“A superior portfolio strategy should be intrinsically boring.”

— Bill Bernstein, The Four Pillars of Investing

In This Edition

›Where Rick Ferri and I Disagree

›This Week’s Podcast: Preparing for an Upcoming Debate With Rick Ferri

›Truth Teller of the Week: Bill Bernstein

›Testimonials

From Paul

Where Rick Ferri and I Disagree

Get ready — I’m about to debate my good friend Rick Ferri.

Rick and I sit down this Friday, and I’d love to bring your questions into the conversation. If you have one for Rick, send it to me at paul@paulmerriman.com. The podcast and video will be available Wednesday, August 19, 2026.

This Week’s Podcast

Preparing for an Upcoming Debate With Rick Ferri: Total Market Portfolios

Two evidence-based approaches. One fork in the road.

Rick’s case is that you should simply own the whole market — a total stock market index fund gives you thousands of companies at an extraordinarily low cost, and adding complexity rarely pays. My case is that the academic research, from Fama and French through decades of market history, shows that greater exposure to small and value companies may raise long-term expected returns. Rick calls it factor tilting. I call it better diversification.

We also take on a second question that gets far too little attention: if you do want small and value exposure, where should you get it? Vanguard, Fidelity, DFA or Avantis — traditional indexing or systematic portfolio management? Differences that look trivial today can compound into very large ones over 40 or 50 years.

Neither of us is trying to win. Rick may be right. I may be right. Ask us again in 50 years. What I hope you take away is the process — examining the evidence, understanding the alternatives, admitting what nobody knows, and committing to a strategy you can stick with. Because every strategy disappoints you eventually, and what you do in that moment matters more than which one you chose.

The podcast and video will be available Wednesday, August 19, 2026. If you have a question for Rick, send it to paul@paulmerriman.com.

▶ Listen Now

Truth Teller of the Week

Bill Bernstein

I’ve had a lot of questions over the last several months about an all-equity, all-the-time investment strategy. I’ll address that topic in the coming months, but in the meantime I think it’s worth reading this short article by Truth Teller Bill Bernstein.

Bill and his co-author Ed McQuarrie — who are working on a terrific new book together — remind the uninitiated what bear markets can do to investors who choose to ignore history, or who simply don’t realize what the “normal” path of a bear market looks like.

Read the Article

Testimonials

“Thank you. I wish I’d had your advice when I first began investing… now that I’m 82 it’s a bit late to make substantial changes. But I can get my son on the right track!”

— From a listener

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All the best to you and your family,
Paul Merriman

From Paul Merriman

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Total Market or Factor Tilt? Rick Ferri and I Debate