Ritholtz Wealth Management has teamed with Betterment to make Liftoff the easiest way to begin investing. There is no minimum and transferring in existing accounts is a snap. Click here to hear the thinking behind this move.
Quote of the Day
"Active Fee should be on every manager’s Morngingstar report next to the fund’s performance figures."
(Casey Wolf)
Chart of the Day

If trend-following strategies lose their convexity, what’s left?
Markets
Strategy
- Given the performance should you even bother investing internationally? (morningstar.com)
- How to invest if you aren't willing to try and forecast the future. (alphaarchitect.com)
- How to rebalance your portfolio without actually selling stocks. (morningstar.com)
Companies
Finance
- SmileDirectClub is coming public. (cnbc.com)
- The LSE acquisition of Refinitiv is a go. (reuters.com)
- Big banks just can't shake currency trading scandals. (economist.com)
Funds
- Five lessons we can learn from target date funds. (morningstar.com)
- Franklin Templeton ($BEN) wants to start a new exchange-traded fund that will invest in equities, debt, commodities and currencies -- rather than allocating to one asset class. (finance.yahoo.com)
Global
- Portugal is working to bring some of its emigrants home. (economist.com)
- These are the world's ten most innovative economies. (visualcapitalist.com)
Housing
- Natural disaster unleash home flippers willing to buy damaged/destroyed houses. (wsj.com)
- Americans continue to build homes in coastal areas that are doomed to flood. (zillow.com)
- Home flipping is bigger than ever. (thebasispoint.com)
Economy
- Weekly initial unemployment claims ticked up higher. (calculatedriskblog.com)
- The July ISM Manufacturing report came in slightly above 51. (calculatedriskblog.com)
- Why rate cuts have lost their power. (nytimes.com)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
- Startup links: funding trade-offs. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Don't short-circuit your financial plan with an inflexible spending rule. (abnormalreturns.com)
- What you missed in our Wednesday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)
- Personal finance links: a taboo subject. (abnormalreturns.com)