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May 18, 2026 
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Hi everyone —
This week, we bring you a dispatch from Ben Carlson’s new book “Risk & Reward: How to handle market volatility and build long-term wealth.”
We asked Ben, the director of institutional asset management at Ritholtz Wealth Management and the co-host of a podcast called Animal Spirits, the same question we ask every author we feature in the newsletter: What’s the big idea from the book that you’re most proud of?
Here’s what he said:
“It doesn’t matter when you buy stocks. You could have the worst timing imaginable and only buy at market peaks, and you could still come out ahead in the end if you have a long enough time horizon.”
His book shares the story of someone he calls Bob, the world’s worst market timer, who only put his money to work before the biggest crashes in history.
“But he never sold out of the stock market after those ill-timed purchases, so he still retired a millionaire because his time horizon trumped the poor timing.”
Buy whenever, and hold for a long time. You can see the math for yourself in Chapter 5 of the book.
Below you’ll find a roundup of some of our best recent money coverage. Have a good week.
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