I strive to be smart, wise, analytical, creative, intuitive, and informative. I hope to help make you a better active investment management pro.
I recommend you start with the Best of the Blog.
3 June 2014: Bloomberg – The Nasty, Brutish Life of the Modern Mutual Fund Manager
Jason Apollo Voss, CFA discusses with Bloomberg whether or not the jobs of active investment managers is getting harder with time.
read moreHow to Measure Your Success as an Investor
Since I work for CFA Institute, you probably wouldn’t be surprised if I said the best way to measure success is to follow the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS). After all, many professionals think GIPS is the global gold standard. Now here’s something that may surprise you: CFA Institute’s standards are a subset of a much better, more comprehensive, way of measuring your success as an investor. See, in my opinion, the most important skill for investors is understanding information. Or put another way (and more...
read more15 May 2014: Barron’s – Funds Roundup
Jason Apollo Voss, CFA has article about the importance of creativity in investment management featured in Barron’s Fund Roundup.
read moreSkills That Separate You as an Investment Manager: Creativity
Having hired research analyst interns, research analysts, a portfolio manager, and even my own successor when I retired from investment management in 2005, I have gained a fair amount of knowledge about which skills separate you as an investment manager. As such I’ve been writing a series on the skills — aside from the obvious (e.g., a love of economics, drive, confidence, etc.) — that help you stand out from the pack. Last month I wrote about introspection. Now try adding this one to your arsenal: creativity. Creativity One of the...
read more1 May 2014: I was on the platform for the NYSE Closing Bell!
Jason Apollo Voss, CFA was a part of the NYSE Closing Bell Ceremony 1 May 2014!
read moreA President’s View of the Art of Negotiation
It isn’t often that you get a chance to listen to a former president discuss the art of negotiation, and it is rarer still that you learn negotiating secrets from a leader whose peace treaty helped to end an intractable conflict and garnered him a Nobel Peace Prize nomination. Such was the case at the Middle East Investment Conference, where Jamil Mahuad, former president of Ecuador, and co-negotiator of a peace treaty with his nation’s enemy, Peru, shared words of wisdom. In laying the foundations for negotiation, you must first...
read moreHow Technology Can Help You Commit Fewer Investment Mistakes
It may seem as if the admonitions and lessons of behavioral finance are difficult to recognize, let alone correct. But as Clare Flynn Levy, founder and CEO of Essentia Analytics, has learned, technology can help you avoid many of the investment mistakes that result from behavioral biases. While the idea is simple, the implications are far-reaching: The firm’s software analyzes historical trade data and identifies behavioral patterns that show managers where their skills lie and where they’re getting in their own way. Then, armed with data,...
read moreSkills That Separate You as an Investment Manager: Introspection
While I have written advice on how to become a research analyst before, I have not talked about the skills that truly separate you from the crowd once you have your coveted research analyst position. Having hired research analyst interns, research analysts, a portfolio manager, and even my own successor when I retired from investment management in 2005, I have gained a fair amount of knowledge about which skills separate you as an investment manager. Subsequently I will be publishing a monthly column to discuss some of these important skills....
read more4 April 2014: Wall Street Journal – The Morning Risk Report: Investment Experts Can’t Spot Liars, And Worse, Think They Can
Jason Apollo Voss, CFA with Dr. Maria Hartwig, discuss their lie detection work with the Wall Street Journal.
read moreHow Understanding CEO Candor Can Make You Money
My experience in investment management has taught me that half of the analysis battle is waged in the qualitative realm. Chief among these qualitative concerns is the honesty and character of management. Are they representing the truth of their firm’s past, present, and future? When character meets communications you have candor. Laura Rittenhouse, CEO of Rittenhouse Rankings, founded her firm to evaluate the candor of corporations. The rankings have proven to be predictive of the future stock performance of the rated businesses. I...
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