Tommy Mayes

Recent Posts

Is It Human Nature to Distrust Simplicity?

Posted by Tommy Mayes on 8/26/21 1:05 PM

A colleague recently shared a blog that in essence questioned why quantitative investment strategies, and specifically trend following, was not more widely embraced by the investment management industry. It was a compelling question that prompted me to consider a larger one: Is it human nature to distrust simplicity?

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Topics: Behavioral Finance

Predicting the Future

Posted by Tommy Mayes on 4/23/20 12:54 PM

Approximate reading time: less than 3 minutes

When something happens that has never happened before, do we assert it was unpredictable? On Monday the front month contract for WTI crude oil went negative in price and traded there, as holders were attempting to get rid of the obligation to take delivery. How much can I pay you to take my oil? Amazing. Times like this challenge everything we think we know about the financial world and beg the question, ‘can anyone really predict the future value of any asset?’  What is the truth? I think the answer is up to the reader, but we believe that no one really can. 

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Topics: Transparency, Systematic Investing

Forecast: Unpredictability with a Chance of Irrational Behavior

Posted by Tommy Mayes on 1/21/20 1:33 PM

Word Count - 679 Words

Reading Time - ~3.5 minutes

Last week, Blueprint hosted a webinar with our friend Jay Mooreland, author of The Emotional Investor. The event motivated me to reread his book, which I highly recommend. It also reminded me of the investment industry’s annual prediction cycle about what to expect for the coming year and how the market will behave based upon those predictions. Two points here: one, analysts and economists have no idea what is going to happen and two, what happens does not matter to the disciplined investor.  Read on!

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Topics: Behavioral Finance

Schwab, TD and Occam’s Razor

Posted by Tommy Mayes on 12/19/19 11:39 AM

Word Count - 703

Approximate Reading Time - 3.5 minutes

So much has been written about the consumption of TD Ameritrade by Schwab that we hesitated to say anything on the subject. However, our experience with elite advisors, investment platforms (TAMPS), and larger RIA consolidation firms leads us to the conclusion that this transaction is just the tipping point in the changing world of custody, and that now is the time for advisors to take a strategic look at all their options.

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Topics: Advisor Practice Management, Behavioral Finance, Systematic Investing

Volatility vs the Human

Posted by Tommy Mayes on 8/21/19 10:14 AM

If you are paying any attention to the media the last few weeks you know at least two things: China and the United States are having a tariff standoff, and the market (AKA all things tradeable) is having a rough end to the summer. On the latter point, why does volatility to the downside drive so much hysteria and so many prime time CNBC specials? I believe it is simply because we are all human.
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Topics: Behavioral Finance, Systematic Investing

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