Graduation, first job, marriage, having kids, divorce, death of a spouse, becoming a grandparent. These are all major life events that receive a lot of attention. We throw parties, showers, weddings, and funerals to mark these milestones. We formalize them with legal documents. We write articles, how-to’s, and self-help books about them. The rhythm of…
If I Had a Billion Dollars
In case you haven’t heard, the Mega Millions jackpot for tonight’s drawing is over $1.2 billion. That’s Billion, with a B. Although the odds of winning are less than 1 in 300 million, I suspect that many nonregular lottery-playing Americans will purchase tickets. To put these odds in context, here are the odds of some…
Blah Blah Summer
Summer is the off-season in New Orleans. The heat and humidity pack a one-two punch that makes walking outside feel like walking into a steam room, day or night. It’s best to do chores like mowing the lawn or grocery shopping before 8 am when the sun makes its unwelcome return above the roof. We…
A Time to Puke
Today was an ugly day for the stock market. We have officially entered bear market territory for the S&P 500 Index, so we can stop dancing around the words “sell-off”. The arbitrary line in the sand has been crossed. I have spent my career assisting clients through bear markets. I graduated from college at the…
Bear Market Playbook
Although we are not technically in a bear market (the S&P 500 Index has not declined 20%) it absolutely feels like one. The tech-heavy NASDAQ index is 26% off its highs, and so are small-cap stocks. Many of the darling stocks of the latest growth rally have been decimated. These are some of the most…
Flush It Out
It’s brutal out there. We had two very strong down days on Friday and Monday, with no signs of a relief bounce today. The S&P 500 Index closed down another 3.2% on Monday, now down over 16% year-to-date. Everyone expects we will enter official bear market territory, with the averages down 20% or more. CNBC…
Don’t Panic Sell
The markets have been ugly for the past few days. The Nasdaq was down 5% yesterday and is now down over 21% year-to-date. There’s nowhere to hide either. Bonds are having their worst start to a year (-10.79%) on record. Inflation is running at a 40-year high, and the Fed is aggressively tightening monetary policy….
I Need Help
I was the 19th employee of Ritholtz Wealth Management when I joined the firm four years ago next month. I knew I was getting on a rocket ship, but I underestimated what escape velocity would feel like. In my first year, we crossed $1 billion in assets under management, a record-breaking accomplishment for a start-up…
Start Date Randomness
I’ve been the primary advisor to clients for 12 years, and my career in wealth management is approaching two decades. Each client hired me on a different date over those 12 years, and since I joined RWM four years ago, this has been at a pace of about one new client every month. As a…
Get Even-itis
Investors struggle with many behavioral biases, but Loss Aversion is perhaps the bias that poses the greatest challenge. Loss aversion simply means that losses hurt twice as bad as a gain of equal value. This is a concept was first quantified by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman in their pivotal 1979 paper titled Prospect Theory….
