The blogs that resonated most with readers in 2025 were those that used historical evidence to illuminate contemporary dynamics. Across topics—market concentration, small-cap cycles, private equity stress, geopolitical shifts, AI, and even fundamental valuation tools like discounted cash flow—practitioners consistently looked for analytics that connected current signals to the longer arcs shaping those signals. And the Most Read blog, published in 2025 and built entirely around historical quotes, shows how powerful distilled insight can be.
Mark J. Higgins, CFA, CFP and Rachel Kloepfer take us on a compact tour through centuries of market wisdom, highlighting behavioral trends that repeat across cycles and helping investors spot them in today’s conditions.
Daniel Fang, CFA, CAIA, discusses the structural and cyclical forces driving the relative performance between small and large caps. He outlines the circumstances that have marked turning points in previous cycles.
Bill Pauley, CFA, Kevin Bales, CFA, and Adam Schreiber, CFA, CAIA, examine historical concentration regimes that resulted in “lost decades,” highlighting how greater reliance on a small group of stocks can reshape risk, diversification, and future return expectations.
Mark J. Higgins, CFA, CFP, breaks down seven indicators that private market risks may be increasing, giving investors a practical lens for evaluating structural and late-cycle vulnerabilities.
Michael Schopf, CFApresents a head-to-head comparison of AI models and human analysts. The results show where machines are now performing better, where analysts maintain an edge, and how this evolving distribution of forces is reshaping research teams.
In this overview of past Fed austerity cycles, says Bill Pauley, CFA, Kevin Bales, CFA, Adam Schreiber, CFA, CAIA and Ty Painter highlight the market patterns, sector rotations and risk dynamics that tend to follow policy pivot points, giving investors a clear framework for interpreting the current interest rate environment.
Written in April, this piece provides a forward-looking analysis of how rate shifts and geopolitical tensions are expected to impact the global economy through 2025. Kanan Mammadov framed his outlook in the macro context around growth, inflation and evolving regional market conditions.
Markus Schuller, Michelle Sisto, PhD, Wojtek Wojaczek, PhD, Franz Mohr, Patrick J. Wierckx, CFA and Jurgen Janssens provide a practical look at how investment teams are applying AI in research, portfolio construction and workflow design. They distill five lessons from early frontline deployments and the operational changes brought about by the technology.
Sandeep Srinivas, CFA, discusses the challenges of applying discounted cash flow models, highlighting the sensitivity to assumptions and the practical complexities that arise in real-world analysis.
Paul Lavery, PhD, explains why private equity buyouts rely on multi-entity structures, and shows how acquisition vehicles and tiered financing shape transaction mechanisms and influence the risks and outcomes of portfolio companies. Understanding this architecture is essential for evaluating modern PE transactions.
#Top #Blogs #Insights #Market #Cycles #Financial #History #CFA #Institute #Enterprising #Investor