Dear Investment Writing subscriber

Happy spring!

I’m so glad that it’s warming up so those of us in the Northern Hemisphere can do more outdoor activities. I’m hoping that my first attempt at winter sowing of seeds will yield seedlings that will survive once they leave the translucent milk bottles in which I’ve raised them. I’m also looking forward to spending more time with people as vaccinations progress in the U.S. 

If you’re busy with quarterly reporting…
… here are links to some of my posts on how to avoid mistakes. Unfortunately, I learned some of these lessons the hard way.

Link for lovers of good writing
I suspect that many of you will agree with “Stop Saying ‘Value Add’,” an article sent to me by a client. A fellow writer said, “I don’t have to read the article to know that I agree.” However, perhaps the article can help talk someone you know out of using “value add.”

Answer 1 question
Please answer one question to help me learn about your interests. 
Recent topics 
During the past month, I’ve blogged about finding clients, articles as PDFs, editing articles, and Mistake Monday. You can read the start of my post about an ETF controversy below.

I’ve been writing and editing for clients on topics such as “Marketing tips for video and more” in the March NAPFA Advisor. 

TikTok for advisors?
Can you imagine investment or wealth managers going on TikTok to give tips in one-minute videos? No, neither can I.

But "The content opportunity for financial services firms" makes a good point when it says, "a raft of young 'experts' in financial literacy is filling the void, often with incomplete or misleading information about investing and borrowing." Perhaps someone can find a compliance-friendly way to reach what the articles says are "800 million monthly active users—who on average spend 45 minutes a day on TikTok."

Find email addresses
Having a hard time locating an email address? Many of my writer friends use Hunter.io, which lets you conduct 25 searches a month with a free account. I've also heard good things about Email Hippo to verify email addresses and RocketReach, a paid service for finding email addresses and direct-dial phone numbers.


Best wishes,
Susan

Are you tired of only discussing recent market developments in your investment commentary? Look to your professional reading for ideas, as I suggest in my webinar, “How to Write Investment Commentary People Will Read.” A topic leaped out at me when I read the CFA Institute’s Financial Analysts Journal (FAJ) from 2021’s first quarter.

The title of “Levered and Inverse Exchange-Trade Products: Blessing or Curse?” (summary available, but subscription required to read the entire article) lays out the topic clearly. The authors say in their summary: “levered and inverse products are not, and cannot be, effective investment management tools.”

If this is a topic that interests you, as well as your clients and prospects, there are several approaches you can take.
Approach #1. Run with the topic on your own.
If you know this topic well, you may be able to opine at length off the top of your head. Go for it, if that’s what your clients expect and enjoy. The FAJ article has served its purpose if it only identifies a new topic for you.

A variation on this approach is to simply explain what levered and inverse ETFs are. If you’re writing for an audience of retail investors, they may never have heard of them or may not understand what they are. They’ll need a plain-English explanation. Of course, before you dig into the details, explain why your readers should care that these funds exist.

Approach #2. Use this article to bolster your case against these ETFs.
The authors discuss how “the most important problem with geared (levered) and inverse funds is that most of them are expected to collapse.” As part of this, they review these ETFs’ history and performance. There’s likely to be some information you can use to make your case against these ETFs.

The degree of detail that you go into will depend on your audience. Sophisticated institutional investors will understand (and be interested in) more details and technical information than your typical retail investor.

When you quote—or use statistics from—this FAJ article, refer to it as the source. That’s only fair. Plus...

Looking for more practical tips for your marketing and writing? Visit my blog to read my latest posts!
“Susan’s particularly good at working through highly technical material very quickly. That’s very important in this business. A lot of people are good writers, but they have an extensive learning curve for something they’re unfamiliar with. Susan was able to jump very quickly into technical material.”

Photo Credit: Dave Dugdale via Compfight cc 

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