Markets & Economy
Reading the economy without a forecast
Understanding the environment is useful; predicting it is not, and the distinction determines what is worth following.
Finance Spyder — Follow the evidence, not the tip
Markets & Economy
The evidence, summarised
What the research actually supports, stated plainly, and what remains genuinely uncertain.
Latest
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Markets & Economy
Housing markets and what drives them
Supply, credit conditions and rates dominate, and the asset behaves differently from anything in a portfolio.
Behaviour
Knowing when to do nothing
Action bias produces most of the damage in retail investing, and inaction is an active choice rather than an absence of one.
Behaviour
Automating your investing
Every decision removed is a decision that cannot be made badly, and the evidence on discretion is not encouraging.
Risk & Volatility
Preparing a portfolio for someone else
A portfolio that only one person understands is fragile, and the failure mode arrives at the worst possible time.
Asset Allocation
Allocating across several accounts
Treating each account separately duplicates effort and misses the tax benefit of holding different assets in different wrappers.
Investing Basics
All investing basics →
Investing Basics
Starting with a small amount
Small sums are worth investing, the obstacles are mostly cost and access, and both have largely disappeared.
Investing Basics
Reviewing your portfolio properly
An annual review covers what needs checking, and more frequent attention makes outcomes worse rather than better.
Investing Basics
Investing through a pension
For most people the pension is the largest investment account, and the default fund is rarely examined.
Funds & ETFs
All funds & etfs →
Funds & ETFs
Comparing two funds properly
Performance is the least useful comparison, and a short list of other checks distinguishes them reliably.
Funds & ETFs
What happens if a fund or platform fails
Client asset rules and compensation schemes protect against firm failure and not against investment losses.
Funds & ETFs
Thematic and sector funds
They are launched after a theme has performed well, and the gap between fund returns and investor returns is widest here.
Asset Allocation
All asset allocation →Asset Allocation
Allocating across several accounts
Treating each account separately duplicates effort and misses the tax benefit of holding different assets in different wrappers.
Asset Allocation
The case for keeping it simple
Complexity adds cost and decisions, and the evidence that it adds returns is weak.
Asset Allocation
Drawing an income from a portfolio
The accumulation problem and the decumulation problem are different, and the second is considerably harder.
Risk & Volatility
All risk & volatility →Risk & Volatility
Preparing a portfolio for someone else
A portfolio that only one person understands is fragile, and the failure mode arrives at the worst possible time.
Risk & Volatility
What a decline actually feels like
The statistics describe the magnitude and not the experience, and the experience is what determines behaviour.
Risk & Volatility
Understanding volatility measures
Standard deviation, beta, drawdown and value at risk each measure something different, and all have known limitations.
Behaviour
All behaviour →Behaviour
Knowing when to do nothing
Action bias produces most of the damage in retail investing, and inaction is an active choice rather than an absence of one.
Behaviour
Automating your investing
Every decision removed is a decision that cannot be made badly, and the evidence on discretion is not encouraging.
Behaviour
Making decisions with a partner
Two people with different risk tolerances need a shared plan, and one person holding all the knowledge is a vulnerability.
Markets & Economy
All markets & economy →
Markets & Economy
The evidence, summarised
What the research actually supports, stated plainly, and what remains genuinely uncertain.
Markets & Economy
Reading the economy without a forecast
Understanding the environment is useful; predicting it is not, and the distinction determines what is worth following.
Markets & Economy
Housing markets and what drives them
Supply, credit conditions and rates dominate, and the asset behaves differently from anything in a portfolio.
About Finance Spyder
Index funds, asset allocation, bonds, risk and behaviour — how portfolios are actually built, and what the long-run evidence says about the alternatives. We publish explanatory articles rather than news, which means an article here is written to still be useful a year from now. Every piece is bylined, sourced and read by an editor before it appears — the full process is set out in our editorial policy.