All The Reformed Broker
Institutional investors join the 'revolution'Investors who read and react to blogs and the Twitterverse may not realize it, but they're actually on the forefront of a revolution, according to Joshua Brown, one of the greatest information disintermediations in modern history.
Rise of the robots: The man versus machine advisor debateWhen it comes to investing, a new article written by Nick Shalek claims that software is better than 99 percent of humans when it comes to financial advising. His post has spread around the industry like wildfire, with wildly mixed reviews.
Bullheadedness on The Street: These guys just don't quitIt is not a sin to be wrong, the Reformed Broker tells us, we are all wrong from time to time. However, it is a sin to willfully ignore evidence and facts or to hunt down obscure data points in order to support an existing thesis.
Winner takes all: The marketing of Wall StreetThe Reformed Broker details his experiences competing for clients against the big guns like Fidelity, battling against marketing campaigns which over the years helped elevate such name-brand firms onto an "exalted plane of existence."
Can Cameron Marlow save Facebook?Cameron Marlow's group has 12 researchers. They apply math, programming skills, and social science to mine our data for insights that they hope will advance Facebook's business and social science at large.
CNBC commentator calls for 'King Dollar.' But is it enough?Larry Kudlow has been pounding the table for a stronger US dollar as the way to beat the recession. But now that the dollar has bottomed out, why isn't the recovery sticking? Lowering taxes might be a good place to start.
Tech stock dividends: It's a thing, nowIt used to be that investors were wary of tech stocks that initiated dividends, wondering why the capital wasn't being used for capital growth. Now, this mentality is changing, with Microsoft yielding 2.7 percent and Intel paying over 3 percent.
Looking for two cents? This fund manager finds bonds concerningThe Reformed Broker shares one of his favorite fund managers with The Monitor. Dennis Stattman is not a household name, but Brown thinks he is one of the greatest asset allocators in the history of the industry.
Fund managers show trend toward the risk-averseThe June Survey of Fund Managers has been released by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and it shows some classic late-stage downtrend behavior, as well as a new emphasis toward strongly risk-averse behavior.
Wall Street's high-stakes love affair with Europe continuesGoldman Sachs, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley among the Wall Street giants that have continued to buy up bonds in debt-laden Italy and France. Hopefully these risky moves pay off. Because Wall Street never makes bad decisions.
There's something about ItalyIf this big Euro experiment is going to succeed, it is important that things in Italy stay fairly stable. The good news is, the country's banks are in relatively good shape and its leader appears competent. The bad news? A massive sovereign debt load.
Boost China. Bail out Spain. Save the US?Spain's $125 billion bailout package, combined with heightened stimulus in China, may be key to the US enjoying its own modest economic growth,
$350 million in Facebook losses?UBS is reportedly sitting on losses that could be as high as $350 million stemming from its investment in the Facebook initial public offering, and is preparing legal action against Nasdaq as a result.
Yes, dividends. Almost always.No one is saying dividends always work, but in a period like this why wouldn't you want to select for them in a passive portfolio? A good broker never forgets how powerful high dividend payers can be versus the rest of the market.
On a wing and a prayer: Cautious optimism as market reboundsBarring further unexpected bad news, even the cynical Reformed Broker believes the Dow's big rally yesterday can continue on today. Just don't let President Obama go on television before the closing bell.
If you live by the sword investors, remember you die by it, tooThe impressive luck of one hedge fund manager has The Reformed Broker reminding investors that the stated return should never be the focal point - it should always be a question of "how was this return produced."
Proceed with caution: State of the Exchange Traded ProductsOur Reformed Broker ruminates on the future of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs), which he believes will, at a certain point in the coming decade, completely swamp the mutual fund and ultimately eliminate it from the market.
Could gold really be on the ropes?When looking at gold you can be an expert in the fairy tale aspect or accept the fact that it is the ultimate Greater Fool trade, for better or for worse. With levels reading 1500 an ounce, at least one analyst thinks the hallowed metal may be flirting with breaking under.
SEC won't take action against Lehman BrothersThe SEC will likely not seek action against the Lehman for the events that led up to the firm's massive bankruptcy in 2008.
Welcome to Twitter, Goldman Sachs!Goldman Sachs sent its very first tweet Thursday. Six Twitter tips for the company.
