All tagged virgin

Another in the Virgin series: Exciting ideas and companies don’t make good stocks.     

In the last few years almost 200 specialized 'thematic' ETFs and mutual funds have been created. The asset growth of thematic funds quadrupled. Thematic funds offer unique, tactical bets on investment opportunities grouped by a subject or motif. Typically, it’s about technology and our changing future. Thematic funds tend to be a bull market phenomenon, possibly a result of investor overconfidence and enthusiasm. (There’s a good line that bull markets make everyone look smart.) It’s an intuitive strategy: “Let’s invest in a handful of really smart innovative companies that people are excited about, the growth potential is incredible.”

A six-month lookback. I should put ‘Virgin’ in more of my titles. 

Six months ago, I wrote my first weekly piece for this newsletter, or blog if you prefer. Since then, many people have joined this little community and it’s growing quickly. Each of these articles requires research, it’s not just musings. For every post you see here, there are dozens of articles read, half blogs written, and notes on scores of topics for future use. In the long run the real benefit of writing this blog is that it keeps me better informed for clients.

Some things cannot be adequately explained to a virgin.

The other week, a client called me from Mexico on her new vanlife journey around North America. She has modest assets and is trying to define herself less by her job, which she is doing part-time remotely. I’m proudly responsible for the financial plan supporting her life goal. I mentioned to her that the US stock markets were down over 11%. “Oh yeah, look at that,” she said, reviewing her online statements, with interest but not worry. If, like her, you were living your best life last month and not paying attention to the stock market, kudos. It’s not good for investor health or wealth to pay close attention to stock market returns.