Weekend Reads for Advisers: Our Brains, Psychopaths, and (Failed) Resolutions

Back in my fomer life, I was a reporter and editor at the Financial Times, where, for a time, I edited James Altucher's regular FT column. His musings were often irreverent and amusing and, needless to say, attracted a devoted following. (This appears to have carried through to his post-FT life. Last time I looked, @jaltucher had more than 90,000 followers). So when a tweet about his resume popped up on my Twitter stream, I couldn't resist the urge to click on it. I wasn't disappointed. As one reader put it:

Here are some other interesting and/or useful reads from the past few weeks.

Behavioral Finance and Neuroscience

• "Behavioral Resolutions for Behavioral Investors" (The Psy-Fi Blog)
• "Why We Make Resolutions (and Why They Fail)" (The New Yorker)
• "Britain’s Ministry of Nudges" and "A Few Findings of Britain’s Nudge Unit" (The New York Times)
• "Safecracking the Brain: What Neuroscience Is Learning from Code-Breakers and Thieves" (Nautilus)
• "The Brain, in Exquisite Detail" (The New York Times)

Retirement

• "FINRA Warns against Conflicts in Retirement-Plan Rollovers" (InvestmentNews)
• "Reducing Retirement Risk with a Rising Equity Glide Path" (Journal of Financial Planning). See also "How Much Should You Hold in Stocks?" (CNN Money), which references the work of Michael Kitces, a speaker at CFA Institute's upcoming Wealth Management conference, and Annual Conference speaker Wade Pfau.
• "Check out Resources to Become a Social Security Expert" (InvestmentNews)

Investing

• "What's That You're Calling a Bubble?" (HBR Blog)
• Evolutionary theory and investing: "Adaptive Investing: What’s Your Market DNA?" (Salient)
• Contrarian — a documentary about Sir John Templeton. (BloombergTV)
• "Misled by Stock-Market Volatility" (The Wall Street Journal via The Reformed Broker)
• "Never Mind the Predictions: What Did We Learn?" (The New York Times)
• "In 2013 I Learned That . . ." and "You Are Here" (The Reformed Broker)
• "Tools Help Investors Wade Through All the Chatter on Twitter" (The Wall Street Journal)

Innovation

• "Most innovation comes from combining well-known, well-established, building blocks in new ways." (Farnam Street)
• "If You Think Innovation Is Dead, Meet the Hydra" (Bloomberg)

The Advisory Business

• "Are Advisors Getting It Wrong on 'Wealth Management'?" (Financial Planning)
• "Top 3 Issues Financial Planners Will Face in 2014: Fiduciary Regulation, Demographics Pressures, And Robots Vs Cyborgs (Vs Humans)" (Nerd's Eye View)

Philanthropy

• "The Future of Philanthropy" (Private Wealth)

And Now For Something Completely Different

• "The Psychopath’s Guide to Finance Careers" (The Financial Times)
• Benford's Law: "Curious Mathematical Law Is Rife in Nature" (NewScientist)
• The upside to the "polar vortex" that gripped a large swathe of the United States: Stunning images of Michigan lighthouses turned into giant icicles. (Mail Online)
• 98-Year-Old Undeveloped Photo Negatives Discovered in Antarctica (PolicyMic)
• Haunting tale of survival at sea and the will to live: "A Speck in the Sea" (The New York Times)
• "I crave technology, connectivity. But I crave solitude too." How technology (i.e., the e-book) affects the way we read.(The New York Times)
• Best-selling author Charles Wheelan, the keynote speaker at CFA Institute's upcoming Wealth Management conference, asks: "Do You Belong in the Political Middle?" (US News & World Report)
• "Surviving Anxiety" (The Atlantic)

Please note that the content of this site should not be construed as investment advice, nor do the opinions expressed necessarily reflect the views of CFA Institute.

Photo credit: ©iStockphoto.com/JLGutierrez