Beating The Market is Hard. Optimizing Investments is Easy: Chris Hutchins (Szn4, Ep 22)

Published August 24, 2022

Chris Hutchins joins the podcast to discuss his strategy for asset allocation, which leans heavily on passive investing and optimizing earnings power rather than picking stocks. In this (admittedly) unorthodox episode he discusses some of his methods.

Content Highlights

You probably can’t beat the market. Instead of trying to optimize the portfolio, why not optimize how quickly money can be put to work? Or maximize income from employment (5:55);
Beating the market may be extremely difficult (if not impossible). but educating oneself is still invaluable along several lines that are discussed (8:07);
How does Hutchins’ asset allocation break down exactly? (10:45);
The guest is also a venture capitalist. What areas of technology is he particularly excited about right now? (12:35);
What about the VC model itself? (21:30);
Background on the guest (30:00);
Not investing is as big a mistake as investing incorrectly. Some of the options (35:32);
How important is liquidity? (38:44);
What has the guest most worried right now? (42:06).

More Information on the Guest

Twitter: @Hutchins;
Website: WealthFront.com;
Podcast website: AllTheHacks.com (includes links to podcast),

Quick Video Highlights

The Bear Market Returns

Published August 22, 2022

The following is an amended form of the Aug. 22 Daily Contrarian. This briefing and accompanying podcast are released to premium subscribers each market day morning by 0700. To subscribe, visit our Substack.

Stock futures are selling off in Monday’s pre-market, continuing the trend that started early Friday with the crypto flash crash.

Meme stocks are seeing the worst of it, with AMC Entertainment (AMC) dropping more than 30% ahead of the new APE listing. Shares of GameStop (GME) and Bed, Bath & Beyond (BBBY) are down multiple percent as well.

There is once again no clear catalyst for the move downward. There have not been any new developments with the Fed, nor new earnings or economic data that could have caused this.

There may be concerns ahead of the Jackson Hole Symposium, which starts Thursday. Before that we’ll get some earnings, though frankly last week’s retailer earnings were probably more important. Friday is Powell’s speech at Jackson Hole and the PCE Deflator to provide some more intel on inflation.

Or maybe the bear market is back? There doesn’t always have to be a clear catalyst for investors to dump risk assets. Maybe the bear never left. Bear markets do have rallies, sometimes quite significant ones.

China Concerns Cloud Retail Earnings Week

Published August 15, 2022

The following is an amended form of the Aug. 15 Daily Contrarian. This briefing and accompanying podcast are released to premium subscribers each market day morning by 0700. To subscribe, visit our Substack.

Some bad economic news out of China has weighed on risk sentiment overnight. The country’s central bank responded with a surprise rate cut. The impact is mostly limited to commodities so far, with WTI crude oil down 4% and copper off 2% in early Monday trading.

Starting tomorrow (Tuesday), the big box retailers will report earnings, with the likes of Walmart (WMT) and Home Depot (HD) up first. Wednesday we’ll get Lowe’s (LOW), Target (TGT), and TJX (TJX).

Tag: market