Advisor Perspectives, the most-read eNewsletter for financial advisors as ranked by the Erdos & Morgan “FAMOUS” Study in 2019 and 2020, has announced its Venerated Voices™ awards for commentaries published in 2020. Rankings were issued in four categories: The Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Firm and Author, the Top 10 Venerated Voices™ by Commentary, and a new category, The Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Firm.
The first three categories require a minimum of four posts annually and the fourth requires 12 posts annually.
The most popular topics in 2020 among all commentaries were related to the current recession, the markets’ disconnect with the economy and recession, national debt, and potential bubbles.
Leading the Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Firm category was Hussman Funds of Maryland, followed by Mauldin Economics of Dallas, Texas. In third place was Real Investment Advice of Houston, Texas.
Among individual commentators, the most-widely read was John Hussman of Hussman Funds. In second place was Byron Wien of Blackstone followed by Richard Bernstein of Richard Bernstein Advisors in third place.
The most-widely read commentary of 2020, published on November 16, was Buffett Indicator: Why Investors Are Walking Into A Trap by Lance Roberts of Real Investment Advice. He laid blame on the Fed’s monetary policy for the current stock market bubble and explained the relationship between markets and the economy. Roberts used market fundamentals like the Buffett indicator and Shiller P/E to support his contention that forward 10-year returns are bleak, and a reversion is in our future.
John Hussman of Hussman Funds took second place with Incubation Phase: Gradually and then Suddenly, published June 8. He described Wall Street’s irrational exhuberance as a result of the May 2020 jobs report, and shamed investors’ neglect of reality. He also described a frequent feature of severe economic recessions dubbed an “incubation phase.” Hussman defined this time period as, “where an exuberant rebound from initial stock market losses becomes detached from the quiet underlying deterioration of economic fundamentals and corporate balance sheets.” His investment view as of early June was that of expectant losses over the current cycle completion, but immediately he was “fairly neutral.”
In third place was 2020 Global Market Outlook – Q2 Update: Cycle, Further Interrupted by Andrew Pease of Russell Investments, published on March 25. Pease described Russell’s global market outlook for 2020 and, at that time, the pandemic was in its infancy. Russell, along with the rest of the world, was not anticipating a 10-month-and-more pandemic event. Their global market predictions included a deeper Eurozone recession than one in America, a China rebound due to curbing COVID, and a first-time QE program in Australia. The Eurozone did in fact fare worse than the U.S. in terms of markets in 2020, China did rebound, and Australia began QE in November 2020.
Advisor Perspectives’ website currently attracts over 210,000 unique visitors per month, virtually all of them financial advisors serving high- and ultra-high net worth individuals. The company publishes economic and market commentaries submitted by fund companies, advisors and independent research firms. In 2020, over 1,800 such commentaries were published and made available through a daily newsletter, Research Perspectives, which the company emails to its subscribers.
Venerated Voices™ rankings were determined by the number of unique readers of each commentary, using data provided electronically by the third-party web analytics service Google Analytics. The data were normalized using the average score per month or quarter (in the case of annual rankings). For the annual awards for the firm and author, a minimum of three commentaries must have been submitted during the year. Any participant is eligible to receive a quarterly award. Each firm and author is assigned a relative score based on unique pageviews, with a score of 100 equal to average quarterly readership.
Advisor Perspectives was founded in 2007 and is based in Lexington, Massachusetts. In addition to Research Perspectives, it publishes a widely read weekly newsletter, Advisor Perspectives, which contains original articles on the markets, the economy and practice management.
Advisor Perspectives will continue providing quarterly updates to its rankings, as well as issuing annual Venerated Voices™ awards.
The Top 10 Venerated Voices™ by Commentary
The Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Firm
|
Rank
|
Firm
|
Score
|
|
1
|
Hussman Funds
|
438
|
|
2
|
Mauldin Economics
|
302
|
|
3
|
Real Investment Advice
|
279
|
|
4
|
Oaktree Capital Management
|
255
|
|
5
|
GMO
|
236
|
|
6
|
Research Affiliates
|
169
|
|
7
|
Guggenheim Investments
|
167
|
|
8
|
Halbert Wealth Management
|
165
|
|
9
|
Charles Schwab
|
143
|
|
10
|
Smead Capital Management
|
112
|
|
11
|
U.S. Global Investors
|
112
|
|
12
|
Nasdaq Dorsey Wright
|
102
|
|
13
|
Pacific Funds
|
100
|
|
14
|
PortfolioWise
|
99
|
|
15
|
Russell Investments
|
98
|
|
16
|
F.A.S.T. Graphs
|
93
|
|
17
|
BlackRock
|
83
|
|
18
|
First Trust Advisors
|
80
|
|
19
|
Northern Trust
|
65
|
|
20
|
Franklin Templeton Investments
|
60
|
|
21
|
Knowledge Leaders Capital
|
58
|
|
22
|
PIMCO
|
55
|
|
23
|
Osterweis Capital Management
|
54
|
|
24
|
Raymond James
|
52
|
|
25
|
Matthews Asia
|
49
|
The Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Firm (minimum 12 posts per year)
|
Rank
|
Firm
|
Score
|
|
1
|
AllianceBernstein
|
144
|
|
2
|
Charles Schwab
|
115
|
|
3
|
Raymond James
|
111
|
|
4
|
Franklin Templeton Investments
|
108
|
|
5
|
BlackRock
|
89
|
|
6
|
Russell Investments
|
88
|
|
7
|
U.S. Global Investors
|
86
|
|
8
|
PIMCO
|
86
|
|
9
|
Loomis, Sayles & Co.
|
68
|
|
10
|
Real Investment Advice
|
66
|
|
11
|
Northern Trust
|
64
|
|
12
|
First Trust Advisors
|
53
|
|
13
|
Nasdaq Dorsey Wright
|
52
|
|
14
|
Mauldin Economics
|
47
|
|
15
|
Smead Capital Management
|
47
|
|
16
|
Matthews Asia
|
36
|
|
17
|
Knowledge Leaders Capital
|
33
|
|
18
|
F.A.S.T. Graphs
|
31
|
|
19
|
GMO
|
26
|
|
20
|
NewArc Investments, Inc.
|
25
|
|
21
|
Halbert Wealth Management
|
24
|
|
22
|
Guggenheim Investments
|
22
|
|
23
|
Commonwealth Financial Network
|
21
|
|
24
|
Oaktree Capital Management
|
19
|
|
25
|
Research Affiliates
|
18
|
The Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Author
|
Rank
|
Author
|
Firm
|
Score
|
|
1
|
John Hussman
|
Hussman Funds
|
438
|
|
2
|
Andrew Pease
|
Russell Investments
|
436
|
|
3
|
John Mauldin
|
Mauldin Economics
|
302
|
|
4
|
Lance Roberts
|
Real Investment Advice
|
272
|
|
5
|
Howard Marks
|
Oaktree Capital Management
|
269
|
|
6
|
Liz Ann Sonders
|
Charles Schwab
|
182
|
|
7
|
Scott Minerd
|
Guggenheim Investments
|
182
|
|
8
|
Richard Bernstein
|
Richard Bernstein Advisors
|
182
|
|
9
|
Jeffrey Kleintop
|
Charles Schwab
|
172
|
|
10
|
Collin Martin
|
Charles Schwab
|
166
|
|
11
|
Gary Halbert
|
Halbert Wealth Management
|
165
|
|
12
|
Niels Jensen
|
Absolute Return Partners
|
164
|
|
13
|
Harold Evensky
|
Evensky & Katz / Foldes Financial Wealth Management
|
162
|
|
14
|
Martin Pring
|
Pring Turner Capital Group
|
158
|
|
15
|
Liz Ann Sonders, Jeffrey Kleintop, Kathy Jones
|
Charles Schwab
|
150
|
|
16
|
Kathy Jones
|
Charles Schwab
|
133
|
|
17
|
Peter Schiff
|
Euro Pacific Capital
|
132
|
|
18
|
Erik Ristuben
|
Russell Investments
|
131
|
|
19
|
Rick Rieder, Russ Brownback, Trevor Slaven
|
BlackRock
|
119
|
|
20
|
Rick Rieder
|
BlackRock
|
115
|
|
21
|
Cooper Howard
|
Charles Schwab
|
115
|
|
22
|
Bill Smead
|
Smead Capital Management
|
114
|
|
23
|
Tony DeSpirito
|
BlackRock
|
113
|
|
24
|
Sonal Desai
|
Franklin Templeton Investments
|
113
|
|
25
|
Frank Holmes
|
U.S. Global Investors
|
110
|
The Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Author (minimum three posts per quarter)
|
Rank
|
Author
|
Firm
|
Score
|
|
1
|
John Hussman
|
Hussman Funds
|
438
|
|
2
|
Andrew Pease
|
Russell Investments
|
436
|
|
3
|
John Mauldin
|
Mauldin Economics
|
302
|
|
4
|
Lance Roberts
|
Real Investment Advice
|
272
|
|
5
|
Howard Marks
|
Oaktree Capital Management
|
269
|
|
7
|
Liz Ann Sonders
|
Charles Schwab
|
182
|
|
8
|
Scott Minerd
|
Guggenheim Investments
|
182
|
|
9
|
Richard Bernstein
|
Richard Bernstein Advisors
|
182
|
|
10
|
Jeffrey Kleintop
|
Charles Schwab
|
172
|
|
11
|
Collin Martin
|
Charles Schwab
|
166
|
|
12
|
Gary Halbert
|
Halbert Wealth Management
|
165
|
|
13
|
Niels Jensen
|
Absolute Return Partners
|
164
|
|
14
|
Harold Evensky
|
Evensky & Katz / Foldes Financial Wealth Management
|
162
|
|
15
|
Liz Ann Sonders, Jeffrey Kleintop, Kathy Jones
|
Charles Schwab
|
150
|
|
16
|
Kathy Jones
|
Charles Schwab
|
133
|
|
17
|
Peter Schiff
|
Euro Pacific Capital
|
132
|
|
18
|
Erik Ristuben
|
Russell Investments
|
131
|
|
19
|
Rick Rieder
|
BlackRock
|
115
|
|
20
|
Cooper Howard
|
Charles Schwab
|
115
|
|
21
|
Bill Smead
|
Smead Capital Management
|
114
|
|
22
|
Tony DeSpirito
|
BlackRock
|
113
|
|
23
|
Sonal Desai
|
Franklin Templeton Investments
|
113
|
|
24
|
Frank Holmes
|
U.S. Global Investors
|
110
|
|
25
|
Brian Horrigan
|
Loomis, Sayles & Co.
|
107
|
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