Joshua M Brown

What Smart Beta has in common with traditional indexing

Breaking the link between a portfolio’s allocation to stocks and the market capitalization of those stocks is the basic idea behind Smart Beta investing (Morningstar calls it ‘Strategic Beta’ now, which is not catching on). This is an idea that been around for decades, at least since the early 80’s when Fama and French unveiled their…

Putting an End to Broker Cockroaching

In my 2012 book, Backstage Wall Street, I spend about a quarter of my word count talking about the stuff I’d seen at some of the brokerage firms I’d worked at. I even reprinted the scripts they were teaching us, in the hopes that the reader would be better prepared for the next incoming cold call…

You’re All Looking at the Wrong Chart

Ace technician Stephen Suttmeier writes at Bank of America Merrill Lynch: The often overlooked NYSE set up big breakout One US equity market index that investors often overlook is the NYSE Comp. The headlines have focused on NASDAQ 5000, but the NYSE is a broad-based index with 1995 members (NYA Index) that is set up…

American Horror Story

Just kidding, I never made it to London. American Airlines put us through hell last night. They boarded us in New York at 5:40 pm, I was already a refugee from another canceled flight. Then we left the gate and the pilot said we were in a queue to have our wings de-iced. Then they said…