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The Global Risks Report 2019, published by the World Economic Forum, was released on January 15, 2019. It is the perfect report to read on a dreary winter afternoon and checks in at a light 114 pages and comes complete with graphics that Edward Tufte would no doubt approve. With the overall theme of “Is the world sleepwalking into a crisis?” the report covers the likelihood and potential impacts of important global risks that face us in the future. This report, as with others in the series (this is the 14th annual risk assessment), surveyed global leaders between the dates of September 6 to October 22, 2018. The global leaders...

Daniel Satchkov

24 Jan 2019

9 Epic Content Marketing Implementation Points For Advisors Like You

Today I would like to review a great book that changed the way I approach marketing and in fact revolutionized our business. I am talking about Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi. Let me get straight to the point. Paid advertising is dead. You actually need to produce content, such as blogs, videos, whitepapers etc. to thrive. Well, it is a bit of an overstatement. Paid advertising can still be used by any business and it still works for large businesses who need to create mass consumer image, but its ROI is gradually decreasing. Producing your own content: Does not require significant cash outlay Does not lead to ‘tuning out’...

Daniel Satchkov

24 Jan 2019

How Facebook Exploits You & What It Means For Your Portfolio

Facebook is not free. Essentially Facebook earns money by making you do work! Don’t believe me? Check out some of these headlines: Facebook’s making more money per user in North America than ever before Facebook made an average of $6.18 off each user in Q4, more than double three years ago Basically, every time you post something on Facebook, you are acting as a volunteer content creator to enrich Facebook. Every time you read or watch something on Facebook, you are acting a volunteer ad seller to Facebook. It is not like Mark Zuckerberg needs your charity. He probably makes in a millisecond more than most in a year. But...

Daniel Satchkov

23 Jan 2019

John Bogle – The Missing Narrative

RIP John Bogle – Warrior For The True Free Market John Bogle is dead at 89. Of course, every headline hails him as the founder of Vanguard group and a father of index investing. But in my opinion that really belittles his legacy. No, I am not undermining the impact of Vanguard; it did revolutionize investing in many ways. Still, Jack Bogle’s intellectual contribution is much bigger than that and underappreciated. Maybe his passing will cause people to examine his writings more carefully. I think it is fair to say that Jack Bogle cared deeply about free markets, was worried about their potential disappearance. He tried very hard to protect...

Daniel Satchkov

22 Jan 2019

New Portfolio Crash Test Scenario: Hard Brexit

If the UK Government fails to approve the deal negotiated by PM May before March 29, 2019, that could trigger “Hard Brexit”. This would potentially cause severe short term (and even long term) market disruption for the UK and Euro region. We believe Hard Brexit has the potential to be very damaging to the UK, potentially pushing to into recession and having significant negative impacts to the UK stock market (-40%) and currency (-20%). Of course, the UK won’t suffer in a vacuum, and if a country like the UK is pushed into a recession, others will suffer too. The Euro area could see a -15% decline in the Euro,...