Details Are Part of Our Difference
Embracing the Evidence at Anheuser-Busch – Mid 1980s
529 Best Practices
David Booth on How to Choose an Advisor
The One Minute Audio Clip You Need to Hear
Category: Philosophy
Of Money and Baseball
With the buzz of the 2014 Major League Baseball Season in the air, this is a great time to revisit one of our favorite books, Moneyball, by Michael Lewis. For the unfamiliar, this book is to baseball as Taking the long view is to investing: a look at how data and evidence will allow you to make smarter decisions in evaluating baseball players—and investment choices.
Our colleague, friend, and director of investment strategy for the BAM ALLIANCE, Jared Kizer, wrote a great blog post where he talks about some of the similar applications in investing that predate Moneyball.
When you use the data and evidence, it allows you to ignore the noise and focus on factors that really matter. That’s how we approach investing for our clients.
If you haven’t read Moneyball or seen the movie, let us know and we would be happy to send you either version of this now classic Michael Lewis story.
Billion Dollar Bracket
How’s your billion dollar bracket doing?
You’ve likely heard about Warren Buffett’s recent NCAA basketball tournament challenge: build the perfect NCAA bracket and you could win $1 billion. Some may think Warren is crazy, but he knows that the odds of picking the perfect bracket are similar to that of picking the next great stock or fund manger—not good.
While it might be fun to wager $20 and watch the games, managing your money is far from a game. Just as Warren used the evidence to make this safe bet (there are 9.2 quintillion different potential bracket combinations), we also use the evidence to keep the odds on your side when investing.
What’s the latest on the challenge? It was over after the second day of play. Read more about the results here.
Nobody Can Predict the Market
Jim Gallagher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch included both Larry Swedroe and Matt Hall in a recent piece about the 5th anniversary of the market bottom in 2009. Jim offers this advice: “Stay calm and ignore the so-called market gurus. Nobody can predict the market.”
Click here to read the full length article and to see a special video recording of Jim Gallagher and David Nicklaus exploring lessons from 2009.
