The Art of Boring™ was created for curious and passionate investors. We share strategies, frameworks, and insights to help readers and listeners make better investment decisions. Our aim? To provide some bottom-up, long-term investing signal to cut through the short-term noise.

  • An imperfect signal

    Bondholders have been on quite the ride in the last few months. The year began with yields moving lower in many regions—notably Europe—to the surprise of some investors who just last year thought that rates could only go higher.

    June 15, 2015

  • (Not) boring finds for June 2015

    Our team comes across hundreds of weird and wonderful reads in our daily research. Below are the handful that stood out for us this month.

    June 4, 2015


  • Curious George

    It’s hard not to love Curious George.  It’s an unfair contest really—here’s a cute little monkey who, with the best of intentions, constantly gets into trouble as he explores the overly-structured world around him!

    May 20, 2015

  • Quiet heroes

    Too often, we seem to confuse heroism with heroics, significance with pomp and flash.

    May 13, 2015

  • The unfathomable is not impossible

    When we open our minds to a wide set of possibilities—including ideas that initially seem impossible—we make it easier to put the odds in our favour over time.

    May 5, 2015

  • The boy who cried Greece

    Greece has been struggling with some manner of financial crisis for almost five years. The situation has become worse of late due to the fallout from the January 2015 election when the leftist party Syriza rose to power under an anti-austerity mandate.

    April 28, 2015

  • (Not) boring finds for April 2015

    Our team occasionally uncovers signal in the daily parsing of noise. Since such information can be easily passed over, we thought we’d make it a habit to share some links that we’ve liked recently.

    April 23, 2015

  • Rockin’ and rollin’ in China

    The Chinese stock market has been very hot as of late. Many Chinese indices are up dramatically over the last twelve months.

    April 21, 2015

  • Unlocking India’s potential

    This was my first lesson in India. When you arrive in the country, you don’t just land at the airport, India lands on you.

    April 7, 2015

  • A tribute to Lee Kuan Yew

    If a person's legacy is to be measured by his contributions to society, then Lee Kuan Yew ranks among the great heroes.

    March 27, 2015

  • Coffee cup risk

    It is much more valuable to have a probabilistic risk evaluation process.

    December 12, 2018

  • (Not) boring finds for November 2018

    This week we learned about e-krona, a digital currency in Sweden; the lasting impacts of Black Monday on Wall Street; how McRib availability can affect S&P 500 returns (hint: it can’t) and appreciated a few wise reminders on what to do when “things get wild” in the markets.

    November 28, 2018


  • Why public investors should care about the rise of private investment

    To be sure, there are many reasons a company may prefer to turn to private investors over more traditional public markets, but as more companies choose private funding when they need to raise capital, what are the implications for investors in public markets? 

    October 31, 2018

  • A selective approach to equity markets

    Last week, Morningstar interviewed international equity portfolio manager David Ragan about finding resilient stocks in international markets during turbulent times.

    October 17, 2018

  • (Not) boring finds for October 2018

    Our reading list this week considers factors leading to the next market correction; stock-based compensation; golfing economists; and the pitfalls of generalization.

    October 3, 2018


  • (Not) boring finds for September 2018

    A reminder to focus on the long-term; a look at growing corporate debt levels; a helpful explanation of stock buy backs, and a tip to improve the workplace. It’s been an illuminating week.

    September 5, 2018

  • Canadian lifecos: More than just insurance

    Canadian insurance companies are no longer just in the business of selling insurance to Canadians. They function more like financial conglomerates, and that, for investors, is potentially a good thing.

    August 22, 2018

  • (Not) boring finds for August 2018

    This week we admired some exemplary examples of CEO annual letters; raised our eyebrows at the remarkable effects of trade wars; reaffirmed our belief that language matters; and despaired at nefarious online trading platforms.

    August 1, 2018

  • Defensiveness: A suitcase word

    Given how often “defensive” enters into the investing lexicon and that it can mean different things to different people, aiming for a greater degree of precision in its definition may help to reduce misunderstanding or generalized historical bias.

    July 18, 2018

  • (Not) boring finds for June 2018

    Twenty ways to make mistakes with money, the history of monetary innovation, untangling misconceptions around interest rates, and the truth (data) about the creativity of pop songs. It was (not) a boring week!

    June 27, 2018