Regardless of how much or little we know about the sport in question, most of us fancy a flutter on a big sporting event. Here in the UK, for example, around a third of the adult population bets on the biggest horse race in the calendar, the Grand National; several million more will take part in an office sweepstake. The equivalent in the US is March Madness, a knockout competition for college basketball teams that runs over three successive weeks. Tonight, the final of this year’s event will be contested by Connecticut and San Diego State. Once again the competition has t ..read more

  Robin writes: I’ll be honest, I’m not a big fan of self-help books generally. But I recently came across one that I’m very happy to recommend. It’s called Find Your Own Path, which was written by a life coach called Fiona Buckland, and it’s just been published by Penguin Books. As the title suggests, the book explains how to find your own path, or, as some psychologists put it, how to live an authentic life. To explain it simply, authentic living is about living life on your own terms, and not other people’s; it’s about aligning everything you do with the person you are; and it’s about ..read more

    In the digital world we now inhabit, financial scams have grown in their reach and sophistication, and everyone should be aware of how to protect themselves.   Financial scams have become a persistent reality. They are also becoming more sophisticated, meaning that everyone is at risk. The internet has unfortunately been a boon for scammers. A recent analysis by Cybersecurity Ventures projected that global cybercrime is growing at 15% per year, and will net an estimated $10.5 trillion by 2025. That is double the GDP of Japan, which is currently the third largest economy in t ..read more

    By ROBIN POWELL   The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing. — Edmund Burke   Goodness me, Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street is a hard watch. Most of us by now will know the basic facts. How Bernie Madoff, the son of a failed businessman from Queen’s, rose from being a penny-stock trader to a Wall Street big shot who appeared to have the Midas touch. Except he didn’t. He was a liar who perpetrated the world’s biggest financial fraud. But credit goes to Netflix and to Joe Berlinger, director of this riveting four-part document ..read more

    Charley Ellis has been a voice of common sense in the world of investing for more than 50 years. His book, Winning the Loser’s Game, which explains why low-cost, buy-and-hold indexing is the rational choice for all investors, has become a classic. He’s now aged 85 but still working. Charley recently spoke to Cameron Passmore and Benjamin Felix at the Rational Reminder podcast, and we’d strongly urge you to listen to the whole episode. The interview contains a wealth of wisdom about investing, but here are six lessons that caught our attention.   1. Success is all about minim ..read more

    By SHERIFA ISSIFU   2022 was the worst year for U.S. equity indices since 2008’s Global Financial Crisis, with the S&P 500 entering a bear market and declining 18% in 2022. Despite the market blues, there were some relative winners: the S&P DJI U.S. Core Indices beat their MSCI counterparts last year, driven by differences in their methodologies. Below we examine the impact of index construction on performance, factor exposure and sector weights of the two index series. Exhibit 1 highlights that the S&P Composite 1500’s outperfo ..read more

    By Joe Wiggins   Before you stop reading, I promise this is not another explainer about the SVB collapse. While (too) much ink has been spilled detailing the failure of SVB; it is often useful to take a step back from tumultuous market events and consider our own behaviour. What happens to us during such stressful periods and what does it tell us about how we deal with investment risk?   1. Our time horizons contract The key danger for investors during periods of market stress like the one we’ve seen since SVB collapsed is the contraction of our time horizons. Even if w ..read more

    It’s been another volatile week on the global stock markets as investors grapple with the banking crisis in the United States. But selling equities after prices have fallen is usually a bad move. As this article from Dimensional Fund Advisors explains, long-term investors should resist the urge to “do something” and focus on the bigger picture.   Last Friday US regulators took control of Silicon Valley Bank as a run on the bank unfolded. Two days later, regulators took control of a second lender, Signature Bank. With increasing anxiety, many investors are eyeing their portfo ..read more

    Divorce is always a stressful experience, but it’s important for women in particular not to underestimate some crucial financial considerations.   There is a well-worn social myth that, financially at least, divorce from a heterosexual marriage tends to favour women. The belief is that men get fleeced while their ex-wives make away with the spoils. The reality, however, is very different. Research carried out by Professor Stephen Jenkins at the London School of Economics in 2009 found that women who worked before, during or after their marriages see, on average, a 20% declin ..read more

    Relatively speaking, 2022 was a reasonably good year for U.S. active managers. Or was it? As Dr TIM EDWARDS from S&P Dow Jones Indices explains, about half of all actively managed large-cap U.S. equity funds still failed to beat the index. And they have some serious catching up to do to change the long-term statistics. 91% and 95% of them have underperformed the S&P 500 over ten and 20 years respectively.   For over a decade, our SPIVA® Scorecards have shown a majority of actively managed U.S. large-cap equity funds underperforming the S&P 500. Accordin ..read more