The Devil is in the Details

Through years of working with individual investors I often heard comments such as “Oh, my broker doesn’t charge a fee for managing my assets.” It sounds like a bargain at first, but if you dig deeper, you will discover that brokers are being compensated through various fees (some obvious, some not) including commissions from trading … Continued

The PIMCO Dilemma

In early February a high level departure of the CEO of PIMCO Investment Management, Mohamed El-Erian, was announced. As some may know, PIMCO is one of the largest managers of fixed income mutual funds in the world, with $2 trillion under advisement. The story of El-Erian’s departure revealed a very peculiar – maybe more aptly … Continued

Five Years and Ten Thousand Points

Five years ago this week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated to its low of 6,547.05. Think about that. Undeniably, the economic outlook at the time was perilous. Concerns persisted long after that dark day in March of 2009. One year later, I was speaking at the MENSA annual gathering and my presentation was titled, … Continued

The Path of Least Resistance

Wikipedia defines “the path of least resistance” as the physical or metaphorical pathway that provides the least resistance to forward motion. This can also be used to describe certain human behaviors and is often used as a metaphor for avoiding personal effort or confrontation. We see this every day. For example, in the criminal justice … Continued