-
Recent Posts
- Stocks and Bonds Aren’t Enough: You Need Strategy and Geographic Diversification as Well
- Retirement Planning: The Dangers of Thinking the Past Will Look Like the Future
- 2018: Investors’ Year Without a Summer
- How to Judge an Investment Strategy
- The Last Day of World War One: The Final Waste of a Wasteful War
Archives
Categories
Meta
Author Archives: Mark Helm, CFP, EA
Stocks and Bonds Aren’t Enough: You Need Strategy and Geographic Diversification as Well
“You keep using that word. I do not think that it means what you think it means,” Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride. The word “diversification” gets thrown around a lot in the investing world. Everyone agrees that it’s important and … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
2 Comments
Retirement Planning: The Dangers of Thinking the Past Will Look Like the Future
Retirement planning brings together almost every aspect of financial planning: Cash Flow, Tax Planning, Goals, Insurance and Estate Planning. But at the heart of retirement planning is your portfolio and what you hope to earn from your investments. At some … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
2018: Investors’ Year Without a Summer
In 1816, Americans living on East Coast Europeans experienced a devastating environmental phenomenon. In what became known as the “Year Without a Summer,” chilly temperatures, torrential rains and thick fog across Europe and the East Coast during the summer months … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
How to Judge an Investment Strategy
“There are no right answers to wrong questions.” – Ursula K. Le Guin With the demise of most workplace pensions, investing has become an incredibly important job for most Americans. Yet, we’re never taught how to do it. In high … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
The Last Day of World War One: The Final Waste of a Wasteful War
Naturally, I typically write about financial issues, but with the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I just days away, I wanted to give an account of the final day of that conflict. The reason is simple: The … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Setting Expections: What is Normal Stock Market Behavior
In times like these, I like to remind myself that scary drops in the stock market are normal. Turmoil in the stock market is normal. Mental pain from being a stock market investor is normal. For some odd reason, we … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Trend Following: Not a Unicorn, But a (Potentially) Useful Horse
In my last article, I introduced the investment strategy of trend following – and my reluctance to believe in it. In the end, the evidence was too overwhelming for me to ignore. A trend following screen on stocks did appear … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
1 Comment
Trend Following: My Capitulation to the Evidence
I’ve always prided myself on being an evidence-based investment advisor. Don’t try to persuade me with a good story. I want a reasonable hypothesis, backed by data and rigorous statistical analysis. I want transparent, peer-reviewed research that’s gone through the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
1 Comment
Peering Into The Future: Sort Of
I often tell my clients that the different stock market valuation methods can help us estimate future stock market returns. Naturally, this gets them pretty excited. I mean, knowing the future is pretty helpful when it comes to investing, right? … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Hillary or Trump: Stop Worrying About Things Your Can’t Control
“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” – Epictetus Almost every appointment ends the same these days. “Do you think we should do something … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment