Investing 101
How Career Gaps Can Reshape Retirement Income
Why Job Instability Makes Early Investing More Important Retirement plans often assume a career that unfolds in a straight line: earnings rise, contributions continue, and investments compound until retirement. Real careers are less predictable. Layoffs, illness, industry changes, and difficult…
Options Greeks: Delta, Gamma, Theta, Vega, and Rho
A first-principles guide to Options Greeks, including its operating chain, economics, authoritative records, failure modes, and the evidence investors or operators should verify.
Securitization Explained: How Loans Become Tradable Bonds
A first-principles guide to Securitization, including its operating chain, economics, authoritative records, failure modes, and the evidence investors or operators should verify.
ETF Creation and Redemption: Why Prices Stay Near NAV
A first-principles guide to ETF Creation and Redemption, including its operating chain, economics, authoritative records, failure modes, and the evidence investors or operators should verify.
Modern Credit Underwriting: From FICO to Cash-Flow Data
A first-principles guide to Modern Credit Underwriting, including its operating chain, economics, authoritative records, failure modes, and the evidence investors or operators should verify.
How Systemic Banks Can Quietly Influence Interest Rates
Central banks try to prevent financial instability while controlling inflation. New research suggests those goals can conflict in a surprising way: protecting banks from rate shocks may encourage the largest institutions to take positions that make future monetary tightening harder.…
Why the VIX Does Not Fully Capture Stock Market Risk
Investors and traders are always looking for reliable indicators of market conditions, especially anything tied to volatility and risk, as it can help avoid losses. One such indicator that has risen to prominence is the Volatility Index, or VIX. It…
Jonathan Schramm
Investor Bias Grows When Reliable Data Disappears
Investors rarely make decisions with complete information. Financial statements describe the past, analyst forecasts depend on assumptions, and market prices can move before an individual understands why. The result is an environment in which judgment must fill the gaps left…
Can Diversification Destroy Value in Crypto Markets?
A cardinal point in almost all guides teaching investing is the importance of diversification. The key reason is that markets are inherently unpredictable, at least to some extent, and spreading a portfolio across multiple asset classes and types of investments…
Jonathan Schramm
When Investors Look Away, Executives Reprice Options
The modern financial system rests on a simple premise: publicly traded companies can be owned by anyone with a brokerage account, and shareholders can elect directors and vote on major corporate matters, helping hold management accountable. In practice, this is…
Jonathan Schramm
African Markets Face Growing U.S. and China Contagion Risk
The reactions of smaller economies and markets to global shocks can vary greatly depending on their main trade partners, source of foreign investments, and overall exposure to different economic sectors or larger countries. This is especially true for African economies,…
Jonathan Schramm
Market Crash Models Are Moving From Prediction to Explanation
Since the beginning of modern financial markets in the Netherlands in the 1600s, financial crises and bubbles have been a regular occurrence, starting with the famous Tulip Mania. A direct consequence has been the recognition that understanding the conditions that…
Jonathan Schramm
Sell in May Is Dead: Why It Fails in 2026
The investing world is full of adages and stories about some period of the year being favorable or unfavorable to investors. One of the most famous ones is “Sell in May and go away”, also called the Halloween indicator or…
Jonathan Schramm
Which Investment Style is Right for You?
For most people today, not investing is no longer a realistic option, especially amid rising inflation. In March 2026, the CPI rose 1.1% while average hourly earnings increased just 0.2% month over month, highlighting how prices are rising much faster…
Private Credit: The New Way Businesses Borrow
No matter how small or large a business is, it needs capital to cover daily operational expenses, manage inventory, fund expansion plans, invest in equipment and technology, and cover unexpected expenses to maintain stability, fuel growth, and seize new opportunities.…
