In a recent article in the New York Times Jeff Sommer shares how professional stock pickers are doing.

“Each year, some investors manage to do it (beat the market), of course, but can they do it consistently? A new study of actively managed mutual funds by S&P Dow Jones Indices asked that question and came up with a startling result. It found that not a single mutual fund — not one — managed to beat its benchmark in either the U.S. stock or bond markets regularly and convincingly over the last five years.“

There are roughly 200,000 advisors in the US. How does an investor choose one?

David Booth, the founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors, says, “trust the advisor who trusts the market.”

See his memo here.

Howard Marks is a very successful writer, speaker, thinker, and money manager.  He is Co-Chair of Oaktree; you can read his impressive bio here.

We think you need to hear this clip because it is one of the better examples of all time, in our humble opinion, illustrating why taking the long view is likely the winning approach.

There is no need to swing for the fences to be a successful investor. It’s actually the opposite.

Enjoy this classic clip from Howard Marks’ interview with Barry Ritholtz on Bloomberg’s Masters In Business from 2019.

*If you want the full interview, you can find it here.