CFA Institute

Author Archives: Jason Voss, CFA

40 posts

About Jason Voss, CFA

Jason Voss, CFA, is a content director at CFA Institute, where he focuses on fixed income, behavioral finance, corporate finance, and quantitative methods. He is the author of The Intuitive Investor, and he also ran a successful blog titled What My Intuition Tells Me Now. Previously, he was a portfolio manager at Davis Selected Advisers, L.P., where he built an impressive track record co-managing the Davis Appreciation and Income Fund. Mr. Voss earned a BA in economics and an MBA in finance and accounting from the University of Colorado. Topical Expertise: Behavioral Finance · Corporate Finance · Fixed Income · Quantitative Methods | Follow Jason on Twitter

Bankable Insights: Overcoming Anxiety is Key to Investment Success

Behavioral Finance and Investment Management

Anxiety is an instinctively powerful force that stands in the way of good investment decisions. Here are some timeless tips for overcoming its effects. Read more →

Fact File: Annual Budget of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters in Washington, D.C.

How paltry is the U.S. market regulator’s funding? This paltry: Last year Citigroup disposed of assets worth more than the SEC’s entire operating budget. Read more →

Fixed Income Roundup: No Consensus on Returns and Risk

Fixed Income

While in the last week fears of Spain’s mounting economic problems — as logged by feet-on-the-street protests, uncertain statements from the Spanish government, and increasing bond yields — have seemingly reinvigorated fears of a European implosion, the fact remains that investors are emphasizing other things. Read more →

Using Twitter To Understand Information and Improve Investment Returns

Using Twitter To Understand Information and Improve Investment Returns

Twitter is an excellent resource for investors wanting to understand information and improve investment returns. Read more →

Rethinking the Risk-Free Rate, Exploding a Fundamental Assumption

Rethinking the Risk-Free Rate, Exploding a Fundamental Assumption

There is no such thing as a risk-free rate of return, just as there is no such thing as our world without action. Yet, the concept of a bedrock expected rate of return is a good one in need of a better description that is more reflective of reality. Read more →

Fixed Income Roundup: The Rise of Alternative Analyses

Fixed Income

As I stated last month, investors have largely left last year’s biggest story, the European Sovereign Debt Crisis, behind. Instead, in the last 30 days, investors have been getting their bearings and putting in place new strategies. Read more →

An Overview of Alternatives to Credit Ratings

U.S. Federal Reserve

In the wake of the Great Recession, many alternatives to the traditional credit-rating agencies are being considered. Here is an overview. Read more →

The Post Ratings Agency World: An Interview with Invictus Group’s Kamal Mustafa

Bank for International Settlements (David Croll)

A powerful alternative to traditional credit ratings is the scenario-planning approach developed by Kamal Mustafa, CEO of Invictus Consulting Group. Read more →

Treacherous Environment for Smaller Hedge Funds: A Tale of Two Capital-Raising Markets

David and Goliath

Popular opinion holds that hedge funds are attracting large amounts of new assets, yet anecdotal evidence suggests that it is a tale of two capital-raising markets, with smaller hedge funds starving in comparison to their larger competitors. Read more →

Scenario Planning for Investors: Interview with Entegra’s Jim Butcher (Part 2)

In the second half of this interview with the CEO of Entegra Partners, Jim Butcher outlines the benefits of scenario planning, which he thinks is especially useful in these uncertain times. Read more →

Scenario Planning for Investors: Interview with Entegra’s Jim Butcher (Part 1)

Jim Butcher

Scenario planning is a valuable tool for all financial professionals, ranging from those in corporate finance to those in investment management. Part one of an interview with ex-Morgan Stanely/Entegra Partners’ Jim Butcher. Read more →

Just Released: Rethinking the Equity Risk Premium

Rethinking the Equity Risk Premium

Ten years ago investment community luminaries met to discuss the equity risk premium. Now in a new Research Foundation of CFA Institute monograph state of the art thinking about the equity risk premium is presented for the benefit of investors worldwide. Read more →

Fixed Income Roundup

Fixed Income

While December is typically a quiet month in the world of finance and investing, last month had a surprising number of important stories. Concerns over the European sovereign debt crisis dominated the intellectual bandwidth, yet there were other stories deserving of the fixed income investor’s attention. Read more →

Leadership Lesson for the Eurozone: The Rule of Small Groups

European Union leaders at a summit in Brussels in October 2010.

Physical limitations in humans seem to limit our ability to make effective group decisions when the number of the group exceeds seven members. This has important implications for boards of directors, investment committees, and transnational economic organizations, such as the eurozone. Read more →

PIMCO Veteran Paul McCulley: A New Model for Understanding Geopolitical Crises

Greek policemen guarding at the square in front of the Greek Parliament in Athens.

As a former portfolio manager, I know that practitioners often pay too much attention to the micro-level issues of individual securities and not enough attention to the broader macro-level context. Investors often reach for a microscope when they should be … Read more →

Blood in the Streets? New Survey Reflects Financial Professionals’ Somber Outlook for 2012

Global Market Sentiment Survey 2012

As John D. Rockefeller famously said, “The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.” A new survey of CFA charterholders (PDF), released today, reflects a level of pessimism that even the oil baron … Read more →

The Potential European Debt Crisis You Are Not Hearing About

European mortgages

The European sovereign debt crisis has been occupying a disproportionate amount of investor mindshare over these past many months. Yet there is another potential debt crisis in Europe that is receiving almost no attention from financial analysts or the press. … Read more →

Key Players In the European Sovereign Debt Crisis

Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank (ECB)

Complicating matters in resolving the European sovereign debt crisis have been the large number of players each of whom has a stake in the outcome of the crisis. Read more →

Guide to the European Sovereign Debt Crisis

European-Union-Flags

Given the many moving pieces, it can be difficult for investors to keep track of the various elements of the European sovereign debt crisis. Here then is a multipart guide for understanding the origins, causes, and unresolved issues of the ongoing economic emergency in the eurozone. Each of the links below provides a more detailed discussion of the underlying issues. Read more →

European Sovereign Debt Crisis: Overview, Analysis, and Timeline of Major Events

European Central Bank

Most commentators trace the beginning of the European sovereign debt crisis to 5 November 2009, when Greece revealed that its budget deficit was 12.7% of gross domestic product (GDP), more than twice what the country had previously disclosed. However, the real origins of the crisis can be traced to the very structures that govern Europe’s institutions. Read more →

The Latest Plan for Resolving the European Sovereign Debt Crisis

Euro Coin on 50 Euro Note Map

On 27 October 2011, after months of discord, European leaders ironed out a plan to address the escalating European sovereign debt crisis. Here is an overview of what exactly that plan entails. Reduce Greece’s debt to a sustainable level. Current … Read more →

Notes from the Field: CFA Institute Fixed Income Conference 2011

Jason Voss, CFA

General Tenor: Bearish. Almost all of the speakers at the conference expressed concern about the direction of the global economy. Specifically, bearishness was expressed for: The European sovereign debt crisis The U.S. Congress’s political gridlock and inability to resolve the … Read more →