December 12, 2014 By Steve Blumenthal "That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.” Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894-1963) Put me down as a long-time Philadelphia Eagles fan. But let's just say I'm on the good [...]Read More >

March 28, 2014 By Steve Blumenthal “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”  Winston Churchill. Last night I had the absolute pleasure of seeing NY Times columnist Adam Bryant, speak at my stepson’s school.  Bryant [...]Read More >

February 14, 2014 By Steve Blumenthal “The investor’s chief problem – and even his worst enemy – is likely to be himself.” - Benjamin Graham   Just what are tactical investment strategies and where might they fit into your clients’ portfolios? A few months ago, I was on Bloomberg [...]Read More >

December 20, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal “People who habitually purchase common stocks at more than about 20 times their average earnings are likely to lose considerable money in the long run.”  Ben Graham and David Dodd in their 1940 book Security Analysis: Principles and Techniques In [...]Read More >

By Steve Blumenthal November 1, 2013 When you were a kid and you and your friends would line up for a race, someone would shout, “on your mark, get set, go!”  Oh, how we all positioned to win. Flashback to April 2011.  My cell phone rang – it was John Mauldin.  “Are you sitting down?” he [...]Read More >

September 27, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal I’m in NYC this week for meetings and a few media interviews.  I met with Gregg Greenberg at TheStreet.com this morning and tried my best to explain why Emerging Market portfolio exposure remains important (which is tough to do in 3 minutes).  Later today, [...]Read More >

August 23, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal An advisor client called the other day and wanted to talk about investor behavior.  Broadly diversified portfolios will always underperform the top performing asset classes at any given time.  He wanted to know how I might advise a client who is comparing his [...]Read More >

July 12, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal Stonewall Golf Club – hole 18   Stonewalled – What’s the average investor do? We walked off the 18th green and Chuck, my good friend and long-time caddie, says, “Steve, can I ask you a question about my wife’s 401k? What should I do?”  I sensed the [...]Read More >

August 16, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal Bright Future “Dad, though this card is small, it was the only message that I could find that even came close to how I’ve felt about this summer.  Thank you – for this entire summer.  Thank you for encouraging me to do something I didn’t think I was able to [...]Read More >

May 2, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal The taxi pulled up to the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California and the driver said, “You know, this was the hotel they used in the movie "Pretty Woman" ”.  Richard Gere was the wealthy Private Equity guy and Julia Roberts was the pretty woman.  Gere [...]Read More >

March 8, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal What a market - up over 8% in 2013 in just 9 weeks!  “Switch my investments – get me in,” says the client.  It is the annual dance; rebalancing out of underperforming assets and into outperforming assets.  Disciplined removed, memory gone as emotion rules [...]Read More >

February 1, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal The Race to Debase “I think they can pull it off”, he says.  “Pull what off”,  I ask?  “The Fed, you know, the printing of all this new money to bail us out of our debt mess.  I think it just might work.”  I cringe and quietly think my friend has drunk too [...]Read More >

The Portfolio Construction Game Plan for 2013 Before we begin, I must caution you – this Viewpoint is a long one.  It has to be.  There is significant trouble ahead and it can be managed. So print this out, get a cup of coffee and read.  Afterward, please send me your questions and share your [...]Read More >