November 2013

I Am The One Who Blogs: TRB Turns Five

The Reformed Broker blog turns five years old today. I’m actually not exactly sure which day in November of 2008 was my exact first day ( think it’s the tenth) and I forgot what my first post was about. I’ve written more than 8,000 posts here since then, I can’t say I remember each of them…

Chilling Signs of a Market Top

As one of the original wise men of the financial blogosphere, David Merkel has always been a crucial read for me. In 2004, he had done a magnificent piece on the fundamentals of market tops for TheStreet.com’s Real Money pay site. Thankfully, Barry excerpted the post for The Big Picture back in 2006 so it…

This Week on TRB

Here were the most read posts on TRB this week, in case you missed them: Show me the Mania Lo Siento Lifestyle ETFs and investment products based on belief systems Twitter IPO Post-Mortem Most Innovative Under 40 List  

“We are not the mistakes of our past.”

The former boiler room king, Jordan Belfort, is ready for his closeup as The Wolf of Wall Street heads into theaters this December. I loved his book and I had met most of the old Stratton Oakmont guys fifteen years ago during my early days in the Long Island brokerage scene. I’ve always said that…

The thing about bank loan funds

From January through May I had wholesalers from all the big ETF and mutual fund shops in my office pitching us bank loan funds as a diversifier and an interest rate hedge for our income-focused models. State Street rolled one out as an ETF with Blackstone / GSE doing the portfolio management. iShares had one…

Twitter IPO Post-Mortem

I don’t really like the term “post-mortem” because nothing actually died today or whatever. But it’s late and I’m tired, having spent three straight days running back and forth from the floor of the NYSE into meetings and conference calls. Also, the life insurance company just told me they want a colonoscopy done, sick perverts….