Download Newsletter

To our clients and friends:

This quarter’s newsletter will differ slightly in content and tone as compared to the usual discussion of investments, risk management and financial advice. Hopefully, it will be as interesting and engaging!

As regular readers of this letter know, I’ve often invoked the names of a number of famous investments gurus in my writings. I have within the past three weeks or so crossed paths—albeit indirectly—with two of the more famous names in the world of finance. Those two people are Warren Buffet and John Bogle.

Examining and studying the thoughts and writings of these two individuals in great depth over the years has enlightened me—and hopefully, my readers as well—in so many ways. I can explain further.

Download Newsletter

To our clients and friends:

In this quarterly newsletter, I often reference the titans of the investment world. One of the true giants, Benjamin Graham, was known as the “father of value investing”. Warren Buffet was a student of Graham’s at Columbia University in the 1940’s.

Graham has been quoted as saying: “Wall Street has a few prudent principles; the trouble is that they are always forgotten when they are most needed”.

Download Newsletter

To our clients and friends:

The quote above is actually a very polite way for this famous American to remind all of us that no one can accurately predict the future. A broken clock is right twice a day—much else in life is uncertain.

Download Newsletter

To our clients and friends:

Over the course of recent newsletters, I’ve been writing about the hazards of following the crowd when it comes to investing. The fact is that it is never a good idea to do so, regardless of how persuasive the “talking heads” on television may appear. Instead, it seems far more prudent to approach investing with a skeptical eye, and as a contrarian thinker.

It is important not to casually dismiss indicators such as investor sentiment, especially when they point to increased market risk. Of course, overriding all of this is the fact that knowledge is king. Knowledge—and information—neutralizes potentially dangerous biases (and ‘head stuck in the sand’ syndrome).

Download Newsletter

To our clients and friends:

This quarter’s newsletter will examine the concept of behavioral finance and the importance of focusing on the long-term as opposed to being distracted by the “noise” perpetrated by the financial media. This is a theme that I’ve addressed in the past, but one which always seems to warrant further scrutiny.

Download Newsletter

To our clients and friends:

After carefully contemplating a topic to write about in this quarter’s newsletter, I’ve elected to address a subject which has recently been plastered all over the financial press. No, it is not the “Brexit”, in which United Kingdom voters elected to abandon the European Union. It’s the concept of the “fiduciary” standard and service to one’s clients.

Download Newsletter

To our clients and friends:

Benjamin Graham first published his timeless masterpiece, The Intelligent Investor, in 1949. Graham is often referred to as the “father of value investing” by such notables as Warren Buffet and others. In fact, Buffett was a student of Graham’s when Buffett attended Columbia University business school in the late 1940’s and Graham was his professor.

Graham taught and inspired investors everywhere to try and avoid making significant errors in their investing. He taught them long-term strategies for success with a focus on understanding stock valuations. He also stressed the importance of examining risk and the potential for investment losses.

“After all”, Graham said, “losing some money is an inevitable part of investing, and there is nothing you can do to prevent that from happening, because you have chosen to assume some risk”. But, as Graham preached over and over again, in order to be an intelligent investor, you must take responsibility for ensuring that you never lose most or all of your money.

Download Newsletter

To our clients and friends:

During 2015, the financial world lost three of its greatest investment minds. The three were Irving Kahn (age 109), Charles Allmon (age 94) and Richard Russell (age 91). If you don’t read and study finance every day, it’s unlikely you’ll recognize these names. But all three were highly successful, and were considered geniuses in their field.

Kahn worked in his NYC office until late 2014. He was interviewed by the London paper, The Guardian, as well as The New York Times just before his death. He explained that in 2014 he still used the same approach that he’d used to purchase his very first stock in June 1929 at age 24. He described his secret as “always insuring there was a ‘margin of safety’ in his investing”. He was a value investor focused on managing risk. Kahn emphasized that the teachings of Benjamin Graham—the famed value investor—always offered him a critical reminder of assessing portfolio risk. Kahn said: “If the market is overpriced, an investor must be willing to wait—you must be patient.”