Advisor Perspectives, a leading publisher serving financial advisors and the financial advisory community, has announced its Venerated Voices™ awards for commentaries published in Q3 2018. 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 and Author (minimum three posts), where we include only those firms who contributed at least three commentaries in Q3.
Leading the Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Firm category were Hussman Funds of Maryland, followed by Grantham, Mayo, and Von Otterloo & Co. (GMO) of Boston in second. In third place is Mauldin Economics of Texas.
Among individual commentators, the most-widely read were Rob Arnott, Shane Shepherd, and Bradford Cornell, all of Research Affiliates: Steve Blumenthal of CMG Capital Management Group was in second place, followed by Ben Inker of GMO in third place.
Leading the Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Firm with at least three posts category were Mauldin Economics of Texas, followed by Richard Bernstein Advisors of New York City in second. In third place was Blackstone, also of New York City.
The most-widely read commentary of Q3 was Revolutionary Future Ahead by John Mauldin of Mauldin Economics. Published August 24, Mauldin paints an optimistic picture of our economic future, but warns that there will be some pain before the prosperity. He believes we will go through a global “Great Reset, a period of enormous and unpredictable volatility in all asset classes” caused by a massive global “debt wipeout” agreement. After that, Mauldin says that we will experience an unprecedented age of improvements technologically that will benefit world economies.
Liz Ann Sonders of Charles Schwab took second place with 2018 Mid-year U.S. Equity Outlook: Headwinds and Tailwinds Facing Off. The piece was published July 3 and weighed the risks of a downturn. She discussed major factors including employment, high expected earnings in 2019, inflation and the yield curve, trade and tariffs, and politics. She concluded with a chart showing economic inflection points and the market and encourages advisers to “focus on discipline, including diversification and rebalancing”.
Coming in third was The Debt Train Will Crash, published July 13, again by John Mauldin of Mauldin Economics. In this piece, Mauldin concluded his “train wreck” series and summarized each piece in the series and emphasized global debt. He believes excessive debt is dragging global economies down and highlights that government and corporate nonfinancial debt make up 84% of global debt. The “train wreck” will come in a series of stages, according to Mauldin, and will be caused by the risky high yield bond market, Europe’s growing leverage issues, and pension fund problems, among other major issues.
Advisor Perspectives’ website currently attracts over 150,000 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 Q3 2018, approximately 500 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 was normalized to reflect the fact that usage of Advisor Perspectives’ website grew steadily over the course of the quarter. 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 was 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
|
459
|
2
|
GMO
|
418
|
3
|
Mauldin Economics
|
409
|
4
|
LPL Financial
|
403
|
5
|
Richard Bernstein Advisors
|
362
|
6
|
Evensky & Katz / Foldes Financial Wealth Management
|
332
|
7
|
Nevins Research
|
283
|
8
|
Blackstone
|
279
|
9
|
The Leuthold Group
|
276
|
10
|
Pring Turner Capital Group
|
241
|
11
|
The pH Report
|
234
|
12
|
Charles Schwab
|
218
|
13
|
The Integrating Investor
|
189
|
14
|
Absolute Return Partners
|
183
|
15
|
Anderson Griggs
|
160
|
16
|
F.A.S.T. Graphs
|
146
|
17
|
Halbert Wealth Management
|
145
|
18
|
Research Affiliates
|
130
|
19
|
U.S. Global Investors
|
124
|
20
|
Macro Tides
|
121
|
21
|
The Fat Pitch
|
121
|
22
|
Raymond James
|
117
|
23
|
The Econtrarian
|
107
|
24
|
BlackRock
|
103
|
25
|
Dynasty Financial Partners
|
100
|
The Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Firm (minimum three posts)
Rank
|
Firm
|
Score
|
1
|
Mauldin Economics
|
409
|
2
|
Richard Bernstein Advisors
|
362
|
3
|
Blackstone
|
279
|
4
|
Charles Schwab
|
218
|
5
|
F.A.S.T. Graphs
|
146
|
6
|
Halbert Wealth Management
|
145
|
7
|
Research Affiliates
|
130
|
8
|
U.S. Global Investors
|
124
|
9
|
The Fat Pitch
|
121
|
10
|
Raymond James
|
117
|
11
|
The Econtrarian
|
107
|
12
|
BlackRock
|
103
|
13
|
Dynasty Financial Partners
|
100
|
14
|
Invesco
|
99
|
15
|
Northern Trust
|
87
|
16
|
Atlanta Capital Group
|
85
|
17
|
PIMCO
|
77
|
18
|
Knowledge Leaders Capital
|
73
|
19
|
First Trust Advisors
|
68
|
20
|
Franklin Templeton Investments
|
68
|
21
|
Eaton Vance
|
58
|
22
|
Smead Capital Management
|
58
|
23
|
AllianceBernstein
|
55
|
24
|
NewArc Investments, Inc.
|
53
|
25
|
Confluence Investment Management
|
50
|
The Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Author
Rank
|
Author
|
Firm
|
Score
|
1
|
Ben Inker
|
GMO
|
586
|
2
|
John Hussman
|
Hussman Funds
|
461
|
3
|
John Mauldin
|
Mauldin Economics
|
410
|
4
|
Richard Bernstein
|
Richard Bernstein Advisors
|
363
|
5
|
Byron Wien
|
Blackston
|
347
|
6
|
Harold Evensky
|
Evensky & Katz / Foldes Financial Wealth Management
|
332
|
7
|
Nicholas J. Johnson
|
PIMCO
|
289
|
8
|
Daniel Nevins
|
Nevins Research
|
283
|
9
|
Scott Opsal
|
The Leuthold Group
|
276
|
10
|
Jeremy Grantham
|
GMO
|
250
|
11
|
Martin Pring
|
Pring Turner Capital Group
|
241
|
12
|
Paul Hodges
|
The pH Report
|
234
|
13
|
Liz Ann Sonders
|
Charles Schwab
|
231
|
14
|
Vitali Kalesnik, Michele Mazzoleni, Jim Masturzo
|
Research Affiliates
|
218
|
15
|
Liz Ann Sonders, Jeffrey Kleintop and Brad Sorensen
|
Charles Schwab
|
218
|
16
|
Steve Land
|
Franklin Templeton Invesments
|
214
|
17
|
Carl Tannenbaum, Ryan James Boyle, Brian Liebovich, Vaibhav Tandon
|
Northern Trust
|
208
|
18
|
Seth Levine
|
The Integrating Investor
|
190
|
19
|
Jay Raol
|
Invesco
|
186
|
20
|
Jeffrey Saut
|
Raymond James
|
186
|
21
|
Niels Jensen
|
Absolute Return Partners
|
183
|
22
|
John Frank
|
Invesco
|
173
|
23
|
Christopher Brightman, Robert Arnott
|
Research Affiliates
|
163
|
24
|
Gene Frieda
|
PIMCO
|
160
|
25
|
Rob Waldner
|
Invesco
|
160
|
The Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Author (minimum three posts)
Rank
|
Author
|
Firm
|
Score
|
1
|
John Mauldin
|
Mauldin Economics
|
586
|
2
|
Richard Bernstein
|
Richard Bernstein Advisors
|
459
|
3
|
Byron Wien
|
Byron Wien
|
409
|
4
|
Liz Ann Sonders
|
Liz Ann Sonders
|
362
|
5
|
Carl Tannenbaum, Ryan James Boyle, Brian Liebovich, Vaibhav Tandon
|
Northern Trust
|
346
|
6
|
Jeffrey Saut
|
Raymond James
|
332
|
7
|
Chuck Carnevale
|
F.A.S.T. Graphs
|
287
|
8
|
Gary Halbert
|
Halbert Wealth Management
|
283
|
9
|
Carl Tannenbaum, Ryan James Boyle, Vaibhav Tandon
|
Northern Trust
|
276
|
10
|
Frank Holmes
|
U.S. Global Investors
|
250
|
11
|
Urban Carmel
|
The Fat Pitch
|
241
|
12
|
Russ Koesterich
|
BlackRock
|
234
|
13
|
Paul Kasriel
|
The Econtrarian
|
230
|
14
|
Joachim Fels
|
PIMCO
|
217
|
15
|
Scott Welch
|
Dynasty Financial Partners
|
217
|
16
|
Steven Vannelli
|
Knowledge Leaders Capital
|
213
|
17
|
Greg Silberman
|
Atlanta Capital Group
|
208
|
18
|
Brian Wesbury, Robert Stein
|
First Trust Advisors
|
189
|
19
|
Bryce Coward
|
Knowledge Leaders Capital
|
186
|
20
|
Charles Roth
|
Thornburg Investment Management
|
185
|
21
|
Bill Smead
|
Smead Capital Management
|
183
|
22
|
Jeff Miller
|
New Arc Investments, Inc.
|
173
|
23
|
Carl R. Tannenbaum, Ryan James Boyle, Vaibhav Tandon
|
Northern Trust
|
163
|
24
|
Bill O'Grady
|
Confluence Investment Management
|
160
|
25
|
Scott Brown
|
Raymond James
|
160
|
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