The Weekend Starts Here...

The Weekend Starts Here...

Photo:Pixabay

“There’s no doubt that investors need greater transparency and for the costs they are paying to be presented in a way which is both easy for them to understand and helps to inform their choices by being presented in a manner which enables them to compare the costs of different funds.  It will also hopefully serve to drive down those costs over time as, generally, with greater transparency comes greater competition.”  ICYMI, You get what you don’t pay for  [4 min read]

“It’s very difficult to imagine from the psychological analysis of what expertise is that you can develop true expertise in, say, predicting the stock market,” he said.  “You cannot because the world isn’t sufficiently regular for people to learn rules.”  Behavioural finance expert and Nobel Laureate, Daniel Kahneman, recently gave an interesting talk at the 71st CFA Institute Annual Conference in Hong Kong [6 min read]

The difference between investing and speculating. [3 min read]  [Charlie Bilello]

“…when you accept how incomplete the details of history must be, your takeaways should be as broad as possible. Themes > specifics.”  [5 min read]  [Morgan Housel]

In a week which saw two celebrity suicides, this thought-provoking piece caught my eye.  We must find a way to remove the stigma of depression and mental illness in our society so that people can ask for the help they so desperately need.  [8 min read]  [Rusty Guinn]

The message that costs matter is really gaining some traction now. [3 min read]  [Morningstar]

And this: “Enlightened advisors are focusing on the client’s needs and talking about what they can actually deliver – high quality, highly personalized ongoing advice and counseling.” [4 min read]   [Josh Brown]

This next piece is a quite remarkable story about a lottery winner and illustrates how we really have no way of knowing how we might react in certain situations until we find ourselves in them.  [4 min read]  [Nick Maggiulli]

“There are things that happen in this world on a regular basis that are totally unexpected — natural disasters, accidents, terrorism, disease, tragedy, market crashes, geopolitical events and so on. There are certain things you can never really plan for in terms of when, how, and why they’ll happen.”   Even if you could predict the future, would it help?  [4 min read]  [Ben Carlson]

“Having an asset allocation that is suitable for your requirements, considering valuations and thinking about how best to control your behaviour is the surest way to deliver solid results, whilst avoiding the most common investment mistakes.”  Focus on the things you can control.  [3 min read]

When Trump was first elected, it seemed that markets reacted to every tweet.  Now, not so much, despite the roller coaster ride he’s taken us on.  Here are some reasons why that might be.  [3 min read]  [Barry Ritholtz]

And finally.  I’m a sucker for optical illusions.  This is a good one.  [Animation]  [Steve Stuart-Williams]

Whatever you’re up to this weekend, I hope it’s a good one.

Carolyn