I joined Peggy Tuck today on Straight Talk Money, and at the top of the agenda was Elon Musk and Tesla (TSLA). Tesla reported its worst loss in history, yet shares rallied hard as a more conciliatory Musk promised profits in the quarters ahead. Musk, by the way, was the inspiration for Robert Downey Jr.’s...Read More

A more comprehensive version of this article covering all presidents back to 1889 was originally published on Kiplinger’s. Mount Rushmore features massive 60-foot-tall busts of celebrated presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, each chosen for their respective roles in preserving or expanding the Republic. But if you were to make a...Read More

The following first appeared on Kiplinger’s as 3 Things You Should Always Ask a Financial Adviser. Your choice of financial adviser might be the single most important decision you ever make, short of your spouse or maybe your doctor. While you might not be putting your life in his or her hands, per se, you’re...Read More

Value investing has historically been a winning strategy… but it’s been a rough couple of years. So… is value dead? Should we all just buy the S&P 500 and be done? The rumors of value’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Larry Swedroe wrote am excellent piece on the subject this month, Don’t Give Up On...Read More

I joined Peggy Tuck this morning on Straight Talk Money. Given that Berkshire Hathaway just had its annual meeting, we have Buffett on the brain. We discuss the Warren Buffett’s career and a few things you might not know about the Oracle. Part 1: Part 2: Part 3: Part 4: This article first appeared on...Read More

Growth stocks — and specifically large-cap tech stocks led by the FAANGs — have utterly crushed value stocks of late. It’s been the dominant theme of the past five years. Even the first quarter of 2018, which saw Facebook engulfed in a privacy scandal, saw growth outperform value. Value stocks in general underperformed, and the...Read More

Tadas Viskanta, editor of the excellent finanical blog Abnormal Returns, asked a group of financial bloggers the following question: Assume you are advising a pension fund, endowment or foundation. What is a reasonable long-term expectation for real returns for a well-diversified portfolio? The answered varied, but it seems like the consensus was somewhere in the...Read More

The following is an excerpt from Best ETFs for 2018: iShares Emerging Markets Dividend ETF Is Still in the Race. If there is a dominant theme in the Best ETFs for 2018 contest, it would seem to be “Go America!” and specifically “Go American tech!” The Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) is leading the pack, up 7%, and four...Read More

Interesting price action in MLPs today. Some Twitter banter: Either someone fat fingered a trade in $EPD an hour ago, or a BIG holder had to get out in a hurry. Seems to be recovering. pic.twitter.com/lJDe6el3oO — Charles Sizemore (@CharlesSizemore) March 27, 2018 The narrative making the rounds is that a big institutional player had...Read More

It remains to be seen whether the market is in the midst of a garden-variety 10% correction or if this is the start of a deeper bear market. But it does seem like this market is being held aloft buy a small handful of large-cap tech stocks: the infamous FAANGs. Let’s play with the numbers...Read More