H&R Block (HRB) is one of the most widely recognized consumer brands, as the company is nearly ubiquitous across the country at tax time. H&R Block misstepped badly during the housing bubble, making a major foray into mortgage loans. This mistake is now behind the company, so future value creation will depend mostly on H&R [...]
A 401(k) plan is a savings plan that allows you to divert a portion of your income into a tax-sheltered savings account, which accumulates without your having to pay income taxes on it. This program falls into the defined contribution retirement category because the law defines, or limits, how much you can contribute to your [...]
Fess up, fellows: The masters of the universe have turned out to be masters of disaster. No matter which aspect of the financial crisis you consider, there is a man behind it. So, it is worth pointing out how different things might be if the financial world were female. Finance professors Brad Barber and Terrance [...]
It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world on Wall Street these days, and unless you’ve been buried under a veritable avalanche of rock for the last several months, you’re undoubtedly painfully aware of just how much damage has been wrought in the equity markets. To put that damage into perspective, let’s look at a few [...]
“Coates and Joe Herbert studied male financial traders in London, taking saliva samples in the morning and evening. They found that levels of two hormones, testosterone and cortisol, affected traders. Those with higher levels of testosterone in the morning were more likely to make an unusually big profit that day, the researchers found. Testosterone, best [...]
La crise financière est-elle en train de s’achever? L’envolée des dépréciations d’actifs passées par les banques françaises, constatée depuis le mois de décembre 2007, constitue un signal paradoxalement positif : les investisseurs estiment que les établissements ont enfin pris la véritable mesure du problème et sont prêts à nettoyer leurs comptes en profondeur afin d’être [...]
Students from Emory’s Goizueta Business School and McCombs School of Business at UT Austin were invited to come visit Mr. Buffett for a Q&A session. I have 2 views on diversification. If you are a professional and have confidence, then I would advocate lots of concentration. For everyone else, if it’s not your game, participate [...]
Hedge funds have historically lodged in a dark corner of the investment universe, where investors and regulators were happy to leave them. There they have rested, mostly in the investment portfolios of the wealthy clients of private banks as tools to preserve wealth. But institutional investors – the big pension funds, local authorities, charities and [...]
Retirees may soon have to worry about returns, not underfunding — thanks to the Pension Protection Act (PPA). The new law, coupled with FAS 87s restrictions on smoothing pension earnings over time, encourages fund managers to be more risk averse and to match the duration of a portfolio’s assets with its liabilities. And this so-called [...]
One thing that I have done in my early twenties is to set goals for finishing school and building a career. I sat down at 22 in college and set goals for 6 months, 1 year, 3, 5, and 10 years. Thus I had goals for career and education. I ought to look at the [...]