By Jason Zweig | 6:13 pm ET Oct. 25, 2013Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet Finding out whether your broker has a conflict of interest can make the difference between a successful investment and a disastrous one. A new report by securities regulators suggests how brokerage firms can mitigate their many conflicts. At the same time, the report’s findings could...
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Image credit: Carl van Vechten, “Norman Mailer” (1948), Library of Congress By Jason Zweig 5:00 pm ET Oct. 23, 2013 The recent publication of J. Michael Lennon’s biography, Norman Mailer, has reminded readers just how talented — and repugnant — the late novelist was. Mailer also had a surprisingly soft side, as I can attest. In...
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By Jason Zweig | 6:20 pm ET Oct. 18, 2013Image Credit: Wikipedia Creative Commons For investors, the main lesson from this week’s announcement of the Nobel Prize in economics should be humility about anyone’s market-forecasting ability—especially your own. This past Monday, the economics prize went to three researchers whose work seems to have little in...
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By Jason Zweig | 6:07 pm ET Oct. 11, 2013Image Credit: William Hogarth, “A Midnight Modern Conversation,” 1732-33, courtesy of The New York Public Library Between the government shutdown and the budgetary brouhaha, surely Wall Street analysts have been racing to reduce their forecasts of companies’ earnings for the fourth quarter. Surely you...
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By Jason Zweig | 6:11 pm ET Oct. 4, 2013Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet Who’s watching your financial planner? The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards says it is. The organization, which has awarded the coveted CFP certification to nearly 69,000 financial planners, launches an investigation whenever it suspects a planner might have violated...
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