December 2013

BlackRock: 3 Reasons for a Global Dividend Growth Strategy

US stocks crushed the global equity markets this year and this kind of radical outperformance can frequently lead to investors abandoning their diversified strategies to run away and join the circus. I regard this as a bad idea, driven by images in the rear view mirror. See Why Bother?” Will investors take the wrong lessons from…

SNV: Nirvana Unplugged turns twenty

This was a formative record for me, in 1993 I was 16. It’s twenty years this week since Nirvana’s Unplugged in New York acoustic set came out, the MTV airing and the album, and for my generation it’s still kind of a big deal. Here’s The Atlantic: Nirvana’s legendary Unplugged in New York has never really had…

Q4 Earnings Guidance Deteriorates by One Third

At the end of Q3 on September 30th, consensus estimates for S&P 500 earnings growth in Q4 stood at 9.5%. It is down by 1/3rd since then to just 6.5% – and falling. The bears will point to this latest data point from FactSet Research and say “Told ya so!” The bulls will say “Big…

This Week on TRB

Here were the most read posts on TRB this week, in case you missed them: “Why Bother?” Will investors take the wrong lessons from 2013?  US Stocks Cheap on 12 of 15 Historical Valuation Measures Bullish Sentiment is Now Officially Embarrassing Twitter’s New Coke Moment Investment Fads and Themes, 1996-2013        

The 2014 Playbook Playoffs, Today on CNBC’s Halftime Report

It’s year-end and the producers of my show wanted to have some fun with predictions for the coming. As you know, I find forecasts and predictions to be both helpful (they force you to search yourself for what you really think, see The Highest Conviction Game) and a bit silly (anything can happen, even the…

Twitter’s New Coke Moment

Last night, for no discernible reason  that even the savviest tech watchers can think of (okay fine, an illogical reason involving block retaliations), Twitter announced a change to their blocking policy that would allow blocked users to view and even interact with the tweets of those who had previously frozen them out. While the blocker…

Brightscope Blows It Out

The team at Brightscope has announced today that they’e taking AdvisorPages to the next level, making it the de facto standard for every financial advisor’s web presence. Full disclosure, I proudly serve on Brightscope’s advisory board and I’m a shareholder. Todays’s news is that Brightscope is opening up their platform to any and all registered…