Bob French, CFA

The Coronavirus and Your Investments

By Bob French, CFA / February 27, 2020 /

The Coronavirus is scary. Aside from the reasonable health precautions that you should be taking, what should you be doing to protect your investments from the disruptions that the Coronavirus may cause?

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Are Stocks Safer in the Long-Term?

By Bob French, CFA / January 14, 2020 /

When you’re investing, you need to focus on the long-term. This is one of those pieces of received wisdom that everyone has heard, and most people at least pretend to believe it, but it’s often wildly misinterpreted. There’s this idea out there that stocks get safer the longer you hold onto them because you can…

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What Does it Mean to Call China a Currency Manipulator?

By Bob French, CFA / August 6, 2019 /

Monday (August 5th, 2019) was a chaotic day for both the world economy and markets. We want to break down what’s happened, and how that will likely impact your investments.

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Ignore the Financial Media

By Bob French, CFA / July 15, 2019 /

WHAT IS OCCAM’S RAZOR? Occam’s Razor is a principle attributed to William Occam, a 14th century philosopher. He stressed that explanations must not be multiplied beyond what is necessary. Thus, Occam’s Razor is a term used to “shave off” or dismiss superfluous explanations for a given event. This concept is largely ignored within the investment…

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Occam’s – Can TIPS Help You?

By Bob French, CFA / April 11, 2019 /

Inflation is one of the most serious risks that retirees face. While there are a lot of ways to mitigate inflation risk, TIPS, or Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, are one of the few investment options that directly hedge against inflation risk. They aren’t perfect, and there are certainly some things to consider when you use…

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The Dangers of Putting Our Faith in Statistics

By Bob French, CFA / April 28, 2017 /

Most people try to avoid thinking about statistics, but they’re part of everything we do in investing. When other people get around to thinking about statistics, they often end up thinking about them the wrong way. Most people assume the most important numbers of any data set are the average, median, and standard deviation, and…

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Occam’s Razor: One of the Most Successful Active Managers of All Time Shows Why Active Management Doesn’t Work

By Bob French, CFA / April 21, 2017 /

WHAT IS OCCAM’S RAZOR? Occam’s Razor is a principle attributed to William Occam, a 14th century philosopher. He stressed that explanations must not be multiplied beyond what is necessary. Thus, Occam’s Razor is a term used to “shave off” or dismiss superfluous explanations for a given event. This concept is largely ignored within the investment management landscape. This newsletter…

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InvestmentNews Names Our Own Wade Pfau Among The ‘Icons & Innovators’ Of 2016

By Bob French, CFA / January 11, 2017 /

Our Director of Retirement Research, Dr. Wade Pfau, was recently named one of InvestmentNews’ Icons & Innovators of 2016. According to IN, the list recognizes the people who have “shaped and transformed the financial advice profession.” All told, the list includes 20 people – 18 innovators and two icons. Dr. Pfau was listed as an innovator, which…

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