LESSON NINE: Rough Ride Rewrite

SEE THE SHOW: Joe Wiegand served two terms on the student government at the University of Sewanee, Tennessee. Today he is better known as the pre-eminent reenactor of another two-termer, Teddy Roosevelt. Catch this historian actor’s hour-long talks and hear the stories of San Juan Hill, his attempted assassination, and dinner with Booker T. Washington from the man himself. Well, sort of. 

Teddy Roosevelt Tour Schedule

Following the T.R. Tour: Paying Homage at the Burial Sites of Brigadier General Ted Roosevelt, & Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt - Normandy Memorial Cemetery & Monument - Colleville-sur-Mer

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TRI AGAIN: Dive deep into the complex life of one of the most bewildering personalities ever to reach the Presidency. Roosevelt was a bundle of contradictions, so it takes a collection of books to get it right. Behold, the Theodore Roosevelt Trilogy Bundle by Edmund Morris. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (1979), Theodore Rex (2001), and Colonel Roosevelt (2010) divide Roosevelt’s life into thirds and tackle each in detail. Environmentalist and big game hunter; big stick diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner; one percenter and trust buster; the Colonel’s whole life seems a paradox. But don’t judge. No one likes a critic, for it is not the critic who counts.

The Man in the Arena - April 23, 1910 - Theodore Roosevelt Speeches- Roosevelt Almanac

Man in the Arena by Theodore Roosevelt

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ADD A FOURTH: Not enough Teddy? Sail on with The River of Doubt, Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey (2005) by Candice Millard. After his time in the Dakotas, Roosevelt thought himself an outdoorsman capable of traveling any- where on earth. The Amazon jungle laughed and then tried to kill him. A good reminder to be aware of our own limitations, though I think I’ve done a good job of reminding you about many of those out over the last couple hundred pages. 

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​GET IT STRAIGHT: You probably won’t confuse Teddy Roosevelt with Benjamin Franklin, though historian David McCullough doesn’t call Americans historically illiterate without reason. But the difference between diversification and asset allocation might be a bit fuzzier. Check out YouTube and clear this up once and for all. 

Historical Illiteracy

The results from the schools of higher learning are very discouraging. This confirms the findings of David McCullough, who, in a 1995 address at the National Book Awards Ceremony in New York warned about the steady decline of historical knowledge among American students. He wrote in "Why History?

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MIX IT UP: Use an interactive tool to adjust asset mixes and see how much risk and return they offered historically. Spend some time with sub-allocation decisions as well. Note that even a perfect back-tested portfolio is still backward looking, and the future could be totally different. Which is where this ubiquitous warning comes form: past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. 

Portfolio Visualizer

Portfolio Visualizer provides online portfolio analysis tools for backtesting, Monte Carlo simulation, tactical asset allocation and optimization, and investment analysis tools for exploring factor regressions, correlations and efficient frontiers.

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The Year Nothing Worked: Stocks, Bonds, Cash Go Nowhere

The idea behind asset allocation is simple: when one market struggles, it's OK because an investor can jump into another that is thriving. Not so in 2015. In fact, if you judge the past year by which U.S.

WORK IT: Clever journalists referred to 2015 as “the year nothing worked” and promptly declared asset allocation dead. Financial writers should tear up more of their drafts, including this one. The article notes that “the idea behind asset allocation is simple, when one market struggles, it’s OK because an investor can jump into another that is thriving. Not so in 2015.” Right, except that isn’t the idea of asset allocation AT ALL. Other than that, the story is accurate.