Ben Carlson recently highlighted an uncomfortable truth: over the past five years, bonds have experienced one of their worst stretches in history. Yet, almost no one is screaming about it. Why aren’t investors sounding the alarm? What really pushed me to dig into this wasn’t just Ben’s post though, but Read more
I’ve never been fully sold on inflation-linked bonds. Historically, traditional bonds have delivered real, positive returns over time. And that makes sense: if investors are going to lock in nominal yields for years, they should demand a decent risk premium for doing so. So if regular bonds already compensate for Read more
In April 2022, I introduced on this blog The Italian Leather Sofa Model Portfolio. As a reminder, here is the portfolio composition: The idea behind the portfolio is stolen from here. The link offers the best explanation of what I think is the most common question related to it, i.e. why Read more
Last week the Swiss National Bank pushed the policy rate back to 0%, a 25‑basis‑point cut that nudged sight‑deposit rates down to a whopping -0.05%. After nearly two years of gentle cuts, we’re tiptoeing once again along the edge of Negative‑Rate Valley. Remember all the folks who swore we’d never revisit Read more
Last Friday, my family and I went out for Japanese food. Nothing fancy — okonomiyaki (what I call the Japanese vomit) sashimi in a bowl, the usual joy of trying to keep kids from knocking over soy sauce bottles. On the way home, we walked through a park and somehow Read more
I came across @Goodalexander on Twitter about a year ago. I still have no idea what he does for a living, but every now and then he drops something—could be a long thread, a short post, even a video—that makes me stop and think. I don’t always agree with his Read more
This interview on the Get Stacked Investment Podcast is one of the most interesting I’ve stumbled upon in a long time. Not because the topics discussed are novel. But because the guest is an Europoor like us! Rafael Ortega is a Spanish chap who got the “efficient, diversified portfolio” bug, Read more
When I first saw Nick Maggiulli’s post titled “You Cannot Put a Price on Mental Freedom”, I assumed he was talking about FIRE. You know, the dream of waking up on a Tuesday and deciding to go for a long walk, read a book, or do absolutely nothing. The kind Read more
Most people invest the bulk of their money later in life, when they’re earning enough to put serious cash away. But that creates a big problem: your retirement outcome ends up hinging on market performance in just a narrow window—basically, when you’re in your 50s and 60s. This is one Read more
I first read Flash Boys by Michael Lewis on warm summer evenings by Lake Geneva, back when I was single, kid-free, and had the time to think deeply about things like latency arbitrage and fragmented liquidity. Simpler times. I remember being fascinated by the rise of high-frequency traders (HFTs). They Read more