Podcast & Blog

Most people watch the stock market. This month, the bond market did a lot of the talking. In the September Market Update on the Tall Oaks Podcast, Branden walks through five charts: the 10-year Treasury yield (two views), the U.S. dollar, the equal-weight S&P 500, and the Magnificent 7. He

Few people have shaped how Wall Street measures bond market risk like Harley Bassman. On the latest Tall Oaks Podcast, the man known as the “Convexity Maven” sat down with Branden DuCharme to talk about mortgage bonds, the borrowing boom tied to artificial intelligence, the Japanese yen, and what inflation

There’s no shortage of retirement advice out there — on social media, from well-meaning friends and family, or from a headline you skimmed on your phone. The problem is that a lot of it is wrong, outdated, or only true for someone whose situation looks nothing like yours. On this

If you’ve ever sat across from someone selling an annuity, you’ve probably heard the pitch: guaranteed income, protection from market losses, a paycheck for life. What you may not have heard is the other side of that coin — the fees you can’t see, the terms that can change on

If your pay stub or offer letter includes letters like RSU, ESPP, NSO, or ISO, you already know the feeling: equity compensation can read like alphabet soup. And for many employees — especially in tech and at fast-growing companies — that equity is one of the largest and least understood

Every month brings a fresh wave of headlines, hot takes, and “can’t-miss” stock tips. This month’s Tall Oaks market update takes a different approach. Instead of chasing the next big trade, Branden DuCharme steps back to read the charts across the whole market — bonds, gold, oil, the dollar, and

This Friday, August 28, the new Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh delivers his first keynote at the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole symposium. It may be the most consequential Fed moment of the year — and on the latest episode of the Tall Oaks Podcast, host Branden DuCharme sat down with

You’ve probably heard some version of it: the dollar is dying. The government keeps printing money, the national debt keeps climbing, and a dollar today buys a fraction of what it did for your grandparents. So the conclusion seems obvious — the dollar is on its way out. Brent Johnson

Tall Oaks Podcast — Episode 125 with Branden DuCharme & Trevor Trebbien Federal employees have one of the strongest retirement setups in the country — a pension, Social Security, and a low-cost 401(k)-style plan stacked on top of each other. So why do so many of them arrive at retirement