CW 448: Market Timing, Capital Gains & High Speed Trading with Dan Egan of Betterment.com

Inspired by an article from Business Insider, Jason Hartman invites Dan Egan of Betterment onto the show to expand upon the idea of market timing. While much of the focus is on Wall Street and how market timing works in the stock market, a lot of these ideas can be applied to real estate investing. They also discuss topics such as long- and short-term capital gain, high-frequency trading and how happy we are with our own achievements in absolute terms.      Key Takeaways 01.17 – Is successful market timing just an unachievable myth? 05.04 – Market trends can come in any form – currently we’re seeing a shift to the South by retiring baby boomers searching for warmer climes. 08.54 – We think about the social and political issues in China, but what about the real estate conditions? 17.15 – Stock trading investments are all about assessing long and short-term achievements. Remember that the government views capital gain in terms of short or long-term.  17.58 – Dan Egan describes the ‘bid ask spread’, an economic term for the costs you never see a bill for. 21.20 – High-frequency trading might not be everything it’s cracked up to be. You have to compare the situations of the big traders with average Joe’s actions. 27.00 – Personal satisfaction is hugely important, but it’s always competing with our comparisons to the people around us. 29.15 – For more information about Dan Egan and his company, head to www.Betterment.com     Mentioned in this episode www.Betterment.com Flash Boys by Michael Lewis