1 00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:16,560 Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. 2 00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:21,200 Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. 3 00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:23,520 Speaker 3: I'm Joe Wisenthal and I'm Tracy Alloway. 4 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:27,240 Speaker 2: Tracy, I know, like everyone is like really into what's 5 00:00:27,280 --> 00:00:29,840 Speaker 2: the hot stock these days? In video? How do I 6 00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:32,320 Speaker 2: play the AI boom? It's interesting you can make a 7 00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:34,800 Speaker 2: lot of money and get the right stocks. I love 8 00:00:34,840 --> 00:00:38,400 Speaker 2: the general topic though, just like optimal portfolio construction. It 9 00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:41,720 Speaker 2: seems like a fascinating puzzle to me, how to fit 10 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:45,960 Speaker 2: different types of assets together in one coherent thing. 11 00:00:46,159 --> 00:00:49,800 Speaker 3: It almost felt to me like a study in behavioral science, 12 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:52,839 Speaker 3: almost because I think everyone always says, you know, just 13 00:00:52,920 --> 00:00:55,840 Speaker 3: invest in an index fund and maybe sixty forty, although 14 00:00:55,880 --> 00:00:57,960 Speaker 3: as we saw in twenty twenty two, that has its 15 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:00,840 Speaker 3: own problems and we can talk about that. But I 16 00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:03,720 Speaker 3: think this is like the one area in people's lives 17 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:07,800 Speaker 3: where they actually crave complexity, right, Like it doesn't sound 18 00:01:07,920 --> 00:01:10,200 Speaker 3: right to be like I just put your money in 19 00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:11,800 Speaker 3: an index fund and forget about it. 20 00:01:11,880 --> 00:01:14,120 Speaker 2: I know, it's like the simple It is like the 21 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:17,760 Speaker 2: simplest investing strategy is the hardest. Yeah, for people. It's 22 00:01:17,800 --> 00:01:20,640 Speaker 2: really hard, though, Like when you see people making life 23 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:22,920 Speaker 2: changing the amount of money because like, oh, I was 24 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:26,319 Speaker 2: in you know, sand disc right, and suddenly everyone wants 25 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:29,160 Speaker 2: memory because of AI and they're up five hundred percent 26 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:31,200 Speaker 2: in the year. Is like damn, you know, like I'm 27 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:33,479 Speaker 2: really happy with my twelve percent year that I've been 28 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:35,000 Speaker 2: making Flood. 29 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:35,480 Speaker 1: I've really know. 30 00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:36,520 Speaker 2: It's really hard. 31 00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:39,920 Speaker 3: I was one hundred percent invested in a leverage doge eta. 32 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:42,240 Speaker 2: Yeah, right, Like if you did that and then you 33 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:44,640 Speaker 2: retired the next day, I'd be like really annoyed. I'd 34 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:47,200 Speaker 2: be like really upset. But it is a fun puzzle. 35 00:01:47,319 --> 00:01:50,200 Speaker 2: You mentioned twenty twenty two, and we saw what we've 36 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:53,680 Speaker 2: seen really since COVID. What we've really seen since the 37 00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:56,480 Speaker 2: worst inflation in forty years is that some of these 38 00:01:56,760 --> 00:01:59,720 Speaker 2: portfolio constructions that work very well for a very long time, 39 00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:03,720 Speaker 2: particularly anything that sort of resembles that sixty forty thing, 40 00:02:04,320 --> 00:02:07,880 Speaker 2: which just worked so beautifully in the twenty tens, but 41 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:12,160 Speaker 2: even before it hasn't worked as well. I think you're 42 00:02:12,160 --> 00:02:15,080 Speaker 2: still doing fairly well. But yeah, so it gets you 43 00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:17,119 Speaker 2: the question is like, well, I remember we asked Bill 44 00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:20,160 Speaker 2: Growth why I even own bonds at a time he 45 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:22,400 Speaker 2: was like, well don't Yeah, don't. He's like, I'm in 46 00:02:22,520 --> 00:02:24,760 Speaker 2: I'm in pipelines, and that's where that's why I'm getting 47 00:02:24,760 --> 00:02:29,040 Speaker 2: my or I'm in whatever MLPs or whatever, that's where 48 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:31,560 Speaker 2: I'm getting my yield. But yeah, I think there's some 49 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:35,639 Speaker 2: real question about like why own treasures, why own whatever, etcetera. 50 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:38,440 Speaker 3: Well, the other thing is timing. This is the thing 51 00:02:38,520 --> 00:02:41,720 Speaker 3: that everyone has to consider. Right, So in twenty twenty two, 52 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:44,720 Speaker 3: if you were about to take out a big chunk 53 00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:46,840 Speaker 3: of your portfolio to buy a house, or if you 54 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:50,280 Speaker 3: were a retiree and you needed to make some chunky payment, 55 00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:53,560 Speaker 3: you were really really unlucky. In twenty twenty two if 56 00:02:53,600 --> 00:02:56,760 Speaker 3: you were if you would take everyone's advice and invested 57 00:02:56,800 --> 00:02:59,280 Speaker 3: in a sixty forty portfolio. So this is the other thing, 58 00:02:59,320 --> 00:03:02,359 Speaker 3: Like you can try to smooth out returns, but your 59 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:05,520 Speaker 3: own spending is going to go up and down quite 60 00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:05,799 Speaker 3: a bit. 61 00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:09,480 Speaker 2: There's one other issue that I think a lot about 62 00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:12,480 Speaker 2: with the very standard and it sort of relates exactly 63 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:15,560 Speaker 2: to this, with this sort of standard advice. So in 64 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:18,240 Speaker 2: theory is like we're not supposed to time the market. 65 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:22,400 Speaker 2: Buy the highs, you buy the lows, et cetera. Twenty 66 00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:25,040 Speaker 2: twenty was a great time to buy. Merge twenty twenty 67 00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:27,040 Speaker 2: would have been a fantastic time to buy. The problem 68 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:30,400 Speaker 2: is layoff surge, and there's this sort of phenomenon where 69 00:03:30,760 --> 00:03:32,919 Speaker 2: often the best times to invest in the market or 70 00:03:32,919 --> 00:03:34,639 Speaker 2: when you don't have a job and you don't really 71 00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:38,200 Speaker 2: need money, and actually, yeah, they always say don't sell, 72 00:03:38,280 --> 00:03:40,839 Speaker 2: don't panic sell at the bottom. There's a good chance 73 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:42,840 Speaker 2: that's when you might need to sell. That's maybe when 74 00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:45,320 Speaker 2: you lose your job or something. The ability to sort 75 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:49,920 Speaker 2: of mechanically actually follow the rules setting aside behavioral stuff, 76 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:52,200 Speaker 2: just the ability to like have the income or have 77 00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:55,160 Speaker 2: the ability to like hold through draw downs, buy the dips, 78 00:03:55,160 --> 00:03:59,040 Speaker 2: et cetera, may not even be possible. Absolutely well, anyway, 79 00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:01,600 Speaker 2: I'm excited to say, we really do have the perfect guest, 80 00:04:01,640 --> 00:04:05,080 Speaker 2: someone we've had on the podcast before, also someone we've 81 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:07,200 Speaker 2: just known for a very long time. One of the 82 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:10,400 Speaker 2: most interesting thinkers in the realms of investing, in portfolio 83 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:14,760 Speaker 2: managing and so forth. A voice of sanity, i would say, 84 00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:17,520 Speaker 2: which is very rare these days. We're gonna be speaking 85 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:19,960 Speaker 2: with Colin roch As, the founder of Discipline Funds, and 86 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:21,919 Speaker 2: he is the author of a brand new book called 87 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:26,360 Speaker 2: Your Perfect Portfolio about exactly this topic. Colin, thank you 88 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:28,400 Speaker 2: so much for coming back on the podcast. 89 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:29,720 Speaker 4: It's nice to see, nice to be here. 90 00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:31,839 Speaker 2: Why did you write this book. 91 00:04:32,920 --> 00:04:33,840 Speaker 4: Well, this is. 92 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:37,200 Speaker 5: A problem that I've always run into throughout running my business, 93 00:04:37,279 --> 00:04:42,240 Speaker 5: is that I think as the portfolio manager and financial advisor, 94 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:45,400 Speaker 5: I've run into this issue where I'm trying to construct 95 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:49,760 Speaker 5: a model portfolio that is ideal for my business so 96 00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:52,400 Speaker 5: that I can easily implement something and then kind of 97 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:55,000 Speaker 5: just plug and play it into client portfolios. And what 98 00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:57,880 Speaker 5: I've realized over the course of managing money for you know, 99 00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:01,240 Speaker 5: hourver long it's been now multiple decades, is that everyone's 100 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:04,520 Speaker 5: different and everyone needs their own level of customization, and 101 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:07,160 Speaker 5: so it's very hard to just take a model portfolio 102 00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:09,760 Speaker 5: and then plug and play. And the kind of funny 103 00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:12,880 Speaker 5: thing with the financial services industry is it's largely built 104 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:17,400 Speaker 5: around these ideas that you take a product and then 105 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:20,400 Speaker 5: you sell it to the client. And oftentimes what I 106 00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:22,440 Speaker 5: find is that when you're trying to sell the product 107 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:24,640 Speaker 5: to the client, it just doesn't mesh with their needs. 108 00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:28,360 Speaker 5: And so everyone needs to find their own perfect portfolio. 109 00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:31,479 Speaker 5: So the book isn't titled The Perfect Portfolio, and the 110 00:05:31,480 --> 00:05:33,960 Speaker 5: purpose of the book really is to what I do 111 00:05:34,080 --> 00:05:37,320 Speaker 5: is I go through a number of famous portfolios, and 112 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:39,080 Speaker 5: some of them are very boring and some of them 113 00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:42,360 Speaker 5: are more sophisticated. But the overarching ethos of the book 114 00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:45,240 Speaker 5: is that you have to understand all these different approaches 115 00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:47,800 Speaker 5: and then you can plug and play the way that 116 00:05:47,880 --> 00:05:50,320 Speaker 5: you want to build your own perfect portfolio so that 117 00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:51,000 Speaker 5: it works for you. 118 00:05:51,640 --> 00:05:54,560 Speaker 3: One thing I'm curious about because I've never had a 119 00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:58,239 Speaker 3: professional financial advisor or anything, but how do you actually 120 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:01,400 Speaker 3: evaluate your client's needs? It's like, what do those questions 121 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:04,000 Speaker 3: look like? I imagine you know, there's probably a lot of 122 00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:07,359 Speaker 3: finances involved, but are there questions like how do you 123 00:06:07,440 --> 00:06:11,120 Speaker 3: feel about losing forty percent of your portfolio in a 124 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:11,800 Speaker 3: single year? 125 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:12,120 Speaker 1: On? 126 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:15,839 Speaker 5: That's actually that's my my very favorite question, the question 127 00:06:15,920 --> 00:06:19,799 Speaker 5: I hate the most because for I don't know, twenty years, 128 00:06:19,839 --> 00:06:23,160 Speaker 5: I used to print out these phony risk profile questionnaires 129 00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:25,000 Speaker 5: and I would send them to people and one of 130 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:27,600 Speaker 5: the questions as always, you know, how do you respond 131 00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:30,320 Speaker 5: to a market that falls thirty or forty percent? And 132 00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:35,120 Speaker 5: literally ninety eight percent of people will answer that question 133 00:06:35,200 --> 00:06:37,440 Speaker 5: the exact same way because they know the right answer. 134 00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:40,800 Speaker 4: They'll say, oh, I stay the course, I will buy 135 00:06:40,839 --> 00:06:41,839 Speaker 4: the dip or whatever. 136 00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:45,560 Speaker 5: And then COVID happens, and fifty percent of my clients 137 00:06:45,560 --> 00:06:48,320 Speaker 5: are calling me like, this has never happened before. 138 00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:50,480 Speaker 4: What the hell do we do now? This is terrifying. 139 00:06:50,520 --> 00:06:53,000 Speaker 5: We need to sell everything, right, And I'm there even 140 00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:55,040 Speaker 5: I'm looking at that and I'm kind of like, you know, 141 00:06:55,120 --> 00:06:57,120 Speaker 5: cause in the throes of it, Yeah, that's the hard 142 00:06:57,120 --> 00:06:59,760 Speaker 5: part about investing into a bear market, especially when it's 143 00:06:59,760 --> 00:07:00,720 Speaker 5: actual going on. 144 00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:04,400 Speaker 4: It all feels right, just justified totally, and you're looking 145 00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:04,960 Speaker 4: at it. 146 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:06,520 Speaker 5: One of my favorite charts in the book is a 147 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:09,240 Speaker 5: chart of the Great Depression downturn, and it shows this 148 00:07:09,360 --> 00:07:13,000 Speaker 5: like horrific eighty percent downturn where the market just went 149 00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:17,080 Speaker 5: down like every month for basically three or four years, 150 00:07:17,400 --> 00:07:19,280 Speaker 5: and it goes down a full eighty percent. And when 151 00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:21,600 Speaker 5: you're in the throes of that sort of thirty or 152 00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:24,960 Speaker 5: forty percent downturn that we saw, say during the GFC 153 00:07:25,160 --> 00:07:29,680 Speaker 5: or during COVID, you're thinking to yourself, well, wait a minute, 154 00:07:29,960 --> 00:07:33,000 Speaker 5: I know that the market has gone down sixty seventy 155 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:35,440 Speaker 5: eighty percent in the past, so if we're at forty 156 00:07:35,560 --> 00:07:38,080 Speaker 5: that means we probably have another you know, forty percent 157 00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:41,280 Speaker 5: haircutter coming down the line. And so that's the psychology 158 00:07:41,320 --> 00:07:43,560 Speaker 5: of it when people are actually in the middle of it, 159 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:47,239 Speaker 5: and I remember it vividly during COVID, because even people 160 00:07:47,320 --> 00:07:50,120 Speaker 5: like Buffett and Bill Gates, like some of the most 161 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:53,040 Speaker 5: practical thinkers in the world, they're sitting around there saying, 162 00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:56,120 Speaker 5: this has never happened before, We've never seen this, No 163 00:07:56,160 --> 00:07:58,800 Speaker 5: one living has seen what is going on right now, 164 00:07:58,840 --> 00:08:01,560 Speaker 5: and so it all feels rational. And then, you know, 165 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:05,480 Speaker 5: so from a risk profiling perspective, it's really difficult because 166 00:08:06,160 --> 00:08:09,600 Speaker 5: that sort of subjective nature of it all is really 167 00:08:09,640 --> 00:08:12,200 Speaker 5: sort of irrelevant because when you're actually in it, it 168 00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:14,000 Speaker 5: all will feel totally rational. 169 00:08:14,240 --> 00:08:14,360 Speaker 4: Now. 170 00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:17,760 Speaker 2: I remember thinking that even like obviously April of last year, 171 00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:23,240 Speaker 2: during the brief but very sharp sell off after liberation. Yeah, 172 00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:27,240 Speaker 2: and it's like, well, Trunk just changed the rules of capitalism. 173 00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:29,480 Speaker 2: This is gonna be different. This is really different. Or 174 00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:32,800 Speaker 2: going back to COVID, like we all say we're gonna 175 00:08:33,040 --> 00:08:37,400 Speaker 2: just hold through the downturn, but in that moment we're like, oh, no, 176 00:08:37,520 --> 00:08:39,400 Speaker 2: this isn't really this is well, this is not like 177 00:08:39,480 --> 00:08:40,880 Speaker 2: the other cell. This is different. 178 00:08:40,920 --> 00:08:41,840 Speaker 1: This is not like dot. 179 00:08:41,720 --> 00:08:44,199 Speaker 2: Com or there was just an overvaluation. This is not 180 00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:47,160 Speaker 2: like nineteen ninety one when we had a fed engineered recession. 181 00:08:47,360 --> 00:08:50,080 Speaker 2: This is something different. The old rules about buying and 182 00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:51,560 Speaker 2: holding must not apply this. 183 00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:53,559 Speaker 5: Yeah, it's funny, you know, I see a lot of 184 00:08:53,600 --> 00:08:55,679 Speaker 5: people get mocked. A lot of the analysts back then, 185 00:08:55,720 --> 00:08:57,560 Speaker 5: where you know, they were changing their estimates and they 186 00:08:57,640 --> 00:08:59,800 Speaker 5: kind of, you know, after the tariffs more or less 187 00:08:59,800 --> 00:09:03,719 Speaker 5: got scrapped, they then you know, up their estimates for 188 00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:06,520 Speaker 5: the year end targets, and in retrospect that looks kind 189 00:09:06,520 --> 00:09:09,280 Speaker 5: of stupid, but in the throes of it, if you remember, 190 00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:11,640 Speaker 5: like they were saying they were going to replace the 191 00:09:11,640 --> 00:09:14,840 Speaker 5: income tax. Yeah, like I'm writing, you know, they're doing 192 00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:16,520 Speaker 5: the math on that, and I'm like, wait a minute, 193 00:09:16,559 --> 00:09:20,720 Speaker 5: that's a two point five trillion dollar corporate or tax increase. 194 00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:23,120 Speaker 4: Like that's a. 195 00:09:22,480 --> 00:09:26,480 Speaker 5: Gigantic number of incredibly frightening number if it's true. And 196 00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:28,880 Speaker 5: then you know, of course the CEOs of Home Depot 197 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:30,679 Speaker 5: and Target and all them walk into the White. 198 00:09:30,480 --> 00:09:32,000 Speaker 4: House and are like, do not do this. 199 00:09:32,559 --> 00:09:35,040 Speaker 5: And so they're still doing the tariffs, and they're still impactful, 200 00:09:35,040 --> 00:09:37,240 Speaker 5: and they're still a corporate tax and whatnot, but they're 201 00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:39,720 Speaker 5: not nearly the size that you know they were going 202 00:09:39,800 --> 00:09:41,480 Speaker 5: to be, you know that they were claiming to be. 203 00:09:41,600 --> 00:09:45,640 Speaker 5: And so that frightening moment where you know, they announced that, 204 00:09:45,880 --> 00:09:48,640 Speaker 5: you know, got quickly scrapped when they were kind of 205 00:09:48,640 --> 00:09:49,600 Speaker 5: reversed course on it. 206 00:09:49,880 --> 00:09:52,079 Speaker 3: I feel like we should note here that we're recording 207 00:09:52,080 --> 00:09:55,320 Speaker 3: on January eighth, and we are expecting the Supreme Court 208 00:09:55,320 --> 00:09:58,360 Speaker 3: to make a decision of the tariffs, so the entire 209 00:09:58,480 --> 00:10:02,120 Speaker 3: game could change again. Now you mentioned the Great Depression, 210 00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:04,120 Speaker 3: and one thing I thought was really interesting in the 211 00:10:04,160 --> 00:10:06,960 Speaker 3: book is you talk about how no one really quite 212 00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:10,280 Speaker 3: knows the origins of the sixty forty portfolio, even though 213 00:10:10,280 --> 00:10:13,960 Speaker 3: it's become fairly standard in finance, but you trace it 214 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:16,679 Speaker 3: back to the Great Depression. So tell us how you 215 00:10:16,720 --> 00:10:17,120 Speaker 3: did that. 216 00:10:17,840 --> 00:10:20,480 Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I don't know if I did do it correctly, 217 00:10:20,559 --> 00:10:23,240 Speaker 5: but it was kind of a guess. But I found 218 00:10:23,280 --> 00:10:26,840 Speaker 5: that so fascinating that sixty forty is arguably the most 219 00:10:26,840 --> 00:10:30,000 Speaker 5: famous portfolio of all the portfolios, and we all probably 220 00:10:30,040 --> 00:10:32,800 Speaker 5: own something that kind of looks like sixty forty at 221 00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:35,560 Speaker 5: some point in our lives and It was actually Corey Hofstein, 222 00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:39,720 Speaker 5: who manages the return Stacking ETFs, that he asked on 223 00:10:39,760 --> 00:10:42,840 Speaker 5: Twitter one day, where did this thing come from? And 224 00:10:42,960 --> 00:10:45,560 Speaker 5: there were hundreds of responses, and none of them. 225 00:10:45,440 --> 00:10:46,199 Speaker 4: Seemed to write. 226 00:10:46,400 --> 00:10:48,360 Speaker 5: And so I just had so happened to be writing 227 00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:49,880 Speaker 5: the book at this time, and I'm writing the chapter 228 00:10:49,920 --> 00:10:52,200 Speaker 5: on sixty forty, and I started digging into it and 229 00:10:52,240 --> 00:10:54,560 Speaker 5: I found the story about this guy named Walter Morgan 230 00:10:54,559 --> 00:10:58,480 Speaker 5: who's running a fund called the Wellington Fund. And Wellington Fund, obviously, 231 00:10:58,679 --> 00:11:02,079 Speaker 5: you know, famous because it turned into a Vanguard fund later, 232 00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:05,000 Speaker 5: is run by John Bogel, who some people may have 233 00:11:05,040 --> 00:11:08,280 Speaker 5: heard of. And he's doing this though in a very 234 00:11:08,360 --> 00:11:11,840 Speaker 5: unusual way back in the depression, where during the Depression, 235 00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:14,520 Speaker 5: equity investing was kind of the dominant. 236 00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:16,280 Speaker 4: Way to actually allocate assets. 237 00:11:15,880 --> 00:11:19,240 Speaker 5: And Morgan had been burned before that, so he goes 238 00:11:19,240 --> 00:11:22,079 Speaker 5: into the Great Depression. He launches the Wellington Fund right 239 00:11:22,120 --> 00:11:25,200 Speaker 5: before the depression, but he does something really unusual. He 240 00:11:25,240 --> 00:11:28,160 Speaker 5: adds a huge chunk of bonds to the portfolio. And 241 00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:30,679 Speaker 5: the thing gets crushed in the depression, but it gets 242 00:11:30,679 --> 00:11:33,840 Speaker 5: crushed way less than everything else got crushed. And so 243 00:11:34,040 --> 00:11:36,640 Speaker 5: then all of these research analysts are starting to look 244 00:11:36,679 --> 00:11:38,839 Speaker 5: at you know, kind of you know, picking through the 245 00:11:38,920 --> 00:11:41,319 Speaker 5: dust of the Great Depression and the returns there, and 246 00:11:41,360 --> 00:11:44,080 Speaker 5: they're noticing that, hey, this fund did really well in 247 00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:48,240 Speaker 5: a relative sense. So Morgan's fund kind of takes off 248 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:50,679 Speaker 5: because of this because the relative performance was so good. 249 00:11:51,040 --> 00:11:54,960 Speaker 5: And then the story is interesting because then Walter Morgan 250 00:11:55,040 --> 00:11:58,560 Speaker 5: hires Don Bogel. Bogel runs the Wellington Fund through the 251 00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:02,240 Speaker 5: fund goes through the World War Two and the boom 252 00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:04,959 Speaker 5: of the nineteen sixties and then the scary inflation of 253 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:07,840 Speaker 5: the nineteen seventies. Bogel actually does something really weird. He 254 00:12:07,880 --> 00:12:10,439 Speaker 5: turns the fund closer into like an eighty twenty fund 255 00:12:10,679 --> 00:12:13,560 Speaker 5: kind of chasing performance and which was sort of like 256 00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:16,959 Speaker 5: antithetical to everything that Bogel ultimately is kind of known for. 257 00:12:17,320 --> 00:12:20,320 Speaker 5: And then we all know the story from there. The 258 00:12:20,440 --> 00:12:23,560 Speaker 5: sixty to forty from nineteen eighty to present day has 259 00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:25,240 Speaker 5: been you know, kind of like one of the best 260 00:12:25,240 --> 00:12:28,080 Speaker 5: performing portfolios ever. So it's you know, through all of 261 00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:32,960 Speaker 5: these trials and tribulations, though this portfolio has done incredibly well, 262 00:12:33,040 --> 00:12:37,040 Speaker 5: and I traced its origin mostly back to the Great 263 00:12:37,080 --> 00:12:39,199 Speaker 5: Depression in the way that Wellington Fund. 264 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:41,960 Speaker 4: Was sort of built as the first real balanced Indeth fund. 265 00:12:57,840 --> 00:12:59,520 Speaker 2: It's actually a zoom out or back up a little 266 00:12:59,520 --> 00:13:02,600 Speaker 2: bit and talked theory because you said that many of 267 00:13:02,679 --> 00:13:06,240 Speaker 2: us or most of us will have some portfolio that 268 00:13:06,440 --> 00:13:08,600 Speaker 2: is sixty forty ish, but that there's gonna be various 269 00:13:08,640 --> 00:13:11,959 Speaker 2: modifications and people are gonna want a slug of real 270 00:13:12,040 --> 00:13:14,280 Speaker 2: estate or commodities whatever. But what are you talking about, 271 00:13:14,280 --> 00:13:18,199 Speaker 2: maybe from the academic perspective, like what is the sixty 272 00:13:18,559 --> 00:13:22,280 Speaker 2: forty portfolio really is? And like what is it theoretically 273 00:13:22,480 --> 00:13:25,760 Speaker 2: achieve that is given it this sort of it's Lindy, 274 00:13:25,920 --> 00:13:29,320 Speaker 2: this sort of enduring effect that it accomplishes goal. Talk 275 00:13:29,360 --> 00:13:31,920 Speaker 2: to us about like why from the perspective of a planner, 276 00:13:32,040 --> 00:13:35,839 Speaker 2: maybe it's not perfect for everyone, but it has certain qualities. 277 00:13:36,360 --> 00:13:38,440 Speaker 2: This is a good portfolio to me. 278 00:13:38,559 --> 00:13:41,040 Speaker 4: The sixty forty is like the good enough portfolio. 279 00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:42,600 Speaker 2: So it just to be just to define it, So 280 00:13:42,679 --> 00:13:46,760 Speaker 2: a sixty forty portfolio means basically sixty percent equities and 281 00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:50,000 Speaker 2: forty percent treasuries exactly, Okay, but talk about why it's 282 00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:51,959 Speaker 2: good enough? What are the properties of it? 283 00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:56,280 Speaker 5: So it's the portfolio of that by owning sixty percent stocks, 284 00:13:56,400 --> 00:13:59,439 Speaker 5: you will you'll do well enough, you'll capture enough of 285 00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:03,480 Speaker 5: an equity market bull market, and also conversely, during a 286 00:14:03,520 --> 00:14:06,080 Speaker 5: bear market, because of the forty percent bond slice, you 287 00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:09,560 Speaker 5: typically will buffer the equity volatility in the portfolio just 288 00:14:09,720 --> 00:14:12,560 Speaker 5: enough that you won't capture all of the downside. And 289 00:14:12,600 --> 00:14:15,400 Speaker 5: so it's it is balanced in this way that it 290 00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:18,400 Speaker 5: doesn't capture all of the upside or all of the downside, 291 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:19,280 Speaker 5: and kind of can help. 292 00:14:19,160 --> 00:14:20,000 Speaker 4: You stay the course. 293 00:14:20,480 --> 00:14:23,800 Speaker 5: I talked specifically in one chapter about something called the 294 00:14:23,840 --> 00:14:28,760 Speaker 5: global financial asset portfolio, and I really like understanding this portfolio, 295 00:14:28,840 --> 00:14:33,040 Speaker 5: especially from like a theoretical perspective, because the most interesting 296 00:14:33,080 --> 00:14:35,320 Speaker 5: thing about it actually is that nobody owns this portfolio 297 00:14:35,680 --> 00:14:39,160 Speaker 5: because it's mostly uninvestable or you can't fully invest it, 298 00:14:39,200 --> 00:14:41,360 Speaker 5: and it's actually, you know, I talked to a lot 299 00:14:41,360 --> 00:14:43,920 Speaker 5: of famous researchers about this topic when I was researching 300 00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:47,240 Speaker 5: the book, and they all kind of concluded that the 301 00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:51,280 Speaker 5: screwiest part about actually quantifying that portfolio is that it's 302 00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:54,320 Speaker 5: actually really controversial how to quantify it because all of 303 00:14:54,360 --> 00:14:58,320 Speaker 5: the assets in that portfolio are not investible. So for instance, 304 00:14:58,360 --> 00:15:02,560 Speaker 5: like China A shares are not necessarily investible for foreign investors, 305 00:15:02,560 --> 00:15:05,360 Speaker 5: and there's lots of assets that are held by you know, 306 00:15:05,400 --> 00:15:08,120 Speaker 5: the Swiss National Bank owns a lot of assets that 307 00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:09,680 Speaker 5: make the assets then uninvestable. 308 00:15:09,800 --> 00:15:11,600 Speaker 4: And so you know, the FED has been buying a 309 00:15:11,640 --> 00:15:12,520 Speaker 4: lot of treasury bonds. 310 00:15:12,520 --> 00:15:14,840 Speaker 5: So technically you could say, you know, what happens to 311 00:15:14,880 --> 00:15:17,920 Speaker 5: the market cap of outstanding bonds when the FED is 312 00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:19,640 Speaker 5: the owner of a lot of these bonds, And you 313 00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:22,800 Speaker 5: can start getting into these sort of very academic theoretical 314 00:15:22,800 --> 00:15:27,000 Speaker 5: debates about well, what is the market portfolio and what's 315 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:31,000 Speaker 5: actually investable versus uninvestable. And it's especially interesting from like 316 00:15:31,040 --> 00:15:32,520 Speaker 5: a theoretical. 317 00:15:32,080 --> 00:15:36,160 Speaker 2: And in theory that portfolio includes like gas stations in Burma. 318 00:15:36,280 --> 00:15:38,480 Speaker 5: Right, yeah, well, god, if you go into all of 319 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:40,840 Speaker 5: the assets, you know, I did financial assets only, so 320 00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:43,600 Speaker 5: I kind of excluded all the non financial. 321 00:15:43,120 --> 00:15:43,920 Speaker 4: Assets so things. 322 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:46,480 Speaker 5: Cause then the whole portfolio kind of turns into a 323 00:15:46,480 --> 00:15:49,760 Speaker 5: real estate portfolio. It's basically everybody's houses is everything that 324 00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:53,360 Speaker 5: we own. But from a financial asset perspective, it was 325 00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:56,080 Speaker 5: really interesting because especially when you look at things like 326 00:15:56,360 --> 00:15:59,080 Speaker 5: the full cap versus the free float, which is basically 327 00:15:59,160 --> 00:16:03,040 Speaker 5: the actual assets, you can invest in versus the portfolio 328 00:16:03,160 --> 00:16:07,080 Speaker 5: that is actually the issuance of outstanding financial assets. These 329 00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:11,280 Speaker 5: portfolios are really different. And like, for instance, in today's environment, 330 00:16:11,440 --> 00:16:16,040 Speaker 5: the outstanding market cap of stocks versus bonds is roughly 331 00:16:16,120 --> 00:16:19,080 Speaker 5: sixty five thirty five. And when you look at the sorry, 332 00:16:19,080 --> 00:16:21,800 Speaker 5: the equity market, when you look at the US versus four, 333 00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:24,080 Speaker 5: and it's sixty five versus thirty five. But when you 334 00:16:24,120 --> 00:16:27,560 Speaker 5: look at the actual issuance, the full cap, it's almost 335 00:16:27,640 --> 00:16:30,760 Speaker 5: the opposite. And so the US is way smaller from 336 00:16:30,760 --> 00:16:35,440 Speaker 5: a full issuance perspective, but from an actual investible perspective, 337 00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:38,000 Speaker 5: the US is you know what we call like this 338 00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:41,840 Speaker 5: extraordinary market, this unusual, huge part of the full market cap, 339 00:16:41,880 --> 00:16:45,960 Speaker 5: and which is weird to think of because when Vanguard 340 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:48,800 Speaker 5: and some of these big index funds create these products, 341 00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:52,120 Speaker 5: they have to issue what is investable. They can't just 342 00:16:52,160 --> 00:16:54,960 Speaker 5: say theoretically, like I sometimes will tell my clients, well, hey, 343 00:16:54,960 --> 00:16:57,440 Speaker 5: if you want to actually own the true market cap 344 00:16:57,480 --> 00:17:00,760 Speaker 5: portfolio or the market issuance portfolio, you should actually be 345 00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:03,520 Speaker 5: closer to like forty percent US. You should be underweight 346 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:06,520 Speaker 5: the US market versus four and in this environment, because 347 00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:10,320 Speaker 5: that actually is representative of the full issues, whereas if 348 00:17:10,359 --> 00:17:12,480 Speaker 5: you're Vanguard and you're running this index and you have 349 00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:15,320 Speaker 5: to buy what has actually been issued, it's almost the 350 00:17:15,359 --> 00:17:18,199 Speaker 5: exact opposite and you real way overweight US. So you 351 00:17:18,240 --> 00:17:21,400 Speaker 5: get into these interesting sort of like theoretical debates about 352 00:17:21,400 --> 00:17:22,240 Speaker 5: how to even do this. 353 00:17:22,320 --> 00:17:24,879 Speaker 3: In the first place, I want to talk more about 354 00:17:24,920 --> 00:17:27,639 Speaker 3: illiquid assets like real estate, because for most people this 355 00:17:27,800 --> 00:17:31,480 Speaker 3: is their biggest investment, right their actual house. But before 356 00:17:31,520 --> 00:17:34,200 Speaker 3: I do, you just reminded me gold. So in the 357 00:17:34,240 --> 00:17:36,280 Speaker 3: book you talk about gold as like one of the 358 00:17:36,359 --> 00:17:39,639 Speaker 3: true uncorrelated assets, but of course over the course of 359 00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:43,120 Speaker 3: last year, it looks like a momentum stock, right, how 360 00:17:43,119 --> 00:17:45,600 Speaker 3: are you judging gold at this moment in time. 361 00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:51,720 Speaker 5: You know, gold and commodities are really hard to compartmentalize 362 00:17:51,720 --> 00:17:54,359 Speaker 5: in the portfolio construction process because I typically think of 363 00:17:54,359 --> 00:17:59,199 Speaker 5: commodities in general as they're just they roughly track inflation 364 00:17:59,440 --> 00:18:02,240 Speaker 5: because they are just cost inputs, and you know corporate 365 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:06,240 Speaker 5: you know costs, and so they should roughly reflect something 366 00:18:06,280 --> 00:18:09,000 Speaker 5: close historically to the rate of inflation, which is pretty 367 00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:10,280 Speaker 5: close to what the data shows. 368 00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:13,200 Speaker 4: Gold is a really screwy. 369 00:18:12,800 --> 00:18:15,960 Speaker 5: One because gold has this whole other element to it 370 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:19,040 Speaker 5: where there's huge swaths of the population that view gold 371 00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:21,840 Speaker 5: as money, even though you know, in a modern monetary system, 372 00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:24,639 Speaker 5: you could argue that gold is actually a pretty terrible 373 00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:27,480 Speaker 5: form of money just because it's impractical to use for 374 00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:30,000 Speaker 5: the most part, it's got this store of value in 375 00:18:30,040 --> 00:18:32,080 Speaker 5: this sort of I refer to it as a faith 376 00:18:32,119 --> 00:18:34,760 Speaker 5: put inside of it where it's price almost gets like 377 00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:39,360 Speaker 5: a premium because it's not just an input and cost inputs. 378 00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:42,000 Speaker 5: It is something that people believe in, that people hold 379 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:44,720 Speaker 5: and people have demand for because it's got this other 380 00:18:44,840 --> 00:18:48,679 Speaker 5: strange use, and so it's weird in the context of 381 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:50,080 Speaker 5: today's environment. 382 00:18:50,160 --> 00:18:51,120 Speaker 4: Another concept I. 383 00:18:51,080 --> 00:18:53,679 Speaker 5: Talk about is I talk a lot about time and 384 00:18:53,760 --> 00:18:56,480 Speaker 5: the book about how important it is to think about 385 00:18:56,520 --> 00:19:00,359 Speaker 5: portfolios and asset performance across time horizons. And you know, 386 00:19:00,400 --> 00:19:03,160 Speaker 5: I do a lot of asset liability matching, and that 387 00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:07,439 Speaker 5: basically entails working with somebody where I'm quantifying liabilities and 388 00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:10,520 Speaker 5: expenses over time horizons and I'm matching assets and not 389 00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:12,679 Speaker 5: just a similar way to like maybe a big pension 390 00:19:12,720 --> 00:19:16,280 Speaker 5: fund would or banks might operate. And that's all about 391 00:19:16,359 --> 00:19:19,200 Speaker 5: understanding time and an asset liability mismatch. 392 00:19:19,240 --> 00:19:21,520 Speaker 4: And if you get that wrong, you end up like 393 00:19:21,600 --> 00:19:22,600 Speaker 4: Silicon Valley. 394 00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:24,560 Speaker 3: Bank, and which you talk about in the book. 395 00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:24,840 Speaker 4: Yeah. 396 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:27,560 Speaker 5: And the interesting thing about even like a retail investor, 397 00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:29,920 Speaker 5: you know, and it took me for, you know, two 398 00:19:29,920 --> 00:19:32,320 Speaker 5: decades working in the business to realize this that the 399 00:19:32,400 --> 00:19:35,080 Speaker 5: better way to go through a risk profiling process is 400 00:19:35,119 --> 00:19:38,280 Speaker 5: not to ask people phony questions about this subjective nature 401 00:19:38,280 --> 00:19:39,960 Speaker 5: of how they feel in a bear market. 402 00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:42,400 Speaker 4: Or something like that. It's figuring out it's solving that. 403 00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:46,000 Speaker 5: Asset liability mismatch, because what happens to an investor when 404 00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:49,560 Speaker 5: they go through a bear market is they're realizing that 405 00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:52,320 Speaker 5: they own too much of I refer to equities as 406 00:19:52,359 --> 00:19:56,640 Speaker 5: long duration instruments. Corporations are very long term entities by design, 407 00:19:56,680 --> 00:20:00,119 Speaker 5: by function. And when someone owns one hundred percent and 408 00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:02,439 Speaker 5: stock portfolio and they go through a big bear market, 409 00:20:02,560 --> 00:20:05,080 Speaker 5: what happens to them is they get scared. They're realizing, 410 00:20:05,320 --> 00:20:07,720 Speaker 5: I don't have enough safe assets to make me feel 411 00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:10,200 Speaker 5: comfortable with this. So if they own the forty percent 412 00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:13,240 Speaker 5: slights like the sixty forty, maybe they feel more comfortable. 413 00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:15,439 Speaker 5: Or if they own you know, there's a whole chapter 414 00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:17,360 Speaker 5: on what I call the t bill and chill portfolio, 415 00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:19,439 Speaker 5: which is like the liquid reserve portfolio. 416 00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:21,480 Speaker 2: You know, I heard a story I don't know if 417 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:23,639 Speaker 2: it's true, speaking of T Bill and Chill. Though I 418 00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:25,600 Speaker 2: don't know if it's true, because I heard the second hand. 419 00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:29,120 Speaker 2: Someone was telling me there's like some famous, like very 420 00:20:29,240 --> 00:20:33,639 Speaker 2: very successful trader like Goldman Sachs. There's like trading commodities, 421 00:20:33,680 --> 00:20:37,160 Speaker 2: pulling down millions and millions of dollars each year, and 422 00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:39,760 Speaker 2: he just like had all his money in T Billy. 423 00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:41,520 Speaker 2: So look, look, I make a ton of money. I 424 00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:44,040 Speaker 2: just like basically want to save it. I don't know 425 00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:46,640 Speaker 2: if that's even true, but I do wonder. So when 426 00:20:46,640 --> 00:20:49,560 Speaker 2: you were talking about alternate ways of assessing risk profile, 427 00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:52,119 Speaker 2: do you think about like try to get a sense 428 00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:56,840 Speaker 2: of the client's income volatility. So like maybe someone who 429 00:20:56,960 --> 00:20:59,080 Speaker 2: you know, a federal judge, who is going to have 430 00:20:59,119 --> 00:21:01,600 Speaker 2: a job for life, et cetera, at a guaranteed pension. 431 00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:04,080 Speaker 2: Maybe they don't make a ton of money, but you 432 00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:06,919 Speaker 2: are very confident that you could predict their income for 433 00:21:06,960 --> 00:21:09,520 Speaker 2: the next fifty years. Maybe we're as somebody who makes 434 00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:12,120 Speaker 2: a lot of money, but they're like a real estate 435 00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:15,440 Speaker 2: developer in Miami, and the odds of those guys going 436 00:21:15,480 --> 00:21:18,720 Speaker 2: broke every ten years is pretty high, et cetera. Talk 437 00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:21,640 Speaker 2: to us about like sort of that role of calculating 438 00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:23,000 Speaker 2: expected in yours. 439 00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:26,040 Speaker 5: It's arguably, I would say, the most important part of 440 00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:28,280 Speaker 5: the whole equation, because one of the things I talk 441 00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:31,400 Speaker 5: about in the book is I frame your human capital 442 00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:35,520 Speaker 5: and your income as a literal fixed income allocation. So 443 00:21:35,560 --> 00:21:37,840 Speaker 5: I almost like to think of your income and your 444 00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:40,439 Speaker 5: job as like a bond allocation. And so in the 445 00:21:40,480 --> 00:21:43,159 Speaker 5: context of like, you know, someone like you're talking about, 446 00:21:43,280 --> 00:21:45,760 Speaker 5: or let's use an even simpler example of someone who's 447 00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:48,000 Speaker 5: you know, twenty five and they make a decent amount 448 00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:51,160 Speaker 5: of money. That person not only has a really long 449 00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:53,960 Speaker 5: time horizon, but if they've got a really stable job, 450 00:21:54,200 --> 00:21:57,200 Speaker 5: they've got this embedded fixed income allocation that maybe they 451 00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:00,679 Speaker 5: don't actually quantify it like that on a folio statement, 452 00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:01,000 Speaker 5: but that. 453 00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:02,800 Speaker 2: Has a net present value there exactly. 454 00:22:03,119 --> 00:22:03,320 Speaker 4: You know. 455 00:22:03,359 --> 00:22:06,679 Speaker 5: So if the really simple example is if you make 456 00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:09,080 Speaker 5: one hundred grand a year in you know, you can 457 00:22:09,119 --> 00:22:11,639 Speaker 5: almost think of that as I've got a million dollar 458 00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:15,160 Speaker 5: bond that earns ten percent a year. And what that does, 459 00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:18,720 Speaker 5: especially if it's a very stable fixed income, it frees 460 00:22:18,800 --> 00:22:20,919 Speaker 5: up a huge amount of behavioral bandwidth for you to 461 00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:23,639 Speaker 5: take other risks. And that's one of the arguments why 462 00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:26,879 Speaker 5: if you're twenty five and you've got, you know, forty 463 00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:29,520 Speaker 5: years to retirement or whatever, and you've got a stable, 464 00:22:29,760 --> 00:22:32,080 Speaker 5: you know, solid income, well you can think of your 465 00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:36,040 Speaker 5: income versus your balance sheet as being super stable, which 466 00:22:36,040 --> 00:22:37,679 Speaker 5: allows you to take a lot of risk with your 467 00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:40,000 Speaker 5: balance sheet that you might not otherwise have. And that's 468 00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:42,639 Speaker 5: another thing I talk a lot about retirement planning in 469 00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:45,640 Speaker 5: the book because the thing that I've seen very front and. 470 00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:48,080 Speaker 4: Center is that when people get close. 471 00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:53,800 Speaker 5: To sixty five, that income issue becomes hugely important because 472 00:22:53,840 --> 00:22:57,680 Speaker 5: people start to realize that, oh crap, that fixed income 473 00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:00,240 Speaker 5: allocation that I've had all these years, it's about to 474 00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:02,879 Speaker 5: just disappear overnight, or it's about to shrink down to 475 00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:05,919 Speaker 5: whatever your Social Security income is or whatever. And so 476 00:23:06,160 --> 00:23:10,119 Speaker 5: people go through this sort of psychological mind trip where 477 00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:13,720 Speaker 5: when they near retirement and then enter retirement, they struggle 478 00:23:13,760 --> 00:23:16,960 Speaker 5: with that, you know, adapting to this big, big change 479 00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:20,520 Speaker 5: in their income because they're realizing that, hey, I don't 480 00:23:20,560 --> 00:23:23,119 Speaker 5: have this fixed income that I could fall back on 481 00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:24,480 Speaker 5: for the last forty years. 482 00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:28,720 Speaker 3: Is investing time horizon more important than macro because in 483 00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:31,719 Speaker 3: the book you do talk about the importance of macro. 484 00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:35,040 Speaker 3: But on the other hand, if people are reacting to 485 00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:38,359 Speaker 3: a changing economy all the time, then that looks a 486 00:23:38,359 --> 00:23:41,240 Speaker 3: lot like what you're not supposed to do, right. 487 00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:46,560 Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, gosh, I generally, in my practice I 488 00:23:46,600 --> 00:23:51,960 Speaker 5: am constantly trying to downplay macro econ and geopolitics and 489 00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:52,560 Speaker 5: things like that. 490 00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:54,119 Speaker 4: I mean, it's funny. You know. 491 00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:56,639 Speaker 5: The reason that I probably even know you guys is 492 00:23:56,680 --> 00:23:59,560 Speaker 5: because I've written so much about macro econ and I'm 493 00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:02,520 Speaker 5: not any economists, but people I think sometimes think of 494 00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:05,320 Speaker 5: me as a macro thinker, in large part because I've 495 00:24:05,359 --> 00:24:09,440 Speaker 5: spent so much of my career fielding bad questions about 496 00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:12,080 Speaker 5: you know, hey, is the US government going bankrupt? Or 497 00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:15,480 Speaker 5: you know, what is going on with China? And I'm 498 00:24:15,480 --> 00:24:18,159 Speaker 5: trying to sort of write about this stuff not because 499 00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:21,960 Speaker 5: it's important in the context of portfolio construction, but because 500 00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:26,560 Speaker 5: it's more so about understanding how these things operate at 501 00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:28,520 Speaker 5: more of a sort of a first principles level, where 502 00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:30,400 Speaker 5: you can look at a bond allocation if you own 503 00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:33,080 Speaker 5: a huge slug of you know, US Treasury bonds, for instance, 504 00:24:33,160 --> 00:24:35,199 Speaker 5: or tea bills. You know, you can look at these 505 00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:37,520 Speaker 5: things when you understand them more mechanically. 506 00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:38,800 Speaker 4: You can look at these things and. 507 00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:42,359 Speaker 5: Say, Okay, well, the odds of the US government actually 508 00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:46,000 Speaker 5: going bankrupt are extraordinarily low because I understand how these 509 00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:48,359 Speaker 5: things function. I understand that the US government is not 510 00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:50,840 Speaker 5: going to run out of money. I understand that, you know, 511 00:24:50,840 --> 00:24:53,880 Speaker 5: maybe bond vigilantes aren't quite as powerful as we've all 512 00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:56,959 Speaker 5: been told. And you can understand these things in the 513 00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,840 Speaker 5: context of owning something so that you're more comfortable with 514 00:25:00,119 --> 00:25:02,400 Speaker 5: what you're doing. And that's actually the hardest part about 515 00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:05,359 Speaker 5: all of this is that it's all very complex, and 516 00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:08,639 Speaker 5: it's all very emotional, and if you don't understand what 517 00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:11,280 Speaker 5: you own, then you won't be comfortable with it and 518 00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:12,280 Speaker 5: you won't stick with it. 519 00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:30,359 Speaker 2: Let's talk about real estate. I bought a house at 520 00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:32,439 Speaker 2: twenty sixteen. I think it's done all right, but then 521 00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:34,560 Speaker 2: sometimes I'm like, man, I really wish I just put 522 00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:37,639 Speaker 2: that all into QQQ or something like that. And then 523 00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:40,159 Speaker 2: the other thing with houses that I think is interesting, 524 00:25:40,240 --> 00:25:43,479 Speaker 2: which is like you could look at maybe I'll say, 525 00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:45,480 Speaker 2: you own a house outright and it's like, oh, it's 526 00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:48,080 Speaker 2: worth a million dollars or something like that, you can't 527 00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:50,080 Speaker 2: really sell it because then you have to buy a house, 528 00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:52,159 Speaker 2: and so it's like I'm not even sure, like I 529 00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:55,119 Speaker 2: got to live somewhere and so I don't know, you 530 00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:57,880 Speaker 2: can't monetize that to the same degree you could, you know, 531 00:25:58,040 --> 00:25:59,639 Speaker 2: sell your stock and buy stuff. 532 00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:00,600 Speaker 4: But talk choice. 533 00:26:00,359 --> 00:26:03,280 Speaker 2: About how one should think. Let's start this, how one 534 00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:07,440 Speaker 2: should think about the role of their home in their polio. 535 00:26:07,880 --> 00:26:10,920 Speaker 5: It's the hardest asset to buy, I think, because it 536 00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:15,280 Speaker 5: is it's an instrument that you want to generate a 537 00:26:15,359 --> 00:26:17,920 Speaker 5: return on. So you want to do like some financial 538 00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:20,800 Speaker 5: analysis on it, and you know, try to Nobody wants 539 00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:23,360 Speaker 5: to buy a house in you know, two thousand and 540 00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:26,320 Speaker 5: seven or something and then see it go down thirty percent. 541 00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:29,520 Speaker 4: But also, your house is where you live. 542 00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:31,880 Speaker 5: It's where you're going to raise your kids, and you're 543 00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:33,719 Speaker 5: going to eat most of your meals, and where you're 544 00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:35,800 Speaker 5: gonna do all the little boring things in life that 545 00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:37,679 Speaker 5: are actually really important to you. And so there's this 546 00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:40,719 Speaker 5: really personal part of it that it makes the to 547 00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:44,080 Speaker 5: some degree, it throws all the financial math out the window. 548 00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:47,760 Speaker 5: But from a basic you know, first of all, going 549 00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:50,240 Speaker 5: back to your twenty sixteen purchase, I would say, you. 550 00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:53,440 Speaker 4: Know, that was unbelievable timing because. 551 00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:56,640 Speaker 2: Oh, thank you, the thank you. 552 00:26:56,640 --> 00:26:59,320 Speaker 5: You could argue that going through COVID, I mean, any 553 00:26:59,359 --> 00:27:02,520 Speaker 5: house that was leveraged, did you have a mortgage? Yeah, yeah, 554 00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:06,080 Speaker 5: So any house that was leveraged was the best inflation hedge, right, 555 00:27:06,520 --> 00:27:10,200 Speaker 5: maybe maybe the best inflation heads trade of the last 556 00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:12,280 Speaker 5: fifty years, you could argue just in terms of just 557 00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:15,040 Speaker 5: providing this stable level of certainty. 558 00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:17,240 Speaker 4: You know, the low mortgage is an inflation hedge. 559 00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:20,359 Speaker 5: The you got fifty percent price appreciation or probably something 560 00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:23,760 Speaker 5: like that. So that's interesting too to think about that 561 00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:25,680 Speaker 5: when you know, kind of going back to the question 562 00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:28,760 Speaker 5: on gold that I didn't fully answer, what happens when an. 563 00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:31,880 Speaker 4: Asset goes up so much in the short term. 564 00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:33,400 Speaker 5: The way I like to think of it, at least 565 00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:36,680 Speaker 5: is that, let's say that housing typically generates a low 566 00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:39,760 Speaker 5: real return, or you know, even historically it hasn't generated 567 00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:41,879 Speaker 5: a real return. The way that I like to think 568 00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:44,200 Speaker 5: about things like that, or environments where you get these 569 00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:46,960 Speaker 5: what I call a price compression, you get a huge 570 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:50,280 Speaker 5: boom in an asset class and it's almost easier to 571 00:27:50,320 --> 00:27:52,399 Speaker 5: think of this in like a fixed income market, where 572 00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:54,720 Speaker 5: like when the bond market goes down, a lot interest 573 00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:57,280 Speaker 5: rates go up, the math completely changes on all. So 574 00:27:57,280 --> 00:27:59,240 Speaker 5: a lot of people these days are saying, like, bonds 575 00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:01,000 Speaker 5: are dead, and I would say, like, no, bonds are 576 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:04,760 Speaker 5: actually probably more attractive because mathematically, from a yield perspective, 577 00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:08,159 Speaker 5: relative to the falling price decline, the future returns are 578 00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:11,199 Speaker 5: much more stable now, much more probable. And so what 579 00:28:11,280 --> 00:28:14,080 Speaker 5: happens in an environment where you get a fifty percent 580 00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:16,520 Speaker 5: increase in real estate or you know, what was gold 581 00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:19,080 Speaker 5: up last year sixty five percent? You know, let's say 582 00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:22,080 Speaker 5: that let's just be generous and say gold is going 583 00:28:22,119 --> 00:28:24,280 Speaker 5: to continue to do eight percent per year for the 584 00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:26,960 Speaker 5: next you know, however many years when you get sixty 585 00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:30,080 Speaker 5: five percent of that return all crunched down into one year, 586 00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:33,760 Speaker 5: I think what happens is you create a higher probability 587 00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:37,080 Speaker 5: of what a financial advisor would call sequence of returns risk, 588 00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:39,880 Speaker 5: which means that the probability that the future returns are 589 00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:43,360 Speaker 5: going to be much more volatile becomes much higher. And 590 00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:46,120 Speaker 5: so that's one thing with real estate is that, like, 591 00:28:46,160 --> 00:28:49,360 Speaker 5: I'm not super optimistic about future real estate prices for 592 00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:52,360 Speaker 5: now because we went through this big boom, it creates 593 00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:55,360 Speaker 5: this price compression and you get lots of returns into 594 00:28:55,400 --> 00:28:58,160 Speaker 5: one year, all crammed up, and that means that the 595 00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:01,520 Speaker 5: likelihood of either sideways or you know, not great returns 596 00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:06,200 Speaker 5: is pretty probable. So you know, going forward, you know, 597 00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:08,840 Speaker 5: I think that it's good to think of your house 598 00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:13,400 Speaker 5: as basically a it's a block of commodities on an 599 00:29:13,440 --> 00:29:16,760 Speaker 5: appreciating piece of land. And you know, the thing that's 600 00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:18,720 Speaker 5: important with real estate is I talk about this a 601 00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:20,320 Speaker 5: lot in the book, that you have to think of 602 00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:23,600 Speaker 5: everything in terms of real real returns, and that means 603 00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:25,080 Speaker 5: you have to back out inflation and you have to 604 00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:27,760 Speaker 5: back out all the other costs. And that's the thing 605 00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:31,120 Speaker 5: that you know. I have probably the worst housing story 606 00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:34,400 Speaker 5: in the world because in twenty seventeen I bought a 607 00:29:34,440 --> 00:29:37,320 Speaker 5: house in California that had a small waterway on it 608 00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:40,400 Speaker 5: and without knowing that, which I should have probably known. 609 00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:43,200 Speaker 5: In the state of California, anything with water on it 610 00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:46,000 Speaker 5: in the state of California is basically the biggest permitting 611 00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:49,560 Speaker 5: nightmare that you could possibly imagine. It gets the EPA involved, 612 00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:51,960 Speaker 5: it gets the Coastal Commission involved, It gets the state 613 00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:54,600 Speaker 5: Department Official Wildlife involved, and all of a sudden you 614 00:29:54,600 --> 00:29:56,880 Speaker 5: get an introspective look at you know, how all these 615 00:29:56,880 --> 00:29:58,320 Speaker 5: government agencies work together. 616 00:29:58,440 --> 00:30:00,479 Speaker 3: And now I'm really curious, what were you try to do. 617 00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:03,560 Speaker 4: We were literally just trying to remodel the house, so 618 00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:04,040 Speaker 4: we bought this. 619 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:05,640 Speaker 3: Old You weren't touching the water at all. 620 00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:08,400 Speaker 5: No, we weren't touching the water at all. And in fact, 621 00:30:08,520 --> 00:30:11,000 Speaker 5: the water is not even I mean San Diego gets 622 00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:13,960 Speaker 5: ten inches of rain a year, so you know, that's 623 00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:17,640 Speaker 5: very very little rain, and so this water away we 624 00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:20,480 Speaker 5: call it is really it only has water in it, 625 00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:23,720 Speaker 5: I mean ten days a year something. 626 00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:26,480 Speaker 4: It's crazy. It's dry. It's not like it's a lagoon 627 00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:26,880 Speaker 4: or something. 628 00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:28,520 Speaker 2: So why is it how you're a libertarian? 629 00:30:28,680 --> 00:30:28,840 Speaker 4: Arc? 630 00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:32,240 Speaker 5: Yeah, Well, it's really funny because my wife is very, 631 00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:34,960 Speaker 5: very liberal, and we were going through the permitting process 632 00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:36,920 Speaker 5: and she was like, these people are. 633 00:30:36,800 --> 00:30:39,600 Speaker 4: Trying to turn me into a libertarian. I get it. 634 00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:41,840 Speaker 3: Oh, Actually, since you've brought up your wife, I got 635 00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:43,480 Speaker 3: to ask. There's a bit in the book where you 636 00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:45,840 Speaker 3: talk about marrying a portfolio, and then you have a 637 00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:49,080 Speaker 3: tiny footnote that says apologies to my wife, and then 638 00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:51,720 Speaker 3: it says, I'm just testing if my wife actually reads this. 639 00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:53,440 Speaker 3: Did she read it? 640 00:30:53,560 --> 00:30:54,120 Speaker 4: She caught it. 641 00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:56,880 Speaker 5: She actually was the first editor of the books, so 642 00:30:56,920 --> 00:30:59,360 Speaker 5: she and she did go through it, and she caught it. 643 00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:01,680 Speaker 5: She didn't just am it all through GPT, which she 644 00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:03,200 Speaker 5: kept trying to convince me to do. 645 00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:05,200 Speaker 4: But no, it's funny. 646 00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:07,760 Speaker 5: There's another footnote about my mother in law there that 647 00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:09,480 Speaker 5: she has not caught yet. 648 00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:12,200 Speaker 3: Oh what's that one? I didn't see that one. 649 00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:14,960 Speaker 5: So she got trapped with us during COVID, and I 650 00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:17,280 Speaker 5: make the joke that I had just had my first 651 00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:21,000 Speaker 5: daughter right after COVID, and you know, the shutdown happens, 652 00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:24,120 Speaker 5: the international travel shutdown happens. She lives in France, so 653 00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:26,440 Speaker 5: she was just happened to be visiting us for the 654 00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:29,320 Speaker 5: baby's arrival, and she gets trapped with us for six months. 655 00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:31,080 Speaker 5: And I'd make this joke about how I was crying 656 00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:33,520 Speaker 5: in the shower every morning, not because. 657 00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:36,280 Speaker 3: Of the baby, screaming into a sock. I think he said, 658 00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:38,520 Speaker 3: just going back to bonds for a second, it is 659 00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:42,840 Speaker 3: true that you know, you see investors behave in exactly 660 00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:45,160 Speaker 3: the opposite way that they should be behaving when it 661 00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:47,160 Speaker 3: comes to bonds. If you like bonds at a two 662 00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:49,880 Speaker 3: percent yield, you should love them at like a seven 663 00:31:49,920 --> 00:31:54,200 Speaker 3: percent yearld. Talk a little bit more about you know, 664 00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:56,320 Speaker 3: what you're talking about just now with gold and real 665 00:31:56,440 --> 00:32:00,600 Speaker 3: estate is a momentum factor, right, and momentum seems to 666 00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:04,680 Speaker 3: have done very very well over the past few years. 667 00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:08,200 Speaker 3: I mean, this is why we say flows before pros, right, 668 00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:11,400 Speaker 3: Can we just follow what everyone else is doing? That 669 00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:14,160 Speaker 3: seems to be the way now, yeah, I. 670 00:32:14,920 --> 00:32:18,400 Speaker 5: Gosh, I mean there's there's momentum. There's the momentum factor 671 00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:21,360 Speaker 5: and the momentum factor. And this is the more academic 672 00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:25,800 Speaker 5: version of your portfolio construction where in the factor investing 673 00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:28,480 Speaker 5: chapter I talk very specifically about you know, it's called 674 00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:32,600 Speaker 5: cross sectional momentum basically, and this is basically picking the 675 00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:35,280 Speaker 5: stocks that have performed well in the past with the 676 00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:37,960 Speaker 5: expectation that they continue to perform well in the future, 677 00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:40,360 Speaker 5: and they weirdly, the data actually shows that that is 678 00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:45,000 Speaker 5: a thing, and so it frustrates people like Gene Fauma 679 00:32:45,080 --> 00:32:48,440 Speaker 5: of the efficient market hypothesis. But it's interesting because in 680 00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:52,800 Speaker 5: the context of today's world, that momentum factor is basically 681 00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:55,840 Speaker 5: just everything tech, everything that's performed the best, and so 682 00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:59,400 Speaker 5: you're which has you know, weirdly continued to work and 683 00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:01,000 Speaker 5: work and work throughout the years, and. 684 00:33:00,960 --> 00:33:03,600 Speaker 3: So you get this like self reinforcing cycle, right. 685 00:33:03,840 --> 00:33:04,120 Speaker 1: Yeah. 686 00:33:04,160 --> 00:33:06,520 Speaker 5: And there's also you know, the one chapter that I 687 00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:09,920 Speaker 5: actually thought was almost even more interesting than the momentum 688 00:33:09,960 --> 00:33:12,520 Speaker 5: one is one that's related, which is called the trend 689 00:33:12,520 --> 00:33:16,120 Speaker 5: following chapter, and that is very different in the sense 690 00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:19,920 Speaker 5: that these guys, these traders are they're not necessarily just 691 00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:22,760 Speaker 5: looking at the past and trying to you know, they're 692 00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:26,280 Speaker 5: not picking stocks necessarily and then extrapolating it into the future. 693 00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:29,280 Speaker 5: These guys are just trying to find trends and they're 694 00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:31,920 Speaker 5: looking maybe they're looking at you know, chart data or whatever, 695 00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:35,400 Speaker 5: and they're it's a go anywhere strategy. So one of 696 00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:38,240 Speaker 5: the most interesting things about this strategy is that it 697 00:33:38,320 --> 00:33:42,880 Speaker 5: is one of the truly fully uncorrelated strategies to everything else, 698 00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:46,400 Speaker 5: and it's had this sort of big resurgence in the 699 00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:49,560 Speaker 5: last It became very popular after the GFC because it 700 00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:53,239 Speaker 5: beat the pants off of everything and was uncorrelated, had 701 00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:56,280 Speaker 5: these huge asymmetric returns, and then went through this period 702 00:33:56,320 --> 00:33:58,320 Speaker 5: of like a ten year lag, and it had kind 703 00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:00,120 Speaker 5: of like what I was referring to earlier, where you 704 00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:02,480 Speaker 5: had this like you had that price compression. The trend 705 00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:05,640 Speaker 5: following things all went up, all these CTA funds go up, 706 00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:07,840 Speaker 5: you know, fifty one hundred percent, and then. 707 00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:10,480 Speaker 4: They all lag and they lagged for a long time. 708 00:34:10,560 --> 00:34:13,640 Speaker 5: And that's the thing about finding uncorrelated assets that that 709 00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:18,360 Speaker 5: sometimes these uncorrelated instruments, they're not like cash flow generating 710 00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:23,120 Speaker 5: instruments like stocks and bonds necessarily, so the trend followers, though, 711 00:34:23,239 --> 00:34:26,120 Speaker 5: they go through this ten year period of lagging, which 712 00:34:26,719 --> 00:34:29,120 Speaker 5: exposes people to all these behavioral biases. 713 00:34:30,600 --> 00:34:34,160 Speaker 3: I remember, CTAs also became a really convenient scapegoat for 714 00:34:34,239 --> 00:34:37,040 Speaker 3: anything that was happening in the market. They were like 715 00:34:37,120 --> 00:34:38,040 Speaker 3: the multistrats. 716 00:34:38,160 --> 00:34:39,520 Speaker 1: Yeah today, right, I. 717 00:34:39,480 --> 00:34:41,719 Speaker 2: Forgot how much we used to talk about Ctyes in 718 00:34:41,719 --> 00:34:44,319 Speaker 2: the early twenty tens. Is an important driver. Actually, can 719 00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:46,600 Speaker 2: we talk a little bit about tech talks for a second, 720 00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:50,520 Speaker 2: because this strikes me is very important and I think 721 00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:53,319 Speaker 2: about this all the time. You know, you see these 722 00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:56,400 Speaker 2: surveys that Bank of America does of fund managers, like 723 00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:58,000 Speaker 2: what's the most crowded trade in the world? 724 00:34:58,200 --> 00:34:58,439 Speaker 3: Tech? 725 00:34:58,800 --> 00:35:01,360 Speaker 2: They've been saying that since like thirteen, you know, and 726 00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:03,600 Speaker 2: it still just performs and all these other there are 727 00:35:03,600 --> 00:35:05,240 Speaker 2: all kinds of other knock on things. 728 00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:05,520 Speaker 4: You know. 729 00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:09,440 Speaker 2: It's like people talk about US versus international exposure, but 730 00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:10,799 Speaker 2: at the end of the day, this is just a 731 00:35:10,800 --> 00:35:12,920 Speaker 2: bet on tech when we're talking about the US and 732 00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:14,880 Speaker 2: the other thing I think about tech a lot is 733 00:35:14,920 --> 00:35:18,680 Speaker 2: that setting aside sort of theories of portfolio construction, these 734 00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:20,759 Speaker 2: companies make gobs of money, and they make more and 735 00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:22,959 Speaker 2: more and more and more each year. 736 00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:23,239 Speaker 4: You know. 737 00:35:23,280 --> 00:35:26,080 Speaker 2: We recently did an episode and Ben Snyder, the top 738 00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:29,200 Speaker 2: equity strategist of Goldman, was on. He's like, well, the 739 00:35:29,200 --> 00:35:31,239 Speaker 2: big tech company is just like thirty three percent of 740 00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:33,600 Speaker 2: S and P five hundred or NAX. And I listen 741 00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:35,520 Speaker 2: to that. I was like, well, that's another sixty seven 742 00:35:35,560 --> 00:35:38,600 Speaker 2: percent of so learnings for them to gobble up. But 743 00:35:38,680 --> 00:35:40,600 Speaker 2: it strikes me that, like, can you just talk like 744 00:35:40,719 --> 00:35:44,000 Speaker 2: it must drive portfolio managers crazy that there's this one 745 00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:47,759 Speaker 2: sector and you know, this is a novelty, right because 746 00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:49,880 Speaker 2: these are big companies that are growing faster than it's 747 00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:53,240 Speaker 2: almost anyone else, which is not the case in many environments. 748 00:35:53,239 --> 00:35:56,200 Speaker 2: When we associate big companies with maturity and slow growth. 749 00:35:56,239 --> 00:35:59,240 Speaker 2: So like, there is this thing going on for years 750 00:35:59,280 --> 00:36:01,400 Speaker 2: and years in US that just sort of feels to 751 00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:04,640 Speaker 2: bust every other strategy. And if you're not overweight tech, 752 00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:05,839 Speaker 2: you're probably underperforming. 753 00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:08,680 Speaker 5: Yeah, and it's really frustrated the hell out of people, 754 00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:12,200 Speaker 5: especially the factor investors who haven't been in the momentum trade, 755 00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:15,520 Speaker 5: who have been more value oriented, or you know, the 756 00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:19,000 Speaker 5: people who know that small has outperformed large in the 757 00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:20,919 Speaker 5: long run, Like it's all been flipped on its head. 758 00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:24,680 Speaker 4: Yeah. So I again going back to the time horizon thing. 759 00:36:24,719 --> 00:36:26,720 Speaker 5: The way that at least I try to think about 760 00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:29,840 Speaker 5: this is tech and growth is really interesting in the 761 00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:32,760 Speaker 5: current environment because in going back to the Nasdaq bubble, 762 00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:34,520 Speaker 5: you can actually, you know a lot of people make 763 00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:35,279 Speaker 5: that corollary. 764 00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:36,279 Speaker 4: And the interesting thing. 765 00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:38,520 Speaker 5: About the Nasdaq bubble is that if you bought the 766 00:36:38,680 --> 00:36:41,000 Speaker 5: very tippy top of the Nasdaq bubble and held on 767 00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:43,440 Speaker 5: to today, you've made like eight percent per year. It 768 00:36:43,520 --> 00:36:45,960 Speaker 5: is great, you've done really, really well, which is crazy, 769 00:36:46,120 --> 00:36:48,600 Speaker 5: but you had this crazy sequence of returns risk because 770 00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:51,640 Speaker 5: especially in real terms, you went through this traumatic, like 771 00:36:51,719 --> 00:36:55,319 Speaker 5: fifteen year downturn over that period. So the interesting thing 772 00:36:55,719 --> 00:36:57,600 Speaker 5: you know compared to then, is that, like you said, 773 00:36:57,920 --> 00:37:01,080 Speaker 5: these entities are completely different. Like every was expecting the 774 00:37:01,080 --> 00:37:03,279 Speaker 5: Internet to be a big thing, and it was, and 775 00:37:03,360 --> 00:37:05,840 Speaker 5: everybody expects AI to be a big thing, and I 776 00:37:05,880 --> 00:37:08,960 Speaker 5: think it will be. But the interesting difference between that 777 00:37:09,080 --> 00:37:12,279 Speaker 5: environment and this environment is that these companies are they 778 00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:16,360 Speaker 5: make more money than any entities have ever in human existence. 779 00:37:16,680 --> 00:37:19,920 Speaker 4: So this is completely different than an analyst. 780 00:37:19,719 --> 00:37:22,520 Speaker 5: But it's crazy and they're growing crazy, crazy fast, so 781 00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:25,319 Speaker 5: it's almost unbelievable. But the thing is kind of going 782 00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:27,840 Speaker 5: back to that whole idea of like price compression and 783 00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:31,080 Speaker 5: thinking about time horizons. The way I think about it 784 00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:34,400 Speaker 5: is that, and I write about this specifically, and probably 785 00:37:34,400 --> 00:37:36,759 Speaker 5: my favorite chapter to write in this book was an 786 00:37:36,760 --> 00:37:39,640 Speaker 5: original strategy that I call the forward cap portfolio. And 787 00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:42,920 Speaker 5: what I did was I took five huge macroeconomic trends 788 00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:45,719 Speaker 5: and I distilled them all down, and I try to 789 00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:48,000 Speaker 5: extrapolate data out into the future. And one of the 790 00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:50,400 Speaker 5: big ones is tech, where I look at something like 791 00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:54,000 Speaker 5: e commerce retail sales and I say, you know, this 792 00:37:54,160 --> 00:37:58,040 Speaker 5: is currently whatever, it is twenty five percent of all 793 00:37:58,200 --> 00:38:01,960 Speaker 5: e commerce retail sales, a percentage of total retail sales, 794 00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:05,239 Speaker 5: it's twenty five percent, and that number, you know, is 795 00:38:05,280 --> 00:38:08,000 Speaker 5: probably going to go to fifty or sixty or seventy 796 00:38:08,040 --> 00:38:09,480 Speaker 5: percent at some point in the future. 797 00:38:09,640 --> 00:38:11,080 Speaker 4: All retail sales will just. 798 00:38:11,040 --> 00:38:13,520 Speaker 5: Turn into e commerce sales at some point, like you said, 799 00:38:13,560 --> 00:38:16,000 Speaker 5: like you know this is there's seventy five percent more 800 00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:17,360 Speaker 5: for e commerce to novel up. 801 00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:18,040 Speaker 1: I believe that. 802 00:38:18,400 --> 00:38:20,840 Speaker 5: And so if you believe that and you want to 803 00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:23,239 Speaker 5: buy technology, well what should you own? Should you own 804 00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:26,480 Speaker 5: the market cap weighting of thirty five percent like it 805 00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:28,239 Speaker 5: is now in the s and P five hundred, or 806 00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:31,360 Speaker 5: should you go to like fifty or sixty percent. And 807 00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:32,959 Speaker 5: the way I kind of frame it in the book 808 00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:35,800 Speaker 5: is it's skating to where the puck maybe is going, 809 00:38:35,880 --> 00:38:38,680 Speaker 5: rather than when you buy a market cap weighted index fund, 810 00:38:38,760 --> 00:38:41,120 Speaker 5: what you're doing is you're basically skating with the puck, 811 00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:43,960 Speaker 5: which is it's a good strategy, it works really well, 812 00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:45,840 Speaker 5: but you're not necessarily trying to skate to where the 813 00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:46,640 Speaker 5: puck is going. 814 00:38:47,239 --> 00:38:49,200 Speaker 4: And so I'm doing a lot of guesswork. 815 00:38:49,239 --> 00:38:52,399 Speaker 5: It's obviously very active, and you know, there's a lot 816 00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:54,520 Speaker 5: of there's a lot of estimates that are involved in 817 00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:56,800 Speaker 5: all of this, But if you think forward, like I 818 00:38:56,800 --> 00:39:00,279 Speaker 5: don't think it's unreasonable to say that in for to 819 00:39:00,320 --> 00:39:03,400 Speaker 5: your fifty years, the market cap of technology in the 820 00:39:03,480 --> 00:39:07,160 Speaker 5: S and P five hundred might be fifty sixty seventy percent. 821 00:39:07,239 --> 00:39:11,000 Speaker 5: Who knows, like everything's probably turning into a tech two years. 822 00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:14,560 Speaker 5: But the tricky part about that is that when, especially 823 00:39:14,560 --> 00:39:18,880 Speaker 5: when valuations are really high. I talk about how valuations 824 00:39:18,960 --> 00:39:22,440 Speaker 5: are the equivalent of high expectations, and when expectations are 825 00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:26,120 Speaker 5: really high, it doesn't take much to disappoint. So your 826 00:39:26,120 --> 00:39:28,920 Speaker 5: margin for error when expectations are really high is just 827 00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:32,200 Speaker 5: really low. So what that does is it causes this 828 00:39:32,239 --> 00:39:35,239 Speaker 5: potential where you have higher sequence of returns risk in 829 00:39:35,280 --> 00:39:37,239 Speaker 5: the short term, where you know, I would say, if 830 00:39:37,280 --> 00:39:39,760 Speaker 5: I'm talking to, you know, a twenty year old who's 831 00:39:39,800 --> 00:39:41,560 Speaker 5: coming out of college, he just got a great job 832 00:39:41,600 --> 00:39:44,000 Speaker 5: on Wall Street or something, I might tell him, well, hey, 833 00:39:44,040 --> 00:39:46,400 Speaker 5: your time horizon is so long and you could be 834 00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:49,000 Speaker 5: so aggressive. You should maybe just go buy a growth 835 00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:51,680 Speaker 5: fund and just you know, lose the password to your 836 00:39:51,680 --> 00:39:54,520 Speaker 5: brokerage account for like forty years, yeah, and open it 837 00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:56,719 Speaker 5: up and you'll probably have done really well. But if 838 00:39:56,719 --> 00:39:59,319 Speaker 5: you look at that thing in five years, it might 839 00:39:59,320 --> 00:40:01,759 Speaker 5: be down fifty percent. You don't know. And so that's 840 00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:03,200 Speaker 5: the way I kind of frame it. And so if 841 00:40:03,239 --> 00:40:06,719 Speaker 5: you're if you're very time sensitive, I would say, you know, 842 00:40:06,800 --> 00:40:10,719 Speaker 5: the retiree who is retiring next year and they're loaded. 843 00:40:10,440 --> 00:40:12,960 Speaker 4: To the gills with Nvidia and Google. 844 00:40:12,560 --> 00:40:15,800 Speaker 5: And Microsoft, that person has a totally different risk exposure 845 00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:17,040 Speaker 5: than that twenty year old does. 846 00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:21,240 Speaker 3: How do you think about the index providers in this equation, 847 00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:24,160 Speaker 3: because you know, there's this perception you put your money 848 00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:27,280 Speaker 3: in an index fund, it's a passive investment, but actually 849 00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:30,760 Speaker 3: it's kind of active because the index provider is making 850 00:40:30,800 --> 00:40:34,000 Speaker 3: decisions about what to do. And I know the index 851 00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:36,319 Speaker 3: providers always say they're just holding up a mirror to 852 00:40:36,360 --> 00:40:39,319 Speaker 3: the market, but you know, some of that seems very 853 00:40:39,360 --> 00:40:41,600 Speaker 3: subjective to me, like whether or not you're going to 854 00:40:41,600 --> 00:40:45,319 Speaker 3: add Chinese bonds into a debt index and things like that. 855 00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:50,680 Speaker 3: Are we just outsourcing our investment decisions to the indexes to. 856 00:40:50,680 --> 00:40:51,560 Speaker 4: A large degree? Yeah. 857 00:40:51,560 --> 00:40:53,799 Speaker 5: I mean I talk about how there is no such 858 00:40:53,840 --> 00:40:56,800 Speaker 5: thing as passive investing a lot more than I should, 859 00:40:57,200 --> 00:40:58,680 Speaker 5: because it annoys a lot of people. 860 00:40:58,960 --> 00:41:00,399 Speaker 4: But there's a lot of people who. 861 00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:04,080 Speaker 5: Demonize passive investing, I think for kind of phony reasons, 862 00:41:04,320 --> 00:41:07,000 Speaker 5: and a big part of that is this fact that 863 00:41:07,480 --> 00:41:09,360 Speaker 5: you know, the reason I talk about and try to 864 00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:12,080 Speaker 5: quantify the global financial Asset portfolio is because I was 865 00:41:12,120 --> 00:41:14,680 Speaker 5: trying to create a benchmark for if we were going 866 00:41:14,760 --> 00:41:18,319 Speaker 5: to define something as passive, as truly passive to me 867 00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:21,440 Speaker 5: is you're buying the full market portfolio. You're not deviating 868 00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:23,959 Speaker 5: at all, You're not making any active decisions at all. 869 00:41:24,280 --> 00:41:27,960 Speaker 5: And so when you quantify the GFAP, you can actually 870 00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:30,480 Speaker 5: create a benchmark there where you understand, Okay, well, this 871 00:41:30,560 --> 00:41:33,320 Speaker 5: is the only if you were truly, fully one hundred 872 00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:35,600 Speaker 5: percent passive, this is the only thing you would own. 873 00:41:35,920 --> 00:41:38,319 Speaker 5: And the funny thing is nobody can buy this thing, 874 00:41:38,360 --> 00:41:40,600 Speaker 5: and nobody does buy this thing because even at a 875 00:41:40,640 --> 00:41:43,400 Speaker 5: stock bond waiting, the stock versus bond waiting right now 876 00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:45,799 Speaker 5: is something like forty five fifty five, so you're you're 877 00:41:45,840 --> 00:41:48,520 Speaker 5: inherently underweight stock. So it's not even that close to 878 00:41:48,600 --> 00:41:52,360 Speaker 5: even like the sixty forty portfolio. And so everybody deviates 879 00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:55,920 Speaker 5: from this, and I write about how that's totally fine. 880 00:41:55,960 --> 00:41:59,080 Speaker 5: There's nothing wrong with deviating. There's nothing wrong with being 881 00:41:59,120 --> 00:42:01,760 Speaker 5: a little bit active. And so even from the indexing 882 00:42:01,800 --> 00:42:03,920 Speaker 5: perspective though, like I laugh at like the you know, 883 00:42:03,920 --> 00:42:05,760 Speaker 5: the way the S and P five hundred is constructed. 884 00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:08,120 Speaker 5: It's a committee of people that are constantly picking and 885 00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:12,280 Speaker 5: choosing which firms to introduce, and it's very methodical, it's 886 00:42:12,480 --> 00:42:15,640 Speaker 5: you know, very data dependent, so it's a very systematic 887 00:42:15,719 --> 00:42:17,319 Speaker 5: sort of process. But at the end of the day, 888 00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:20,400 Speaker 5: they're choosing the five hundred companies that go into that 889 00:42:20,480 --> 00:42:22,520 Speaker 5: index in the first place. And so you know, in 890 00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:24,960 Speaker 5: the context of the global equity market, it's even more 891 00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:28,719 Speaker 5: interesting because they're excluding you know, thousands of other entities 892 00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:32,480 Speaker 5: just you know, by their own volition. So everyone's active, 893 00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:35,200 Speaker 5: and you know, there's very smart ways to be active, 894 00:42:35,200 --> 00:42:35,600 Speaker 5: and there's. 895 00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:38,120 Speaker 4: Very stupid ways to be active. And I would say that, 896 00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:39,480 Speaker 4: you know, a lot of the things. 897 00:42:39,520 --> 00:42:41,719 Speaker 5: The most sort of disconcerting thing that I see going 898 00:42:41,719 --> 00:42:43,520 Speaker 5: on these days is that I see the issuance of 899 00:42:43,520 --> 00:42:46,920 Speaker 5: a lot of strategies, and especially with the rise of crypto, 900 00:42:46,960 --> 00:42:48,640 Speaker 5: there's a lot of things going on that I would 901 00:42:48,680 --> 00:42:52,080 Speaker 5: describe as stupid active where people are more having like 902 00:42:52,120 --> 00:42:55,000 Speaker 5: a gambling mentality approaching all of this than anything else. 903 00:42:55,440 --> 00:42:57,799 Speaker 2: If we had like another hour. Actually, I would love 904 00:42:58,160 --> 00:43:01,920 Speaker 2: to just pick your brain about the investment advisory business, 905 00:43:01,960 --> 00:43:04,600 Speaker 2: like less the portfolio construction, per se, and just how 906 00:43:04,600 --> 00:43:07,560 Speaker 2: this world works, because I have so many questions about that. 907 00:43:07,760 --> 00:43:09,960 Speaker 2: But I've won, and you know, we've seen you. We 908 00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:11,600 Speaker 2: run into every once in a while down at the 909 00:43:11,640 --> 00:43:15,319 Speaker 2: future Proof conference in southern California, you know. Or there's 910 00:43:15,360 --> 00:43:17,080 Speaker 2: a lot of advisors and then there's a lot of 911 00:43:17,160 --> 00:43:19,799 Speaker 2: vendors and they're selling various products, and one of the 912 00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:23,759 Speaker 2: hot things that we know that they're trying to get 913 00:43:23,800 --> 00:43:29,319 Speaker 2: people excited about owning private assets or so various alternatives, 914 00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:34,320 Speaker 2: et cetera, non vanilla things. In your perspective for most 915 00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:38,440 Speaker 2: clients that you see, is there like a compelling reason 916 00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:41,040 Speaker 2: for some of these novel products or for some of 917 00:43:41,120 --> 00:43:45,400 Speaker 2: it to include, like yeah, private credit, private assets, private, 918 00:43:45,520 --> 00:43:49,800 Speaker 2: whatever it is. Do these solve problems for the portfolio manager, 919 00:43:49,960 --> 00:43:54,440 Speaker 2: for the investment advisor that the existing publicly liquid assets 920 00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:55,480 Speaker 2: don't provide. 921 00:43:55,680 --> 00:43:59,440 Speaker 5: Yeah, twenty twenty two messed a lot of people up 922 00:43:59,560 --> 00:44:02,960 Speaker 5: because when stocks and bonds become highly correlated and you 923 00:44:03,040 --> 00:44:05,960 Speaker 5: own that sixty forty portfolio that you know, the bonds 924 00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:08,560 Speaker 5: go down fifteen percent or whatever, and the stocks also 925 00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:10,759 Speaker 5: go down twenty five percent. Well, then you look at 926 00:44:10,800 --> 00:44:12,440 Speaker 5: your portfolio at the end of the year and you say, 927 00:44:12,840 --> 00:44:15,560 Speaker 5: I don't I'm not actually diversified. If you were that retiree, 928 00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:18,239 Speaker 5: then you mentioned Tracy that is retiring that year, you 929 00:44:18,280 --> 00:44:20,840 Speaker 5: feel like you made a bad decision, even though the 930 00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:23,680 Speaker 5: sixty forty portfolio, for the most part, is a pretty 931 00:44:23,719 --> 00:44:24,640 Speaker 5: good portfolio. 932 00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:25,920 Speaker 4: There is an. 933 00:44:25,760 --> 00:44:30,439 Speaker 5: Increasingly compelling argument in that context for things like alternatives. 934 00:44:30,560 --> 00:44:33,920 Speaker 5: I me, personally, I tend to just default towards simple 935 00:44:34,040 --> 00:44:36,480 Speaker 5: is better because I think that this whole process can 936 00:44:36,520 --> 00:44:39,880 Speaker 5: get so complex so quickly that the little things you 937 00:44:39,880 --> 00:44:44,319 Speaker 5: can do to create organization and structure, to simplify it 938 00:44:44,360 --> 00:44:47,439 Speaker 5: as best as possible, is going to result in a 939 00:44:47,480 --> 00:44:49,279 Speaker 5: better process, a better outcome in. 940 00:44:49,239 --> 00:44:49,799 Speaker 4: The long run. 941 00:44:49,880 --> 00:44:52,319 Speaker 5: So you know, little things like I mean, god, I 942 00:44:52,360 --> 00:44:54,400 Speaker 5: woke up ten years ago and I looked at me 943 00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:56,560 Speaker 5: and my wife's financial accounts and I was like, oh 944 00:44:56,560 --> 00:44:59,239 Speaker 5: my god, we've got I've got a an old Merril 945 00:44:59,320 --> 00:45:02,600 Speaker 5: Lynch for one and I've got you've got old Fidelity 946 00:45:02,640 --> 00:45:04,839 Speaker 5: for one k's and you've got you know, a bank 947 00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:05,719 Speaker 5: account over there. 948 00:45:05,880 --> 00:45:07,239 Speaker 4: I have a bank account over here. 949 00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:10,440 Speaker 5: We've got three brokerage accounts at Charles Schwab and you know, 950 00:45:10,480 --> 00:45:13,759 Speaker 5: different custodians, TD Ameritrade or whatever it might be. And 951 00:45:13,800 --> 00:45:15,680 Speaker 5: I was like, this is I can't manage all this. 952 00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:18,800 Speaker 5: I've actually forgotten the password to some of these accounts 953 00:45:18,840 --> 00:45:22,360 Speaker 5: or something. And so collapsing all this down and consolidating 954 00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:25,640 Speaker 5: it and simplifying it and trying to own, you know, 955 00:45:25,719 --> 00:45:28,600 Speaker 5: something that is very very simple. One of the portfolios 956 00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:30,880 Speaker 5: I talk about is the bogo Head three fund portfolio 957 00:45:31,160 --> 00:45:32,920 Speaker 5: in the book. And I think one of the reasons 958 00:45:32,920 --> 00:45:36,400 Speaker 5: that so many people love that and those the followers 959 00:45:36,400 --> 00:45:39,799 Speaker 5: of that portfolio or they're very almost militant about it, 960 00:45:40,120 --> 00:45:43,560 Speaker 5: and I think in part because it is so simple 961 00:45:43,960 --> 00:45:48,960 Speaker 5: that it is. It's just beautifully elegant in its simplicity. 962 00:45:49,280 --> 00:45:52,240 Speaker 4: But then you could get into debates about is it simple? 963 00:45:52,320 --> 00:45:53,560 Speaker 2: What head three? 964 00:45:54,000 --> 00:45:55,120 Speaker 4: It's basically the. 965 00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:58,000 Speaker 5: Bond aggregate and then and you can mix this up, 966 00:45:58,160 --> 00:45:59,880 Speaker 5: you know, in different slices based on your risk of 967 00:46:00,160 --> 00:46:02,160 Speaker 5: but it's three funds. It's a domestic equity fund, a 968 00:46:02,200 --> 00:46:05,320 Speaker 5: foreign equity fund, and a bond aggregate. And these investors 969 00:46:05,320 --> 00:46:07,319 Speaker 5: will buy this and they'll buy it for you know, 970 00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:09,640 Speaker 5: it costs like three basis points or something in total, 971 00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:11,960 Speaker 5: and so it follows like all the sort of like 972 00:46:12,040 --> 00:46:14,319 Speaker 5: Taylor Larimore was the founder of it, and Taylor was 973 00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:16,040 Speaker 5: He's someone I interviewed in the book, and he's not 974 00:46:16,520 --> 00:46:19,960 Speaker 5: He wasn't really in the financial advisory business. But he 975 00:46:20,040 --> 00:46:22,600 Speaker 5: became great friends with Bogel over the years because he 976 00:46:22,680 --> 00:46:25,120 Speaker 5: was just emailing with him. He had actually a funny 977 00:46:25,120 --> 00:46:28,719 Speaker 5: backstory where he comes back from World War Two and 978 00:46:28,960 --> 00:46:30,560 Speaker 5: he fought in the Battle of the Bulge and jumped 979 00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:32,719 Speaker 5: out of airplanes and had all these cool stories about it. 980 00:46:32,800 --> 00:46:35,680 Speaker 5: He comes back and I guess he married like the 981 00:46:35,680 --> 00:46:38,520 Speaker 5: hottest woman in Miami or something, and she was a 982 00:46:38,560 --> 00:46:42,200 Speaker 5: model and she's making crazy, crazy amounts of money modeling. 983 00:46:42,440 --> 00:46:44,440 Speaker 5: And so he comes into all this money and he 984 00:46:44,480 --> 00:46:46,160 Speaker 5: doesn't know what to do with it, and he hires 985 00:46:46,200 --> 00:46:50,640 Speaker 5: a financial advisor who hoses him and he starts emailing 986 00:46:50,719 --> 00:46:54,200 Speaker 5: John Bogel, and Bogel then starts telling him like, nah, 987 00:46:54,239 --> 00:46:56,280 Speaker 5: you should be doing this, this, and this. They become great, 988 00:46:56,320 --> 00:47:00,239 Speaker 5: great friends. Bogel ultimately crowns him the King of the 989 00:47:00,239 --> 00:47:02,960 Speaker 5: Bogel Heads later in love and so he's kind of 990 00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:05,279 Speaker 5: like the most famous of all the Bogel heads now, 991 00:47:05,600 --> 00:47:09,200 Speaker 5: and but he distilled all of Bogel's thought processes down 992 00:47:09,239 --> 00:47:12,920 Speaker 5: into like the simplest of all possible portfolios, which is 993 00:47:13,000 --> 00:47:16,960 Speaker 5: this famous three fund portfolio. But it's arguably I am 994 00:47:17,040 --> 00:47:19,960 Speaker 5: minorly critical of it, because I would say that to 995 00:47:20,040 --> 00:47:22,800 Speaker 5: some degree, there is such a thing as too simple. 996 00:47:22,840 --> 00:47:25,279 Speaker 5: Also where for instance, like if you own the three 997 00:47:25,320 --> 00:47:28,480 Speaker 5: fund portfolio in twenty twenty two, you probably wish you 998 00:47:28,560 --> 00:47:31,279 Speaker 5: owned some of the t Bill and Chill portfolio, or 999 00:47:31,320 --> 00:47:34,640 Speaker 5: maybe you wish you owned, you know, something completely uncorrelated, 1000 00:47:34,680 --> 00:47:37,359 Speaker 5: like the trend following portfolio, or something you know. 1001 00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:38,359 Speaker 4: That added a little bit. 1002 00:47:38,280 --> 00:47:41,279 Speaker 5: Of diversification that kept you, you know, helped you stay 1003 00:47:41,360 --> 00:47:41,719 Speaker 5: the course. 1004 00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:42,840 Speaker 4: As Bogel would say. 1005 00:47:43,120 --> 00:47:47,000 Speaker 3: I've really enjoyed the Warren Buffett portfolio chapter in part 1006 00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:50,839 Speaker 3: because it demonstrates how people get decision paralysis around all 1007 00:47:50,880 --> 00:47:53,600 Speaker 3: of this. So even if you're trying to replicate Warren 1008 00:47:53,640 --> 00:47:57,560 Speaker 3: Buffett's investment style, you come up with three different ways 1009 00:47:57,600 --> 00:47:59,920 Speaker 3: to do it right, So it just seems like an 1010 00:48:00,080 --> 00:48:02,880 Speaker 3: infinite way to invest. But the thing I want to 1011 00:48:02,880 --> 00:48:04,920 Speaker 3: ask you is you also say that you wrote to 1012 00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:07,680 Speaker 3: Warren Buffett and you actually got a response. What did 1013 00:48:07,680 --> 00:48:10,480 Speaker 3: he say? This was like before you wrote the book 1014 00:48:10,520 --> 00:48:11,600 Speaker 3: early in your Oh, this was. 1015 00:48:11,640 --> 00:48:14,520 Speaker 5: In my early twenties when I was too poor to 1016 00:48:14,600 --> 00:48:17,759 Speaker 5: own a share of Berkshire. So in order to go 1017 00:48:17,800 --> 00:48:20,080 Speaker 5: to the shareholder meeting, you had to be a shareholder, 1018 00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:22,400 Speaker 5: and I was too poor to own a share of 1019 00:48:22,480 --> 00:48:23,279 Speaker 5: Berkshire back then. 1020 00:48:23,360 --> 00:48:25,640 Speaker 4: So I wrote him a letter and I. 1021 00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:29,280 Speaker 5: Said, hey, could I come to the conference even though 1022 00:48:29,400 --> 00:48:31,680 Speaker 5: I'm this poor schmuck who can't even. 1023 00:48:31,560 --> 00:48:32,680 Speaker 4: Afford to buy your shares? 1024 00:48:33,120 --> 00:48:36,719 Speaker 5: And I get a typewritten letter on it comes in 1025 00:48:36,840 --> 00:48:40,400 Speaker 5: like a you know, probably a five by six little 1026 00:48:40,520 --> 00:48:44,720 Speaker 5: piece of paper and it's typewritten and it was from 1027 00:48:44,760 --> 00:48:46,439 Speaker 5: his assistant on behalf of him. 1028 00:48:46,560 --> 00:48:48,720 Speaker 4: But he wrote and invited. 1029 00:48:48,280 --> 00:48:49,480 Speaker 2: Me, and that's really cool. 1030 00:48:49,800 --> 00:48:50,360 Speaker 4: It was awesome. 1031 00:48:50,400 --> 00:48:53,120 Speaker 5: I had a family event I ended up not going, 1032 00:48:53,440 --> 00:48:54,480 Speaker 5: which was have you ever been? 1033 00:48:54,800 --> 00:48:56,840 Speaker 4: I've never been so terrible decision. 1034 00:48:56,920 --> 00:49:00,600 Speaker 2: But I went once and it was a fantastic experience. 1035 00:49:00,920 --> 00:49:04,320 Speaker 3: It was extremely cool. Yeah, we should do an all thoughts. 1036 00:49:04,960 --> 00:49:05,560 Speaker 1: Well he's done. 1037 00:49:06,320 --> 00:49:08,359 Speaker 2: Yeah, there's not gonna be I mean, I guess there'll 1038 00:49:08,360 --> 00:49:09,879 Speaker 2: probably still be one, but it's not gonna be the same. 1039 00:49:10,120 --> 00:49:10,920 Speaker 4: You guys, should definitely do. 1040 00:49:11,680 --> 00:49:15,640 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, can you introduce us since your corresponding? 1041 00:49:15,800 --> 00:49:18,000 Speaker 4: Remember is that do you have a typewriter? 1042 00:49:18,719 --> 00:49:19,920 Speaker 3: No, but I can find. 1043 00:49:19,719 --> 00:49:23,720 Speaker 2: One, Colin Roche really fun. Thanks for coming in studio, 1044 00:49:23,840 --> 00:49:26,040 Speaker 2: Congrats on the new book. Let's stay in touch and 1045 00:49:26,360 --> 00:49:27,280 Speaker 2: really enjoyed chatting. 1046 00:49:27,440 --> 00:49:30,040 Speaker 4: Thanks for Talking's absolutely. 1047 00:49:42,040 --> 00:49:43,960 Speaker 2: That was a lot of fun, Tracy. Have you ever 1048 00:49:44,160 --> 00:49:46,520 Speaker 2: have you heard of the fintech startup Acorn. 1049 00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:50,640 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the one where you like invest tiny bits 1050 00:49:50,800 --> 00:49:52,720 Speaker 3: of like years a change. 1051 00:49:52,800 --> 00:49:56,680 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so years ago, like I think I actually 1052 00:49:56,760 --> 00:49:58,520 Speaker 2: probably about ten years ago or nine years ago or 1053 00:49:58,560 --> 00:49:59,840 Speaker 2: something like that. I read about it. I was like, 1054 00:49:59,840 --> 00:50:01,440 Speaker 2: I it was like curious how it worked. So I 1055 00:50:01,480 --> 00:50:04,120 Speaker 2: like fignd it for an account and it takes this 1056 00:50:04,280 --> 00:50:08,000 Speaker 2: like small amount and also the app at least I'm 1057 00:50:08,040 --> 00:50:09,960 Speaker 2: not trying to slag them. It doesn't work very well 1058 00:50:09,960 --> 00:50:12,920 Speaker 2: and my password is always getting reseat. But every like 1059 00:50:13,480 --> 00:50:16,160 Speaker 2: year and a half, I remember that exists. That has 1060 00:50:16,239 --> 00:50:20,200 Speaker 2: outperformed every other investment because it's like the one thing 1061 00:50:20,239 --> 00:50:24,080 Speaker 2: that I've lost my password to and I can't access them. Seriously, Yeah, 1062 00:50:24,080 --> 00:50:24,680 Speaker 2: it's done great. 1063 00:50:24,880 --> 00:50:26,080 Speaker 3: What did you actually invest in? 1064 00:50:26,400 --> 00:50:29,400 Speaker 2: Just yeah, it's like their growth whatever, their growth fund 1065 00:50:29,480 --> 00:50:32,000 Speaker 2: is it's not very much, but God, like that one 1066 00:50:32,040 --> 00:50:33,720 Speaker 2: thing where it's just like the one I think about 1067 00:50:33,719 --> 00:50:35,799 Speaker 2: and look at absolutely the least because I could never 1068 00:50:35,920 --> 00:50:37,800 Speaker 2: open the app and everyone in a while I go 1069 00:50:37,880 --> 00:50:41,360 Speaker 2: through the effort to reset the password. It's done very well. 1070 00:50:41,560 --> 00:50:43,840 Speaker 3: But this is like, this is the entire irony. 1071 00:50:43,960 --> 00:50:44,080 Speaker 1: Right. 1072 00:50:44,120 --> 00:50:46,680 Speaker 3: We talk about how there's no such thing as passive investing, 1073 00:50:46,840 --> 00:50:49,239 Speaker 3: but actually if you just forget the password to your 1074 00:50:49,239 --> 00:50:51,440 Speaker 3: account and never look at it, you tend to out 1075 00:50:51,560 --> 00:50:52,120 Speaker 3: come close. 1076 00:50:52,360 --> 00:50:55,279 Speaker 2: Yeah, I really I just find this to be such 1077 00:50:55,320 --> 00:50:57,719 Speaker 2: a fascinating topic. It does feel like again, it feels 1078 00:50:57,719 --> 00:51:00,360 Speaker 2: a little un sexy because people are so in interested 1079 00:51:00,360 --> 00:51:02,879 Speaker 2: in the incredible amounts of money that people have made 1080 00:51:02,880 --> 00:51:06,920 Speaker 2: in crypto and AI, et cetera. But like the puzzle 1081 00:51:07,600 --> 00:51:10,120 Speaker 2: of like putting it all together and how you find 1082 00:51:10,160 --> 00:51:13,799 Speaker 2: assets that make money across cycles but are sufficiently uncorrelated, 1083 00:51:13,800 --> 00:51:16,640 Speaker 2: et cetera. It's like an interesting intellectual exercise, right. 1084 00:51:16,680 --> 00:51:19,360 Speaker 3: And you also have this entire industry that's built on 1085 00:51:19,400 --> 00:51:22,880 Speaker 3: the promise of outperformance. Yeah, mostly, and it feels really 1086 00:51:22,920 --> 00:51:29,040 Speaker 3: difficult to resist. I guess the mostly masculine urge to outperform. 1087 00:51:29,440 --> 00:51:31,960 Speaker 2: I liked your question in the beginning because it's something 1088 00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:35,320 Speaker 2: I've always thought of, like about actually assessing risk profile, 1089 00:51:35,440 --> 00:51:38,799 Speaker 2: because as Colin put it, everyone knows the right answer. Oh, 1090 00:51:38,840 --> 00:51:41,279 Speaker 2: I'd buy and hold, But I just I've always been 1091 00:51:41,320 --> 00:51:45,080 Speaker 2: skeptical that anyone is a good judge of their own 1092 00:51:45,160 --> 00:51:47,600 Speaker 2: risk profile. So to hear them talk about now, let's 1093 00:51:47,640 --> 00:51:49,200 Speaker 2: not talk about it like that. Let's math that out. 1094 00:51:49,239 --> 00:51:52,720 Speaker 2: Let's talk about asset liabilities. Let's talk about the predictability 1095 00:51:52,760 --> 00:51:55,560 Speaker 2: of your income stream. How that is a de facto 1096 00:51:55,600 --> 00:51:58,319 Speaker 2: fixed income asset strikes me as a much more sort 1097 00:51:58,320 --> 00:52:00,520 Speaker 2: of sound way to think about it than to sort 1098 00:52:00,560 --> 00:52:03,960 Speaker 2: of try to imagine how you're going to behave the 1099 00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:05,000 Speaker 2: next time a pandemic. 1100 00:52:05,000 --> 00:52:06,640 Speaker 3: Well, it also gets back to what we were talking 1101 00:52:06,640 --> 00:52:09,160 Speaker 3: about in the intro, right, which is you can say 1102 00:52:09,320 --> 00:52:11,480 Speaker 3: I'm gonna buy the dip if there's a forty percent 1103 00:52:11,560 --> 00:52:14,479 Speaker 3: draw down, but chances are a forty percent draw down 1104 00:52:14,560 --> 00:52:17,359 Speaker 3: is happening in a very bad economy. Ye, my master job, 1105 00:52:17,400 --> 00:52:19,880 Speaker 3: I may not have that much to actually buy stuff with. No. 1106 00:52:20,080 --> 00:52:22,799 Speaker 2: Like March twenty twenty, it felt like the world was ending. 1107 00:52:22,800 --> 00:52:23,560 Speaker 1: Who wants to buy it? 1108 00:52:23,600 --> 00:52:23,719 Speaker 3: Like? 1109 00:52:24,000 --> 00:52:24,600 Speaker 4: The is it? 1110 00:52:24,719 --> 00:52:27,520 Speaker 2: Colin used the word rational, which is I think exactly right, 1111 00:52:27,560 --> 00:52:30,440 Speaker 2: Like it feels rational all the time. Everyone should be 1112 00:52:30,440 --> 00:52:33,560 Speaker 2: a selling at this time. It's very hard, very hard 1113 00:52:33,600 --> 00:52:36,400 Speaker 2: to actually adhere to like simple rules. 1114 00:52:36,520 --> 00:52:38,520 Speaker 3: Yeah, shall we leave it there, Let's leave it there, 1115 00:52:38,600 --> 00:52:40,680 Speaker 3: all right. This has been another episode of the aud 1116 00:52:40,719 --> 00:52:43,680 Speaker 3: Thoughts podcast. I'm Tracy Alloway. You can follow me at 1117 00:52:43,760 --> 00:52:44,600 Speaker 3: Tracy Alloway. 1118 00:52:44,880 --> 00:52:47,680 Speaker 2: I'm Joe Wisenthal. You can follow me at the Stalwart. 1119 00:52:47,760 --> 00:52:50,600 Speaker 2: Follow our guest Colin Roche. He's at Colin Roche and 1120 00:52:50,600 --> 00:52:53,839 Speaker 2: of course check out his new book, Your Perfect Portfolio. 1121 00:52:54,200 --> 00:52:57,319 Speaker 2: Follow our producers Kerman Rodriguez at Kerman Armann, dash Ol 1122 00:52:57,320 --> 00:53:00,359 Speaker 2: Bennett at Dashbot and kel Brooks at Keil Brooks. From 1123 00:53:00,360 --> 00:53:03,120 Speaker 2: our Oddlaws content, go to Bloomberg dot com slash odd 1124 00:53:03,160 --> 00:53:05,920 Speaker 2: lots we're the daily newsletter and all of our episodes 1125 00:53:06,080 --> 00:53:08,200 Speaker 2: and you can chat about all of these topics twenty 1126 00:53:08,239 --> 00:53:11,880 Speaker 2: four to seven in our discord Discord dot gg slash 1127 00:53:11,880 --> 00:53:12,600 Speaker 2: odd lots. 1128 00:53:12,719 --> 00:53:15,200 Speaker 3: And if you enjoyed this conversation, if you like it 1129 00:53:15,239 --> 00:53:18,399 Speaker 3: when we talk about building your perfect portfolio, then please 1130 00:53:18,480 --> 00:53:21,759 Speaker 3: leave us a positive review on your favorite podcast platform. 1131 00:53:22,040 --> 00:53:24,839 Speaker 3: And remember, if you are a Bloomberg subscriber, you can 1132 00:53:24,920 --> 00:53:28,399 Speaker 3: listen to all of our episodes absolutely ad free. 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