asset allocation

Gold bars and coins arranged beside a portfolio chart, illustrating the role of gold as a portfolio diversifier and hedge.
Diversification

Gold in a Portfolio: Diversifier, Hedge, or Just a Shiny Distraction?

Ask five investment professionals what gold is for, and you may get five different answers. One well-known personal-finance host dismisses it outright as an income-free asset with a mediocre long-term record. A prominent Wall Street strategist has proposed replacing half the traditional bond sleeve with it. A hedge-fund founder wants a combined stake in gold and bitcoin as insurance against currency devaluation. All of them are looking at the same metal — they simply disagree about the job it’s being hired to do.

A chart showing a trend-following strategy and momentum investing over time across market cycles
Market History

Trend-Following and Momentum Have a Century of Data Behind Them — So Why Doesn’t That Settle the Debate?

A reader of the finance blog A Wealth of Common Sense recently asked a fair question: is there real evidence that trend-following or momentum works for someone like them, not just for hedge funds with access to futures markets? It’s a good question because it separates two things that often get blurred together — whether a pattern in historical prices is real, and whether that pattern is something an ordinary investor should build into a portfolio. Those are not the same question, and the answer to the first does not automatically answer the second.

A simple three ETF portfolio diagram beside a notebook, showing how a three fund portfolio can help organize broad market investing
Investment Myths

Three ETFs Won’t Fix Your Portfolio — But Understanding Them Might

A $200,000 salary and a healthy checking balance can create a convincing illusion of financial security. The money is there; it is visible; it feels safe. What it is not doing, in most cases, is working. A dormant 401(k) you haven’t touched in two years and a savings account quietly losing ground to inflation are not a portfolio — they are a holding pattern with a respectable income attached.

Scroll to Top