Investing with Pure Portfolios
Investing doesn’t have to be obscure and complex. There is beauty in simplicity and
common sense. We call it the relentless pursuit of what works.
Asset Allocation
Sound investing begins with building a portfolio that reflects how you feel about risk.
Risk Capacity
Identify your range of acceptable investment outcomes.
Diversification
Build a long-term allocation that can achieve reasonable returns while being sensitive to risk.
Tax Efficiency
Let’s focus on what we can control by mitigating tax drag.
Control the Controllable
Everyone pays taxes, but you don't need to leave a tip.
Portfolio Management
We use asset location, tax-loss harvesting, and direct indexing to build tax-efficient portfolios.
Behavioral
The intersection of human emotions and investing.
Quantitative Approach
We strip human emotion, blind spots, and biases out of the investment process.
Sentiment
We can’t predict the next market crisis, but we can predict how irrational humans react.
Process
Lean into history and shun predictions.
Rules-Based
We don’t make investment decisions based on gut instinct, noisy headlines, or short-term movements in asset prices.
Minimize Drawdowns
We use a rules-based framework to make allocation decisions in good & bad market environments.
Fees
Money advice for clients that don’t want to pay 1%.
Lower Fees
Pure's management fees are ~35% less than traditional advisors.
No High-Cost Mutual Funds or Alternatives
We use low-cost ETFs, individual stocks & bonds to build portfolios.
Sunday coffee reads
Unfiltered commentary. Simple language.
Actionable steps.
From the latest market trends to planning tips, our weekly newsletter includes podcasts, writings, and educational videos that provide a clear-cut, unbiased outlook to help you make better money decisions.
Featured news
Bear Market Feedback is Gold
“Investors’ mental models tend to be simple, based on recent history, an extrapolation of trends, and an overreliance on frameworks that worked recently.” – Dan...
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4576 Weeks to Live
“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You...
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The World’s Worst Investor
“Humans have something weird in their DNA which prohibits them from adopting good ideas easily.” – William Green, Richer, Wiser, Happier Sally is a nervous...
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A Simple Case for Gold and Bitcoin
“The debt is not going to be balanced. The annual deficit seems to be getting worse and worse. And if the dollar is going to...
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Recession Signals that are Flashing Red
“There are decades when nothing happens, and weeks when decades happen.” – Uday Kotak, founder of Kotak Mahindra Bank The gap between how people are...
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International Diversification: Looking Beyond the S&P 500
“Valuation changes rewarding cheap stocks and punishing expensive ones is one of the most powerfully recurring features of global equity markets.” – Dan Rasmussen, The...
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Turn Off the TV
“Our obsession with being informed makes it hard to think long-term. We spend hours consuming news because we want to be informed. The problem is,...
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Pure Portfolios’ April 2025 Market Commentary
Markets declined by ~13% in April before recovering to end the month nearly flat. This marked one of the largest intra-month reversals in market history....
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Does it Still Make Sense to Own Bonds?
“Bonds as an asset class will always be needed, not just by insurance companies and pension funds, but by aging boomers.” – Bill Gross, retired...
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Closest Thing to a Fat Pitch in Investing
“Interest rates go up and down, stock markets boom and bust, but human psychology never changes. I believe that studying how people think about and...
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Tariff Talk: Client Q&A on Market Impact and Economic Risks
“The higher returns to quantitative investing accrue from the abnormally bad behavior of humans at times of crisis.” – Dan Rasmussen, author of The Humble...
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Is Your Retirement Plan Ready for Market Volatility?
Market uncertainty is the rule—not the exception. Interest rate hikes, inflation pressures, and political noise aren’t going away anytime soon. If you’re nearing or in...
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Pure Portfolios’ March 2025 Market Commentary
In Pure Portfolios’ March 2025 Commentary, Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans unpacks the growing disconnect between investor sentiment and market fundamentals. Watch the video below…...
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5 Tasks to Add to Your Spring Cleaning List
Springtime signals renewal—a perfect opportunity not only to clean your home but to tidy up your finances as well. Add these tasks to your list...
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Why This Correction Hits Harder
“In investing and life, you will make better decisions if you assume you are wrong and try your best to prove it by finding the...
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Global Markets are Telling a Different Tariff Story
“Tariffs are a tax on business that get eaten by the consumer.” – Cullen Roche, Pragmatic Capitalism We won’t pretend the headline risk of tariff...
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Fully Invested, Light on Cash
“My most important discovery—a finding that changed the course of my career—is that the future is far less predictable than most investors think. The best...
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Pure Portfolios’ February 2025 Market Commentary
In Pure Portfolios’ February 2025 Commentary, Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans covers headline risk, AI trade fatigue, seasonality, corporate credit spreads, and volatility. Watch the...
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Avoid RMD Pitfalls: Smart Strategies for Retirees
If you’re nearing retirement or already enjoying it, you’ve likely heard about Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs). But for many, the mention of RMDs brings a...
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Myth Busting: What the Government Cannot Do
“Stories are always more powerful than statistics.” – Morgan Housel, Same as Ever There’s lots of wild theories rolling around about what the federal government...
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The Best Age to Start Social Security
When it comes to retirement, few decisions feel as weighty as when to claim Social Security. Do you take it early and lock in a...
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Err on the Side
“Most people make their investment decisions on the basis of an unreliable hodgepodge of half-baked logic, biases, hunches, emotion, and vague fantasies or fears about...
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Pure Portfolios’ January 2025 Market Commentary
In Pure Portfolios’ January 2025 Commentary, Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans covers the illusion of diversification, the Deep Seek disruption, Nvidia’s massive selloff, and the...
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Estate Planning 101: Should You Choose a Will or a Living Trust?
Estate planning might not be the most exciting topic, but it’s one of the most thoughtful ways to protect your family’s future. Whether you want...
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No One Learns Anything in a Bull Market
“Mistakes present a choice: whether to update your ideas, or ignore the failures they’ve produced and keep believing what you’ve always believed.” – Shane Parrish,...
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Don’t Believe Everything You Hear on Tariffs
“Everybody talks about tariffs as the first thing. Tariffs are the last thing. Tariffs are part of the negotiation. The real trick is going to...
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Will Outsized U.S. Stock Returns Continue?
“When something is on the pedestal of popularity, the risk of a decline is high. When people assume — and price in — an expectation...
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Pure Portfolios’ December 2024 Market Commentary
In Pure Portfolios’ December 2024 Commentary, Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans reflects on a year of market resilience and the set-up heading into 2025. Nik...
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Pure Portfolios’ 2024 Client Letter
As we approach the year’s end, we at Pure Portfolios want to take a moment to thank you for your trust and partnership in 2024....
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Tis the Season for Wall Street Forecasting VIII
“A decade ago, I made a goal to read more history and fewer forecasts. It was one of the most enlightening changes of my life.”...
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Pure Portfolios’ 2024 Reading List
“Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world.” – Jeanette Winterson, English author I’ve asked the...
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Pure Portfolios’ November 2024 Market Commentary
In Pure Portfolios’ November 2024 Commentary, Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans, covers how the market tends to overshoot post-election, how stocks perform when one party...
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Reckless Government Spending: How it Could Impact Your Investments
“We are going to be broke really quickly unless we get serious about dealing with our spending issues.” – Paul Tudor Jones, hedge fund manager...
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Could Future S&P 500 Returns Be Lower?
“History doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes.” – Mark Twain Anyway you slice it, the S&P 500 is historically expensive. The conundrum for those waiting...
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Pure Portfolios’ October 2024 Market Commentary
In Pure Portfolios’ October 2024 Commentary, Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans, covers asset class returns & falling inflation, how often the U.S. economy is in...
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Consumer Sentiment and S&P Returns
“There is a very thin line between confidence and arrogance.” – Adam Peaty, Olympic swimmer What comes first, confidence or success? It’s a question I’ve...
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The Danger of Recency Bias in Investment Decisions
“Why would I own anything other than the S&P 500?” “I’m thinking of putting my entire retirement nest egg in the S&P 500 and calling...
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Fed Cuts and Mortgage Rates Higher?
“Just wait until the Fed cuts, the housing market is going to get white hot.” – random real estate agent Do you know someone that...
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Let’s Freak Out About the Election (Seriously)
We have penned blog after blog how elections are a non-event in the grand scheme of your investment portfolio. We recorded a video outlining every...
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Pure Portfolios’ September 2024 Market Commentary
In Pure Portfolios’ September Commentary, Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans, covers the Fed pivot & future S&P 500 returns, softening labor market, and the borrowing...
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What’s NOT Going to Change in 10 years?
“When you have something that you know is true, even over the long term, you can afford to put a lot of energy into it.”...
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This Market Signal is Flashing Red
“If the average investor allocation to equities is abnormally high, then prices are probably abnormally high–the market’s probably expensive.” – Jesse Livermore, famous investor Let’s...
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Pure Portfolios’ August 2024 Market Commentary
In Pure Portfolios’ August Commentary, Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans, covers rate cuts & future returns, the quiet comeback of bonds, and why the “misery...
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Rate Cuts and Stock Returns
“Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce.” – James A. Garfield, 20th President of the...
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Characteristics of a Bull Market
“Bull markets ignore bad news, and any good news is reason for a further rally.” – Colm O’Shea, professor at New York University The latest...
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Market Correction Reflection
“The purpose of volatility is to make people make stupid decisions.” – Jared Dillion, The Daily Dirt Nap Yen carry trade Weak jobs report Fed...
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Pure Portfolios’ July 2024 Market Commentary
Last month, we highlighted the historical gap between U.S. large cap stocks and smaller companies. July saw a massive reversal with small cap stocks staging...
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What Should Retirees Pay Attention To?
“The information you consume each day is the soil from which your future thoughts are grown.” – James Clear, Atomic Habits “What have you been...
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Picking Individual Stocks is Hard
“Owning individual stocks invites infinitely more behavioral hurdles than a simpler strategy. It’s easier to ignore index funds and ETFs. You can’t ignore individual stocks.”...
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Unprecedented Uncertainty
“It’s good to learn from your mistakes. It’s better to learn from other people’s mistakes.” – Charlie Munger, Co-founder of Berkshire Hathaway Unprecedented volatility Unprecedented...
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Pure Portfolios’ June 2024 Market Commentary
In Pure Portfolios’ June 2024 Market Commentary, Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans, covers U.S. large cap extremes relative to small cap & value stocks, the...
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Tale of Two Markets
“What you see is not what others see. We inhabit parallel worlds of perception, bounded by our interest and experience. What is obvious to some...
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Probable Probabilities
“The biggest risk is always what no one sees coming, because if no one sees it coming, no one’s prepared for it; and if no...
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The Longest Drawdown in Recent History
“Bonds as an asset class will always be needed, not just by insurance companies and pension funds, but aging boomers.” – Bill Gross, PIMCO founder...
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Pure Portfolios’ May 2024 Market Commentary
In Pure Portfolios’ May 2024 Market Commentary, Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans, covers retailers reducing prices, gold’s sneaky good run, and the AI boom. Is...
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To Convert or Not Convert? Roth is the Question
Just as diversification is important in investing, it’s equally important in retirement planning. By diversifying your assets across different types of accounts—taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free—you...
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Principled Investing
“The dead outnumber the living fourteen to one, and we ignore the accumulated experience of such a huge majority of mankind at our peril.” —Niall Ferguson,...
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The Benchmark Fallacy
“The highest form of wealth is the ability to wake up every morning and say: ‘I can do whatever I want today.” — Morgan Housel,...
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Understanding Safe Withdrawal Rates
One of the key considerations in retirement planning is determining a safe withdrawal rate – the pace at which you can draw down your savings...
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Pure Portfolios’ April 2024 Market Commentary
In Pure Portfolios’ April 2024 Market Commentary, Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans, unpacks intra-year S&P 500 drawdowns, stubborn inflation, the crazy journey of the Magnificent...
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Rush to Riches
“Slow success builds character. Fast success builds ego.” Ratan Tata, former chair of Tata Group A young golfer approaches her swing coach and asks, “How...
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Markets After Major Geopolitical Events
“The world changes. This is the biggest problem in markets.” – Bill Miller, former chairmen of Legg Mason Capital Management T. Rowe Price, founder of...
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Hot Themes and Future Returns
“I didn’t learn anything. I already knew I wasn’t supposed to do that.” – Stanley Drunkenmiller, after losing $3 billion dollars on tech stocks. The...
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Can the Market Predict the Next President?
“If you mix your politics with your investment decisions, you’re making a big mistake.” – Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway It is not a secret 2024...
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Pure Portfolios’ March 2024 Market Commentary
In Pure Portfolios’ March 2024 Market Commentary, Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans, unpacks high yield credit spreads, elevated U.S. stock valuations & future returns, and...
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Estimating Future Equity Returns
“We deceive ourselves when we believe that past stock market return patterns provide the bounds by which we can predict the future.” – John Bogle,...
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The Resilience of the U.S. Economy
Let’s go back to summer of 2022. It wasn’t a matter of if a recession was coming, rather a matter of when. From our July...
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Why Not Go All-In on the S&P 500?
“I might just put my money in the S&P 500 and call it good. “ – anonymous prospective client The drumbeat is growing louder as...
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Pure Portfolios’ February 2024 Market Commentary
In Pure Portfolios’ February 2024 Market Commentary, Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans, unpacks the struggles of rate sensitive assets, why all-time highs are nothing to...
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The Most Valuable Financial Advisor Task
“Investors are always searching for good ideas, when what they need are good habits.” – Jason Zweig, Wall Street Journal & author If you asked...
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Is There Such a Thing as “Safe” Stocks?
“People want to believe that this time is different, that there’s something new under the sun, and through their own ingenuity they can wish risk...
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How High Interest Rates Impact Financial Decisions
“Invest in preparedness, not prediction.” – Morgan Housel, Collaborative Fund Financial planning is important because it helps clients understand where they stand today and what...
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Pure Portfolios’ January 2024 Market Commentary
In Pure Portfolios’ January 2024 Market Commentary, Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans, covers January performance and what it could mean for the rest of the...
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Bitcoin: Understanding the Digital Asset
“You can’t stop things like Bitcoin. It will be everywhere, and the world will have to re-adjust. World governments will have to re-adjust.” —John McAfee,...
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Cash is Not a Long-term Investment
“In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable.” – Robert Arnott, founder of Research Affiliates Cash is comfortable. It’s also finally producing some interest income...
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How to Create a Realistic Budget
“The budget is not just a collection of numbers, but an expression of our values and aspirations.” – Jacob Lew It’s not what the market...
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The Why in Diversify
“Diversification means always have to say you’re sorry.” – Brian Portnoy, founder of Shaping Wealth “Why do we own these bond ETFs? They haven’t done...
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December 2023 Market Commentary
In Pure Portfolios’ December 2023 Market Commentary, Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans, covers the market climbing the wall of worry, S&P 500 returns in an...
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Pure Portfolios’ 2023 Client Letter
There’s an old parenting quip, “the days are long, but the years are short.” The saying can be attributed to parents of young children who...
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Pure Portfolios’ 2023 Reading List
“In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn’t read all the time — none, zero. You’d be amazed at how much...
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Tis the Season for Wall Street Forecasting Pt. VII
“The need for certainty is the greatest disease the mind faces.” – Morgan Housel, from his new book, “Same as Ever.” The holiday season is...
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This is Why We Invest: Long-Term View on Markets
“Pessimists sound smart. Optimists make money.” It’s easy to get sucked into what could go wrong. In the digital age, if something is awry in...
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November 2023 Market Commentary
In Pure Portfolios’ November 2023 Market Commentary, Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans, covers the ‘Three Headed Monster’; the 10-year Treasury yield, oil prices, and the...
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Latte with Nik: If I Didn’t See It, I Wouldn’t Believe It
“The stock market is the story of cycles and of the human behavior that is responsible for overreactions in both directions.” – Seth Klarman, hedge...
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Wall Street is Bearish: That’s a Good Thing
“The best way to tell when a trend is going to reverse is when it fills up with a-holes.” – Jared Dillion, author It’s a...
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October 2023 Market Commentary
“The era of optimism dies in a crisis, but in the dying it gives birth to an era of pessimism.” – Arthur Cecil Piguo, British...
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The Fed Could be in the Bottom of the 9th
“We believe we are in a new era for fixed income in which bonds offer significantly more value.” – Vanguard on the attractiveness of fixed...
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The Recession that Never Came
“It’s the economy, stupid.” – James Carville, political analyst Go back to any point in 2022. You’re likely to find thousands of headlines that look...
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The Investor Mindset: Fixed vs. Growth
“Self-control is a key to investing success, but so is fending off self-delusion.” – Jason Zweig, Wall Street Journal & financial author I tend to...
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When Safe Assets Become Risky
“There is no such thing as a riskless hedge against inflation.” – Edgar Fiedler, economist and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic...
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September 2023 Market Commentary
“If I depended on economic forecasts, I don’t think we’d make any money.” – Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway In Pure Portfolios’ September 2023 Market Commentary,...
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Starting Yield and Future Bond Returns
“Remember how excited people were about bonds when rates were under 1%? You see how bearish people are about bonds today, with yields at 4.5?”...
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Hot 2024 Presidential Election Talk
“If you mix your politics with your investment decisions, you’re making a big mistake.” – Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway Benjamin Franklin famously stated, “Nothing is...
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Past Performance and Investment Decisions
“My investment plan was built with the assumption that I would experience a number of both bull and bear markets over the years.” – Ben...
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August 2023 Market Commentary
“You should follow price. Quit trying to be an expert, follow prices and follow trend.” – Jerry Parker, Chesapeake Capital In Pure Portfolios’ August 2023...
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The Big Short’s, Big Short
“Everything I do in investing is just very different.” – Michael Burry, famous investor featured in “The Big Short” Michael Burry predicted the 2008 housing...
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The Plight of the Dividend Investor
“If company management can’t think of anything else to do with their money, they should pay dividends. If they have good places to invest, that’s...
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Is the Market Detached from Reality?
“Wealth isn’t primarily determined by investment performance, but by investor behavior.” – Nick Murray, finance author & speaker The U.S. equity market has come roaring...
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The Loneliest Trade
“If it’s obvious, it’s obviously wrong.” – Stanley Druckenmiller, former founder of Duquesne Capital Most investors know about the sterling performance of big technology stocks...
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July 2023 Market Commentary
“One lesson I learned is to make fewer decisions. Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing.” – Lou Simpson, former Berkshire Hathaway employee In...
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The Retirement Propaganda War
“I’ve found that investors who rely on crystal balls frequently wind up with crushed glass.” – Martin Zweig, famous investor I haven’t seen anything like...
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Juicy Money Market Yields Won’t Last
“The Fed’s ability to raise and lower short-term interest rates is its primary control over the economy.” – Alex Berenson, writer & author We don’t...
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Hey Retirees, the 4% Rule is Back
“At the end of the day, it’s not a normal condition to have interest rates at zero.” – Lloyd Blankfein, former CEO of Goldman Sachs...
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June 2023 Market Commentary
“The idea that a bell rings to signal when to get in or out of the market is simply not credible. After fifty years in...
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When a Bear Becomes a Bull
“When investors get negative on the market and put 50% in cash, many times it’s just about when the market is about to rally.” –...
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Can AI Pick Investments?
“Some people call this artificial intelligence, but the reality is this technology will enhance us. So instead of artificial intelligence, I think we’ll augment our...
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Mega Cap Fueled Rally
“The market is being driven by the performance of only 7 stocks!” – Everyone Yes, it’s true. The S&P 500’s 2023 performance is being propelled...
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May 2023 Market Commentary
“Timing crashes is impossible. If you require a forecast for your investment thesis to do well, then you’re doing it wrong.” – Mark Spitznagel, hedge...
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How Much Cash is Too Much?
“You make most of your money in a bear market, you just don’t realize it at the time.” – Shelby Cullom Davis, famous investor Generating...
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Falling Inflation and Stock Returns
“The complaints about how sticky inflation has been nearly matches the claims that it was transitory back in 2021.” – Bespoke Investment Group On November...
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The U.S. Debt Ceiling
“I think it’s ridiculous – it’s always resolved, not that it’s a 100% chance, but I think it gets resolved.” – Bill Gross, Pimco co-founder...
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Market Expectations are Everything
“The past wasn’t as good as you remember. The present isn’t as bad as you think. The future will be better than you anticipate.” Morgan...
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April 2023 Market Commentary
“If you want to call it a bear market, it looks as savage as a koala. If you want to call it a bull market,...
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The Demise of King Dollar
“People talk about this concept like foreign countries can just choose not to do business with the U.S. Dollar. Sure, they can. In doing so,...
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Back to Back Calendar Year Losses for Stocks
“In my experience, most people who are lucky enough to sell something before it goes down get so busy patting themselves on the back, they...
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The Market is Quietly Stacking Up Wins
“It’s just that most people see what they want to see. We pride ourselves on living in reality.” – J.C. Parets, All-Star Charts, on the...
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March 2023 Market Commentary
“History provides crucial insight regarding market crisis; they are inevitable, painful, and ultimately surmountable.” – Shelby M.C. Davis, philanthropist and investor Pure Portfolios’ Chief...
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Bond Returns Following Difficult Years
“It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” – Albert Einstein Bonds could use a public relations makeover. The...
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Not a Typical Bank Failure
“This isn’t just one stupid bank making bad decisions. This is a real economic problem where the clients at Silicon Valley Bank were burning money...
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The Biggest Heist No One is Talking About
“Banks do not create money for the public good. They are businesses owned by shareholders. Their purpose is to make a profit.” – John Rogers,...
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February 2023 Market Commentary
“The main purpose of the stock market is to make fools of as many people as possible.” – Bernard Baruch, American financier Pure Portfolios’ Chief...
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Retirees: More is the Enemy of Enough
“Don’t risk what you have and need for what you don’t have and don’t need.” – Warren Buffett There’s a group of Twitter overachievers that...
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Assets That Could Hold Up During a Recession
“Fear, greed and hope have destroyed more portfolio value than any recession or depression we have ever been through.” – James O’Shaughnessy, Founder of O’Shaughnessy...
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Six Investing Lessons from 2022
“I have civilized my own subjects; I have conquered other nations; yet I have not been able to civilize or conquer myself.” – Peter the...
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January 2023 Market Commentary
“In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable.” – Robert Arnott, Research Affiliates Pure Portfolios’ Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans, unpacks the first month of...
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U.S. Debt Ceiling Fiasco: Big Risk or Big Nothing?
“Playing political football with a vote to raise the nation’s debt ceiling has become as predictable as a Twitter rant from Charlie Sheen.” – Peter...
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The Perception of Risk
Quick question, which below stock market graph would you deem more risky? Graph A or B? Graph A Source: Koyfin, Pure Portfolios The above graph...
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Investment Themes by Decade
“Owning US tech was the trade of the last decade. Look forwards not backwards. That trade is over. What will be the one to take...
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December 2022 Market Commentary
“With every investment we become richer or wiser, never both.” – Bill Duhamel, investor Pure Portfolios’ Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans, unpacks the rollercoaster...
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Santa Claus Rally, Fact or Fiction?
“The real rally could come not from Santa Claus, but from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who will decide how much longer to hike interest...
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Pure Portfolios’ 2022 Reading List
“Reading a book isn’t a race – the better the book, the slower it should be absorbed.” – Naval Ravikant, author & investor I’ve asked...
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Tis the Season for Wall Street Forecasting Pt. VI
“There are two kinds of forecasters: those who don’t know, and those who don’t know they don’t know.” – John Kenneth Balbraith, economist Hot chocolate....
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November 2022 Market Commentary
“As crisis is comprised of danger and opportunity, those who sense change in the early stages will tend to have the most bountiful harvest.” –...
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Top 5 Pure Portfolios’ Blogs: Turkey Edition
“Thanksgiving is a joyous invitation to shower the world with love and gratitude.” – Amy Leigh Mercree We take a break from our regular blog...
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Avoiding the Extremes
“You should obsess over risks that do permanent damage & care little about risks that do temporary harm, but the opposite is more common.” –...
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Mid-Terms and Markets
“Historically, investors overestimate the impact of political parties, Presidents, and legislation. Even if one was to correctly forecast a political outcome, markets seldom react in...
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When the Fed Pivots
“History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme.” – Mark Twain There have been 85 cycles where the Fed has increased interest rates since...
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October 2022 Market Commentary
“If everyone is thinking alike, somebody isn’t thinking.” – General Patton Pure Portfolios’ Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans, talks sticky inflation, the U.S. consumer,...
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Silver Linings in a Dismal Year
“It’s not just good news that causes bear markets to end, but better-than-expected news that is simply less bad.” – Ben Carlson, Wealth of Common...
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Surprised by Surprises
“The correct lesson to learn from surprises is that the world is surprising.” – Morgan Housel, The Collaborative Fund Unprecedented. Extraordinary. Unexpected. Once in a...
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Year of the 180
“Most investors tend to project near-term trends – both favorable and adverse indefinitely into the future.” – Seth Klarman, famous investor Let’s go back to...
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September 2022 Market Commentary
“My first boss told us, what’s obvious is obviously wrong. It’s already reflected in security prices. The world changes. And you’re only going to pick...
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The Market Could Be Wrong About Inflation
“I don’t mind going back to daylight savings time. With inflation, the hour will be the only thing I’ve saved all year.” – Victor Borge,...
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Fighting the Urge to Throw in the Towel
“If a topic makes someone feel emotional, they will rarely be interested in the data. This is why emotions can be such a threat to...
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Where to Find Investment Income
“Big banks, highly leveraged casinos, do whatever they can to keep the cost of their gambling as cheap as possible.” – Max Keiser, American Journalist...
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August 2022 Video Commentary
Pure Portfolios’ Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans, talks the Fed’s Jackson Hole meeting, yield curve, strength of the U.S. dollar, and more. Let us know...
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Intra-Year Market Declines
“The last leg of a bull market always ends in hysteria; the last leg of a bear market always ends in a panic.” – Jim...
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Calling Market Inflection Points
“You make most of your money in a bear market, you just don’t realize it at the time.” – Shelby Cullom Davis, investor, businessman, former...
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The Biggest Risk to Retirees Revisited
“The most important part of a plan is planning on your plan not going according to plan.” – Morgan Housel, author & investor The last...
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July 2022 Market Commentary
“It would be silly to expect every bear market to turn into the Great Depression. It would be equally wrong to expect that a fall...
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Signs of a Market Bottom
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” – Mark Twain I post my blog every week on LinkedIn. Last week, I wrote about what...
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Which Asset Class Has it Right?
“Majority opinion can give any market movement considerable momentum that keeps it going in the same direction. Majority opinion is inevitably and consistently wrong at...
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Recession Obsession
“When y’all think they going to announce that we going into a recession?” – Cardi B, famous hip hop artist Forecasting the next recession has...
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June 2022 Market Commentary
Pure Portfolios’ Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans, talks bear markets, bond yields, prospects of a recession, and much more. The video is heavy on...
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Bear Market Blues, How Much Worse Can it Get?
“The last leg of a bull market always ends in hysteria; the last leg of a bear market always ends in panic.” – Jim Rogers,...
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Just How Bad is Inflation?
The inflation report on 6/10/22 caused shockwaves across financial markets. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) print surprised on the upside, which wasn’t a good thing....
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Sniffing Around for Investment Opportunities
“Cash shouldn’t be looked at as a burden or drag on your portfolio. It should be viewed as a weapon waiting for an opportunity to...
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May 2022 Market Commentary
Pure Portfolios’ Chief Investment Officer, Nik Schuurmans, talks factor performance, global markets, the Fed’s balancing act, and cracks in U.S. housing. The video is heavy...
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Investment Royalty to Punching Bag
“Cathie Wood’s stubborn reluctance to accept reality is starting to look less and less like an investment advisor and more like me betting the midnight...
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Fighting the Market-Timing Urge
“If a topic makes someone feel emotional, they will rarely be interested in the data. This is why emotions can be such a threat to...
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Market Sell-Off: The Good & Bad
“Everything feels unprecedented when you haven’t engaged with history.” – Kelly Hayes, author The daily flow of negative headlines, market losses, and dire predictions can...
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Sell in May and Enjoy the Day?
“In real-time, every crisis feels like the worst thing ever. In hindsight, every crisis is an obvious buying opportunity.” – Morgan Housel, author This isn’t...
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April 2022 Market Commentary
Trying to make sense of the economy and markets? We’ve got your back. Pure Portfolios’ Chief Investment Officer talks market action, the Fed’s current...
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What Does Peak Inflation Look Like?
“Every administration thought they had power to end inflation but they really didn’t. I think now you can see that same sense of overconfidence in...
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Does it Still Make Sense to Own Bonds?
White-hot inflation. Rising interest rates. Tanking bond prices. The popular consensus is that investors should abandon their bond allocation. It’s a tidy narrative but deserves...
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March 2022 Market Commentary
“The main purpose of the stock market is to make fools of as many people as possible.” – Bernard Baruch, famous investor In the...
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What’s the Bullish Case for Stocks?
“Tell someone that everything will be ok and they’ll shrug you off. Tell someone they’re in danger and they’ll hang on your every word.” Morgan...
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Mitigating Damage without Playing the Market Oracle
“Imagine thinking you could predict when you would sprain your ankle or get in a car crash. Instead, develop the ability to absorb damage. Train...
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What Are the Odds of a U.S. Recession?
“Being scared of everything is a symptom of being addicted to comfort.” – Orange Book, @orangebook on Twitter Post World War II, the U.S. has...
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February 2022 Market Commentary
What the heck is going on in financial markets? In the below month-end video recap, Pure Portfolios President & CIO Nik Schuurmans, CFA offers his...
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Checking Up on Pandemic Darlings
“What a year this week has been.” – unknown A handful of stocks couldn’t miss. The pandemic changed the way we did everything overnight. Obscure...
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How to Solve the Inflation Problem
“Anyway you calculate it, inflation is WAY above the Fed’s target because of high demand.” Cullen Roche, Discipline Funds The Fed will attempt to kill...
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Waiting for the “All-Clear” Investment Signal
“If you want to make the wrong decision, ask everyone.” – Naval Ravikant, author and investor I want to wait and see what happens with...
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How High Can Bond Yields Go?
“It’s not a normal condition to have interest rates at zero.” – Lloyd Blankfein, former Goldman Sachs CEO The Fed has charted the path forward...
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What Goes Up, Must Come Down
“All past market declines look like opportunities, all future market declines look like risks.” – Morgan Housel, author and investor Watching the stock market tank...
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Throw Away the Old Playbook
“Much of the confusion about the current state of the economy has its origin in people trying to apply classic business-cycle analysis to COVID-19 macro...
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Managing Market Volatility
“Volatility gets you in the gut. There’s no question that when prices are jumping around, you feel different from when they’re stable.” – Peter Bernstein,...
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Pure Portfolios’ 2022 Client Letter
2022 was the year of the opposite. Every market trend and economic reality we’ve known to be true the last ~12 years swung the other...
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How Does this Bull Market Stack Up?
“Everyone is a genius in a bull market.” Mark Cuban, entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks. There’s no shortage of investors & pundits telling...
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Pure Portfolios’ 2021 Client Letter
2021 marks the five-year anniversary of Pure Portfolios (see The Story of Pure Portfolios). We are grateful for the client relationships we’ve built along the...
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Pure Portfolios’ Best of 2021
“A fit body, a calm mind, a house full of love. These things cannot be bought — they must be earned.” – Naval Ravikant, entrepreneur...
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Tis the Season for Wall Street Forecasting Pt. V
“I am skeptical about stock market forecasting by anybody, and particularly by bankers.” Benjamin Graham, famous investor Historical evidence shows Wall Street makes predictions that...
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Sniffing All-Time Highs and Nobody is Happy
“We locked down the economy for 18 months, spent ~$14 trillion, and now my margarita costs 30% more.” – Cullen Roche, author & investor. We...
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What is the Right Stock Allocation for Retirees?
“The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off.” – Abe Lemons, college basketball coach It’s a delicate balance every retiree faces....
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How to Reduce Capital Gains in your Portfolio
“A fine is a tax for doing something wrong. A tax is a fine for doing something right.” Anonymous You sold a large chunk of...
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Not All Indexing is Good
“When trillions of dollars are managed by Wall Streeters charging high fees, it will usually be the managers who reap outsized profits, not the clients.”...
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Worried About Inflation? You Might Own These Assets
“Inflation sparks heated debates because everyone spends their money differently so there’s no single inflation rate — your inflation may be very different than someone...
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When Was the Last Time you Changed your Mind?
“If I were tasked with building the ultimate human investor, being able to change one’s mind would be the number one skill on the list.”...
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How Does a Fed Taper Affect Market Volatility?
“Our discussions of the economy may sometimes ring in the ears of the public with more certainty than is appropriate.” Jerome Powell, Federal Reserve Chairman...
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Is There Ever a Good Reason to Panic Sell?
“Far more money has been lost by investors trying to anticipate corrections, than lost in the corrections themselves.” Peter Lynch, famous investor. The below exchange...
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Is a Roth Conversion Right for You?
To convert or not to convert? Too often investors want to convert to a Roth IRA without fully understanding the risks, benefits, and how a...
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Is Market Volatility Still Elevated?
“Volatility gets you in the gut. There’s no question that when prices are jumping around, you feel different from when they’re stable.” – Peter Bernstein,...
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Can Stocks Get Cheaper and Go Higher?
“History shows us, over and over, that bull markets can go well beyond rational valuation levels as long as the outlook for future earnings is...
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Why are ETFs Tax-Efficient?
“Those of you who make investments outside of any retirement accounts are absolutely crazy if you are using actively managed funds rather than ETFs.” Suze...
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An Investor’s Two Most Powerful Weapons
“It might make sense to hedge some of your equity risk.” – Toby Weber, Pure Portfolios “I’m 72 years old. Why would I spend my...
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Why Trend Following Could Make Sense for Retirees
“To be uncertain is to be uncomfortable, but to be certain is to be ridiculous.” – Michael W. Covel, American author. Most investors have heard...
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The Untold Story of Pure Portfolios
August 2021 marks the five-year anniversary of Pure Portfolios. This is the untold story of how we launched. The Build-Up I was searching for a...
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Taking Cues from the Market
“In the end, how your investment behaves is much less important than how you behave.” – Benjamin Graham, famous investor Much had changed, but nothing...
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Intoxicated with Pessimism
“Optimism sounds like a sales pitch. Pessimism sounds like someone is trying to help you.” – Morgan Housel, The Collaborative Fund Bill has financial freedom....
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Avoiding Stupidity is Underrated
“All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there.” – Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway Let’s say you’re having...
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It’s Been Too Easy
“Expectation is the root of all heartache.” – William Shakespeare Under promise, over deliver. The universal mental shortcut for managing expectations. Set the bar low,...
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Retirement Simplicity is Beautiful
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” – Confucius, Chinese philosopher My morning inbox routine, delete, delete, delete… “Boom in Securities-Based...
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Not So Obvious
“Hindsight is 20/20.” – Richard Armour, American comedian What was unclear 12-18 months ago, looks clear as day now. I knew the market would come...
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Predicting Irrational Beasts
“We are emotional, irrational beasts who are emotional and irrational in predictable, pattern-filled ways.” – Chris Voss, author of Never Split the Difference. Stanley sold...
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Internal vs. External Focus
“Do not let what’s out of your control interfere with all the things you can control.” – John Wooden, legendary UCLA basketball coach. I have...
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The Difference Between Amateur and Professional Investors
“Amateurs believe that the world should work the way they want it to. Professionals realize that they have to work with the world as they...
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What the Treasury Market is Saying About Inflation
“Inflation is when you pay $15 for a $10 haircut you used to get for $5 when you had hair.” – Sam Ewing, retired professional...
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Shrinking Life Cycle of an S&P 500 Company
“I’d rather be partly great than entirely useless.” – Neal Shusterman, American author & writer. Let’s face it, it’s fun to buy individual stocks. Maybe...
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The Best Predictor of Stock Returns is Amazingly Simple
“The price of equity is determined in the same way that the price of everything is determined – via forces of supply and demand.” Jesse...
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The Biggest Risk to New Retirees
“Consider two degenerate gamblers flipping a quarter for $100 per flip. One of the gamblers has heads and the other has tails for the duration...
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What’s in a Bear Market?
“I’m an optimist, both as a person and an investor. It’s a big mistake to be pessimistic as long as we have a viable civilization...
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Higher Capital Gains Tax and Stock Returns
“You watch…taxes are going to go up and the market will tank.” – I’ve been told this 5x in the past week. Well, that seems...
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No Such Thing as Passive Investing
“This is the single worst time to be a passive investor since they started passive investments. The S&P 500 index is highly likely to not...
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Spectacular Implosion
“How did you go bankrupt?” “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” – Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises. It takes talent to lose $8 billion dollars...
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The Identity Leak
“Keep your identity small.” – Paul Graham, famous investor. I was an average high school basketball player. Good enough to get on the court, but...
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Not Buying What the Fed is Selling
The Fed was on autopilot. Its forward guidance made clear that market participants could set their watches to four interest rate hikes in 2018. That’s...
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The New Age Investor
“Behind the recent surge in retail investing is a younger, often new-to-investing, and aggressive cohort not afraid to employ leverage.” Deutsche Bank strategists Jim Reid...
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Beating the Bubble Horse
“I’m just waiting for the bubble to pop.” – Anonymous potential client Have you ever met the type that thinks everything is in a bubble?...
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Perspective on Rising Bond Yields
“Bonds are dead.” – Warren Buffett via CNBC The recent uptick in yields has the reignited the “bonds will get crushed” angry mob. We can...
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Bitcoin, What Of It?
“The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase...
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Investing at All-Time Highs
In the early years of the smartphone, it was quite common to carry a personal cell and a work cell. Eventually, we wised up at...
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Is the 4% Rule Dead?
Mental shortcuts or heuristics are used to make quick decisions, either because of time constraints or to simplify a complex problem. The further away a...
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Is Inflation Coming?
The health and wellness gurus will tell you that they meditate for two hours, exercise, and eat egg whites all before 6am. I check my...
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Monte Carlo Analysis: Worthless or Worthwhile?
“Oh, Monte Carlo, I’ve done that. It’s worthless!” “This simulation is the greatest thing ever!” “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m waiting...
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Is Your Portfolio Drunk or Sober?
“Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.” – George S. Patton Let’s say I’m invited over to your house for dinner. We...
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The Blue Wave and Stock Returns
““We are beginning to see trends that people tend to fear what they are exposed to in the media. Many of the top 10 fears...
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Getting a Fat Pitch and Not Swinging
“Amateurs think the world should work the way they want it to. Professionals realize that they have to work with the world as they find...
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What is Your “Enough?”
“Mo money, mo problems.” – Notorious B.I.G Unless your name is Jeff Bezos, most of us will never be the richest person on the planet....
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Investing in a 0% World
“Zero rates aren’t a new normal; they’re just normal in Japan.” – Verdad Capital That didn’t last long. After four years of “normalizing” rates from...
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Good from Far, but Far from Good
“It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very...
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Scratching Your Degenerate Itch
“Bad bets sometimes pay off.” – Marty Rubin, Canadian Author There’s been a stir in financial media about Robinhood traders bidding up bankrupt companies to...
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Investing Cash in a Runaway Market
“Far more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections, or trying to anticipate corrections, than has been lost in corrections themselves.” – Peter...
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The Brilliance of “I Don’t Know”
“We cherish not only answering every question, but also being quick-witted. The answer has to be produced in the shortest amount of time with the...
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I Keep Coming Back to One Question
“We have to practice defensive investing, since many of the outcomes are likely to go against us. It’s more important to ensure survival under negative...
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Mitigating Damage without Placing a Trade
“We will all feel pain in the next recession or stock market drop, but what can we do now to mitigate the damage?” – Pure...
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Does Your ESG Approach Pass the Smell Test?
I was perusing my LinkedIn feed when a particular post caught my eye. For the record, I have no clue who Mark A. Smith is....
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Municipal Magic
“You can take advantage of pockets of opportunity in what people don’t want.” – Jeff Gundlach, DoubleLine CEO We’ve been fielding a decent number of...
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Waking up After a Yearlong Coma
“Every once in a while, the market does something so stupid it takes your breath away.” – Jim Cramer The date is April 29th, 2019....
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The Plight of an All-Equity Investor
“The stock market is the story of cycles and of the human behaviour that is responsible for overreactions in both directions.” – Seth Klarman, CEO...
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What’s Your Silver Lining?
The days blend together. I feel like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day. I’m working at my makeshift office at the end of the...
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Bear Market Rally or Did We Hit Bottom?
“A cycle like this does not end with a mere month-long correction. A real bear market is only over when no one is interested in...
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Bear Market Assessment: What We Got Right & Wrong
Lawrence Hamtil runs a wealth management firm in Overland, KS. He posted the above self-assessment on Twitter on his portfolio positioning prior to the COVID-19...
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Some Things Will Never be the Same
“Sometimes it’s the bad things that happen to us that become the catalyst for the good things to happen to us. Life forces you into...
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Where Do We Go From Here?
“There’s clearly an indication that a systematic government-led approach using all tactics and all elements available seems to be able to turn this disease around.”...
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Bear Market Blind Spots
“History reminds us the event that often derails financial markets is seldom the one investors saw coming.” – Pure Portfolios 2019 Year-end Commentary The past...
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The Market is Talking. Are You Listening?
“It’s OK to not have an opinion on topics you don’t know anything about. And I don’t know anything about coronaviruses. But I have a...
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What’s Your Process for Making Portfolio Changes?
“To get something done a committee should consist of no more than three people, two of whom are absent.” – Robert Copeland, U.S. Navy Admiral...
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Are Low Yields a Good Reason to Shun Bonds?
“I don’t get why anyone would buy a 10-year bond yielding 1.5%” – Former Colleague Low bond yields are the new normal. It’s enough to...
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How to Tell if your 401(k) Plan is Hot Garbage
We are conditioned to sock away money for retirement ASAP. You should save at least 10% of your income. By the time you’re 30, you...
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Random $#%&
“No matter how sophisticated our choices, how good we are at dominating the odds, randomness will have the last word.” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Fooled...
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The Amazing Run of U.S. Tech Stocks
Friend: “I need to buy more QQQ.” Later that day, while on a call… “Tech stocks make me nervous. I fear a repeat of the...
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Do You Have an Information Filter?
“Thirty years ago the best investors had the biggest funnels of information. Today the best investors have the best filters of information. The market is...
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Want Dividend Yield? Here’s Where to Look…
“As far as dividend yields go, the UK, Italy, Spain, and Singapore all offer dividend yields north of 4%, while US markets have the lowest...
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What Does the SECURE Act Mean for You?
On December 20th, 2019, President Trump signed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE Act). The SECURE Act, effective January 1, 2020,...
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Pure Portfolios 2020 Client Letter
It seems like yesterday that we left the corporate suits behind to launch Pure Portfolios. We are forever grateful to the clients that took the...
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Pure Portfolios’ Best of 2019
“It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very...
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Tis the Season for Wall Street Forecasting Pt. III
“Those who have knowledge, don’t predict. Those who predict, don’t have knowledge.” – Lao Tzu The annual charade of Wall Street sages predicting what will...
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Did Investors Experience a Golden Decade?
If 2000-2009 was the “lost decade” for U.S. equity markets, 2010-2019 might be dubbed the blissful Goldilocks decade. But just how good was it? In...
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It’s Time to Dump the Broken Risk Questionnaire
What would you do if your investment lost 20%? A) Buy more B) Sell C) Do nothing You’ve probably seen or taken a risk tolerance...
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Portfolio Lay-Ups for Year-End
“Some taxpayers close their eyes, some stop their ears, some shut their mouths, but all pay through the nose.” – Evan Esar, American Humorist Thanksgiving...
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What to Make of the “Election Uncertainty” Talk?
“To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.” – Henry Kissinger I can’t go one day without reading or...
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What’s Your Different Kind of Wealth?
“That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest.” – Henry David Thoreau Most people associate wealth with large bank accounts, extravagant homes, and luxury cars....
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“I’ll Just Buy Amazon Stock”
I was sipping on a watered-down passion fruit iced tea waiting for my 1 o’clock to arrive. I had never met the person face to...
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Your Wealth Manager Just Posted Record Profit Margins
“Your margin is my opportunity.” – Jeff Bezos, Amazon It was a dreary fall evening. It must have been a Tuesday or Wednesday because there...
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Can High Dividend Stocks Replace Paltry Bond Income?
“We should target high dividend payers because bond yields are offering nothing.” – Random investors everywhere. U.S. bond yields have plummeted in 2019 reigniting a...
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What is the Impact of Retiring in a High-Income Tax State?
Much goes into crafting a detailed retirement plan. We account for income, expenses, unexpected healthcare events, annual home maintenance, travel, etc. A good plan gets...
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Could the 2020 Election Derail the Stock Market?
Everywhere we turn people are convinced the presidential election adds a layer of uncertainty to the financial markets. Depending on your politics, the election could...
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Predicting the Next Recession
If we tracked the most commonly asked client question over the past six months, a variation of “when is the next big recession coming?” would...
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Are you Paying for Services NOT Rendered?
You have a huge landscaping project in front of you. While you’ve done some basic lawn care in the past, this project will require the...
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Should I Just Buy the S&P 500 in Retirement?
We were sitting outside on a beautiful late summer Portland day. I was having a spirited conversation with a retired prospective client who was working...
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Is Anyone Bullish on the Stock Market?
We shared a laugh about how easy it was to come up with a list of potential landmines for the financial markets. The conversation was...
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Should you Act on Big Down Market Days?
“Well, that escalated quickly.” – Ron Burgundy, Anchorman It should be obvious by now that presidential tweets are untradable, unpredictable, and financial markets are paying...
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Simple Doesn’t Sell
“Complexity gives a comforting impression of control, while simplicity is hard to distinguish from cluelessness.” – Morgan Housel, The Collaborative Fund As financial markets flare...
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Is Your Wealth Manager Overweight Equities?
“Pay attention to what they do, not what they say.” – Anonymous I was perusing a research note from another financial institution on their portfolio...
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How Common are 5+% Pullbacks?
A client asked me what our crystal ball was saying after the turmoil this week. It’s impossible to know what happens next, but it did...
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How I’m Personally Invested
I give people advice about what to do with their money. Therefore, you have a right to know how I personally invest, and my attitude...
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All-Time High Retirement
The year was 2007. Bob had been with the same company for 30 years. He had diligently saved throughout his career, paid off his house,...
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Fool Me Once, Fool Me A Billion Times
“You don’t have to be the biggest to beat the biggest.” – Ross Perot Raymond owns a small independent advisory firm (RIA) in the Portland...
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The Fed’s About-Face
Just a year ago, the consensus was for the Federal Reserve to methodically increase interest rates to “normal” levels. As of this writing (7/9/2019), the...
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The Most Interesting Charts in the World
Our inbox is bursting with mid-year reviews, commentary, and predictions for the rest of the year. The blitz of content ranges from thought provoking to...
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The Unspoken Costs of a Doomsdayer
My Uncle Joe is absolutely convinced the market is going to crash. He’ll seek me out at family gatherings and say things like; “Washington is...
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Fee Schedule Trickery
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” Albert Einstein The further removed we get from the traditional wealth management machine, the...
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Should You Only Own U.S. Stocks?
Many U.S. based investors believe so. In the investment universe, “Home Bias” is a term used to describe the tendency to own a heavy allocation...
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Citywire Q&A with Nik Schuurmans
Pure Portfolios was recently featured in Citywire’s RIA “My Model Portfolio” series that ran in May’s print version and is live online (soft wall). Citywire...
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So Much for Rising Rates
The cycle ended with hardly a peep, but it looks like the Fed is done increasing rates. Source: YCharts The above graph shows the initial...
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Better Decisions with Sound Financial Planning
I used to have a healthy disdain for financial planning. I viewed it as data entry; type numbers into a software program and generate a...
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Does your Portfolio Make the Grade?
“I already have a financial advisor managing my money.” That’s a good thing, right? Depends on the advisor. It can be dangerous to assume your...
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Millennial Advice from a Millennial
The millennial generation is defined to those born between 1981-1996. In other words, if you’re between 22-37, you’re a millennial (I’m 37). Like every preceding...
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Stability Breeds Instability
“Trump will fire off a tweet and tank the economy.” “The yield curve inversion all but guarantees a recession is right around the corner.” “Tariffs...
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Do You Need a Trust?
People set up Trusts to minimize estate taxes, avoid probate, and seamlessly transfer assets to their heirs. Simply put, a Trust is a legal arrangement...
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The One-Page Challenge
According to a 2018 Cerulli study, 42% of investors either believe their financial advice is free or they have no clue how much they pay....
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Calling it off with 5-2 Offsuit
You’re mentally exhausted. It’s getting late and you’re on the tail end of a 12-hour marathon poker session. You’re down for the evening and desperately...
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Mr. Bond and Mr. Market
Mr. Bond has been in a dark place. He’s back on the bottle, hasn’t showered in days, and has been sleeping in a dumpster. Mr....
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Ultimate Transparency
Free from pretense or deceit Easily detected or seen through Readily understood Characterized by visibility or accessibility of information especially concerning business practices Source: Merriam-Webster...
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What I’ve Learned Over My 15 Year Career
We started every day the same. Our team of “financial planners” gathered in a vast conference room with a sprawling white board at the front....
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BBB Rated Movie
“U.S. corporate debt has climbed to roughly 46% of gross domestic product, the highest on record” – Rachel Louise Ensign, Wall Street Journal We wrote...
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How to Punt Stacks of Cash to Uncle Sam
“The collection of taxes which are not absolutely required, which do not beyond reasonable doubt contribute to the public welfare, is only a species of...
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Let’s Talk Stock Buybacks
“I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything that I don’t know the other side’s argument better than they do.” – Charlie Munger...
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Trend is Your Friend, An Alternative to Buy & Hold
“We’ve extended the analysis to every asset class where we could get our hands on the numbers and investigated the results. Same conclusion: trend-following minimizes...
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Mutual Fund Owners, Check Your 1099s
“It’s really hard to make an argument for mutual funds in a taxable investment account.” – Meb Faber, Cambria Funds It’s easy to rail against...
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Weirdness without Parallel
One of the funny things about the stock market is that every time one person buys, another sells, and both think they are astute.” –...
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The Best of Bogle
“I will create value for society, rather than extract it.” John C. Bogle, Founder of The Vanguard Group On April 13, 2004 John C. Bogle,...
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The Most Dangerous Thing II
“Investing isn’t about beating others at their game. It’s about controlling yourself at your own game.” – Jason Zweig, Author & WSJ Contributor. Back in...
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2018: No Place to Hide
“There’s always a bull market somewhere” – Jim Cramer, CNBC Mad Money This marks the first and last time we quote Jim Cramer. He spews...
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Take the Low-Hanging Fruit
The market carnage to close out 2018 carries an important reminder. Investing is hard. Performance comes and goes. The last nine years of easy money...
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Tis the Season for Wall St. Forecasting Pt. II
“Never make predictions, especially about the future.” – Casey Stengel, Legendary Baseball Manager. This might be my favorite topic to write about. In fact, it’s...
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Don’t Be Afraid of the ‘R’ Word
“Fear, greed, and hope have destroyed more portfolio value than any recession or depression we have ever been through.” – Jim O’Shaughnessy, Financial Author &...
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Let’s Talk Yield Curve Inversion
Picture a veteran stock broker roaming the halls of a investment advisory firm. His shirt is stained with coffee. From the look of his wrinkled suit it...
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Is the Santa Claus Rally Real?
I know a financial advisor who loves to talk about the Santa Claus rally every December. He has an outstanding mustache year-round (not just in...
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Planning for the Ugly
“Telling people to “ignore the noise” or “think for the long-term” does not help in the moment unless you’ve set realistic expectations ahead of time....
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The Most Dangerous Thing
“All other creatures use their intelligence to survive. We use ours to destroy ourselves.” – Marty Rubin, Author We worry about stock market bubbles, rising bond yields,...
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No Hunt for Red October
In the 1990 war thriller “The Hunt for Red October” Sean Connery plays the role of Marko Ramius, a Soviet Union submarine captain who plans to defect. ...
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Being Told to “Stay the Course”
“Volatility in the up direction is not a problem, it’s only downward volatility that offers discourse.” – Coreen T. Sol, Financial Author. Buy and hold...
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Back to Back Negative Return Years for Bonds
“Bonds as an asset class will always be needed, and not just by insurance companies and pension funds, but by aging boomers.” – Bill Gross,...
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Stock Returns in Midterm Election Years
“The real players in the global economy are consumers and producers (business). Politicians and regulators are similar to referees, which can influence short term ebbs and flows, but...
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The Best Question You Could Ask
“People ask me my forecast for the economy when they should be asking me what I have in my portfolio. Don’t make pronouncements on what...
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Investor Anxiety: Signs You’re Invested Incorrectly
“A reasonable-level of anxiety is a sign that you take investing seriously and are on guard against complacency and overconfidence. Meanwhile, too much anxiety is...
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Persistence of Performance
“This year’s top-performing mutual funds aren’t necessarily going to be next year’s best performers. It’s not uncommon for a fund to have better-than-average performance one...
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Fed Hikes and Bond Prosperity
“The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has considerable control over short-term rates. We have much less influence over long-term rates, which are set in the...
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U.S. and Everyone Else
“Emerging market economies have long grappled with the challenges posed by large and volatile cross-border capital flows.” – Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve....
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Solving the Social Security Equation
“Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party...
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Fees Tied to Performance is Gaining Momentum
“The investment industry has long offered clients fees that have nothing to do with performance. That’s changing, but not nearly fast enough.” – Jason Zweig,...
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Is Your Asset Location Costing You?
“You must pay taxes. But there’s no law that says you gotta leave a tip.” – Morgan Stanley Most investors are familiar with the basic...
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Ignoring Good Advice
“Small, seemingly insignificant steps completed consistently over time will create a radical difference.” – Darren Hardy, author of The Compound Effect Working with friends and family...
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The Housing Cycle
“Housing is often found at the heart of financial crises”– Fed Chair, Jay Powell summer of 2017 We are not experts on residential housing by...
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When it’s Broken, Don’t Fix it
“The most important thing you can have is a good strategic asset allocation mix. So, what the investor needs to do is have a balanced,...
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The New S&P 500
We recently came across a do-it-yourself (DIY) investor, let’s call him Cecil. Cecil firmly proclaims he hates technology stocks and doesn’t feel comfortable owning Tesla, Facebook, Apple,...
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Q2: Risk On?
“Far more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections, or trying to anticipate corrections, than has been lost in corrections themselves.”– Peter Lynch,...
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Sucker Dividend Yields
“One thing everyone should know about dividend yield is this: it doesn’t tell you much. It doesn’t give you clues about the valuation of a...
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“How Often Do You Look at My Portfolio?”
“I was going to be a sales person representing that I managed the portfolio. I couldn’t live with that.” – Former Portfolio Manager at a...
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Cash is a Weapon
“Hold some cash in reserve to take advantage of future opportunities.”– Seth Klarman, author of Margin of Safety. An underrated joy of writing our blog...
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Loose Bubble Talk
“I’m hard-pressed to recall when any sort of bubble was accurately identified in real-time on the cover of a major media publication. If anything, the...
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Beware of the Lazy 60/40
“A traditional static indexing approach leaves an investor overweight the riskiest assets at the riskiest times and underweight those low risk assets when their returns...
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Unwinding a Variable Annuity
“Variable annuities are the cigarettes of the investment world, which has hidden its curse for decades.” – Ken Fisher, Fisher Investments. I keep a fluid...
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Turning Safe Into Risky
“The more expensive debt becomes, the less weak corporations will be able to maintain the illusion of health.” Trevor Noren, 13D Research There seems to...
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Less Obvious Mistakes
“Getting rich is one thing. Staying rich is quite another.” – Morgan Housel, The Collaborative Fund We are often asked a variation of “what are...
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Hedge Fund Hold Up
The return of market volatility has increased the interest in alternative asset classes. A quick rundown of Barron’s You Make the Call publication shows private...
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Sell in May and Go Away
They’ve done studies, you know. 60% of the time, it works every time.”– Brian Fantana, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Profit seeking investors are...
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Portfolio Audit
We hunt the internet for the best value. We read online reviews before making a purchase decision. We compare the leading brand with a less...
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8 Signs Your Family Will Fight Over Your Estate
This is a guest post from our estate planning partner Everplans. In our effort to provide value beyond investment management, we will occasionally feature content from...
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Q1 in Pics: The Dust Settles
“The S&P 500 hasn’t seen a down quarter since Q3 2015. The S&P has also seen positive returns in 19 out of the past 20...
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My Advisor Doesn’t Charge Me a Fee
I’ve heard a variation of the above statement five times within the last year. I’ve had enough. You know the saying, if it’s too good...
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The Mystic of Rising Interest Rates
“Nobody likes high interest rates.” – Chanda Kochhar, CEO of ICICI Bank Interest rate prognostications have taken on a life of their own. Like a...
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Decoding Your Brokerage Statement
“Your brokerage statements suck” – Barry Glassman, Glassman Wealth The way we consume information has been turned upside down with the internet, smartphones, social media,...
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Want More Yield On Cash?
The most common question we have received in the past nine years goes something like this; “How can I generate more interest on cash?” Up...
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Tariff Gamesmanship?
On March 1, 2018 President Trump unexpectedly announced tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. The threat of a global trade war sent the S&P 500...
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Gems from Buffett’s 2017 Letter
“There are three ways to go broke: “ladies, liquor and leverage”– Warren Buffett, quoting Charlie Munger during a recent CNBC interview. Warren Buffett recently penned...
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Back to Normal
“If you believe markets are mean-reverting, higher returns and lower volatility today may equal the opposite in the future. We will enjoy the quiet while...
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International Developed: What Do You Own?
“Gold jacket, green jacket…who gives a $%&!”– Happy Gilmore We have heard them called foreign equities, global markets, international developed, emerging markets, frontier markets, BRIC...
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Warm & Fuzzy Financial Services Ads
I watch quite a bit of golf in my spare time. PGA Tour, Champions Tour, Korn Ferry, LPGA, it doesn’t matter. Watching top pros compete...
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What’s Attractive in this Environment?
Looking back at 2017, the resounding theme from our clients has been disbelief around the perplexing nature of the runaway U.S. equity markets. However, most are quite...
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Over-Diversification
“Your portfolio is a bowl of soup of random investments, seemingly cobbled together over time.” Meb Faber, Cambria Investments We review outside investment statements quite...
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Why Clients Fire their Advisor
Change is hard. Humans like patterns, routines, and familiarity. This is especially true when dealing with sensitive issues like financial affairs. We rely on people...
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What Happens After a +25% Year?
I have an evening routine of perusing Twitter for market research nuggets. I email myself interesting articles to read the following morning. I’m not looking...
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What’s All This Volatility Talk?
“When you compare the fundamental risks that we see all around the globe with the lack of volatility in our securities markets, it’s profoundly troubling.”...
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Pure Portfolios 2017 Client Letter
In the spirit of the great Warren Buffett’s annual shareholder letter, we feel it’s important to share not only our thoughts on financial markets, but...
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Following the Herd: Short-Term Bonds
The current tightening cycle has so far been reminiscent of its mid-2000s counterpart. At the time, Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan had characterized the fall...
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Tis the Season for Wall Street Forecasting
“It’s not easy to be as bad as they are. They are much worse than random chance alone would predict.” Salil Mehta, Statistical Ideas The annual...
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Introducing Everplans
“In a moment of crisis, the last thing a family should be doing is worrying or being hassled about paperwork. Everplans elegantly solves that problem.”–...
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Delusional Return Expectations
“Returns expectations are simply too high. It means that many will face a shortfall when they come to realize their investments in the future as...
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Forget the Fed. Focus on Coordinated Global Tightening
2017 has been a great year for investors. Global equities are higher. Volatility is non-existent. Heck, even left-for-dead fixed income has posted positive returns. However,...
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Signs of a Market Top? Valuation
We continue our series featuring data from VR Research on “characteristics of a market top.” The summary is broken down by corporate, valuation, economic, market,...
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Meet the Story-Based Advisor
We recently stumbled across a tongue and cheek article that decoded real estate agent listing language. For example, describing a property as “cozy” within a...
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Naked Performance
“I’ve been crushing it in the stock market this year. I’m up 45%.”– Random Dude How many times have you heard a family member, colleague,...
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Naked Performance
“I’ve been crushing it in the stock market this year. I’m up 45%.”– Random Dude How many times have you heard a family member, colleague,...
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Signs of a Market Top? Investor Sentiment
VR Research published a graphic on its Twitter account showing the characteristics of a “market top.” The summary is broken down by corporate, valuation, economic,...
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Avoiding the Dividend Trap
“In a taxable account, dividends could have cost you anywhere from 0.3% to over 3.0% in returns PER YEAR since 1974. If your goal is...
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Does a Robo-Advisor Make Sense for You?
“One of the challenging things in this industry now is you’ve got a lot of the old-way-to-invest type of firms coming out with me-too offerings that...
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Death of the Fixed 1% Fee
“One of the biggest problems I have with the flat-fee structure is that it does implicitly incentivize a culture of asset gathering.”– Matthew Spencer, Director...
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What Happens if the U.S. Goes to War?
“Rising overseas tensions usually don’t cause economic slumps or bear markets… but it’s not unheard of.”– Ben Levisohn, Barron’s The CFA Institute’s Enterprising Investor blog published a...
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Risky Business of High Yield
With corporate leverage continuing to surge—on record pace again in 2017—the threat of the “zombie” bubble popping appears increasingly real.– 13d Research The absolute level...
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When Times Are Bad Pt. 2
“The stock market is a battlefield. Always remember to survive in the game first. Only those that survive the battle can enjoy the spoils of...
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The Age-Based Portfolio
“You get recessions, you have stock market declines. If you don’t understand that’s going to happen, then you’re not ready, you won’t do well in...
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Should I Borrow Against my Portfolio?
“We were dramatically pushed to put these on all of our client accounts.”– Steven Dudash, former Wall Street broker. Traditionally reserved for high net worth...
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Should I Consolidate My Assets?
“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”– Hans Hofmann. Having multiple investment managers is often viewed as...
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Hedging Equities with… Equities?
In response to the financial crisis, investment managers scrambled to find alternative strategies to soften total portfolio risk during extreme market drawdowns. Hedge funds, with...
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Money Quotes
Over the 4th of July weekend I made it a point to unplug and reflect. I do some of my best thinking when I’m off...
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Fear Sells. Don’t Buy It.
I have a close relative that is debating taking a new job. The new position would be more favorable from a tax standpoint, commute time,...
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The Bond Market Doesn’t Believe the Fed
“Just remember that 10 of the last 13 Fed hiking cycles have been miscalculations that ended in recession.”– David Rosenberg, Chief Strategist at Gluskin Sheff....
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Valuation Matters, Except When It Doesn’t
“The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.” John Maynard Keynes, Economist The Shiller price to earnings ratio (CAPE) is a popular...
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Drive Your Managed Portfolio into the Ground
“Invert, always invert.” – Charlie Munger, the Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett’s partner. Munger borrowed the idea of inversion from 19th century...
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The Rise of the Call Center Advisor
“If I were a single-digit millionaire tossed out of the “paradise” of private banking, I’d walk away from that bank altogether. They don’t want me?...
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The Danger of Mixing Politics and Investing
A dark cloud of geopolitical uncertainty hangs over the global equity markets (see our rational for investing in gold). Even if you wanted to ignore...
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The Allure of Gold
“I think that the 5-year bear market in gold is over and that we’re in the beginning of a new bull market and I’m very,...
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Exchange Traded Funds Are (Mostly) Good
“The flow of money into ETFs doesn’t represent some mad rush to a specific asset class or sector; it’s simply a change in formats to...
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What is Evidence-Based Investing?
“As Upton Sinclair said, it’s difficult to persuade even the most intelligent people to accept the evidence if they’re financially incentivized to ignore it.”– Robin...
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Hard Ball Questions to Ask Your Advisor
A Google search for “Questions to Ask Your Financial Advisor” will yield an abundance of articles ranging from exhaustive to utter nonsense. The below list...
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Don’t Underperform Yourself
Prolonged bull markets can lead to false confidence for do-it-yourself investors, financial advisors, and professional institutional money managers. After all, everyone looks like a genius...
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Pure Q1 Recap in Pics (and a few words)
We are trying something new to convey our view of the world to our readers. We have heard feedback from investors that industry market commentary...
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Advantages of Working with Independent Firms
The perception exists that investing money with large, established firms is the conservative route. The explosive growth of the independent Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) tells...
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Mismanaged Bond Portfolios Are Costly
Fixed income investing used to be much easier. An investor could clip 5% return in their sleep without taking much risk. For example, from 1987...
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Does Dollar Cost Averaging Work?
There are two types of Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA). Automatically saving in your employer’s 401(k) is the good version. The investor is systemically purchasing shares...
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What Are You Paying for Wealth Management?
Time and again I speak with investors who have no clue what their advisor is charging them. CFA Institute published a report (February 2016) “From...
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Google “Bond Bubble” For a Laugh
The term “bubble” is bothersome when describing bonds. Investors are not clamoring to buy 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds with the expectation of getting rich. The...
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Pessimism Reigns Supreme
We talk to clients and potential investors daily. We listen to market experts and consume pages of investment research. It’s interesting to gauge the behavioral...
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Simple Beats Complex
Perception exists within wealth management that complex equals smart and simplistic equals dull. This is especially evident in the hyper-competitive college endowment space. The largest...
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Bob Farrell’s 10 Rules of Investing
I have never been a big fan of rigid rules, but every now and again we revisit brilliance that transcends time. Bob Farrell is a...
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The Future of Wealth Management
In the last 12 months, I have had many conversations about the future of wealth management. The values of Pure Portfolios express our views of...
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Mutual Funds are Toxic for Building Wealth
Mutual funds will cease to exist in their current form. Low rates and compressed returns will expose archaic investment vehicles that are tax inefficient, cost...
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Why Your Financial Advisor Hates the Fiduciary Standard
I find it deplorable we need the Department of Labor (DOL) to tell insurance agents and financial advisors to do right by their clients. Even...
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Interest Rates: Experts Stick to the Broken Clock Approach
The rising interest rate prediction has been the most incorrect forecast I can remember. For the past three years, we have heard various economists, market...
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