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.


  • Language matters in investing | EP16

    Institutional portfolio manager, Rob Campbell, explains the concept of suitcase words: words into which people attribute—or pack—multiple meanings. He discusses how honing our language skills can contribute to better investing outcomes.

    September 12, 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

  • Playing the plan: Mawer’s emerging markets equity portfolio | EP15

    Peter Lampert, lead portfolio manager of Mawer’s Emerging Markets Equity Fund, discusses the current investing environment for emerging markets, the importance of resilience, and reviews portfolio holdings in beer, security systems, and bakery ingredient distribution.

    August 29, 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

  • Playing the plan: Mawer’s U.S. equity portfolio | EP14

    Co-manager of Mawer’s U.S. equity portfolio, Grayson Witcher, discusses the impact of rising corporate debt levels, the importance of relationship building with management teams, and how fighting bias is key to Mawer’s investment process.

    August 15, 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

  • Quarterly update | 2Q 2018 | EP11

    This episode features insights from the past quarter by Greg Peterson, portfolio manager of Mawer’s balanced and global balanced strategies.

    July 12, 2018

  • 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