Max Osbon's Posts

It’s easy to blame the monolithic brands of Wall Street for selling us products poorly suited to our needs, or charging fees that empty our pockets to fill their own. It’s easy to blame them for enticing us with hot stock tips, slick hedge funds, exclusive private equity issues, and once-in-a-lifetime IPOs, none of which may be right for us….

Bitcoin: a currency wrapped in a riddle We don’t expect interest in Bitcoin to wane anytime soon. With a future price that could go to $20,000 or $0, it’s the ultimate speculative vehicle. It might even be the perfect holiday gift for the person who has everything and might be happy with a little bit of nothing. Any discussion of…

This week’s article is written by guest author, Steve Mott. Steve is a long time editor for Osbon on the Money. Individual investors are pouring money into the stock market again.  It’s been a long wait.  Many bailed out during the financial crisis at its worst, and have been waiting for it to be “safe” to invest again. Now with…

Nobody’s too happy with the big banks these days. The public distrusts them and the regulators have been levying hefty fines for misdeeds before, during and after the financial crisis. The fines are big, but who’s really paying the price? How does $93B in fines affect you? Fines on the six major Wall Street firms – JP Morgan, Bank of…

At Osbon Capital, John Osbon is the conductor, but where’s his orchestra? We often hear the question: How many employees do you have? Our reply – zero – is a surprise to some. The business is operated by two partner owners. John Osbon manages all client portfolios and investment strategy while Max Osbon is the operational guru. Our payroll is…

The announcement of Eugene Fama as a Nobel laureate in economics was bound to happen someday, and it finally has. Fama’s pioneering research regarding how the market arrives at security prices constitutes a fundamental principle of finance. It’s also at the core of indexing. Fama was already a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business when I…

Small cap can be big We know that a typical long-term stock portfolio returns more, on average, than a typical bond portfolio. But what kind of stocks consistently outperform the broad stock market as a whole? Hint: Think smaller. 87 years Since 1926, a dollar invested in small cap stocks has grown to $18,365 – a hefty annualized return of…

Cost of Cash Calculator Keeping a stash of cash seems to be a natural human urge. Call it a “rainy day fund” or “emergency fund.” Whatever you call it, having some cash on hand for unforeseen situations is a good idea. But is holding excess cash a good idea?  Some, yes; too much, no.  Understand the cost of stuffing money…

The next 5 million dollar man How much do you need to save and invest to accumulate $5 million dollars?  Max Osbon fired up the Excel spreadsheet to create a simple and revealing look at how to do just that. Four facts to enter Armed with four simple facts – your current age, your current investable wealth, your expected rate…