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Markets started the day down yesterday but regained lost ground throughout the afternoon as investors decided that any day with no new tariff announcements is a good day.
Be advised: Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned that “supply shocks” pose a challenge for the economy, and that interest rates may need to remain higher for longer. Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said a recession is still on the table.
Oil took a tumble on comments by President Trump that the US is nearing a deal with Iran over its nuclear program that could lift sanctions against the country.

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Filed under: "Ask-an-Advisor", Breaking News, Financial Planning, Information Technology, Investing, Marcinko Associates, Portfolio Management | Tagged: Dimon, Federal Reserve, FOMC, inflation, Iran, JPMorgan Chase, Marcinko, oil, Portfolio Management, Powell, stock markets, tariffs, Trump | Leave a comment »

Why Tariffs Won’t Bring Back the “Good Old Days”

Posted on May 14, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Rick Kahler MSFP CFP™

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If I had a dollar for every time someone referred to the “good old days,” of the American economy, I could probably buy a vintage diner, jukebox and all, and still have enough left for a slice of apple pie.

The newest round of on-again, off-again tariffs is built around that same kind of nostalgia. Slapping big taxes on goods from other countries will supposedly protect American jobs and industries. The aim is to bring factories back, boost wages, and make the country more self-reliant.

This is a powerful story that taps into a deep feeling that we’ve lost control. Supporters argue that the U.S. has opened its markets and played by the rules, allowing many other countries to prosper at its expense, while America has been in a long, slow economic decline. This story frames the U.S. as a victim, with tariffs a form of payback to punish countries that have “taken advantage of us.”

Except that story is a myth. Rather than punishing foreign economies, the pain of tariffs hits Americans at home. Our businesses face costlier goods, consumers pay higher prices at the store, and the ripple effects include falling sales, layoffs, and frayed trade relationships.

In addition, the U.S. economy has actually been booming. Over the past three decades, the U.S. has pulled far ahead of most developed nations. In 2008, the American economy was about the same size as the Eurozone’s. Today, it’s nearly twice as large. Wages have risen. Even the poorest U.S. state now has a higher per-person income than countries like France, Japan, or the U.K.

So why do so many people still feel like we’re falling behind?

First, the growth hasn’t reached everyone, especially in rural America. In some areas and industries, jobs have disappeared and opportunities have dwindled.

Second, many people who are doing okay themselves have bought into a powerful, repeated myth that things are going terribly for everyone else.

This narrative takes hold in people’s internal voices, the parts of themselves shaped by past pain, fear, or frustration. Tariffs, then, can feel like a way to stand up and take action. It makes perfect sense to want to relieve anxiety by shutting the world out and protecting what is left.

Yet, when we act from fear or anger without pausing to reflect, we tend to overcorrect or trade one set of problems for another. This is what many economists and business leaders see happening with tariffs. Even supporters of tariffs are beginning to admit they’re a gamble. Many are still willing to take that gamble if it means restoring something they feel they’ve lost, a sense of purpose, security, and control.

Reacting out of fear in this way is not likely to create lasting solutions. A more challenging but more productive approach would be to take time to listen with compassion to those inner voices, helping them move past anxiety to find answers based in truth rather than myth. Maybe real liberation comes from letting go of narratives that no longer serve us, choosing a future built on connection, courage, and clarity.

Because if we keep heading down an isolationist path, turning inward out of fear, the future might not be the golden age we imagine. It might look a lot more like the actual 1950s, before the civil rights movement, before women fully entered the workforce, before the innovations that made the U.S. economy a global leader. A time more isolated, less equal, and far less dynamic than the one we’ve come to idealize.

That’s a version of the past we don’t need to relive, no matter what nostalgic song is playing on the jukebox.

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Filed under: "Ask-an-Advisor", Financial Planning, Glossary Terms, Investing | Tagged: CFP, China, economy, Financial Planning, inflation, politics, rick kahler, tariffs, Trump, US | Leave a comment »

Lessons from History’s Technology Booms

Posted on May 6, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Vitaliy Katsenelson CFA

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The technology at the core of the mania is different every time. What doesn’t change over time is human emotion – the fear of missing out and then the fear of loss.

AI has a feel of “this time is different.” Optimism rarely erupts about the same technology twice; this is why history doesn’t repeat but rhymes. The technology at the core of the mania is different every time. What doesn’t change over time is human emotion – the fear of missing out and then the fear of loss, in that order.

Humans are an optimistic bunch. We need it; it’s essential to our survival and progress; but eventually, we take our optimism too far. The graveyard of financial ruins is full of these stories.

I have beat the dotcoms and Nifty Fifties to death, so let’s go to back another century. My friend the brilliant Edward Chancellor wrote about the railroad boom and bust in England in the 1800s. Here he is, edited for brevity:

The first railway to use steam locomotives opened in 1825 and was designed to carry coal, not passengers. Railway promoters simply did not appreciate the potential demand for high-speed travel. The successful launch of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830, however, demonstrated the commercial viability of passenger travel. By the early 1840s, Britain’s railway network stretched to more than 2,000 miles. Railway companies were delivering acceptable, if not spectacular, returns for investors.

Then railway fever suddenly gripped the nation. Enthusiasts touted rail transport not just for its economic benefits, but for its benign effects on human civilization. One journal envisaged a day when the “whole world will have become one great family speaking one language, governed in unity by like laws, and adoring one God.” In the two years after 1843, the index of rail stocks doubled.

Investment peaked at around 7% of Britain’s national income. Railway enthusiasts predicted that rail would soon replace all the country’s roads and that “horse and foot transit shall be nearly extinct.”

In 1845, Britain’s railways carried nearly 34 million passengers. If the 8,000 miles of newly authorized railways were to deliver their expected 10% return, then the industry’s total revenue and passenger traffic would have to climb five fold or more – all within the space of just five years. “This should have alarmed observers by itself … But they were deluded by the collective psychology of the Mania”, writes Odlyzko.

In 1847 a severe financial crisis broke out, induced in part by the diversion of large amounts of capital into unprofitable railway schemes. It turned out that the revenue projections provided by so-called “traffic takers” were wildly overoptimistic. Railway engineers underestimated costs. The vogue for constructing direct lines between large urban centers proved mistaken, as most traffic turned out to be local. As a result, Britain’s rail network was plagued with overcapacity. By the end of the decade, the index of railway stocks was down 65% from its 1845 peak.

The railroad bubble in England is just one example; there are hundreds of similar stories across market history. They all share this theme:

A new technology appears on the horizon. In the early stages, investment is rational, but then at some point excitement, imagination, and optimism take over, leading to overinvestment (usually creating a financial bubble). Investors make a lot of money until most lose it all. When the dust settles, only a few companies survive.

This AI boom reminds me of the telecom sector in the 1990s. The internet was going to change the world, and it did, but first we had tremendous overcapacity in global fiber and telecom equipment.

One could say that telecommunications companies overestimated demand for broadband and underestimated changes in technology, and that would be true. But there was a more nuanced dynamic at play, what economists call the fallacy of composition.

What’s true for one participant isn’t necessarily true for the group.

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Filed under: "Ask-an-Advisor", Experts Invited, Financial Planning, Funding Basics, Information Technology, Investing, Portfolio Management | Tagged: AI, america, broadband, dotcoms, edward chancellor, IT, nifty fifties, social media, Technology, technology boom, techology, telecommunications, Vitaliy Katsenelson CFA | Leave a comment »

VALUE INVESTING: Lesson from the Blackjack Table

Posted on May 5, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Vitaliy Katsenelson CFA

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“Any time you make a bet with the best of it, where the odds are in your favor, you have earned something on that bet, whether you actually win or lose the bet. By the same token, when you make a bet with the worst of it, where the odds are not in your favor, you have lost something, whether you actually win or lose the bet.”

– David Sklansky, The Theory of Poker

Over a lifetime, active investors will make hundreds, often thousands of investment decisions. Not all of those decisions will work out for the better. Some will lose and some will make us money. As humans we tend to focus on the outcome of the decision rather than on the process.

On a behavioral level, this makes sense. The outcome is binary to us – good or bad, we can observe with ease. But the process is more complex and is often hidden from us.

One of two things (sometimes a bit of both) can unite great investors: process and randomness (luck). Unfortunately, there is not much we can learn from randomness, as it has no predictive power. But the process we should study and learn from. To be a successful investor, all you need is a successful process and the ability (or mental strength) to stick to it.

Several years ago, I was on a business trip. I had some time to kill so I went to a casino to play blackjack. Aware that the odds were stacked against me, I set a $40 limit on how much I was willing to lose in the game.

I figured a couple hours of entertainment, plus the free drinks provided by the casino, were worth it. I was never a big gambler (as I never won much). However, several days before the trip I had picked up a book on blackjack on the deep discount rack in a local bookstore. All the dos and don’ts from the book were still fresh in my head. I figured if I played my cards right I would minimize the house advantage from 2-3 per cent to 0.5 per cent.

Wanting to get as much mileage out of my $40 as possible, I found a table with the smallest minimum bet requirement. My thinking was that the smaller the hands I played, the more time it would take for the casino’s advantage to catch up with me and take my money.

I joined a table that was dominated by a rowdy, half-drunken blue-collar worker who told me several times that it was his payday (literally: he was holding a stack of $100 bills in his hand) and that he was winning. I played by the book. But it did not matter. Luck was not on my side and my $40 was thinning with every hand.

Meanwhile, the rowdy guy was making every wrong move. He would ask for an extra card when he had a hard 18 while the dealer showed 6. The next card he drew would be a 3, giving him 21. Then the dealer would get a 10 and then a 2 (on top of the 6 that already showed), leaving him with 18. The rowdy guy barely paid attention to the cards.

He was more interested in saying “hit me”.

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Filed under: "Ask-an-Advisor", Experts Invited, Financial Planning, Investing, Portfolio Management | Tagged: betting, blackjack, gamble, gambling, gaming, poker, Portfolio Management, value investing, value stocks, Vitaliy Katsenelson CFA | 1 Comment »

LONG TERM CARE INSURANCE: A Hobson’s Choice Decision?

Posted on May 3, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

SPONSOR: http://www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

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Long Term Care Insurance [LTCI]

Some retired people live on a fixed income and many of them live right on the edge of their financial capability. At some time in their life, they may have to make a choice regarding many purchases.

In this case, we will illustrate “choice” using a couple’s purchase of Long-Term-Care Insurance [LTCI]. Of course, economics is the study of choice; wants, needs and scarcity, etc. In our case, if they decide to make the purchase they commit to a lifetime of premium payments. The financial tradeoff is this; if they make the commitment to purchase LTCI, they must give up something else.

EXAMPLE: In order to maintain a monthly premium of $100 ($1,200per year), an elderly patient, retired layman or couple must essentially relegate about $30,000 of financial assets to generate the $100 necessary to make an average premium payment (assumes a 7% rate of return with 4% withdrawal rate) or [4% X $30,000 = $1,200 year]. Thus, if the monthly premium cost is $500 per month, the elder must give up the use of $150,000 of retirement asset just to generate enough cash flow to pay for the LTC insurance.

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The married elder couple has to make the Hobson’s Choice decision among lifestyle (dinners, vacations, gifts to children, prescription drugs, medical care or food and shelter) versus paying an insurance premium to provide for nursing home coverage for a need, which may be very real, but will not occur until sometime in the ambiguous future.

And so, when faced with such a tough economics Hobson’s Medicine Choice, neither of which delivers peace of mind or a respectable solution; many will simply decide that, in either case, they may already end up impoverished. Thus, many will often opt for the better lifestyle now … while they can enjoy it … together.

Cite: Anonymous Health Insurance Agent, Norcross, Georgia

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QUANTUM COMPUTING: Healthcare and Banking Affected [B-QTUM Index Fund]

Posted on April 30, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

FUNDAMENTAL INDUSTRY CHANGES

By Staff Reporters

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Index Funds

An index mutual fund or ETF (exchange-traded fund) tracks the performance of a specific market benchmark—or “index,” like the popular S&P 500 Index—as closely as possible. That’s why you may hear people refer to indexing as a “passive” investment strategy.

Instead of hand-selecting which stocks or bonds the fund will hold, the fund’s manager buys all (or a representative sample) of the stocks or bonds in the index it tracks.

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Quantum Computing

Unlike traditional computers that use bits, quantum computers utilize qubits. These qubits are capable of being in a state of superposition, where they can represent both 0 and 1 simultaneously, enabling the processing of multiple calculations at once. This could allow quantum computers to outperform classical computers in solving certain complex problems. However, the field is still overcoming challenges such as qubit stability and decoherence; especially in these three areas:

Quantum computing could fundamentally alter healthcare by accelerating drug discovery and improving individualized medicine. Rapid analysis of enormous volumes of biological data allows quantum computers to find trends that might guide the creation of more potent treatments. In addition to accelerating drug development, this will enable customized treatments tailored to unique genetic profiles.

Faster and more accurate financial models produced by quantum computing will transform the banking sector. Through real-time analysis of intricate financial systems, it can help investors to control risk and make better decisions. More precise market forecasts will help maximize portfolio management and trading strategies.

Through greatly enhanced medical diagnosis and patient care, quantum computing can transform the healthcare industry. Quantum computers can remarkably accurately find trends and possible health hazards by analyzing enormous volumes of medical data in a fraction of the time. Early diagnosis and more customized treatment alternatives follow from this.

B–QTUM Index Fund

Index Description: The BlueStar® Machine Learning and Quantum Computing Index (BQTUM) tracks liquid companies in the global quantum computing and machine learning industries, including products and services related to quantum computing or machine learning, such as the development or use of quantum computers or computing chips, superconducting materials, applications built on quantum computers, embedded artificial intelligence chips, or software specializing in the perception, collection, visualization, or management of big data.

Citation and Disclosure: https://www.defianceetfs.com/qtum/

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Filed under: Drugs and Pharma, Experts Invited, Financial Planning, Funding Basics, Glossary Terms, Information Technology, Investing | Tagged: banking, bits, BlueStar, BQTUM, bytes, Drugs, ETFs, exchange traded funds, finance, healthcare, HIT, Investing, IT, Machine Learning, Mutual Funds, personal-finance, Portfolio Management, QTUM, Quantum Computiog, qubits, stocks, Technology | Leave a comment »

DAILY UPDATE: Coca-Cola and Pfizer as Stock Markets Rise

Posted on April 30, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

MEDICAL EXECUTIVE-POST – TODAY’S NEWSLETTER BRIEFING

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Essays, Opinions and Curated News in Health Economics, Investing, Business, Management and Financial Planning for Physician Entrepreneurs and their Savvy Advisors and Consultants

“Serving Almost One Million Doctors, Financial Advisors and Medical Management Consultants Daily“

A Partner of the Institute of Medical Business Advisors , Inc.

SPONSORED BY: Marcinko & Associates, Inc.

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Daily Update Provided By Staff Reporters Since 2007.
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Coca-Cola rose 0.84% after the beverage behemoth beat earnings expectations. Not only that, it also doubled down on its forward-looking guidance, saying that revenue will grow 5% to 6% while comparable earnings per share will jump 2% to 3% in 2025. Tariff mania may raise some costs, but the company said it would be “manageable,” putting it a step ahead of arch-rival PepsiCo.

Pfizer jumped 3.28% today after the pharma giant announced that it expects to cut costs by about $7.7 billion by the end of 2027 thanks to advances in AI and automation. Despite lower sales in Q1, the company managed to keep its 2025 revenue guidance of $61 billion to $64 billion intact. While that forecast takes into account the $150 million blow from tariffs, it does not include any future tariffs (which President Trump has threatened to slap on the pharma industry).—LB

CITE: https://tinyurl.com/2h47urt5

What’s up

Meta Platforms gained 0.85% after the social media giant announced it will launch a standalone AI app to compete with ChatGPT. Expect more details in its earnings call tomorrow.
JetBlue Airways may have pulled guidance, but investors like the airline’s lower-than-expected loss last quarter so pushed shares 2.70% higher.
SoFi Technologies rose 0.53% after it crushed analyst expectations on both the top and bottom line.
Speaking of fintech, PayPal climbed 2.14% thanks in no small part to a 20% pop in Venmo revenue.
Honeywell International gained 5.40% thanks to strong earnings and sales for the manufacturing conglomerate.
Deutsche Bank climbed 4.08% after Germany’s largest lender reported a 39% increase in profit last quarter.
Sherwin-Williams may have missed on revenue last quarter, but the paint company beat earnings estimates and kept its forward guidance intact, so shareholders pushed it up 4.80%.
Royal Caribbean eked out a 0.02% despite reporting record bookings and boosting its profit outlook, a rare move these days amid tariff uncertainty.
Leggett & Platt may not be a household name, but it sells household goods—and the bedding company’s solid earnings and strong fiscal guidance sent shares 31.73% higher.

What’s down

General Motors fell 0.64% after the automaker beat on top and bottom line estimates but warned that it will have to pull its forward guidance and suspend stock buybacks.
Spotify dropped 3.04% despite active monthly users rising 10% last quarter. The problem, believe it or not, was lower guidance.
Regeneron lost 6.87% thanks to disappointing sales for its hit eye drug Eylea.
NXP Semiconductors may have beaten analyst estimates last quarter, but management’s lower-than-expected earnings guidance disappointed investors, and pushed shares 6.94% lower.
Wolfspeed tumbled 15.98% after the chipmaker’s impressive short squeeze rally fizzled out.

Visualize: How private equity tangled banks in a web of debt, from the Financial Times.

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Filed under: "Ask-an-Advisor", Drugs and Pharma, Financial Planning, Funding Basics, Investing, Recommended Books, Sponsors | Tagged: books, Coca-Cola, DJIA, DOW, NASA, NASDAQ, PBMs, Pfizer, S&P 500, Science, Technology, textbooks, UPS | Leave a comment »

ZWEIG BREADTH THRUST: A Stock Indicator

Posted on April 29, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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The Zweig Breadth Thrust may sound like an extremely difficult yoga position, but it’s actually a bullish technical indicator with an extraordinary record of 100% accuracy that was just triggered.

Created by investment advisor and author Martin Zweig, the indicator takes the 10-day moving average of the number of advancing stocks across the market and divides it by the number of advancing stocks plus the number of declining stocks. When the resulting percentage rises from below 40% to above 61.5% in 10 trading days, it’s a sign that stocks are rapidly going from oversold to overbought.

The math is a bit complicated, but Carson Research’s Chief Market Strategist Ryan Detrick certainly thinks highly of it.

According to the chart that he just posted on X, the Zweig Breadth Thrust has a perfect record of predicting market gains 6 and 12 months after it appears.

With the indicator triggering on Friday, here’s hoping that we can continue to trust the Zweig Thrust.

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Filed under: "Ask-an-Advisor", Financial Planning, Investing, Portfolio Management | Tagged: business, Carson Research, finance, Investing, martin zweig, Portfolio Management, Ryan Detrick, stock market, stocks, Zweig Breadth Thrust, Zweig Index, ZweigThrust | Leave a comment »

STOCK MARKET WRAP-UP: As IBM, Nvidia & Apple Invest in Quantum Computers

Posted on April 29, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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If you looked at how stocks were doing yesterday morning and then looked away, we’ve got good news.

After a rough start to the day—especially for tech companies, whose earnings are due out soon—stocks mostly turned things around, with the S&P 500 and the Dow ending the day in the green.

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IBM plans to invest $150 billion in the US over five years. That includes $30 billion earmarked for R&D for manufacturing its mainframe and quantum computers in the US. It’s not the only tech company to announce a big commitment to spend in the US since President Trump took office and unveiled steep tariffs on imports from abroad.

Nvidia and Apple have each separately said that they plan to spend $500 billion stateside over the next four years. Companies in other industries, including pharmaceuticals, have also committed to increased US investment.—AR

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Filed under: "Ask-an-Advisor", Financial Planning, Information Technology, Investing, Marcinko Associates | Tagged: Apple, computers, DJIA, DOW, IBM, Mag 7, mainframe, Marcinko advisors, Nvidia, quantum computers, S&P 500, stocks up, Technology, Trump | Leave a comment »

STOCKS: Bounce Back Like a House

Posted on April 28, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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Much like a springy inflatable structure often resembling a four-sided building and used by children for jumping for sport and fun, stocks staged a much-needed bounce-house back week on hopes that the trade war would de-escalate, with the S&P 500 climbing for four straight days to close 4.6% higher.

Whether the rally continues this week may depend on the Magnificent Seven earnings on tap—each of those Big Tech stocks has fallen at least 6.5% this year, shedding a combined $2.5 trillion in market value, per the Wall Street Journal.

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EARNINGS REPORTS: Out This Week

Posted on April 28, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

BREAKING NEWS

By Staff Reporters

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This Week is Full of Data

On the economic side, things kick off on Tuesday with the S&P Case-Shiller home price index, and the job openings and labor turnover survey.

Then Wednesday brings the banga-bing, banga-boom: GDP, the ADP employment report, and of course, PCE.

On Thursday we get initial jobless claims and the ISM manufacturing index, followed by Friday’s US jobs report.

Company Earnings Reports

Monday: Domino’s Pizza, Waste Management, Nucor, and NXP Semiconductors

Tuesday: Visa, Coca-Cola, Novartis, AstraZeneca, HSBC, Pfizer, Honeywell, Spotify, Snap, American Tower, Altria, Starbucks, Mondelez International, Sherwin-Williams, UPS, BP, PayPal, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Universal Music Group, Hilton, Porsche, Adidas, GM, Corning, Kraft Heinz, JetBlue Airways, and Paccar

Wednesday: Microsoft, Meta, Samsung, Qualcomm, Caterpillar, Airbus, UBS, GSK, Barclays, Volkswagen, Robinhood, Humana, eBay, Norwegian Cruise Line, Albemarle, Wingstop, and Etsy

Thursday: Apple, Amazon, Eli Lilly, Mastercard, McDonald’s, Amgen, MicroStrategy, CVS Health, Airbnb, Dominion Energy, Roblox, Block, Hershey, Live Nation Entertainment, Kellanova, Estee Lauder, Reddit, Duolingo, Twilio, Juniper Networks, Moderna, United States Steel, Roku, Wayfair, and Harley-Davidson

Friday: ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, Eaton, Cigna Group, T. Rowe Price, Apollo, ING, and Wendy’s

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Filed under: "Ask-an-Advisor", Accounting, Breaking News, Financial Planning, Funding Basics, Investing | Tagged: ADP, Case-Shiller, data, earnings, earnings report, economics, GDP, ism, jobs, labor, PCE, US jobs | Leave a comment »

NEWS IN BRIEF: Financial, Investing, Economics and IT

Posted on April 26, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

BREAKING NEWS

By Staff Reporters

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Spot bitcoin ETFs saw their highest inflows since January over the last few days, sparking a crypto rally.
The Federal Reserve withdrew its guidance for banks about engaging in crypto-related business.
California is now the fourth-largest economy in the world.
OpenAI expects its revenue to reach $125 billion in 2029, up from $3.7 billion last year.
The median pay for CEOs rose to a record $16.8 million in 2024.
Meta Platforms is laying off staff working in its virtual reality division.
Apple announced it’s shifting its iPhone production from China to India.

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ANNUITIES: Three Types of Insurance Products

Posted on April 23, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

PODCAST: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=dead+cat+bounce&&view=detail&mid=EF19382256D32E28CD76EF19382256D32E28CD76&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Ddead%2Bcat%2Bbounce%26FORM%3DHDRSC3

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An annuity is a contract between you and an insurance company. When you purchase an annuity, you make a lump-sum contribution or a series of contributions, generally each month. In return, the insurance company makes periodic payments to you beginning immediately or at a pre-determined date in the future. These periodic payments may last for a finite period, such as 20 years, or an indefinite period, such as until both you and your spouse are deceased. Annuities may also include a death benefit that will pay your beneficiary a specified minimum amount, such as the total amount of your contributions.

The growth of earnings in your annuity is typically tax-deferred; this could be beneficial as you may be in a lower tax bracket when you begin taking distributions from the annuity.

Warning: A word of caution: Annuities are intended as long-term investments. If you withdraw your money early from an annuity, you may pay substantial surrender charges to the insurance company as well as tax penalties to the IRS and state.

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There are three basic types of annuities — fixed, indexed, and variable

1. With a fixed annuity, the insurance company agrees to pay you no less than a specified (fixed) rate of interest during the time that your account is growing. The insurance company also agrees that the periodic payments will be a specified (fixed) amount per dollar in your account.

2. With an indexed annuity, your return is based on changes in an index, such as the S&P. Indexed annuity contracts also state that the contract value will be no less than a specified minimum, regardless of index performance.

3. A variable annuity allows you to choose from among a range of different investment options, typically mutual funds. The rate of return and the amount of the periodic payments you eventually receive will vary depending on the performance of the investment options you select.

READ: SEC’s publication, Variable Annuities: What You Should Know.

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Daily posts are organized by subject. ME-P administrators moderate the activity. Moderation may also conducted by community-specific moderators who are unpaid volunteers.

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BEWARE THE “DEAD CAT”: Stock Market Bounce?

Posted on April 21, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

DCB = What it Is AND How it Works?

Update Courtesy: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

In finance, a “Dead Cat Bounce” is a small, brief recovery in the price of a declining stock.

Derived from the idea that “even a dead cat will bounce if it falls from a great height“, the phrase, which originated on Wall Street, is also popularly applied to any case where a subject experiences a brief resurgence during or following a severe market decline.

ESSAY: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2020/03/13/beware-of-a-dead-cat-bounce/#6c800aab2324

QUERY: But, does the DCB concept apply to current ‘Bear” and “Tarriff” markets today?

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ASSESSMENT: Your thoughts are appreciated.

THANK YOU

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JOHN B. TAYLOR’S: Monetary Policy Rule

Posted on April 21, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

SPONSOR: http://www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

By Staff Reporters

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Named for a U.S. economist, the JB Taylor Rule is a mathematical monetary-policy formula that recommends how much a central bank should change its nominal short-term interest rate target (such as the U.S. Federal Reserve’s federal funds rate target) in response to changes in economic conditions, particularly inflation and economic growth. It’s typically viewed as guideline for raising short-term interest rates as inflation and potentially inflationary pressures increase. The rule recommends a relatively high interest rate (“tight” monetary policy) when inflation is above its target or when the economy is above its full employment level, and a relatively low interest rate (“easy” monetary policy) under the opposite conditions.

To illustrate, the monetary policy of the FOMC changed throughout the 20th century. The period between the 1960s and the 1970s is evaluated by Taylor and others as a period of poor monetary policy; the later years typically characterized as stagflation. The inflation rate was high and increasing, while interest rates were kept low. Since the mid-1970s monetary targets have been used in many countries as a means to target inflation.

However, in the 2000s the actual interest rate in advanced economies, notably in the US, was kept below the value suggested by the Taylor rule.

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INTRA-DAY: Stock Markets Crash!

Posted on April 21, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

BREAKING NEWS

Artificial Intelligence Enhanced

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Markets drop as tariff concerns shake the market

Key takeaways (1:30 EST)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced a significant drop of more than 1,100 points, reflecting investor anxiety over tariff policies finance. The S&P was down 150 and the NASDAQ was down 550.
This decline is part of a broader trend affecting the S&P 500 and NASDAQ, as geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainties weigh heavily on market sentiment finance.yahoo.com .
Investors are closely monitoring developments regarding trade policies and their potential impact on the economy, leading to heightened volatility in the stock market

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The DOCTOR EFFECT

Posted on April 21, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA MEd CMP™

Medical Colleagues Beware the Advisors

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Several years ago a group of highly trusted and deeply experienced financial advisors, insurance service professionals and estate planners noted that far too many of their mature retiring physician clients, using traditional stock brokers, management consultants and financial advisors, seemed to be less successful than those who went it alone. These Do-it-Yourselfers [DIYs] had setbacks and made mistakes, for sure. But, the ME Inc doctors seemed to learn from their mistakes and did not incur the high management and service fees demanded from general or retail one-size-fits-all “advisors.”

In fact, an informal inverse related relationship was noted, and dubbed the “Doctor Effect.” In others words, the more consultants an individual doctor retained; the less well they did in all disciplines of the financial planning and medical practice management, continuum.

Of course, the reason for this discrepancy eluded many of them as Wall Street brokerages and wire-houses flooded the media with messages, infomercials, print, radio, TV, texts, tweets, dinners and internet ads to the contrary. Rather than self-learn the basics, the prevailing sentiment seemed to purse the holy grail of finding the “perfect financial advisor.” This realization confirmed the industry culture which seemed to be:

Bread for the advisor – Crumbs for the client!

And so, Marcinko Associates formed a cadre’ of technology focused and highly educated multi-degreed doctors, nurses, financial advisors, attorneys, accountants, psychologists and educational visionaries who decided there must be a better way for their healthcare colleagues to receive financial planning advice, products and related advisory services within a culture of fiduciary responsibility.

We trust you agree with this specific niche knowledge, and collegial consulting philosophy, as illustrated thru our firm and these two books.

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VIX: Stock Market Fear Gauge Update

Posted on April 20, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

VOLATILITY INDEX

By Staff Reporters

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DEFINITION: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2024/05/30/what-up-vix/

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UPDATE

The VIX soared to 60.13 last Monday before plummeting all the way to 33.76 on Wednesday, the day after the president paused tariffs. But while the VIX has since settled down a bit, investor fear is still high. The VIX closed above 30 for 10 straight trading sessions and the last time that happened was during the bear market back in October 2022, according to MarketWatch—not exactly a comforting comparison.

Then again, just because fear skyrocketed last week doesn’t mean the markets will tank in turn. “Since 1997, there have been 11 times the VIX spiked above 45—and 10 out of 11 times, the S&P 500 was higher four months later by an average of +6.4%,” noted Austin Hankowitz in the latest edition of the Rich Habits newsletter.

Finally, the VIX closed above 30 Thursady as tariff talk and monetary policy pivots keep investors on their toes. But while worries might keep investors on the sidelines, some on Wall Street are taking this opportunity to be greedy while others are fearful.

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STOCKS: Basic Definitions

Posted on April 18, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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When you buy a share of stock, you are taking ownership in a company. Collectively, the company is owned by all the shareholders, and each share represents a claim on assets and earnings. If the company distributes profits to its shareholders, you should receive a proportionate share of the earnings.

Stocks are often categorized by the size of the company, or their market capitalization. The market capitalization is determined by multiplying the number of outstanding shares by the current share price. The most common market cap classes are small-cap (valued from $100 million to $1 billion), mid-cap ($1 billion to $10 billion), and large cap ($10 billion to $100 billion).

Stocks are also categorized by their sector, or the type of business the company conducts. Common sectors include utilities, consumer staples, energy, communications, financial, health care, transportation, and technology.

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Stocks are often viewed as being in one of two categories — growth or value.

Growth stocks are ones that are associated with high quality, successful companies that are expected to continue growing at a better-than-average rate as compared to the rest of the market.
Value stocks are ones that have generally solid fundamentals, but are currently out of favor with the market. This may be due to the company being relatively new and unproven in the market, or because the company has recently experienced a decline due to the company’s sector being affected negatively. An example of this would be if the federal government was to levy a new tax on all cell phones, thus negatively affecting all cell phone company stocks.

History has shown that, over time, stocks have provided a better return than bonds, real estate, and other savings vehicles. As a result, stocks may be the ideal investment for investors with long-term goals.

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Few Stocks UP with Many Stocks DOWN

Posted on April 18, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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U.S. stock and bond markets will be closed on Good Friday. Many global markets will also be closed Friday. Exceptions include Japan and mainland China, which will be open as usual. U.S. markets will reopen Monday. Many international markets will remain shut to mark Easter Monday, including Australia, Hong Kong, and exchanges in France, Germany and the U.K.

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YESTERDAY 4/17/25

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🟢 What’s up

TSMC eked out a 0.10% gain after the semiconductor maker reported a 60% increase in profits last quarter and downplayed the effects of tariffs.
Charles Schwab isn’t just the guy who made $2 billion from market chaos last week. It’s also the brokerage that reported record quarterly revenue, but shares only rose 0.65%.
Hertz climbed another 43.87%, tacking on another day of big wins after Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital took a stake in the rental car company.
Trump Media & Technology Group popped 11.65% after the company asked the SEC to investigate a hedge fund with a $105 million short bet against it.
Chinese tea chain Chagee soared 15.86% in its first day of trading on the Nasdaq.
DR Horton missed analyst expectations last quarter and lowered its fiscal year guidance, but investors quickly forgave the country’s largest homebuilder and pushed shares up 3.16%.

What’s down

Alphabet took a 1.38% hit after a federal judge ruled that Google is a monopoly. This marks Alphabet’s second antitrust loss since last August.
Alcoa fell 6.98% after the aluminum mining behemoth announced it ate about $20 million in tariff-related costs last quarter, noting that this figure could rise to $90 million in the current quarter.
American Express fell 0.64% even though the credit card company beat Wall Street’s expectations last quarter.
Global Payments tumbled 17.43% after the payment processor announced a $24 billion acquisition of competitor Worldpay.

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Very Few Stocks UP but Many Stocks DOWN

Posted on April 17, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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🟢 What’s up

Hertz Global soared 56.44% on the news that Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital has taken a $46.5 million stake in the rental car company.
Travelers Cos. rose 1.13% in spite of massive losses from California wildfires, which didn’t hurt the insurer’s bottom line as badly as Wall Street feared.
Abbott Laboratories gained 2.77% after the pharma company missed sales estimates but still beat earnings forecasts.
Gold miners continue to climb as gold keeps hitting new highs. Newmont rose 2.51%, while Gold Fields gained 3.35%.

What’s down

Tesla sank 4.94% after the company’s share of EV sales in California fell below 50% in the first quarter, while export controls threaten plans to produce Cybercabs in the US.
United Airlines fell 0.01% despite reporting its “best first-quarter financial results in five years,” according to management. The airline took the unique measure of providing two different financial outlooks for the year ahead: one for a stable economy, and one for a recession.
Lyft shed just 0.46% on the news that the ride-hailing company is acquiring European taxi app Free Now for $199 million.
Interactive Brokers Group reported a 47% increase in trading volume last quarter that helped it beat revenue expectations, but the brokerage still tumbled 8.95% after missing profit forecasts.
Palantir gave up some of its recent gains following its big NATO announcement, sinking 5.78% today as investors collected profits.
JB Hunt Transport Services’ management team warned that the logistics company sits squarely in the crosshairs of the trade war, pushing shares down 7.68%.
Omnicom Group tumbled 7.28% after the advertising firm missed revenue estimates thanks to economic uncertainty.

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Stocks UP and Stocks DOWN

Posted on April 16, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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Investors were apparently tired of all the volatility yesterday, leading to a relatively calm day where indexes ever-so-slightly slipped. But it was a big day for Netflix after the Wall Street Journal reported that the streaming giant has plans to double its revenue and reach a $1 trillion valuation by 2030.

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🟢 What’s up

Hewlett Packard Enterprise popped 5.11% after Elliott Investment Management took a $1.5 billion stake in the tech company.
Rocket Lab rocketed (sorry) 10.14% higher after the space stock inked deals with both the US Air Force and the UK Ministry of Defense.
Netflix rose 4.83% on a report from the Wall Street Journal that the streaming giant plans to hit a $1 trillion market capitalization and double its revenue by 2030. The company announces earnings on Thursday.
Bank of America and Citigroup both posted strong Q1 earnings that beat analyst forecasts (more on that below). BofA climbed 3.60%, while Citi rose 1.76%.
Palantir rose another 6.24% a day after NATO agreed to purchase its AI-powered warfighting system.

What’s down

Albertsons tumbled 7.49% after the grocer’s full-year guidance came in below expectations.
Allegro Microsystems sank 9.68% on the news that ON Semiconductor has withdrawn its offer to acquire the chipmaker.
Applied Digital plummeted 35.94% after the digital infrastructure company missed analyst revenue estimates, despite sales climbing 22% last quarter.
#recessionindicator: Coty sank 8.57% after the beauty retailer was double downgraded by Bank of America analysts, citing a slowdown in makeup spending.

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ONLINE SCAMS: Retirement Accounts

Posted on April 15, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

WARNING – WARNING

By Staff Reporters

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A “retirement account scam” is a type of online fraud that occurs when a third party administrator (TPA) for retirement investment accounts is tricked into authorizing a money distribution to an imposter posing as the true account holder.

The imposter often starts the scam by calling the TPA, identifying himself or herself as an actual account holder, and requesting a withdrawal distribution form. Once the imposter receives the withdrawal distribution form, the imposter returns the completed form to the TPA. The form is completed with the account holder’s real personal identifying information (PII)—often stolen via schemes, data breaches, and other hacking offenses—and bank account information for an account controlled by the imposter or the imposter’s conspirators.

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After the TPA processes the fraudulent request, the request is forwarded to the investment firm responsible for managing the account holder’s investments, and the funds—often the account holder’s life savings—are then directed to the imposter’s designated bank account.

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INSURANCE: Natural Disasters

Posted on April 15, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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Natural Disaster Insurance

Protecting accumulated assets by insuring them against the wrath of Mother Nature

Most homeowners’ insurance policies do not cover damages arising from floods or earthquakes. If a home, or any other real property like a vacation home or beach condo, is in an area subject to floods or earthquakes, consider the value of purchasing insurance that covers such catastrophes.

Take the time to review your homeowners’ policy, making sure that it will repair or replace your roof if damaged by hail, and will apply in the event of high winds, rather than only in tornadoes. The key to the maintenance of any type of insurance is to anticipate all of the possible calamities, and then to decide whether you can afford to lose the assets exposed to those calamities.

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STOCK MARKET: Update

Posted on April 15, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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Stocks kept the good vibes going for a second trading day yesterday with tech companies like Apple rising as investors reacted to the weekend’s news that smartphones and computers would be temporarily exempt from “reciprocal” tariffs—at least until new semiconductor tariffs are imposed.

Car companies also jumped after President Trump suggested he wanted to “help” as automakers try to transition their production to the US in the face of 25% auto tariffs.

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DAILY UPDATE: UnitedHealth Group Members Appear Sicker as Stock Markets Edge Up

Posted on April 15, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

MEDICAL EXECUTIVE-POST – TODAY’S NEWSLETTER BRIEFING

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Essays, Opinions and Curated News in Health Economics, Investing, Business, Management and Financial Planning for Physician Entrepreneurs and their Savvy Advisors and Consultants

“Serving Almost One Million Doctors, Financial Advisors and Medical Management Consultants Daily“

A Partner of the Institute of Medical Business Advisors , Inc.

SPONSORED BY: Marcinko & Associates, Inc.

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Daily Update Provided By Staff Reporters Since 2007.
How May We Serve You?

REFER A COLLEAGUE: MarcinkoAdvisors@outlook.com

SPONSORSHIPS AVAILABLE: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/sponsors/

ADVERTISE ON THE ME-P: https://tinyurl.com/ytb5955z

Your Referral Count -0-

A recent study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that in 2021, UnitedHealth Group received just under $14 billion in extra Medicare Advantage payments after using a code that made its members appear sicker. It’s another tough break for the plan and provider that has faced allegations of illegally taking additional money from patients and taxpayers, especially after its CEO was fatally shot in early December.

CITE: https://tinyurl.com/2h47urt5

US stocks edged higher on Monday as investors focused on tech’s temporary reprieve from President Trump’s tariffs.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) trimmed bigger gains to rise a healthy 0.8%. The tech-heavy NASDAQ (^IXIC) also closed off its session high, up 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was up around 0.7%, or more than 300 points.

Visualize: How private equity tangled banks in a web of debt, from the Financial Times.

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Stocks UP and Stocks DOWN

Posted on April 14, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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🟢 What’s up

Auto stocks soared on comments from President Trump that car companies “need a little bit of time.” GM rose 3.48%, Ford climbed 4.13%, and Stellantis gained 5.64%.
Investors are bullish: WeBull exploded 374.72% after the online investment platform went public via SPAC merger last Friday.
Goldman Sachs rose 1.87% after the Wall Street titan announced record revenue in its equities-trading business thanks to stock market volatility in the first quarter.
Palantir gained 4.60% after it sealed a deal with NATO to provide the organization with its advanced AI-powered warfighting system.
Intel climbed 2.89% on news that it will sell a 51% stake in its programmable chips unit Altera to Silver Lake Management.
Pfizer somehow rose 0.96% despite announcing that it is discontinuing the development of a once-daily weight-loss pill after a patient experienced a liver injury. That’s great news for Viking Therapeutics, which has its own oral weight-loss pill in the pipeline. Shares of Viking rose 10.58%.
Speaking of biotech stocks, Verve Therapeutics soared 26.38% after the company reported no issues with patients trialing its new gene-editing technology.

What’s down

Meta Platforms fell 2.22% as its antitrust trial began today. If it loses its case against the FTC, it may be forced to sell off Instagram.
DaVita sank 3.03% after the kidney disease treatment company announced it was the victim of a ransomware attack.
Hilton Worldwide Holdings fell 1.10% on a downgrade from Goldman Sachs analysts, who believe the vacation club company will struggle as fewer people splurge on travel. Marriott International received the same treatment, and also dropped 0.77%.
LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (really rolls off the tongue) tumbled 6.39% after the luxury goods retailer missed analyst expectations, reporting a 3% decline in sales compared to forecasts of 2% growth.
It’s a bit broad, but Citi analysts downgraded all US stocks to “neutral” this morning. The analysts argued that US stocks are too exposed to President Trump’s policies and are expensive compared to international peers, and endorsed investing in Japanese, European, and UK equities instead.

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US STOCKS: Market Update

Posted on April 14, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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US Markets

After one of the most volatile weeks in Wall Street history, the S&P 500 closed 5.7% higher for its best week since 2023. But investors are taking little comfort with the rebound in stocks.

A declining dollar fell to a three-year low against the euro on Friday and spiking bond yields have some observers warning of a monumental, structural shift away from the US as a safe haven due to the recent tariff turmoil.

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BENEFICIARY DESIGNATIONS: Top 10 Tips for Medical Professionals

Posted on April 14, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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Beneficiary designations can provide a relatively easy way to transfer an account or insurance policy upon your death. However, if you’re not careful, missing or outdated beneficiary designations can easily cause your estate plan to go awry.

Where you can find them

Here’s a sampling of where you’ll find beneficiary designations:

Employer-sponsored retirement plans [401(k), 403(b), etc.]
IRAs
Life insurance policies
Annuities
Transfer-on-death (TOD) investment accounts
Pay-on-death (POD) bank accounts
Stock options and restricted stock
Executive deferred compensation plans
In several states, so-called “lady bird” deeds for real estate

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10 tips about beneficiary designations

Because beneficiary designations are so important, keep these things in mind in your estate planning:

Remember to name beneficiaries. If you don’t name a beneficiary, one of the following could occur:
- The account or policy may have to go through probate. This process often results in unnecessary delays, additional costs, and unfavorable income tax treatment.
- The agreement that controls the account or policy may provide for “default” beneficiaries. This could be helpful, but it’s possible the default beneficiaries may not be whom you intended.
Name both primary and contingent beneficiaries. It’s a good practice to name a “back up” or contingent beneficiary in case the primary beneficiary dies before you. Depending on your situation, you may have only a primary beneficiary. In that case, consider whether it may make sense to name a charity (or charities) as the contingent beneficiary.
Update for life events. Review your beneficiary designations regularly and update them as needed based on major life events, such as births, deaths, marriages, and divorces.
Read the instructions. Beneficiary designation forms are not all alike. Don’t just fill in names — be sure to read the form carefully. If necessary, you can draft your own customized beneficiary designation, but you should do this only with the guidance of an experienced attorney or tax advisor.
Coordinate with your will and trust. Whenever you change your will or trust, be sure to talk with your attorney about your beneficiary designations. Because these designations operate independently of your other estate planning documents, it’s important to understand how the different parts of your plan work as a whole.
Think twice before naming individual beneficiaries for particular assets. For example, you may establish three accounts of equal value initially and name a different child as beneficiary of each account. Over the years, the accounts may grow or be depleted unevenly, so the three children end up receiving different amounts — which is not what you originally intended.
Avoid naming your estate as beneficiary. If you designate a beneficiary on your 401(k), for example, it won’t have to go through probate court to be distributed to the beneficiary. If you name your estate as beneficiary, the account will have to go through probate. For IRAs and qualified retirement plans, there may also be unfavorable income tax consequences.
Use caution when naming a trust as beneficiary. Consult your attorney or CPA before naming a trust as beneficiary for IRAs, qualified retirement plans, or annuities. There are situations where it makes sense to name a trust — for example if:
- Your beneficiaries are minor children
- You’re in a second marriage
- You want to control access to funds
Be aware of tax consequences. Many assets that transfer by beneficiary designation come with special tax consequences. It’s helpful to work with an experienced tax advisor to help provide planning ideas for your particular situation.
Use disclaimers when necessary — but be careful. Sometimes a beneficiary may actually want to decline (disclaim) assets on which they’re designated as beneficiary. Keep in mind that disclaimers involve complex legal and tax issues and require careful consultation with your attorney and CPA.

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CONVERTIBLE ARBITRAGE: Defined

Posted on April 13, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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Convertible Arbitrage

Convertible arbitrage is the oldest market-neutral strategy. Designed to capitalize on the relative mispricing between a convertible security (e.g. convertible bond or preferred stock) and the underlying equity, convertible arbitrage was employed as early as the 1950s.

Since then, convertible arbitrage has evolved into a sophisticated, model-intensive strategy, designed to capture the difference between the income earned by a convertible security (which is held long) and the dividend of the underlying stock (which is sold short). The resulting net positive income of the hedged position is independent of any market fluctuations. The trick is to assemble a portfolio wherein the long and short positions, responding to equity fluctuations, interest rate shifts, credit spreads and other market events offset each other.

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Hedge Fund Research (HFR) New York, offers the following description of the strategy

Convertible Arbitrage involves taking long positions in convertible securities and hedging those positions by selling short the underlying common stock. A manager will, in an effort to capitalize on relative pricing inefficiencies, purchase long positions in convertible securities, generally convertible bonds, convertible preferred stock or warrants, and hedge a portion of the equity risk by selling short the underlying common stock. Timing may be linked to a specific event relative to the underlying company, or a belief that a relative mispricing exists between the corresponding securities. Convertible securities and warrants are priced as a function of the price of the underlying stock, expected future volatility of returns, risk free interest rates, call provisions, supply and demand for specific issues and, in the case of convertible bonds, the issue-specific corporate/Treasury yield spread. Thus, there is ample room for relative mis-valuations.

Because a large part of this strategy’s gain is generated by cash flow, it is a relatively low-risk strategy.

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CREDIT CARDS: Mistakes All Doctors Must Avoid

Posted on April 13, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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Credit Card Mistakes to Avoid

No number has as far-reaching an impact on your money as your credit scores. Here are some credit card obstacles all physicians, nurses and medical professionals should dodge on the road to financial security

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Don’t pay for a credit card repair service.
Don’t miss a payment.
Don’t max out your card.
Don’t take a cash-advance.
Don’t skip using your cards.
Don’t chase interest rates.
Don’t apply for several credit cards all at once.
Don’t co-sign a loan.
Don’t spread our car or mortgage payments.

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PHYSICIAN: Financial Education Lacking in Medical School

Posted on April 12, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

FRANKLY SPEAKING MY MIND!

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

SPONSOR: http://www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

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The vast majority of physicians and medical professionals major in one of the hard science while in college; biology, engineering, chemistry, mathematics, computer science or physics; etc. Few take undergraduate courses in finance, business management, securities analysis, accounting or economics; although this paradigm is changing with modernity. These course are not particularly difficult for the pre-medical baccalaureate major, they are just not on the radar screen for time compressed and highly competitive students; nor are they needed for medical or nursing school admission, or the many related allied health professional schools.

In fact, William C. Roberts MD, originally from Emory University in Atlanta, and former editor for the Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings and The American Journal of Cardiology, opined just a decade ago:

“Of the 125 medical schools in the USA, only one of them to my knowledge offers a class related to saving or investing money.”

And so, it is important to review some basic principles of economics, finance and accounting as they relate to financial planning in thees two textbooks; and this ME-P.

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SPECIAL PURPOSE VEHICLE: Defined

Posted on April 12, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By dcpalter

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What is an SPV and When Do You Need One?

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A special purpose vehicle (SPV), or a special purpose entity (SPE), is a legal entity that a parent company creates to hold separate assets from the parent’s balance sheet.

Its purpose is to isolate the parent company from any potential credit or financial risk that may arise from the SPV and is often used to pursue riskier projects, securitize debt, or transfer assets.
Since an SPV is separate from the parent company, it isn’t affected by the parent’s performance, and the parent isn’t typically affected by the performance of the SPV. If the parent goes bankrupt and is no longer in existence, the SPV can carry on.

This makes an SPV bankruptcy remote. This also means that the parent company is unaffected by the loss if the SPV fails.

MORE: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/resources/skills/strategy/special-purpose-vehicle-spv

Related: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2024/07/26/spac-v-direct-listing-v-ipo/

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PHYSICIAN RETIREES: Home Ownership V. Home Renting

Posted on April 12, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

THE “FIVE-FIVE” FINANCIAL RULE

By Staff Reporters

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Many of the pros of home ownership will appeal to medical retirees for whom their home is their castle and who appreciate being settled both financially and geographically:

1. Building equity in your home: Each mortgage payment you make brings you closer to owning your house free and clear with no payments. If you can buy a new home or condo outright by selling your current home, you can still build equity in your new home over time.
2. Predictability: If you have a fixed-rate mortgage, your mortgage payments will remain consistent for years and you don’t have to worry about a landlord ever making you move.
3. Tax benefits: You can deduct mortgage interest and property taxes up to certain limits.
4. Customization: You don’t need a landlord’s permission to alter and improve your home.
5. Home appreciation: Homes generally increase in value, so you can increase your net worth by owning a property.

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Renting also has five significant upsides, particularly for physician retirees who want greater freedom to travel and to make bigger moves — potentially across the country or even abroad:

1. Extreme flexibility: You can leave your property after giving notice and go wherever you want much more easily than with an illiquid home you’d have to sell first.
2. Lower upfront costs: You only have to pay first and last month’s rent and a security deposit to move into a rental, not make a large home down payment.
3. No maintenance concerns: If something breaks, your landlord is responsible for the cost of fixing it and the actual repairs. You don’t have to build up an emergency fund for maintenance.
4. Predictable expenses: For the duration of your lease, your monthly housing costs including utilities will remain consistent, even if the cost of energy goes up, for example.
5. Lack of worry: If you’re in a rental apartment, you won’t have to concern yourself with shoveling snow, mowing grass or other matters of upkeep.

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DAILY UPDATE: Dow & S&P 500 Post Best Week Since 2023

Posted on April 12, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

MEDICAL EXECUTIVE-POST – TODAY’S NEWSLETTER BRIEFING

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Essays, Opinions and Curated News in Health Economics, Investing, Business, Management and Financial Planning for Physician Entrepreneurs and their Savvy Advisors and Consultants

“Serving Almost One Million Doctors, Financial Advisors and Medical Management Consultants Daily“

A Partner of the Institute of Medical Business Advisors , Inc.

SPONSORED BY: Marcinko & Associates, Inc.

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Daily Update Provided By Staff Reporters Since 2007.
How May We Serve You?

REFER A COLLEAGUE: MarcinkoAdvisors@outlook.com

SPONSORSHIPS AVAILABLE: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/sponsors/

ADVERTISE ON THE ME-P: https://tinyurl.com/ytb5955z

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US stocks turned higher on Friday to cap a chaotic week on Wall Street, as investors weighed the latest tariff-related developments in the trade war between the US and China.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 1.8% after seesawing earlier in the session. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite (^IXIC) climbed 2.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) advanced 1.5%, about 600 points.

Trump’s fast-moving tariff policy has whiplashed stocks this week with historic gains during Wednesday’s session but sharp losses on Thursday.

CITE: https://tinyurl.com/2h47urt5

In the end, the S&P 500 and Dow had their best weeks since 2023, while the NASDAQ’s 7% weekly gain was its best since 2022.

The Reputational Bankruptcy of the American Dollar

Visualize: How private equity tangled banks in a web of debt, from the Financial Times.

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EDUCATIONAL TEXTBOOKS: https://tinyurl.com/4zdxuuwf

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ROTH: Conversion Considerations for Physicians

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Why would a doctor consider a Roth IRA conversion?

By Staff Reporters

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A Roth conversion involves transferring funds from a traditional retirement account—such as a 401(k), 403(b), or individual retirement account (IRA) funded with pre-tax dollars—into a Roth IRA.

The biggest benefit lies in the tax treatment of the converted funds. Once the funds are in the Roth IRA, future growth of those assets is tax-free. Withdrawals in retirement are also tax-free, assuming they meet certain criteria. As with any strategy, there are important considerations to keep in mind.

When you convert funds to a Roth IRA, the amount converted is taxable income in that tax year. For example, if you convert $100,000 from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, that $100,000 will be added to your taxable income in the conversion year.

Converting large amounts can result in a significant tax bill and may push you into a higher tax bracket. Even so, using retirement funds to pay taxes may make sense for those looking to convert large IRAs to reduce their future required minimum distributions (RMDs).

The timing of your Roth conversion matters too. Generally, it’s a good idea to convert when your income is lower—for example, after you’ve retired and before you begin drawing Social Security. You may also choose to convert over the course of several years to spread out the tax impacts. But if you can get comfortable with these considerations, a Roth conversion can provide you with benefits beyond tax-free growth and withdrawals.

Some of these benefits are:

Tax diversification. Having both traditional and Roth accounts allows you to manage your tax liability in retirement. For example, if your income in a given year is higher than expected, you can withdraw from the Roth IRA without increasing your taxable income.
No RMDs. Traditional IRAs and 401(k)s require you to begin taking RMDs at age 73. Roth IRAs have no RMD requirement during your lifetime. With a Roth account, you have more control over your retirement withdrawals and can leave the funds to grow for your heirs.
Benefits for heirs. Roth IRAs can be passed on to beneficiaries, who can inherit the account income tax-free. This means your heirs can enjoy the tax-free growth and withdrawals if the Roth IRA has been held for five years or more—a significant advantage, especially if your beneficiaries are in a higher tax bracket.

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FINANCIAL MODELING TERMS: All Physicians Should Review and Know

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

SPONSOR: http://www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

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Financial Modeling is one of the most highly valued, but thinly understood, skills in financial analysis. The objective of financial modeling is to combine accounting, finance, and business metrics to create a forecast of a company’s future results.

According to Jeff Schmidt, a financial model is simply a spreadsheet, usually built in Microsoft Excel, that forecasts a business’s financial performance into the future. The forecast is typically based on the company’s historical performance and assumptions about the future and requires preparing an income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, and supporting schedules (known as a three-statement model, one of many types of approaches to financial statement modeling). From there, more advanced types of models can be built such as discounted cash flow analysis (DCF model), leveraged buyout (LBO), mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and sensitivity analysis

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DEFINED TERMS

Discounted Cash Flow (DCF): A valuation method used to estimate the value of an investment based on its expected future cash flows, adjusted for the time value of money. It’s like deciding whether a treasure chest is worth diving for now, based on the gold coins you’ll be able to cash in later.

Sensitivity Analysis: This involves changing one variable at a time to see how it affects an outcome. Imagine tweaking your coffee-to-water ratio each morning to achieve the perfect brew strength.

Budget – A budget is the amount of money a department, function, or business can spend in a given period of time. Usually, but not always, finance does this annually for the upcoming year.

Rolling Forecast – A rolling forecast maintains a consistent view over a period of time (often 12 months). When one period closes, finance adds one more period to the forecast.

Topside – A topside adjustment is an overlay to a forecast. This is typically completed by the corporate or headquarter team. As individual teams submit a forecast, the consolidated result might not make sense or align with expectations. When this occurs, the high-level teams use a topside adjustment to streamline or adjust the consolidated view.

Monte Carlo Simulation: Picture yourself at the casino, but instead of gambling your savings away, you’re using this technique to predict different outcomes of your business decisions based on random variables. It’s like playing financial roulette with the odds in your favor.

What-If Analysis: Ever daydream about what would happen if you took that leap of faith with your business? This tool allows you to explore various scenarios without risking a dime. It’s like trying on outfits in a virtual dressing room before making a purchase.

Leveraged Buyout (LBO) Model: This is a bit like orchestrating a heist, but legally. It’s about acquiring a company using borrowed money, with plans to pay off the debts with the company’s own cash flows. High stakes, high rewards.

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) Model: Picture two puzzle pieces coming together. This model evaluates how combining companies can create a new, more valuable entity. It’s the corporate version of a matchmaker.

Three Statement Model: The holy trinity of financial modeling, linking the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement. It’s like weaving a tapestry where each thread is crucial to the overall picture.

Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM): A formula that calculates the expected return on an investment, considering its risk compared to the market. It’s like choosing the best roller coaster in the park, balancing thrill and safety.

Cash Flow Forecasting: This is your financial weather forecast, predicting the cash flow climate of your business. It helps you plan for sunny days and save for the rainy ones.

Cost of Capital: The price of financing your business, whether through debt or equity. It’s like the interest rate on your growth engine, pushing you to maximize every dollar invested.

Debt Schedule: A timeline of your business’s debts, showing when and how much you owe. It’s your roadmap to becoming debt-free, one milestone at a time.

Equity Valuation: Determining the value of a company’s shares. It’s like assessing the worth of a rare gemstone, ensuring investors pay a fair price for a piece of the treasure.

Financial Leverage: Using debt to amplify returns on investment. It’s like using a lever to lift a heavy object, increasing force but also risk.

Forecast Model: A crystal ball for your finances, projecting future performance based on past and present data. It’s your guide through the financial wilderness, helping you navigate with confidence.

Operating Model: A detailed blueprint of how a business generates value, mapping out operational activities and their financial impact. It’s like laying out the inner workings of a clock, ensuring every gear turns smoothly.

Revenue Growth Model: This tracks potential increases in sales over time, charting a course for expansion. It’s like plotting your ascent up a mountain, anticipating the effort required to reach the summit.

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TREASURY NOTES: Panic Attack Mode?

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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Treasury notes are typically considered one of the world’s safest safe-haven assets—the US has always repaid bondholders on their investment, plus yield (interest). That’s why you can usually count on the bond market to rally when the stock market craters. And, vice-versa. But not this time:

The benchmark 10-year bond yield, which moves inversely to bond prices, had its steepest spike this week since the 2008 financial crisis. The 10-year yield is more closely watched than the 30-year yield (which also spiked) in part because it influences home and auto loan rates.
A Treasury auction of 3-year bonds on Tuesday was met with the softest demand since December 2023. That helped drive the bond sell-off on fears of a pullback among international investors, who hold $8.5 trillion in US Treasuries (Japan and China lead the pack).

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REPUTATIONAL BANKRUPTCY: Of the American Dollar

Posted on April 9, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Vitaliy Katsenelson CFA

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I am in an unenviable position. The policy coming out of the White House has a significant impact on economics, more than ever before in my career. If I say anything positive about that policy, I’ll be put in the MAGA camp. If I criticize it, I’ll be accused of suffering from Trump derangement syndrome. I am hired by you to make the best investment decisions possible. Rather than see me as engaged in political commentary, I’d ask that you view my remarks as purely analytical.

Let me give you this analogy. I live in Denver. Let’s imagine I am a huge Broncos fan, and the Broncos are playing the Chicago Bears. If I am betting a significant amount of money on this game, I should put my affinity for the Broncos and hatred of the Chicago Bears aside and analyze data and facts. The Broncos are either going to win or lose; my wanting them to win has zero impact on the outcome. The same applies to my analysis here. My motto in life is Seneca’s saying, “Time discovers truth.” I just try to discover it before time does.

When it comes to politics, I also have a significant advantage. I was not born in this country. From a young age, I was brainwashed about communism, not about team Republican versus team Democrat. The failure of the Soviet Union de-brainwashed me fast concerning the virtues of communism and converted me into a believer in free markets.

As a result, I never bought into either party’s ideology, and thus in the last four presidential elections I voted for a Republican, an independent, a Democrat, and wrote in my youngest daughter, Mia Sarah (not in that order). In my articles I have criticized the policies of both Biden (student loan forgiveness, unions) and Trump (Bitcoin reserve).

I remind myself that in times like these you have to be a nuanced thinker. Some of Trump’s policies are terrific, others … not so much (I am being diplomatic here).

Scott Fitzgerald once said “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” In 2025 we are taking this “first-rate intelligence” test daily.

What will happen to the US dollar? The US dollar will likely continue to get weaker, which is inflationary for the US. Let me start with some easily identifiable reasons:

We have too much debt. We ran 6-7% budget deficits while our economy was growing and unemployment was at record lows. Now we have $36 trillion in debt. Our interest expenses exceed our defense spending, and these costs will continue to climb. If/when we go into recession, we may see something we have not seen in a long time – higher interest rates. Our budget deficits will balloon to between 9–12%, and the debt market, realizing that inflation (i.e., money printing) is inevitable, will say, “Pay up!”

New competition from Bitcoin. President Trump’s approval of Bitcoin as a potential reserve currency is one of the most self-serving and anti-American things I’ve seen any president do. The US dollar is the world’s reserve currency. We still have little competition for that title. China could be a contender, but it is not a democracy and has capital controls. This policy has no upside for America, only downside.

A stronger Europe. Ironically, we may inadvertently create a stronger Europe by threatening to abandon NATO. I don’t want to insult European clients (or my European friends), but the following analogy describes the US-Europe relationship on some level: Europe gradually evolved into a trust fund kid (when it came to security) and the US turned into its sugar daddy. The trust fund kid was incredibly dependent on the sugar daddy. It criticized its parent for being a barbarian and money-driven, but it relied heavily on that parent to protect it from bullies.

President Trump cut off Europe’s allowance by threatening that the US might not protect Europe from Russia. This has forced Europe to spend more money on defense. Outside of Germany (which has little debt), few European economies can afford that. This may force Europe (or at least some European countries) to become more pragmatic – to cut social programs and bureaucracy. If this leads to a stronger Europe both economically and militarily, the euro will be competing with the US dollar. This is a big if.

Our new foreign policy.

When people describe President Trump’s foreign policy as “transactional,” they’re highlighting a fundamental shift in how America engages with the world – one with profound implications for our global standing, national interests, and the US dollar. The shift affects both types of capital – financial and reputational.

Reputational capital isn’t at risk in ‘one-shot’ transactions like house selling. Imagine you’re selling your primary residence and moving elsewhere. Do you disclose every flaw, or let the buyer figure things out? Your incentive is to maximize short-term profits. You’ll likely never meet this buyer again, and therefore there are incentives not to care what they’ll think of you afterward. You’ll be transactional, seeking the highest price possible for your biggest asset. This exemplifies a ‘one-shot’ system where future interactions aren’t expected.

Contrast this with a relationship- and trust-based system. Now imagine you are a homebuilder in a small town. Your suppliers only extend credit if you have a reputation for paying on time. Your employees do quality work only if you treat them fairly. Your buyers tell friends about their experience with you. The incentives naturally create a relational approach. In this trust-based system, incentives skew toward maximizing long-term profits, where reputational capital becomes the glue creating continuity.

Reputational capital radiates predictability – you know how someone will behave based on their history – but operating with low or negative reputational capital is difficult and expensive. People won’t enter long-term contracts with you or will demand external guarantees. Many potential partners will simply refuse to deal with you.

Building reputational capital works like adding pennies to a jar – each good deed incrementally adds to your standing. Yet reputational capital can collapse instantly by removing the jar’s bottom. A single breach of trust doesn’t just remove one penny; it can wipe out your entire balance and plunge you into reputational bankruptcy. The math is brutally asymmetric: good deeds might add a point or two, while bad deeds subtract by factors of 50 or 100.

This doesn’t mean transactions shouldn’t be profitable. If you’re accumulating reputational capital while consistently losing money, you’re probably in the wrong business. Each deal should be evaluated considering both long-term financial and reputational capital.

Individual transactions can sacrifice some profit but cannot afford to lose reputational capital. A “one-shot” transactional approach used in a trust-system environment may provide greater short-term profitability, but if this success comes at the expense of reputational capital, the long-term consequences for America’s global position could be devastating.

This brings us to our current foreign policy.

Relationships between nations are a trust-based system. I’d argue it’s a super-relational system because it’s multigenerational, lasting beyond the life of any one human. Reputational capital is paramount here.

Part of the US’s strength has been the soft power – the reputational capital – it exerted. We had a lot of friends, which helped us to be more effective in dealing with our foes. We keep telling ourselves that America is an “exceptional” nation. This exceptionalism didn’t just come from our financial and military might – it accumulated based on our reputational capital.

Though we don’t always succeed, we are a people who try to do the right thing. Our exceptionalism has been earned through our actions. We are the country that helped rebuild Europe and gave it six decades to repay lend-lease. We toppled communism.

I don’t know the nuances of the Ukraine mineral deal, but initially it had the optics of extortion. Though I think the renegotiated and signed version appears to be fair to both sides, forcing repayment while Ukraine is dodging Russian missiles made the US look transactional.

Actions by President Trump over the last month have undermined our reputation. We are quickly becoming a “one-shot” transactional player in a trust-based environment. Imposing tariffs on Canada on a whim to try to get it to become the 51st state erodes American reputational capital. So does not ruling out America invading Greenland. This puts us on the same moral plane as Russia invading Ukraine.

The conversation about tariffs has many nuances. For instance, I don’t know anyone who opposes reciprocal tariffs – they seem fair and don’t consume any reputational capital. But tariffs that are used as weapons in a trade war in order to annex another country erode reputational capital. Threatening to leave NATO and not protect countries that don’t spend enough on their defense diminishes reputational capital. Maybe the only way to get European countries to spend on defense was to threaten not to defend them – you can agree or disagree with the rationale behind each of Trump’s decisions, but what can’t be argued is that they undermined our reputational capital.

As we lose soft power, our influence will diminish, and thus so will perceptions of our power. The world will start looking at us not from the perspective of the continuity of generations but of presidential cycles. The word of the American president will have an expiration date of the next presidential or mid-term election.

There are two negotiation styles – Warren Buffett’s and Donald Trump’s. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Buffett will give you one offer and one offer only. Once the deal is agreed to, even just verbally, that is the deal. Critics would say that there is downside to that predictability, as foes know how you are going to respond. Donald Trump’s style is to be unpredictable, which has its own advantages when you deal with foes – it keeps opponents guessing. But it destroys trust with your allies.

In a world of fiat currencies, all currency is a financial and reputational promise. President Trump, with the help of DOGE (and maybe even tariffs) may increase our financial strength. I hope he does, but it will likely come at a very high cost to our reputational capital, and therefore US global influence and the US dollar will continue its decline.

How are we positioned for this?

About half of our portfolio is foreign companies whose sales are not in dollars. They will benefit from a weaker dollar. We also have exposure to oil, which is priced in the US dollar and usually appreciates when the dollar weakens.

A weaker dollar means our imports will become more expensive, which is inflationary. We own many companies with pricing power and also companies that have claims on someone else’s revenues. Take Uber for example: they get about 20% of each ride. If the cost of the ride goes up, so does their dollar take.

Why does President Trump keep pushing crypto?

In July 2019, Trump said the following: “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air.” Five years later he promised to establish the US Crypto Reserve, and in 2025 he did.

What changed? There is no logical reason for an American president to endorse crypto. None. Here is the honest answer: Crypto bros made mega-contributions to his campaign.

To top it off, three days before he took office he issued $TRUMP – a shitcoin. Believe it or not, “shitcoin” is a technical term in the crypto community (any coin other than Bitcoin is called a shitcoin by Bitcoin “maximalists”, folks who believe Bitcoin is the one and only digital currency). The future sitting president literally issued – I don’t want to call it a currency, so I guess shitcoin is the right name – that will at some point decline to zero in value. In other words, he’ll fleece his loyal followers who purchase $TRUMP of billions of dollars.

I previously referenced both reputational capital and soft power. These types of acts by a sitting president subtract from both.

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STOCK MARKET: Panic Buying Apple A18 Processor iPhones

Posted on April 9, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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Just after midnight, President Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs went into effect against 86 countries. Analysts have estimated that the new US average effective tariff rate is north of 20%, the highest in more than 100 years. Ahead of the tariff deadline, markets swung violently, mostly way down: According to Bloomberg’s Cameron Crise, yesterday was the fourth straight trading day when the S&P 500’s trading range was 5% or more. That’s only happened in 1987, 2008, and 2020.

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The Apple A18 and Apple A18 Pro are a pair of 64-bit ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series. They are used in the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro lineups and the iPhone 16e, and built on a second generation 3 nm process by TSMC.

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Yesterday, for several hours on Tuesday, it looked like stocks were going to regain some of the ground lost during the market’s very bad week. But after the Trump administration made it clear that its increased tariffs on China would go into effect, all three indexes plunged. Apple, which makes most of its iPhones in China, was hit harder than many of its Big Tech peers.

So shoppers are thinking it’s better to have an Apple A18 processor and not need it, than to need it and not have it. Apple customers are scrambling to buy new iPhones out of fear that the company could raise prices to offset President Trump’s tariffs.

Employees at locations throughout the US said they’re being bombarded with questions about potential price hikes and have witnessed customers panic-buying phones. Though Apple declined to comment to Bloomberg, its retail stores reportedly saw higher sales over the last weekend than in previous years.

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IPOs: Delayed

Posted on April 7, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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Initial Public Offering Defined

IPO stands for initial public offering. It is when a company takes a portion of their shares and makes them available for the general public to buy on the open market. It is a way for the company to raise money by selling those shares to the general public. You can usually access shares from an IPO by working directly with an investment bank.

Paused IPOs

Private companies StubHub and Klarna each paused their imminent plans to go public.

Klarna, which was set to IPO on this Monday, was expected to jump-start the frozen IPO market this year with an expected ~$15 billion valuation.

StubHub, meanwhile, reportedly wants to wait for the market to calm down before resuming its plans to go public.

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BLACK MONDAY REDEUX: Interesting Day or Financial Crisis?

Posted on April 7, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

BILL ACKMAN versus JIM KRAMER

By Staff Reporters

SPONSOR: http://www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

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Interesting Day?

Markets: Last week’s market bloodbath will go down in the history books. The S&P 500’s 10% plunge on Thursday and Friday, after President Trump announced massive tariffs, ranks among the steepest two-day decline in the last 70 years, on par with Black Monday in 1987, the post-Lehman Brothers rout in 2008, and the Covid plunge in March 2020. More than $6 trillion was wiped out from stocks over two days, and the NASDAQ entered a bear market, down 20% from a previous high.

Trading restarted at 9:30 am ET for what Bill Ackman predicts will be “one of the more interesting days in our country’s economic history.”

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Monday Crash?

On the other hand, CNBC host and market commentator Jim Cramer just warned that America is in store for another “Black Monday” market crash similar to the record 1987 collapse if President Trump doesn’t curtail his tariff plan.

Cramer — who noted that the 1987 crash saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average fall by 22.6% in a single day — said the bloodbath could be repeated after the brutal two-day sell-off following the announcement of Trump’s sweeping tariffs against nearly 90 countries.

If the president doesn’t try to reach out and reward these countries and companies that play by the rules, then the 1987 scenario … the one where we went down three days and then down 22% on Monday, has the most cogency,” Cramer said on his show Saturday, referencing the worst single-day fall in the history of the Dow.

QUESTION: Who is correct; Ackman or Cramer?

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Registered Investment Advisor VERSUS Hedge Fund Manager

Posted on April 7, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

SPONSOR: http://www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

By Staff Reporters

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The Hedge Fund manager I am considering is a Registered Investment Adviser [RIA]

QUESTION: What is a Registered Investment Advisor?

If the fund manager is an entity, then any individual you deal with will be a registered investment adviser representative. If the fund manager is an individual, then that individual is a registered investment adviser. In either case, the designation implies several steps have been taken.

In order to become a registered investment adviser, an individual must register for and pass the Series 65 Uniform Investment Adviser Law Exam, a three-hour, 130-question computer-based exam administered by the North American Securities Administrators Association. Topics covered include economics and analysis, investment vehicles, investment recommendations and strategies, and ethics and legal guidelines. A passing score is 70 percent or higher.

Once an individual has passed the Series 65, he or she must then apply via Form ADV to become a registered investment adviser. This application is made to either a state authority or to the SEC, depending on the adviser’s assets under management. If assets under management exceed $30 million, then the adviser must register with the SEC.

Form ADV consists of two parts. Part I provides general information to the regulatory authority. Part II is designed to be distributed to potential clients, and includes disclosure of a decent amount of information about the adviser. If the manager is a registered investment adviser, then you should expect to receive as part of the offering documentation either a current copy of Part II of the adviser’s Form ADV or a brochure that contains all the current information in Part II of Form ADV.

In addition to filing Form ADV and paying a small fee, the registered investment adviser becomes subject to extra administrative/regulatory burden as well as capital adequacy requirements that state the Adviser must maintain certain net worth levels.

By and large, because of the extra administrative burden as well as restrictions on certain activities, hedge fund managers attempt to avoid registering as investment advisers. Whether such managers can or cannot avoid such registration is largely dependent upon the state in which the manager operates. In California, for instance, hedge fund managers must register as investment advisers. In New York, such registration is not necessary. Not surprisingly, hedge fund managers located in California are rare, while they are quite plentiful in New York.

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EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: How EQ Can Make You a Better Investor

Posted on April 6, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Vitaliy Katsenelson CFA

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How Emotional Intelligence Can Make You a Better Investor. You can also listen to a professional narration of this article on iTunes & online.

Your knee hurts, so you pay a visit to your favorite orthopedist. He smiles, maybe even gives you a hug, and then tells you: “I feel your pain. Really, I do. But I don’t treat left knees, only right ones. I find I am so much better with the right ones. Last time I worked on a left knee, I didn’t do so well.”

Though many professionals — doctors as well as lawyers, architects and engineers — get to choose their specializations, they rarely get to choose the problems they solve. Problems choose them. Investors enjoy the unique luxury of choosing problems that let them maximize the use of not just their IQ but also their EQ — emotional intelligence.

Let’s start with IQ. Our intellectual capacity to analyze problems will vary with the problem in front of us. Just as we breezed through some subjects in college and struggled with others, our ability to understand the current and future dynamics of various companies and industries will fluctuate as well. This is why we buy stocks that fall within our sphere of competence. We tend to stick with ones where our IQ is the highest.

Though we usually think about our capacity to analyze problems as being dependable and stable over time, it isn’t. It might be if we were characters from Star Trek, with complete control over our emotions, like Mr. Spock, or who lacked emotions, like Lieutenant Commander Data. This is where our EQ comes in.

I am not a licensed psychologist, but I have huge experience treating a very difficult patient: me. And what I have found is that emotions have two troublesome effects on me. First, they distort probabilities; so even if my intellectual capacity to analyze a problem is not impacted, my brain may be solving a distorted problem. Second, my IQ is not constant, and my ability to process information effectively declines under stress. I either lose the big picture or overlook important details. This dilemma is not unique to me; I’m sure it affects all of us to various degrees.

The higher my EQ with regard to a particular company, the more likely that my IQ will not degrade when things go wrong (or even when they go right). There is a good reason why doctors don’t treat their own children: Their ability to be rational (properly weighing probabilities) may be severely compromised by their emotions.

A friend of mine who is a terrific investor, and who will remain nameless though his name is George, once told me that he never invests in grocery store stocks because he can’t be rational when he holds them. If we spent some Freudian time with him, we’d probably discover that he had a traumatic childhood event at the grocery store (he may have been caught shoplifting a candy bar when he was eight), or he may have had a bad experience with a grocery stock early in his career. The reason for his problem is irrelevant; what is important is that he has realized that his high IQ will be impaired by his low EQ if he owns grocery stocks.

There is no cure for emotions, but we can dramatically minimize the impact they have on us as investors by adjusting our investment process. First and foremost, investors have the incredible advantage of picking domains where they can remain rational.

To be a successful investor, you don’t need Albert Einstein’s IQ (though sometimes I wish I had Spock’s EQ). Warren Buffett undoubtedly has a very high IQ, but even the Oracle of Omaha chooses carefully his battles; for instance, he doesn’t invest in technology stocks.

Investors have the luxury of investing only in stocks for which both their IQ and EQ are maximized, because there are tens of thousands of stocks out there to choose from, and they need just a few dozen.

Meanwhile, I hope when I go see the doctor, he will tell me, “I don’t do left knees,” because the best result will come from a doctor who while treating me will utilize both IQ and EQ.

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Filed under: "Ask-an-Advisor", Ethics, Experts Invited, Financial Planning, Glossary Terms, Investing, mental health | Tagged: books, Emotional Intelligence, emotions, EQ, EQ investors, intelligence, investors, IQ, IQ investors, marketing, Technology, Vitaliy Katsenelson CFA | Leave a comment »

HEDGE FUND: Wrap Fees?

Posted on April 5, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Staff Reporters

SPONSOR: http://www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

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My stock broker is telling me about a “wrap-fee” program involving a hedge fund manager.

QUESTION: What is a Wrap Fee?

A wrap fee program is a service that provides investment advice and portfolio management to clients for one all-inclusive fee. The fee pays for the services provided to the client, including but not limited to securities transactions, portfolio management, research, brokerage, and administrative services. Wrap fee programs also provide an understanding of a client’s financial goals and objectives; research and selection of assets; implementation of investment decisions; account statements, and access to real-time financial data.

The Investment Advisers Act of 1940 regulates investment advisors when they offer these wrap fee programs and requires them to provide comprehensive disclosure documents before investing. This act helps ensure clients have access to all important information that affects their investment decisions.

QUESTION: Why do I need my stock broker? Can I just go directly to the hedge fund manager?

Yes, you can, but you may find a different fee arrangement when you reach the hedge fund manager, and you may be participating in an unethical transaction. When hedge fund managers set up separate accounts for wrap-fee clients, they agree to take a set fee in exchange for managing this money. They also enter into agreements with one or more brokers to help market this aspect of their money management business. A portion of the wrap fee you pay goes to the broker, and a portion goes to the manager. Incentive compensation is not generally used.

When approached directly, hedge fund managers will typically offer only the hedge fund, complete with incentive compensation and pooled investment features. However, if the hedge fund manager is willing to set up a separate account, it is possible that the investor will find the set fee much less than what he or she would have paid in a wrap fee account through a broker.

Finally, the very large caveat to all this is that the ethics of a hedge fund manager who steals clients from brokers with whom he has a marketing relationship ought to be called into question. And when it comes to hedge funds, the ethics of the manager are of paramount importance.

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FINANCIAL RATIOS: Profitability for Doctors

Posted on April 4, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By CFI Team and Staff Reporters

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Profitability Ratios

Profitability ratios measure a company’s ability to generate income relative to revenue, balance sheet assets, operating costs, and equity. Common profitability financial ratios include the following:

The gross margin ratio compares the gross profit of a company to its net sales to show how much profit a company makes after paying its cost of goods sold:

Gross margin ratio = Gross profit / Net sales

The operating margin ratio, sometimes known as the return on sales ratio, compares the operating income of a company to its net sales to determine operating efficiency:

Operating margin ratio = Operating income / Net sales

The return on assets ratio measures how efficiently a company is using its assets to generate profit:

Return on assets ratio = Net income / Total assets

The return on equity ratio measures how efficiently a company is using its equity to generate profit:

Return on equity ratio = Net income / Shareholder’s equity

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MONEY SCRIPTS: Fundamental Subconscious Beliefs and Economic Behavioral Patterns Defined

Posted on April 4, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

SALES PSYCHOLOGY FOR INVESTMENT ADVISORS, FINANCIAL ADVISORS, INSURANCE AGENTS, WEALTH MANAGERS AND FINANCIAL PLANNERS

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA MEd CMP®

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SPONSOR: http://www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

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Stocks were decimated yesterday in the first full trading day following President Trump’s tariff announcement. It was the biggest single-day decline since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. Every Magnificent Seven stock was battered—Apple worst of all. And so perhaps it is a good time to discuss the concept of “Money Scripts”.

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Money Scripts are unconscious beliefs about money that are typically only partially true, are developed in childhood, and drive adult financial behaviors. Money scripts may be the result of “financial flashpoints,” which are salient early experiences around money that have a lasting impact in adulthood. Money scripts are often passed down through the generations and social groups often share similar money scripts. And so, we argue that Money scripts are at the root of all illogical, ill-advised, self-destructive, or self-limiting financial behaviors.

In research at Kansas State University [KSU], researchers identified four distinct Money script patterns, which are associated with financial health and predict financial behaviors. These include: (a) money avoidance, (b) money worship, (c) money status, and (d) money vigilance [personal communication Brad Klontz, PsyD, CFP®, Kenneth Shubin-Stein, MD, MPH, MS, CFA and Sonya Britt, PhD, CFP®].

And so, we all like to think our financial decisions are fully rational, but the truth is that our subconscious beliefs have a dramatic impact on our money and financial decisions. These money scripts are important to know and understand. A summary is below:

Money Avoidance

Money avoidance scripts are illustrated by beliefs such as “Rich people are greedy,” “It is not okay to have more than you need,” and “I do not deserve a lot of money when others have less than me.” Money avoiders believe that money is bad or that they do not deserve money. They believe that wealthy people are corrupt and there is virtue in living with less money. They may sabotage their financial success or give money away even though they cannot afford to do so. Money avoidance scripts may be associated with lower income and lower net worth and predict financial behaviors including ignoring bank statements, overspending, financial dependence on others, financial enabling of others, and having trouble sticking to a budget.

Money Worship

Money worship is typified by beliefs such as “More money will make you happier,” “You can never have enough money,” and “Money would solve all my problems.” Money worshipers are convinced that money is the key to happiness. At the same time, they believe that one can never have enough. Money worships have lower income, lower net worth, and higher credit card debt. They are more likely to be hoarders, spend compulsively, and put work ahead of family.

Money Status

Money status scripts include “I will not buy something unless it is new,” “Your self-worth equals you net worth,” and “If something isn’t considered the ‘best’ it is not worth buying.” Money status seekers see net worth and self-worth as being synonymous. They pretend to have more money than they do and tend to overspend as a result. They often grew up in poorer families and believe that the universe should take care of their financial needs if they live a virtuous life. Money status scripts are associated with compulsive gambling, overspending, being financially dependent on others, and lying to one’s spouse about spending.

Money Vigilance

Money vigilant beliefs include “It is important to save for a rainy day,” “You should always look for the best deal, even if it takes more time,” and “I would be a nervous wreck if I did not have an emergency fund.” The money vigilants are alert, watchful and concerned about their financial welfare. They are more likely to save and less likely to buy on credit. As a result, they tend to have higher income and higher net worth. They also have a tendency to be anxious about money and are secretive about their financial status outside of their household. While money vigilance is associated with frugality and saving, excessive anxiety can keep someone from enjoying the benefits that money can provide.

Identification

When money scripts are identified, it is helpful to examine where they came from. A simple behavioral finance technique involves reflecting on the following questions:

What three lessons did you learn about money from your mother?

What three lessons did you learn about money from your father?

What is your first memory around money?

What is your most painful money memory?

What is your most joyful money memory?

What money scripts emerged for you from this experience?

How have they helped you?

How have they hurt you?

What money scripts do you need to change?

Conclusion

Ideally, from a balanced middle ground, we can see past the limitations of money scripts, our self and others who are polarized. Those who believe “Money is meant to be spent” or “Money is meant to be saved” have a world view that results in extreme positions. Labeling them as “correct” or “wrong” is not a useful way to try to shift anyone’s polarized money script beliefs.

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DAILY UPDATE: DJIA Plummets 1,700 Points While NASDAQ & S&P 500 Plunge for Biggest Drop Since 2025

Posted on April 4, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

MEDICAL EXECUTIVE-POST – TODAY’S NEWSLETTER BRIEFING

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Essays, Opinions and Curated News in Health Economics, Investing, Business, Management and Financial Planning for Physician Entrepreneurs and their Savvy Advisors and Consultants

“Serving Almost One Million Doctors, Financial Advisors and Medical Management Consultants Daily“

A Partner of the Institute of Medical Business Advisors , Inc.

SPONSORED BY: Marcinko & Associates, Inc.

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Roughly $2.5 trillion was erased from the S&P 500 Index on Thursday amid worries that President Donald Trump’s sweeping new round of tariffs could plunge the economy into a recession. The damage was heaviest in companies whose supply chains are most dependent on overseas manufacturing. Apple Inc., which makes the majority of its US-sold devices in China, fell 9.3%. Lululemon Athletica Inc. and Nike Inc., among companies with manufacturing ties to Vietnam, were both down more than 9%. Target Corp. and Dollar Tree Inc., retailers whose stores are filled with products sourced outside of the US, dropped more than 10%.

CITE: https://tinyurl.com/2h47urt5

The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite (^IXIC) led the sell-off, plummeting 6%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) sank nearly 5%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) tumbled 4%. The Dow’s 1,700-point drop was the fifth-worst in its history.

Visualize: How private equity tangled banks in a web of debt, from the Financial Times.

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TRADITIONAL INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO DIVERSIFICATION MODEL: Routed by Larry Fink CEO of BlackRock?

Posted on April 3, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

BREAKING NEWS – MARKET VOLATILITY

By Staff Reporters

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US stocks nosedived on Thursday, with the Dow tumbling more than 1,200 points as President Trump’s surprisingly steep “Liberation Day” tariffs sent shock waves through markets worldwide. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite (IXIC) led the sell-off, plummeting over 4%. The S&P 500 (GSPC) dove 3.7%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) tumbled roughly 3%. [ongoing story].

So, does the traditional 60 stock / 40 bond strategy still work or do we need another portfolio model?

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The 60/40 strategy evolved out of American economist Harry Markowitz’s groundbreaking 1950s work on modern portfolio theory, which holds that investors should diversify their holdings with a mix of high-risk, high-return assets and low-risk, low-return assets based on their individual circumstances.

While a portfolio with a mix of 40% bonds and 60% equities may bring lower returns than all-stock holdings, the diversification generally brings lower variance in the returns—meaning more reliability—as long as there isn’t a strong correlation between stock and bond returns (ideally the correlation is negative, with bond returns rising while stock returns fall).

CORRELATION: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2024/10/27/correlation-diversification-in-finance-and-investments/

For 60/40 to work, bonds must be less volatile than stocks and economic growth and inflation have to move up and down in tandem. Typically, the same economic growth that powers rallies in equities also pushes up inflation—and bond returns down. Conversely, in a recession stocks drop and inflation is low, pushing up bond prices.

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But, the traditional 60/40 portfolio may “no longer fully represent true diversification,” BlackRock CEO Larry Fink writes in a new letter to investors.
Instead, the “future standard portfolio” may move toward 50/30/20 with stocks, bonds and private assets like real estate, infrastructure and private credit, Fink writes.
Here’s what experts say individual investors may want to consider before dabbling in private investments.

It may be time to rethink the traditional 60/40 investment portfolio, according to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink. In a new letter to investors, Fink writes the traditional allocation comprised of 60% stocks and 40% bonds that dates back to the 1950s “may no longer fully represent true diversification.“

DI-WORSIFICATION: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2024/04/09/what-is-financial-portfolio-di-worsification-2/