far as I’m aware, there’s no peer-reviewed, academic study that shows any evidence that active trading will…
When we think of financial planning, we naturally focus on the future. We start by getting really clear about where we are today, then we spend time thinking about where we want to be 10, 20 or even 30 years from now. Part of the process includes deciding how much we’ll want to spend, when…
When we think of financial planning, we naturally focus on the future. We start by getting really clear about where we are today, then we spend time thinking about where we want to be 10, 20 or even 30 years from now. Part of the process includes deciding how much we’ll want to spend, when…
Let’s start with a parable. Next to a mountain trail stood a twisted, gnarly tree. Hikers loved the shade it provided, but one day, a guy with an ax came along and decided the tree could do more than provide shade. He thought the tree would make a great table. So he chopped it down…
A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from someone living nearby who wanted to talk about his investment plan. We arranged a time to meet, and I got to spend an hour being a sounding board. It didn’t take long to discover that he was making a common mistake. It’s one I’ve made,…
Do you consider yourself an investor or a trader? The answer matters because there’s a big distinction between the two. It’s also an answer that will help you make sense of the current sideshow entertaining most of Wall Street: Michael Lewis’s latest book, “Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt.” Starting on Sunday with an interview on “60…
Years ago, a friend came home with a new, top-of-the-line road bike. My first thought: How can he afford that? It seemed like such a big purchase based on what I thought I knew. We lived in the same neighborhood, were close to the same age and both had young families. His life looked a…
Most of the market news you hear tends to be about stocks, but bonds are just as useful a tool for most investment portfolios. One type in particular, the municipal, or “muni” bond, remains very popular. These bonds are issued by local governments, they’re often tax-exempt and they can be relatively low risk. But muni…
We’re still making the same old mistake of buying investments when prices are high and selling them once their prices have fallen. I had hoped things had changed, I really did. But Morningstar’s latest Investor Returns data says otherwise. More than 10 years after I first started thinking about this data, the behavior gap still exists. The…
Frederic Mishkin was in a bind. In January 2008, his wife wanted to buy a house, but as we all know now, the housing market was in the midst of a crash. More than one person probably shared similar doubts with friends around the same time, but Mr. Mishkin is a little different. He told…
You should never make investing decisions based on what the market is doing, except for now, maybe. Past experience and reams of studies tell us there is no way to time the market and that we should buy and hold. That said, there are a few exceptions to the rule. With the total United States…