November 16, 2020
Since November 2010, I’ve sent out 12,471 queries to the media. I know this because the software platform I use keeps track of them. That’s about 5 a day for a decade. The learning comes not so much from what…
October 29, 2020
Every once in a while, when a baseball player hits one out of the park at an away game, the fan who catches the ball throws it back on the field. Why celebrate the opponent’s achievement? As rebukes go, it’s not…
October 6, 2020
Jane Fraser was selected to be the next CEO of Citigroup, the first woman to run a “money center” bank. One can only hope that she will best the performance of her predecessors. Aside from a decade of irrational exuberance…
September 11, 2020
This article was written with Kurt Schacht and published by Barron's. At the time he was head of policy for CFA Institute. It was one of several articles we worked on together regarding market integrity. In addition, I negotiated a…
May 18, 2020
This post was based on an article I wrote for Kiplinger with my client Ken Berman of Gorilla Trades. I negotiated with Kiplinger to designate Mr. Berman as a contributor and deliver original articles to them on a regular basis.
May 1, 2019
The unicorns are filing one after another for initial public offerings and the excitement in the IPO market is taking me back to 1982, when I was working at a publication called Going Public: The IPO Reporter, the pre eminent journal tracking…
December 21, 2018
December 21, 2018
August 18, 2018
Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Clemens. Clemens was a very clever writer. So it should come as no surprise the very name he chose for himself -- Mark Twain -- would be steeped in mystery and uncertainty.…
July 25, 2018
This article was written with Jim Cahn, the Chief Investment Officer at Wealth Enhancement Group. It was part of a series of articles developed under an agreement with Forbes to work with a variety of contributors and assist them in…
April 25, 2018
Innumeracy -- the numerical version of illiteracy -- hurts. It hurts more because unscrupulous parties use it to paint a convincing picture that is at odds with reality. Discourse, opposition, and needed change can all be suppressed by preying on innumeracy.…
February 8, 2018
When Amazon released its top 20 contenders for its vaunted second headquarters this morning, I quickly scanned the list — not for my city, Philadelphia — but for Detroit. I was sad Detroit didn’t make the cut. It was a bad…
April 18, 2017
With earnings season here once again, and the term fake news ricocheting across social and traditional media, it's not too great a leap to get to the concept of fake earnings. Lots of companies present earnings that aren't really earnings. For…
March 23, 2017
For companies trying to develop relationships with the media, here's another arrow for your quiver: Share the stories they write with your social media networks. This according to journalists and reporters themselves. When asked in the 2017 State of the Media…
December 15, 2016
It seems almost every reporter, anchor, radio host or ‘influencer’ out there likes to point out they are giving you information that ‘the mainstream media won’t report on.” Sometimes it’s information the mainstream media “wouldn’t dare report on.” I would…
October 5, 2016
I kind of like seeing the CEO of Wells Fargo on the hot seat in front of the house and senate for the fraudulent opening of customer accounts. I always felt Wells Fargo's conduct in general and their attitude toward their customers…
September 14, 2016
Back in 1991, when I was freelancing, casting central newsman Bob Flaherty, then of Equities magazine and now head of his own financial news service, told me to get on a train to New York, visit the offices of something…
September 1, 2016
I just finished a white paper for a large financial institution on the well worn topic about which is better: active or passive investment strategies. Sometimes, it’s productive revisit old topics because they bring a fresh perspective that either reinforces…
June 30, 2016
My friend, entrepreneur Marc Kramer has started about 20 businesses. Some have succeeded, others have not. Among his start-ups, I asked him if he got signals early on that he had a clunker on his hands, and if so, what…
June 9, 2016
When portfolio managers take a position in a company’s shares, or even think about taking a position, it’s a highly analytical process. But interpersonal dynamics have an impact too. When a CEO makes an investor’s Spidey sense tingle, it can…
