Investing Unscripted

The "magnificent seven" stocks – the seven largest U.S. stocks by market cap – have had an incredible year. Even the worst-performing of the bunch (Microsoft) has gained 35% this year, more than double the ~15% returns of the S&P 500. Considering that these 7 companies make up more than one-quarter of the market cap of the S&P 500, it's no surprise it's been a good year for stocks. But Jeff and Ja...

Being an active investor is hard. The reality is, humans are wired to do something. It's hard to stand by while our portfolios are doing, well whatever, and not feel the need to act. Stocks going up? Sell to lock in gains. Or maybe buy more! It's going up, after all! Stocks falling? Sell to cut the losses. Or maybe buy more! It's going to go back up, after all! But none less than Warren Buffett ha...

In our second summer mailbag episode, Jason and Jeff field questions from listeners, submitted on Twitter, email, and Commonstock. Topics include stocks we own, getting the most out of cash without falling in love with it, whether the stock market is expensive, or if expensive is the new normal, and how did two idiots like Jason and Jeff manage to get the expertise and skill to be paid to pontific...

Jason has a lot of problems with you people! In this first Rough Cut, Jason and Jeff rant about all the free and paid investing resources available out there and what they think about it. We would love feedback on the show. Share with us at:  Email: thesmatteringshow@gmail.com Twitter: @smatteringshow  Check out our YouTube channel for more content:  https://www.youtube.com/@TheSmatteringShow Find...

Every quarter, thousands of companies report their financial results, and investors of all stripes tune in, read up, and trade their way through the season. Volatility is up, and for many people, so is their stress level. So what's an investor to do? In this episode, Jason and Jeff discuss their mindsets during earnings season, including the frameworks they have implemented to help them navigate t...

Wow, that was fast. In the blink of an eye, The Smattering has turned one year old! In this episode, Jeff and Jason take a stroll down memory lane, sharing some of their favorite stories, episodes, and guests from the first year. We also take a look ahead, and tease a few new ideas coming soon to The Smattering Podcast!  In the second part of the show, we give an update on the 2023 Smattering Port...

Have you ever been absolutely, utterly confident in an outcome, only to get a rude awakening when things go very differently? Well, you're not alone. Behavioral economics pioneer Peter Atwater has made it his mission to help more people understand the role of confidence in human decision making, outcomes, and how it's rooted in "our desire for certainty and control." In this week's show, Jeff and...

Brian Feroldi is a leading expert in investing, helping hundreds of thousands of people avoid mistakes and make better decisions. But he wasn't always an expert, and over the past two decades he's made plenty of mistakes. In this week's show, Jeff and Jason talk with Brian about his history, including his beginnings as an individual investor, his origin story as a thought leader and expert, and ho...

You have questions? We have answers. In this edition of our semi-regular mailbag, we took listener questions about capital scarcity, measuring CEO performance, the ongoing AI bubble, and whether Threads will prove good for Meta Technologies. We also shared a listener note describing how they've made massive financial strides in recent years.  In the second part of the show, we announce the upcomin...

It may be hard to believe, but we are already halfway through the year. That means it's time to review the 16 stocks across the five "team" in the 2023 Smattering Portfolio Contest! The good news: The five portfolios are up a combined 31% so far this year! The bad news: The best performing team is the "un-portfolio." It's all Jeff's fault. This week, Jeff and Jason share an update on all of the co...

Whether it's driving, picking stocks, or fighting chimpanzees, humans often overestimate their actual skill level. In this week's show, Jason and Jeff discuss this reality, and what you can do as an investor to counter your own human nature. Topics include discovering the difference between luck and skill with investing, how to find useful lessons, and the power of humility and giving yourself gra...

To some degree, every stock investor is looking for asymmetric returns. While the market delivers, on average, around 10% in gains each year, stocks also provide the rare opportunity to earn substantial multiples on your initial investment. Travis Hoium has spent years looking for those winners, and now he's helping people find them. An engineer by training and longtime writer for The Motley Fool,...

Death and taxes are inevitable, as the saying goes. But what if you died right now? What if some cosmic hand snapped its fingers, and you were gone? We often apply this "snap" test to companies to find the most important ones, but we can apply this same test to ourselves, too. Who would be impacted? What would they be left trying to figure out? Would they have enough money to make ends meet?  Woul...

What if you could start over? Just press a button, and voila, you have a portfolio full of cash, and a chance for a fresh start. What would you do differently than you were already doing? In this episode, Jason and Jeff go through this mental exercise, weighing the pros and cons of pressing reset, and discuss the psychological challenges that keep most of us from making the changes we want.  In th...

The semiconductor industry represents a wonderful place to invest. But it's also cyclical, complex, and can be a bad place to invest if you stumble in blindly or find yourself chasing the next hot thing at the wrong time. We have good news. Chip Stock Investor can help.  This week, Jason and Jeff sit down with Nick Rossolillo of Chip Stock Investor to break down the semiconductor industry, discuss...

Last week we had a therapy session for Jeff in our episode, "I don't know how to invest anymore." Jeff says thanks for helping him work through his struggles. The obvious follow-up? An episode about stocks! In this "back to basics" conversation, Jason and Jeff talked about what has changed, why stocks are still very important investments and offered some insights on how to invest in stocks going f...

The past three years have been like a whipsaw for a lot of investors. After the bizarre – incredible – runup in stocks during the Coronavirus pandemic, the past 18 months have been hard. And with interest rates now high enough to make bonds a legitimate option for returns, many people find themselves in an investing environment they have never seen before.  Count Jeff in that number. In this episo...

John Rotonti is a value investor and the former head of analyst training for The Motley Fool. He's spent the past several years studying Warren Buffett, trying to better understand and decode the legendary investor's success and process. He's also been a successful investor in his own right, with an approach built around a disciplined accumulation of dominant, asset-heavy companies with industry-l...

Did you know that Berkshire Hathaway stock has outperformed the market since the market peak before the coronavirus pandemic? That alone makes the title of this episode a touch rhetorical, we realize, but there is a broader point about how relevant Buffett's investing style and decades of pithy advice are anymore. Ahead of the upcoming Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, which Jeff and Jason will b...

In episode 45, Running Towards Fires, Jason and Jeff talked about finding opportunities to buy when the consensus was to sell. In this week's show, they discuss how so many investors are running the other way, paying a hefty premium for low-growth, "blue-chip" stocks that are likely to deliver underperforming returns going forward, looking for dividend stocks, and otherwise searching for safety in...

When it comes to understanding human behavior, Jason has learned the value of understanding incentives. Employees and managers almost always act based on how they're compensated, even if it's not aligned perfectly with the best interests of a company or its owners. Yet, we as investors seem to make the mistake of not having our personal incentives aligned with our long-term financial goals. In thi...

After almost three decades working in and around the financial services industry, Lou Whiteman has learned to become skeptical of many investment ideas and trends. Jeff and Jason spoke with Lou recently, discussing his experiences in finance and as an individual investor, and how he's developed the investing superpower of being a skeptical optimist.  As Lou puts it, "skeptical in the short term, b...

(If you're not familiar with The Smattering 2023 Portfolio Contest, check out episode 32) Three months into 2023, and it's clear that you, our listeners, are the best stock pickers. Or that's what the early results of The Smattering 2023 Portfolio Contest show! In this Episode, Jeff and Jason discuss their early takes on the stocks they picked, lessons learned so far this year, and where their con...

If you're looking for a podcast with deep individual stock research, Chit Chat Money is one of the best. Brett Schafer and Ryan Henderson recently joined us on The Smattering to talk about their journey from co-kickers on their college football team, to co-hosts of a popular podcast, their investments, and how Chit Chat Money and their investing styles have evolved. Most importantly, we get some o...

The U.S. is going through its first banking crisis – or potential crisis – in almost 15 years. And like prior panics, crises, and downturns, it seemingly came out of nowhere, with Silicon Valley Bank erupting in fire overnight, and the fire spreading to Signature Bank and threatening to send the whole neighborhood (or at least a notable cul-de-sac – of regional banks up in flames. We've seen this...