What is causing the market volatility? 

Following a remarkable rise in stock prices up until February 19, the rapid spread of a new coronavirus strain (Covid-19) suddenly threatened to disrupt the production of goods and services and to push the world into a recession....

Nobody’s 2020 forecast included the coronavirus outbreak.

In his hit television show of the early 2000s, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen posed as the dimwitted “hip-hop journalist” Ali G.  He landed interviews with prominent people who were not in on the joke, getting seriou...

The Question

Elizabeth Warren has vowed to ban all hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the United States.  Bernie Sanders also favors that proposal, while Joe Biden opposes it.  What are the potential implications for energy-related investments such as Master Limited...

Longstanding baseball fans fondly remember Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro.  The great knuckleballer had a strong motivation for making it as a pro, since the alternative was going to work in the coalfields like his father. When a Milwaukee Braves scout expressed inte...

Bloomberg Opinion contributor Barry Ritholtz recently tweeted about his dislike of financial clichés that reflect badly on the speaker and disrespect the listener.  His Twitter followers responded with more than 500 examples of “hackneyed phrases” that can lead investo...

On February 22, 2019, Martin Fridson was interviewed by Jeremy Schwartz on the podcast "Behind the Markets" (Wharton Business Radio).

"High Yield is very expensive .. trading at over two standard deviations from fair value ... This is extreme and unusual."

"Outstanding s...

Cash is back in style.

Money-market funds saw their assets grow by $2 billion in between year-end and January 17, 2019 according to Thomson Reuters Lipper.  Cash allocations in investment portfolios are up for the first time since 2011, Goldman Sachs reports.  The Wall...

Our new 2018-2019 Annual Letter, "Landlord or Tenant" is out!

Read our investment outlook for 2019 and beyond.

Click here!

During the past two months, financial markets underwent one of their inevitable, periodic selloffs. From the October 3 peak to the November 23 low, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index price change was -10.01%. Market commentators cited a variety of causes, including concer...

If you wish to eat nutritious food and buy it inexpensively, or obtain homeowners coverage from an insurance company that has a good record on paying claims, you have to devote some time to research.  It’s much the same if you want to understand what a newly released e...