The Capital View With Travis Portwood

Peter Lynch had one of the great runs in investing history. During his tenure at Fidelity Magellan, the fund compounded at extraordinary rates and smashed the S&P 500. Yet the famous story goes that when Fidelity studied the results of Magellan’s shareholders, the average investor had lost money...

 In markets, as in nature, everything eventually answers to Darwin or Newton. Some things adapt and change. Others obey gravity. The business of investing is figuring out which is which before the market teaches you an expensive lesson. The first quarter of 2026 offered a generous supply of ...

The desk phones never stopped ringing. They wedged our four-foot cubicles into a repurposed JCPenney at South Roads Mall in Bellevue. The website was down again, overwhelmed by a flood of newly empowered retail traders. When the screens froze, they reached for landlines, desperate to place orders. “I want to buy 100 shares of XYZ,” one caller said. “I can’t find that ticker. What’s the company nam...

Today, it's harder than ever to be a diversified investor. As the thrill of artificial intelligence (AI) and the promise of lower rates have driven stocks to new highs, the fear of missing out tightened its grip. Investors chase what feels good now instead of asking, What happens next? A rate cut may lift stocks today, but what does it mean for inflation, liquidity, or earnings six months fro...

Howard Marks tells one of my favorite stories about overconfidence and humility. A gambler once heard of a horse race with only one horse—a sure thing if ever there was one. Sensing fortune's nod, he rushed off to the track, rent money in hand. But halfway around, the lone horse veered off course, jumped the fence, and disappeared into the fields. Confidence met reality, and reality won ...

Your advisor trumpets the shelter of diversification. You Nod. It sounds wise enough. But what does it really mean? It means there is always something in your portfolio you hate.

There's a story about American writers Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller attending a party given by a hedge fund billionaire on the exclusive Shelter Island.  Kurt asked Joe, "How does it make you feel to know our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel 'Catch-22' has earned in its entire history?"  Joe responded, "Yes, but I have something he can n...

Our relationship with money and markets is complex. Wealth and luxury are relative. Both are just a comparison between what we have and what other people have. Comparison is the thief of joy...

Entering 2024, investors confidently predicted up to seven Federal Reserve rate cuts this year, beginning in March, with our economy gliding in for the softest of landings...

Interest rates pull the strings of financial markets.  They're the charge for money we've loaned and the required return used to discount future cash flows to the  present....

We all can study economics and finance to learn how markets are supposed to work. Economic data and financial metrics are always helpful, but understanding prevailing investor psychology is essential...

One iron rule of investing is what looks inevitable in hindsight was far from evident at the time - a reality highlighting the importance of managing portfolio risk.....

Investing well has little to do with our intelligence and plenty to do with behavior.  Check Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, and regardless of how markets or the economy are performing, inevitably, there's a cynical mob declaring....

People don't necessarily want the truth for many things in life - especially politics, relationships, and investing - we want certainty....

Throughout our investing lives, the decisions we make today, tomorrow, or next week won't matter as much as our actions during the small number of days...

History is driven by surprising events, but obvious events drive forecasting.  Our inability to predict the past never dampens our appetite to forecast the future....

What's going to change over the next ten years? A sensible question.  We know a great deal will shift over a decade. However, we rarely ask, "what's not going to change over the next ten years?"  The second question is probably more important...

Courage to invest long-term means accepting the past wasn't as good as you remember, the present isn't as bad as it feels, and the future will surpass your expectations...

When Warren Buffett started his first investment partnership in 1956, he set expectations by establishing several ground rules for his partners. He explained what he could and couldn't do, along with matters about which he was uncertain....

What if we're wrong?  Any sound investment philosophy begins with this question.  The past two years remind us that financial ambushes lurk around every corner....

Risk happens gradually, then all at once.  Inconvenient slips needle us as markets rise, while ruthless wealth plundering declines stun us as they tumble.  Over the past two years, we've gone from the most significant economic crisis since the Great Depression......

When we're losing money, markets can feel like a casino. That feeling, while natural, is inaccurate. The longer we gamble in a casino, the more odds tilt in the house's favor. Vegas is "Vegas" for a reason. The longer we stay in the game, the greater our odds of success.

History doesn't crawl; it leaps.  Significant events that change the world seem abrupt, shaking our confidence casting the world in a dense fog.  More times than not, giant leaps aren't giant at all.....

Stock market history is the story of enormous gains with bouts of sheer terror amid the drumbeat of constant chaos.  All past declines appear like opportunities through the lens of hindsight, while uncertainty paints all future market slides as risks.....