Before I became a Portfolio Manager 15 years ago, I briefly went into a glamourous field of finance – Mergers & Acquisitions. After my degree in Financial Engineering, I was eager to tackle some complex models and intellectual challenges. Oh boy, how I was disappointed! The models turned out much simpler than I imagined. So much for the fancy maths. But here is the great part. You will understand basic stock market valuation in the next 10 minutes.

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This paper is meant to serve as an overview of asset allocation, both for non-investment professionals and for those practitioners who may be interested in re-evaluating their notions on the topic. It addresses the concept, its importance, and how investors have approached it in recent decades.

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William Bernstein shares insights on life cycle investing, discusses the balance between risk and safety for younger and older investors, and emphasizes the importance of understanding behavioral finance and the 4% withdrawal rule for long-term success.

Investors should watch small caps when the Fed cuts rates. Historically, they’ve outperformed in the 12 months after, gaining 27% on average vs. 16% for large caps.This trend, via Jefferies, goes back to 1950.

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As investor demand for exchange-traded funds has crescendoed in recent years, fund companies have rushed to offer everything under the sun. But more is not always better in the world of ETFs. Most areas of the market are now oversaturated with glitzy offerings that investors may want but do not need. Managed futures may be one exception to the crowded marketplace?

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This guide is Bankeronwheels.com’s deep dive into Equity Index Investing. We approach Equity Index Investing by: - Showing investors what matters when thinking about different asset classes - Shortlisting the very best ETFs as a starting point for their analysis,

We use our frameworks to select the very best UCITS and non-UCITS ETFs. We take a Long-Term Investor’s Perspective and select ETFs that satisfy our 6 criteria: Reputable, Large, Established, Cheap, Available and Liquid.

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Today in a podcast style episode I welcome my friend Adam Robinson who has had possibly the most interesting career of anyone I know. . Adam is an Artificial Intelligence pioneer, a quantitative trader, a New York Times best-selling author, and an all-round master of strategy. His company Robinson Global Strategies provides macro research to some of the world’s most successful hedge funds.

Learn to master retirement market risks and safe withdrawal rates with finance expert Karsten Jeske. We explore key strategies like the 4% rule, sequence of return risk, and delve into roles of taxes, annuities, inflation protection, portfolio allocation, and even the psychological aspects of retirement planning. Karsten Jeske is the founder of Early Retirement Now, a blog where he shares his expertise in retirement planning, safe withdrawal rates, and financial independence.

In this latest pile of TRAP, the Trap Pack discuss: US rookie adviser failure rate, UK IFA profitability trends, Central Bank of Ireland on crypto, BestInvest’s Spot The Dog, SJP and Polaris, boring CVs, US pension horror stories, another AI startup.

And Banker on Wheels is featured - listen from minute 26 when Alan discussed our recent Vanguard article.

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Following his first bikepacking trip abroad, a three-week ride across Japan from Tokyo to Kyoto, Riaz Moola reflects on the bike’s ability to help overcome the fears of the anxious mind and offers some insights on how he learned to embrace the freewheeling joy of traveling by bike despite being a nervous person. Find his illuminating story with a gallery of film and digital photos here…

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The European Union has the third-largest economy in the world, accounting for one-sixth of global trade. All together, 27 member countries make up one internal market allowing free movement of goods, services, capital and people. But how did this sui generis (a class by itself) political entity come into being? For the impressive numbers it shows however, the European Union’s economic might is held up by three economic giants, per data from the International Monetary Fund. Put together, the GDPs of Germany ($4 trillion), France ($2.7 trillion) and Italy ($1.9 trillion) make up more than half of the EU’s entire economic output.These three countries are also the most populous in the EU, and together with Spain and Poland, account for 66% of the total population of the EU.

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Law enforcement says illegal activity is thriving in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (GTSEZ) inside Laos, where scammers, drugrunners and human traffickers allegedly operate with impunity. Bloomberg Originals investigates how a Chinese businessman became the de-facto ruler of this remote area in Southeast Asia.