Happy 5th Blogiversary to Me

I have been now been writing Above the Market for five years. Wow. That’s hard to write and harder to believe.

I began on August 1, 2011. I started and still write largely to clarify my own thinking and to force and enforce commitment on my part. Actual readers are a lovely bonus I didn’t expect when I started and that I never take for granted. After many hundreds of thousands of visitors from nearly 200 countries, I remain astonished at the level of interest Above the Market has received — it is far beyond what I thought possible, much less likely. I appreciate each and every reader. Anyone who writes wants to be read most of all.

As always, a few people deserve special mention and thanks.

Tom Brakke (his terrific blog is The Research Puzzle) generously offered outstanding help and guidance before I even had any readers to speak of and continues to offer wise counsel whenever I ask. Tadas Viskanta provided my first distribution (exactly one month in) to the expert community he serves via his blog, Abnormal Returns, which remains the standard for its type. I have now appeared there well over 200 times — essentially once a week — and am extremely grateful for having done so. Joe Calhoun upped my exposure tremendously via Real Clear Markets, in which I have appeared almost as often. I am grateful and humbled to be featured often at these and other excellent sites, including Cullen Roche’s outstanding Pragmatic Capitalism, the indispensable The Big Picture from Barry Ritholtz, Bill Zimmer’s The Prudent Trader, Charles Kirk’s The Kirk Report and Josh Brown’s wonderful The Reformed Broker. Other regular linkers include the CFA Institute, Ben Carlson’s fantastic A Wealth of Common Sense, Michael Kitces (the authority on financial planning), Wade Pfau (the authority on retirement income planning) and the previously mentioned Mr. Brakke. Jason Zweig and Morgan Housel — giants in financial journalism — have provided much help and inspiration. And finally, but in no way least, I greatly appreciate Research magazine publishing my regular columns. Thank you all.

My “top ten” posts this year, based upon reader numbers, follow in order of popularity. I hope you will give them a look (or another look).

1. Here We Go Again: Forecasting Follies 2016
2. The Great Myths of Investing
3. A Hierarchy of Advisor Value
4. Complexity, Chaos and Chance
5. Mean Reversion, Small Sample Size and the Mets
6. Financial Gaslighting
7. Alternatives to Being an Evidence-Based Financial Advisor
8. Bear Territory
9. Chris Rock Explains Bias Blindness
10. The Jewelry Effect

My all-time “top ten” posts, again based upon reader numbers, follow in order or popularity. I hope you’ll check them out (or check them out again).

1. Investors’ 10 Most Common Behavioral Biases
2. Financial Advice: A Top Ten List
3. Establishing Your Top 10 Investment Default Settings
4. My Investing Checklist
5. Math Suckage and Dave Ramsey
6. Top Ten Ways to Deal with Behavioral Biases
7. Investing Successfully is Really Hard
8. Here We Go Again: Forecasting Follies 2016
9. Saving Investors From Themselves
10. The Great Myths of Investing

Finally, I’d like to focus on the following “not top ten” posts that didn’t get nearly as much attention — sometimes because they appeared before I had many readers — but which I think are worth reading. I encourage you to check them out.

1. Beguiled By Narrative
2. Financial Products are Sold, Not Bought
3. It’s Not You, It’s Me
4. Just Put the Ball in Play
5. Gaming the System
6. The Semmelweis Reflex
7. Bias Blindness and Political Polarization
8. Demand for Hitmen and Yield
9. Luck, Skill and Jim Harbaugh
10. Librarius Booker, Confabulation and Choice Blindness

I have enjoyed a nice holiday from blogging this past month and a vacation to boot. Now I’m ready to get back to it. To everyone who has read, supported and helped me with this effort: Thank You! I hope five years leads to many more.

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