Here’s the Roundup for a midwinter’s weekend. Enjoy!
Morgan Stanley to buy E-Trade, linking Wall Street and Main Street (New York Times). "E-Trade was an enticing target: It has struggled as [other] brokerage firms slashed fees [and Schwab] agreed to buy TD Ameritrade."
Vanguard funds to make hundreds of millions on Morgan Stanley’s E-Trade takeover (Philadelphia Business Journal). What’s good for E-Trade’s stock price is great for Vanguard. That’s because Vanguard is E-Trade’s largest institutional shareholder — with more than 25 million shares.
Apple warns on revenue guidance due to production delays, weak demand in China because of coronavirus (CNBC). Don’t be surprised to see more stories along these lines in the weeks ahead.
Mom and Pop are on epic stock buying spree fueled by free trades (Bloomberg, soft paywall). "When you take a bull market and juice it with zero commission trading, we can expect it to generate interest among retail accounts." Yep.
The Federal Reserve thinks low rates have had only a ’modest’ impact on stock market prices (CNBC). Many investors would seem to have the opposite view.
And from the bloggers and pundits...
Avoid the zeros (Nick Maggiulli, Of Dollars And Data). Why avoiding bad decisions is more important than making great decisions.
Charlie Munger: How to be a rational investor (GuruFocus via Yahoo). Investing advice from Warren Buffet’s longtime business partner: Rather than thinking, "How do I achieve outcome X?" think "How do I avoid the opposite of outcome X?"
Should you pay off your mortgage early with rates so low? (Ben Carlson, A Wealth of Common Sense). What makes the most sense from a mathematical perspective often doesn’t make the most sense in the real world — because "people don’t live in a spreadsheet."
The price of admission (Charlie Bilello, Compound Advisors Blog). In investing, risk is the price you pay for the possibility of higher long-term rewards.
25 ways your family can save $50 to $500 per month (Tiller Money). Most of these ideas are tried-and-true.
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