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Happy Hour: Heartbleed And Marks Memo

April 11, 2014

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Jon

Welcome to the end of the week and another edition of Happy Hour! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy your end of the week roundup of all things interesting in the land of money.

Heartbleed Bug

Last week I mentioned how code is flawed. This week we were reminded again. A big security flaw popped up in the encryption used by sites to hide information like usernames, passwords, and credit card numbers. It’s called Heartbleed. This article explains it better than I can.

Not every site was compromised. Still, everything I’ve read suggests changing your passwords. Continue Reading…
Expected Return: Avoid The Seduction of Big Numbers

April 10, 2014

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Jon

When it comes to expected return, we love big numbers. We gravitate to it like paparazzi to a celebrity. We do it with performance and projections because it sells.

But there’s one tiny problem. Our expectations change with the market.

A while back I covered how asset allocation lowers volatility. In it, I showed how four different asset mixes performed against an all stock and an all bond portfolio. It looked like the graph below. It showed how volatility lowers as you decrease the amount of stocks in your portfolio. But did it?

Of course it did. It was a simple exercise to prove a point. But it also showed how much better an all stock portfolio performed over the same period. Continue Reading…
Happy Hour: Has HFT Rigged The Market?

April 4, 2014

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Jon

Welcome to the end of the week and another edition of Happy Hour! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy your end of the week roundup of all things interesting in the land of money.

HFT

A media storm erupted this week because of the 60 Minutes story – Rigged and the release of a new book by Micheal Lewis. Once again, headlines make drastic claims about the market and your money.

What’s the best way to sell a book? Get a 60 Minutes infomercial and make bold statements about how Americans are getting ripped off.

Kidding aside, people are always looking for an advantage. It’s human nature. History is repeating itself for the thousandth time. Only this iteration is computerized. Continue Reading…
The Tax Deadline Is Only Two Weeks Away

April 3, 2014

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Jon

Are you ready to join the mad rush to the tax deadline or did you finish your return early? There’s about two weeks left to get your return finalized, signed, and sent to the IRS. With that in mind, I’ve put this reminder together with info to help you make the most of your refund and get that tax return in on time.

The Deadline Is Here

Once again, April 15th is the deadline fast approaches. That’s the day your tax return and any taxes owed are due. Or, you can file a tax extension, to get an extra six months. Even with an extension, the IRS still wants that money paid by the deadline. Continue Reading…
Q1 Review: Worst To First In 3 Months Flat

April 1, 2014

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Jon

Some of last years worst performing fund categories are the best performers this year. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. It happens often. It’s not always consistent across every asset class or sector. But when you beat something down far enough, eventually it has no place to go but up.

It happened with solar in 2013. This year-long term government bonds, muni bonds, REITs, utilities, and gold are outperforming the S&P 500.

Should you pour money into these categories because each performed well? Chasing is a bad strategy. Maybe it’s time to spring clean your portfolio, not rearrange it. Continue Reading…
Happy Hour: Search For The Next Tech

March 28, 2014

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Jon

Welcome to the end of the week and another edition of Happy Hour! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy your end of the week roundup of all things interesting in the land of money.

Oculus Rift

There a big uproar this week with Facebook buying Oculus Rift, a virtual reality hardware company that began with funding on Kickstarter.

The Oculus kickstarters got exactly what they overpaid for…an expensive t-shirt. A few got a prototype too. The Oculus owners got $2 billion in cash and Facebook stock (which they might want to insure). Continue Reading…

Happy Hour: Heartbleed And Marks Memo

Heartbleed Bug

Expected Return: Avoid The Seduction of Big Numbers

Happy Hour: Has HFT Rigged The Market?

HFT

The Tax Deadline Is Only Two Weeks Away

The Deadline Is Here

Q1 Review: Worst To First In 3 Months Flat

Happy Hour: Search For The Next Tech

Oculus Rift