The investing world recently lost one of its quiet pioneers, Mac McQuown. While his name may not be widely recognized outside our industry, his influence runs deep. A trailblazer in modern investing, Mac’s visionary contributions laid the groundwork for the strategies many investors benefit from today. As David Booth, Co-Founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors, aptly noted, Mac was a true transformer in the field. [Click the quote to read Dimensional’s tribute.]

To bring about fundamental change, you need great thinkers and researchers, but you also need implementers. People like Mac don’t win Nobel Prizes; they implement the ideas of the guys who do. He’s a catalyst.

“Catalyst” is the keyword. There are so many useful nuggets in the attached article in the Financial Times that you’ll be better off reading it. In a short space, you will learn the history of evidence-based investing, the first index fund (Mac’s creation), the birth of many future Nobel Laureates, and their impressive connection to Dimensional, Blackrock, and other global finance leaders.

If you want to know and understand the recipe you’re investing in when investing with Hill, this is one of the better shortcuts to taking the long view you’ll ever read.

The Bloomberg podcast Odd Lots recently featured Dimensional Co-CEO and CIO Gerard O’Reilly as a guest. Hosts Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway joined him at Dimensional’s Austin headquarters to discuss his views on market efficiency and where he sees the fund management industry going.

We especially like the segment from around minute 3:40 to minute 20. Enjoy!

Listen to the full episode here.

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.