Topic: Investing
Looming Risk to Financial System: $1 Trillion in Commercial Loan Pools
Known as collateralized loan obligations, their aim is actually to reduce risk
Lending to Startups: Not as Risky as You’d Think
Entrepreneurs borrow between equity funding rounds with a strong record of repaying debts
Largest Firms’ Stock Gains Skew Big Picture on Worker-Owner Income Division
Wage earners get larger (relative) share at smaller companies, not at giants like Apple, Alphabet and Amazon
Lack of Urgency Can Undermine a Popular Behavioral Nudge
Encouraging pre-commitment to a future behavior helps people do hard things — but it can backfire
Inclusion in an ETF Can Improve the Pricing of Underlying Stocks
It can also help management make capital expenditure decisions
In China, Big Investors Have Brilliant Timing ― Or Do They Know Someone?
A scan of a million brokerage accounts finds the wealthy trade ahead of market-moving news
Ignorance — About One’s Investments, Anyway — Isn’t Always Bliss
Valentin Haddad’s research looks at the phenomenon of “information aversion,” when individual investors stop tracking their portfolios for fear of bad news
How Very Small Stocks Skew Investing Wisdom
Well-known market anomalies are largely absent among the biggest stocks
How to Properly Incentivize Your Unicorn Finder
VCs and other investors need a contract with their seeker that blunts conflicts of interest
How Tech’s Disruption Alters Investors’ Appetite for Risk
New technology’s upending of the old creates demand for alternative assets to offset risk
How Much Debt Can the Government Roll Over Forever?
Public bonds compete against other investments; a model of that relationship
How Life Insurers Insulate the Markets from Turmoil
Valentin Haddad’s research finds that insurers’ patient investing shields risky assets — and those who hold them — from steeper declines
How ETFs Muffle Stock Market Feedback to Managers
The rise of passive investing leaves companies mistrusting market signals on how best to deploy capital
How Bond and Stock Prices Combine to Influence Corporate Investment
Equity volatility can encourage — or dampen — investment, depending on a firm’s bond spread
How an Excess of Stock Analyst Optimism Lands on Companies Least Deserving of It
Results of financially weak firms are difficult to forecast; in uncertainty, Wall Street’s views are overly generous
How a Stock Analyst’s Face Affects Their Earning Estimates
Trustworthy and dominant-seeming men: access to corporate management. Dominant-seeming women: not so much.