Become a Patron! Like everyone on the internet, for the last few days I've been following the fascinating and hilarious story of the little message board that made a small dent in the quarter-on-quarter performance of a few particularly poorly managed hedge funds. There are plenty of bad and a few good descriptions of the situation out there already, so I'll assume readers … [Read more...] about The right and wrong lessons from the Gamestop trading fiasco
investing
Good reasons to own bonds
Become a Patron! For as long as I've been writing about money, I've been saying almost everybody owns too many bonds. My argument has nothing to do with "risk" or "volatility" or "rebalancing." It's much simpler than that: bonds don't pay enough in interest. If and when they start paying more in interest, I will like them more and start saying people should buy them. But … [Read more...] about Good reasons to own bonds
How big a deal is reinvestment risk?
Become a Patron! When financial professionals talk about investing, the conversation invariably turns to the question of "risks." This is a term of art only vaguely related to its everyday meaning. Ordinary people don't talk about "upside risk," for example. That's the possibility that your investment will perform better than anticipated — not a problem for an ordinary … [Read more...] about How big a deal is reinvestment risk?
Is investment behavior “coaching” possible?
Become a Patron! Ever since I took my first job in college as a sandwich artist, I've been suspicious of the American reluctance to talk about money. The franchisee scumbag who hired me told me how much I'd be making, and told me not to tell any of the other employees. The message was clear: he was going to be paying the white, male, inexperienced college student more than … [Read more...] about Is investment behavior “coaching” possible?
Education, advice, and evasion
Become a Patron! A few years ago I wrote about one of the curious fixations I observed among the wealthy denizens of the finance industry: the need for "personal finance" education. In this telling, the problems troubling American civilization are not the result of financial deregulation, or corporate consolidation, or employee misclassification, or wage theft, or race and … [Read more...] about Education, advice, and evasion