Steve Schaefer

Next month, we will celebrate the 20 year anniversary of @CambriaFunds. 🎉🎉🎉 We last posted this chart when we crossed $2 billion in AUM; now at $5 billion, I thought I would update it with some more hate, though for some reason most have disappeared. Maybe it's because our strategies are having one of their best years ever, or maybe haters eventually find quant investing boring...But I miss you guys. You keep lively around here! Without further ado, here are some of my favorites... "I like Meb and his diverse guests but he keeps saying “ Y’all’s”, A silly and ignorant way of speaking." (July 2026) "Meb Faber hosts a really interesting podcast but almost all of his investments look like shit." (May 2025) "Not exactly iShares for sure. I trust the stoner Meb Faber a bit more." (Sep 2024) Is this a compliment? "I couldn't agree more with your points on Meb's doubtful credibility." (July 2023) "Look, I appreciate that you gave away nine previous books for free, and I enjoy your podcast… wait, hold on — this new book is $76?! Are you crazy?!" (2026) "The Cambria lineup feels like backtest catnip." (2024) "Classic example of overthinking a portfolio to justify asset management fees. Instead of buying VOO or VT and sleeping well, you're paying 60+ bps to constantly rebalance into underperforming foreign value." — r/Bogleheads (2024)

To be clear, I believe @Fidelity is morally bankrupt for charging unsuspecting retail investors $100 commissions (and consistently lying to my face). I don't think they are morally bankrupt for charging ETF issuers, although I think it is stupid, unnecessary, reduces competition, creates an uneven playing field since some issuers pay nothing, and will generate meaningless revenue for them. barrons.com/articles/free-et…

New podcast with @GMOInsights' Catherine LeGraw! She explains why this is “the best relative asset allocation opportunity we’ve seen in 35 years.” youtu.be/BbzXoOVFlfE

Some banger comments in the recent Grantham note: gmo.com/americas/research-li… Quality: "U.S. quality stocks have a long history of slightly underperforming in bull markets and substantially outperforming in bear markets (although they did unusually well in the recent run-up). In addition, their long-term performance is remarkable. AAA bonds return about 1% a year less than low-grade bonds – everybody gets it, and always has. In bizarre contrast, the equivalent AAA stocks, with their lower bankruptcy risk, lower volatility, and just plain less risk, historically have delivered an extra 0.5% to 1.0% a year over the S&P 500 (to be precise, an extra 1.0% a year for the past 63 years, with the gains concentrated in the period since 2008). What on earth is that?" Deep Value: "The most expensive 20% of U.S. stocks are by definition always expensive, but today they are in the worst 10% of their 40-year range (compared to the top 1000 stocks). In great contrast, the cheapest 20% are in the best 7% of their range." Broad Market: "As for the U.S. market in general, there has never been a sustained rally starting from a 34 Shiller P/E. The only bull markets that continued up from levels like this were the last 18 months in Japan until 1989, and the U.S. tech bubble of 1998 and 1999, and we know how those ended. Separately, there has also never been a sustained rally starting from full employment. The simple rule is you can’t get blood out of a stone. If you double the price of an asset, you halve its future return. The long-run prospects for the broad U.S. stock market here look as poor as almost any other time in history. (Again, a very rare exception was 1998-2000, which was followed by a lost decade and a half for stocks. And on some data, 1929, which was famously followed by the Great Depression.)"