The First Public Markets Emerge As the authors Norton Reamer and Jesse Downing point out in their work on the history of investment, public markets for securities didn’t exist before the 1600s. In was in Amsterdam, the financial center of the world at the time,...

“History is not everything, but it is a starting point.” - John Henrik Clarke What is investing? Why do we do it? These are the type of questions that many adults ask themselves when they begin to make their own money and think about the future. In the not-so-distant...

I would argue that the most important thing we as financial advisors do for our clients is help them identify their problems.  On the surface this may seem silly.  People obviously know what they want, right? Surprisingly, this isn't always the case.  People generally...

There is a particular scene I have been thinking about recently from The Magnificent Seven (the 1960’s version).  The premise of the movie is this: seven gunmen are hired to protect a village from a gang of bandits.  The gunmen come into town and prepare for the...

So here we are.  This is the part of a market cycle when we start having conversations that look a little something like this: Client:  “I’ve been mulling this over, and I think I am comfortable taking on more risk.  Maybe I should own more stocks” Us:  “I see.  You...