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I sat recently in the lobby of the headquarters of a major advisory firm, waiting to be taken through security and upstairs. Across the lobby from me was the firm's headquarters retail branch, and shining through the windows in both directions -- so you couldn't miss it no matter where you were standing -- was CNBC....keep reading

One of the issues we worked on at the Behavioral Strategies Conference was how to defuse--or at the very least deflect--apocalypse du jour questions/objections, without accepting the challenge to explain or defend our investment policy in light of current trends and events, and without getting into an argument....keep reading

I was uncharacteristically deskbound for an entire business day in mid-June, and (as I'll often do on such occasions) left CNBC on all day - with the sound off, of course. This exercise helps me stay in touch with what the streaming-data, mayfly-perspective crowd is buzzing about at any given moment....keep reading

Q: I've had more than a couple of people asking demography-based questions ...
A: It would be the eternal truth that equity prices aren't governed by demography, ..

Q: My clients understand the ups and downs of the markets, but it has been hard ...
A: I'm going to guess that you're a relatively recent subscriber, and recommend ...

Q: Earlier this year a long-time client in his early 70's was diagnosed with COPD ...
A: My only thought is the obvious one. It's just not obvious to you, for three very ......keep reading

Tiny Tim, Bill Miller, Warren Buffett...keep reading

Portfolio Management...keep reading

Last month, in the article "CAGR: What's Yours?" I suggested that your value to clients and prospects had been enhanced dramatically in recent years, simply by virtue of your having experienced a once-in-a-generation bubble and crash. If, as I believe, a huge part of an advisor's value is implicit in behavior modification -- preventing clients from getting swept up in future cycles of euphoria and panic -- then your advice going forward has now become that much more valuable....keep reading

Sometime between Easter and Pentecost in the year 1212, a young French peasant boy named Stephen, from a village near Vendome, began walking along the road, preaching a Crusade to all the children he met....keep reading

W.E.B. DuBois...keep reading

Q:Subsequent to an introduction and prior to a personal meeting, I will ...
A:My bias is to tell them what I cost immediately after telling them, eyeball to ...

Q:A few clients have complained about how much they have "lost" since the ...
A:Measuring one's "losses" -- which are of course nothing of the kind -- from ...

Q:Acquaintances and friends -- some of whom should be clients -- tend to ...
A:Depending on the seriousness or lack thereof of the response you wish to ...

Q:Nick, I am an equity believer, have always been. I recommend all equities for ...
A:Haven't enough "sophisticated" bond strategies blown up around you lately? ...

Q:I think I'm holding up reasonably well, but I seem to have a lot of people ...
A:I think your fundamental mistake is that you're trying to reason with fear. The ...

Q:My clients are drowning in a sea of catastrophist media sludge. I can't find the ...
A:The only way you ...keep reading

It should be almost painfully obvious to this newsletter's readers that I'm hugely interested in the shale gas (and, to a lesser extent, oil) revolution....keep reading

I recently received an e-mail from an advisor who uses my book Simple Wealth, Inevitable Wealth to explain a lifetime approach to successful equity investing, and an advisor's role in keeping such a life on the straight and narrow path....keep reading

Ask Nick...keep reading

It may be narrowly noted that from its high above 1363 on April 29 of this year until its quite violent trough (so far) at 1099 on October 3, the S&P 500 declined some 19.4% on a closing basis, amid widespread fears of the collapse of the eurozone financial system and of resumed recession in the U.S....keep reading

1. I'm slogging through Reinhart and Rogoff's This Time Is Different: Eight ...
2. On page 3 of Andrew Ross Sorkin's much overpraised Too Big To Fail (Viking, ...
3. When two different newsletter subscribers write to me within the space of a ...
4. And speaking of prospecting: most of this newsletter's readers are well along in ...
5. I enjoyed reading a wonderfully laid-out full-page article in the Financial Times...
6. A couple of crackerjack WSJ op-eds, albeit on wildly diverse topics. Jeremy ...

Ask Nick...keep reading

Squibs...keep reading

Because the innumeracy of journalism is exceeded only by its unthinking, groupthinking urge to distill all other journalism, Fortune magazine was recently able to do a major article on the allegedly compressing equity risk premium. ("Can Stocks Defy Gravity?" June 16, 2003.)...keep reading

Ask Nick...keep reading

It is an axiom of human experience in general, and of markets in particular, that at any given moment the vast plurality of observers do not understand what's going on....keep reading