New Blog Posts

3 Lessons from Warren Buffett's Annual Letter

Big caveat before we dive in: We’re not asking you feel any type of way about Warren Buffett. He’s a billionaire. A lot of his acolytes go way too far with the whole...

Dan Muse

March 27th, 2023 - 3 min read

Debunking Myths About Women + Investing

Ever since Abigail Adams – wife of one president and mother of another – helped build her family’s fortunes with some savvy investing, women have been debunking myth...

Dr. Richard Smith

March 20th, 2023 - 5 min read

Got a 401(k)? Congrats, you’re an investor!

Got a 401(k)? Congrats, you’re an investor! We put a pretty narrow box around the term “investor.” Specifically: You’ve got a portfolio with a brokerage … with a han...

Dan Muse

March 14th, 2023 - 5 min read

How to use Finiac's one-click portfolio import

You know how, when you created your Finiac account, you had to recreate your portfolios manually? Searching for assets one by one, hunting down the exact number of s...

Dan Muse

March 6th, 2023 - 3 min read

This portfolio is a mess (and that's a good thing)

Every asset in the markets goes up and down on a day-to-day basis, and we call that volatility. Same goes for the market as a whole. Some are highly volatile, some l...

Dr. Richard Smith

February 27th, 2023 - 2 min read

Introducing the Diversification Score

Today we’re announcing a brand-new feature in Finiac: the Diversification Score. Open any portfolio in Finiac, and you’ll find it already in place. Diversification ...

Dan Muse

February 20th, 2023 - 3 min read

How a Trailing Stop Controls Risk in Your Portfolio

Trailing stops are a great way to manage risk in your investment portfolio. They allow you to take advantage of potential short-term opportunities to buy or sell a s...

Justin Davis

February 13th, 2023 - 3 min read

Analyzing a Portfolio from Reddit

Today we’re looking at a portfolio that was posted on Reddit. Here’s w During my early 20s, I let FOMO take over my portfolio and its time to finally clean up/reduce...

Dr. Richard Smith

February 6th, 2023 - 4 min read

Put space between the desire to act and action.

Here's a message from Carl Richards that really resonated with me: "When the markets get scary, the single most important thing to do is create space between the des...

Dr. Richard Smith

January 30th, 2023 - 3 min read

The 3 Pillars of Successful Investing

When I’m sitting down to learn something new—something big, like a new language or how to rebuild a car engine—I always like to start with a few principles that brin...

D.R. Barton

January 23rd, 2023 - 6 min read

Volatility kills your long-term returns. Here are 3 portfolios to prove it.

We talk a lot about volatility here at Finiac. It can feel a little esoteric, I'm the first to admit. The reason is because, historically, only hardcore traders and...

Dr. Richard Smith

January 19th, 2023 - 3 min read

How to set better money goals in 2023

Something I just learned that blew me away: 45% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions. (12% more than watch the Super Bowl!) Only 8% of those people actually comp...

D.R. Barton

January 17th, 2023 - 5 min read

What is Correlation and Why Should You Care?

Ever used one of these walkways at an airport? If so, you’ll remember what it felt like. Your normal walking pace ramps up immediately, letting you cover more distan...

Justin Davis

January 9th, 2023 - 4 min read

The Santa Claus Rally (and why it didn't work this year)

The Santa Claus rally — traditionally, anyway — stretches across the last five trading days of a calendar year, and into the first two of the next. It’s a reliable c...

D.R. Barton

January 5th, 2023 - 4 min read

6 new features coming to Finiac

Happy new year! Hope it’s treating you well so far. We’re back at it in Finiac HQ and ready to start sharing what we’re building. We’ve talked to a bunch of you, don...

Dan Muse

January 3rd, 2023 - 4 min read

Why you should care about volatility

This is a pretty incredible chart I’ve been looking at recently. These are three different portfolios, showing ten years of performance each, and they all have the ...

Dr. Richard Smith

December 23rd, 2022 - 5 min read

The 200-day Simple Moving Average, Explained

Why a 200-day moving average helps Here’s the problem with a price-over-time chart: two people looking at it can see entirely different things. What’s so complicated...

D.R. Barton

December 22nd, 2022 - 3 min read

How to Calculate Correlation Between Two Stocks

The correlation between two assets—let’s just say stocks, for example—has a huge effect on the amount of risk associated with that investment. Just so we’re clear: I...

Justin Davis

December 16th, 2022 - 4 min read

5 Questions to Ask Before Buying a Stock

Here’s what the decision process looks like for too many investors: Hear about a Hot New Stock! Buy the Hot New Stock! That’s it. Venture too far in the other direct...

Justin Davis

December 12th, 2022 - 5 min read

Is a bull market on the way?

There are plenty of way to tell that a bear market is starting to turn around—but with the economy at large as topsy-turvy as it has been lately, nothing is for cert...

D.R. Barton

December 5th, 2022 - 2 min read

Is it time to abandon crypto?

This is a perfectly reasonable question to ask yourself. Quick recap: FTX’s collapse makes clear the massive negative impact of human shortcomings (logical, ethical,...

D.R. Barton

December 1st, 2022 - 4 min read

We built a better way to research assets

From the jump, we created Finiac to help individual investors build better portfolios. So, naturally, we started with a killer portfolio-building experience: At-a-gl...

Dan Muse

November 28th, 2022 - 4 min read

The Thanksgiving Market Rally

It’s been 233 years since George Washington first encouraged Americans to take “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer” on Thursday, Nov. 26, 1789 — which, if you’r...

D.R. Barton

November 21st, 2022 - 3 min read

The Presidential Cycle

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” — Mark Twain, misattributing Benjamin Disraeli The mid-term U.S. congressional election is behind ...

D.R. Barton

November 14th, 2022 - 4 min read

RiskSmith Update: October 25, 2022

Hi there, Another strong Monday yesterday (S&P 500 ⬆️ 1.2% | DJIA ⬆️ 1.3% | Nasdaq ⬆️ 0.9%) — but as usual, we’re taking a broader view (it’s kind of our brand¹). S...

Dan Muse

October 25th, 2022 - 3 min read

RiskSmith Update: October 17, 2022

With the markets closed (S&P 500 ⬆️ 2.7% | DJIA ⬆️ 1.9% | Nasdaq ⬆️ 3.4%) we can officially say it: today was a good day to be an investor. We like to call it out wh...

Dan Muse

October 17th, 2022 - 2 min read

Article

Why the “Jumbo Fed Hike” Means More Market Volatility

Our co-founder, Dr. Richard Smith, talked about last week’s “jumbo Fed hike” and its effect on the economy overall. Enjoy the excerpt from the conversation above; tr...

Dan Muse

October 15th, 2022 - 3 min read

Investor, Know Thyself

Last week we outlined a strategy for independent investors called 7 Principles of Successful Investing. Try as we might, we couldn’t fit it all into one post, so we’...

Dr. Richard Smith

October 14th, 2022 - 3 min read

Believe in What You Buy

... but make sure someone smarter than you believes in it, too This article is part 2 of the series 7 Principles of Successful Investing. Jump to: Principle № 1 In t...

Dr. Richard Smith

October 14th, 2022 - 5 min read

Know When to Sell Before You Buy

One question causes more investing anxiety than any other: “When do I buy/sell??” Here’s the answer. This article is part 3 of the series 7 Principles of Successful ...

Dr. Richard Smith

October 14th, 2022 - 3 min read

7 Principles of Successful Investing

Investing guides are filled with hype. Most aren’t worth your time. Instead of adding to the noise, today we want to offer concrete strategies for building long-term...

August 15th, 2022 - 7 min read