Nice analogy for asset allocation
A good story or analogy can boost the power of your communications. It will linger long after the rest of your conversation fades. I like the following example, which I found in “Tuning up implementation of modern portfolio theory” by Scott MacKillop: Now let’s talk about combining managers in portfolios. The legendary football coach Knute […]
How long should a blog post run?
There’s no set rule. I typically target 250-400 words. That’s long enough to express one idea and short enough to discourage you from going off on tangents. I don’t like tangents in blog posts. Posts should be narrowly focused to make them easy for readers to absorb. You’ll find opinions all over the place about […]
“Reader-Friendly Reports” in a nutshell
For a quick primer on writing great reports, simply read the following paragraph by Carter A. Daniel. The people who assigned you the report did so because they didn’t have the time to do the work themselves. They asked you the questions, and now they want the answers. The answers, therefore, are the most important […]
POLL: When is it okay to write “equity market” instead of plain English?
I change “equity market” to “stock market” tens of times every three months when I edit asset managers’ quarterly investment performance reports. Am I doing the right thing? The answer isn’t as clear as I, accustomed to clients who invest solely in stocks, initially thought. Equities vs. stocks Some of my wise colleagues on LinkedIn […]
“The Which Trials” according to “Woe is I”
If you’ve ever worried whether to use “which” or “that” you’re not alone. It took me years to figure out. However, Patricia O’Connor lays out the rules nicely in “The Which Trials” section of her book, Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English. Which vs. that Here are O’Connor’s rules from […]