Can keeping up with financial news actually make you a better investor—or just make you more confident about making bad decisions? Don and Tom dig into research on how markets react to news, why investors tend to overreact to splashy stories and underreact to boring numbers, and whether sophisticated traders can actually exploit those inefficiencies. Then, a caller nearing retirement asks how to build a conservative brokerage account to bridge the years before Social Security. Plus, the guys compare Avantis global ETFs with Vanguard’s Total World Stock ETF, debate the value of factor tilts, and marvel at how quickly investors can pile billions into the latest hot investment idea.

00:05 Can financial news make you a better investor?
00:52 The illusion of being ahead of the market
01:44 Can investors profit from company news?
02:42 Are markets really efficient?
03:33 What 6.7 million Reuters articles reveal about news
04:40 How much financial news is actually predictable?
05:06 Why investing based on headlines is a fool’s errand
06:18 Bad news, numbers, and investor underreaction
07:06 Why investors overreact to ambiguous, high-attention news
08:10 Investment strategies that ordinary investors can’t realistically use
09:02 Be skeptical of your reaction to splashy news
09:36 Big news isn’t always new information
10:31 The factor zoo and the cost of complicated investing
11:04 Can expensive strategies overcome their fees?
12:28 Why diversified investors can mostly ignore the news
13:32 Soccer, summer football, and Orlando’s forgotten team
14:10 Listener call: Building a retirement bridge account
15:00 Retirement plans, Social Security, and a future inheritance
16:28 How soon will the retirement money be needed?
17:10 Matching asset allocation to short-term spending needs
18:04 Using bonds and cash for retirement stability
19:28 Is it okay to hold bonds in a taxable brokerage account?
20:43 A listener puts Don and Tom on his financial Mount Rushmore
22:02 Halloween in Celebration and 1,000 pieces of candy
22:46 Why did Avantis launch AVTM?
23:58 AVTM versus Vanguard Total World Stock ETF
24:06 Why Don and Tom prefer AVGE for a one-fund portfolio
25:29 The astonishing rise of a semiconductor ETF
26:45 Can VT plus AVGV replicate AVGE?
27:06 Why a 20% value tilt may not be enough
28:33 Factor investing, expenses, and expected returns
29:30 Tom returns from Greece and is ready for calls

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