Recent posts by Craig Stock

Craig Stock heads Vanguard's Corporate Marketing and Communications department, responsible for delivering investor information and education in Vanguard’s "plain talk" style.



The “zoom theory” and market gyrations

By Craig Stock on July 21, 2010 8:52 am

As we sat around after a recent family cookout, talk turned to the stock market’s recent gyrations.

The older folks (I am, of course, in that camp) were grumbling about the spring slump in stocks. After listening to his middle-aged relatives talk about the damage to their retirement portfolios and their varied views on the market, my 20-something nephew, Rob, confidently said he saw no reason to fret.

“I just keep the zoom theory in mind,” he said.

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Winning the loser’s game

By Craig Stock on May 25, 2010 8:25 am

I don’t really follow tennis, but it turns out that an insulting label for tennis players connects to a very important investment idea. Read more »



“Yes, Virginia”: The compensation question

By Craig Stock on April 27, 2010 6:35 pm

In a post last month, I mentioned the skepticism we hear from time to time about Vanguard’s client-owned, at-cost structure.

In brief, under this novel structure the various Vanguard mutual funds own the operating company—The Vanguard Group, Inc.—that exists to serve those funds. No other owner pulls a profit from the operating company.

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Yes, Virginia, we really are client-owned

By Craig Stock on March 25, 2010 11:32 am

While listening to groups of investors recently as part of some research, we learned something that was, to us, a bit disappointing.

And thereby hangs a tale.

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Musings of a pack rat

By Craig Stock on February 9, 2010 9:22 am

I am a pack rat.

A long habit of cutting articles from newspapers and magazines has left me with several boxes of clippings, only some of which have been sorted into files. On a clean-up crusade, I’ve spent more than a few hours going through the pile, looking to pluck only a few particularly interesting needles from the haystack.

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