Anthony Isola

The Dumbest Idea In The World

Maximizing shareholder value may be the dumbest financial and social concept ever created. According to conventional wisdom (which rarely is either conventional or wisdom) guiding a company for the sole benefit of its shareholders, rather than stakeholders, will maximize shareholder return and societal contribution.  Wrong! There are many reasons why time has proven this theory…

How “Reasonable Compensation” May Turn Out to Be Very Unreasonable

New fiduciary regulations designed to decrease investment costs might end up doing the opposite, in spite of its good intentions.  The law of unintended consequences has a tendency to show up in places one would least expect.  This time may be no different. The Department of Labor (“DOL”) has demanded Broker-Dealers follow “reasonable compensation” requirements…

The Art Is Not in Making Money, But in Keeping It

Jesse Livermore, the so called “Boy Plunger” and probably the greatest Wall Street Trader who ever lived, died $340,000 in debt. Many look at his life to learn the secrets of his often extraordinary trading success. A better track for financial prosperity is to study and learn from mistakes he committed in his personal life….

Some Investors Would Be Better Off Being Outsourced

Physicians and investors should focus like a laser on this credo, “First do no harm.” Few words of advice are more appropriate when making a decision to choose a financial advisor. This may mean having to choose an anonymous call center employee over a personal investment advisor. In some cases, this decision will at least…

Who Knows? Not Me.

The three most important words for an investor are I don’t know. These words will make one a pariah during typical hyperbolic cocktail party chatter. In the long run, this ego-deflating and lonely admission will save you a boat load of money. Most investors make money because of the things they decided not to do;…

The Financial Basket Of Deplorables

“To be a gross generalist, you can put more than half of investment products into what I call the basket of deplorables: overpriced, non-transparent, extremely conflicted, you name it. Unfortunately, there are people out there who believe the false stories sold to them.” This is my “financial product” version of Hilary Clinton’s uncomplimentary description of…

A Gangsta’s Paradise X 3

  Everything you do in life teaches you a lesson if you let it. Working for Lehman, U.B.S. and J.P. Morgan taught me what I did not want to do. Teaching in an impoverished middle school taught me what I did. With a lot of luck, I have been able to combine these two very…

Teaching, Women Investors, Bad Retirement Plans, and 80s Punk

  Recently, my wife and I had the pleasure of speaking with Dan Otter and Scott Dauenhauer of 403(b)Wise.com  fame.  If you read me regularly, you know that I have the utmost respect for them as they have been tireless in their efforts to educate educators and other non-profit sector employees about the perilous, shark-infested…

The Curse Of Fragile Perfection

Having a trauma free life can be bad for your health.  Too many people are experts at success, but amateurs at failure. This trait can be deadly for an investor. On any given day, it is no more than a flip-of-a-coin probability that a positive market close will result. Markets tend to fall in one…

Two Simple Financial Ideas That Saved A Nation

“No problem can be solved until it is reduced to a simple form.” – J.P. Morgan J.P. Morgan believed in making simplicity paramount when tackling complex financial issues, and so should you. Let’s take a trip back in time to the “good old days” of 1907: An era when women couldn’t vote; public lynching was…