Episode 396: Theresa Ebden - Protecting Investors at the OSC
Release Date: 02/12/2026
Episode 403: Patrick Adams - When Stock Crashes Matter for Long-Term Investors
The Rational Reminder Podcast
What if your biggest investment risk isn’t the stock market—but your own income? In this episode, we are joined by Patrick Adams, a PhD candidate at MIT, for a fascinating deep dive into how income risk, spending commitments, and liquidity constraints reshape what “optimal” investing actually looks like. Drawing on large-scale administrative tax data, Patrick challenges the conventional wisdom that young investors should be heavily—or even fully—invested in equities. We explore why stocks appear safe over long horizons but become risky when real-world constraints force investors to...
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The Rational Reminder Podcast
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The Rational Reminder Podcast
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Episode 400: The Evolution of Index Fund Investing
The Rational Reminder Podcast
In this special 400th episode, the Rational Reminder hosts reflect on 50 years of index investing and the profound impact it has had on financial markets, investor behavior, and the cost of investing. The episode features a panel moderated by Ben Felix at the New York Stock Exchange—hosted by Vanguard and S&P Dow Jones Indices—bringing together leading voices in the indexing world to explore how passive investing evolved and what it means for the future of capital markets. Ben is joined on the panel by Tim Edwards (S&P Dow Jones Indices), Jim Rowley (Vanguard), and Shelly...
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Episode 399: James Choi - Portfolio Theory in a Spreadsheet
The Rational Reminder Podcast
In this episode, we welcome back James Choi, Professor of Finance at the Yale School of Management, to unpack one of the most important—and misunderstood—questions in personal finance: How much of your portfolio should be in stocks? Drawing on his new paper, Practical Finance: An Approximate Solution to Lifecycle Portfolio Choice, James walks us through the classic portfolio choice problem first solved by Robert C. Merton, later extended by Francisco Gomes and co-authors, and now made dramatically more usable through a spreadsheet-based approximation. We explore how risk aversion, wealth,...
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Episode 398: Tom Hardin - Ethics, Financial Crime, and Redemption
The Rational Reminder Podcast
In this episode, we sit down with Tom Hardin, also known as “Tipper X,” the former hedge fund analyst who became one of the most prolific informants in the largest insider trading crackdown in U.S. history. Tom walks us through his journey from rule-following soccer referee in Georgia to Ivy League graduate and rising Wall Street analyst—before crossing the line into insider trading at age 29. What makes this conversation so compelling is not just the crime, but how ordinary it felt at the time. Tom explains how small rationalizations, cultural pressures, ambition, and the normalization...
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Episode 397: Hendrik Bessembinder - Constant Leverage & Measuring Investor Outcomes
The Rational Reminder Podcast
In this episode, we welcome back return guest Hank Bessembinder for a deeply analytical conversation spanning leveraged ETFs, volatility, and the future of performance measurement. Hank walks us through his latest research on leveraged single-stock ETFs, clarifying the misunderstood concept of “volatility decay” and decomposing returns into rebalancing effects and frictions. The results are striking: meaningful underperformance relative to simple levered benchmarks, driven by both embedded costs and the mechanics of daily resets. In the second half, we shift gears to a more foundational...
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Episode 396: Theresa Ebden - Protecting Investors at the OSC
The Rational Reminder Podcast
In this episode of the Rational Reminder Podcast, we are joined by Theresa Ebden, Vice President of the Investor Office at the Ontario Securities Commission, for a deep dive into how regulators are thinking about modern investor risks—from AI-powered scams to finfluencers and the gamification of investing apps. Theresa explains how the OSC works to protect investors through policy, education, behavioral research, and direct engagement with the public, and why investor education is one of the most powerful tools regulators have. Key Points From This Episode: (0:01:55) Overview of the OSC...
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Episode 395: Charles Chaffin - The Psychology of Financial Planning
The Rational Reminder Podcast
Ben Felix and Braden Warwick are joined by Dr. Charles Chaffin, a leading voice in financial psychology, to explore why investors so often act against their own best interests—and how better tools and frameworks can help bridge the gap between rational plans and real human behavior. The conversation blends behavioral finance, goal setting, and risk profiling, while also introducing a new evidence-based risk tolerance questionnaire now being made publicly available to listeners. The episode digs into why humans are wired for short-term survival rather than long-term optimization, how biases...
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Episode 394: Equal Weight vs. Market Cap Weight Index Funds
The Rational Reminder Podcast
Equal-weighted index funds sound like an elegant solution to some of today’s biggest investor anxieties: high market concentration, elevated valuations, and outsized influence from a handful of mega-cap stocks. In this episode of the Rational Reminder Podcast, Ben Felix, Dan Bortolotti, and Ben Wilson take a deep, evidence-based look at whether equal weighting actually improves portfolios—or simply introduces new risks under a different name. The discussion breaks down how equal-weighted indices differ fundamentally from traditional market-cap-weighted indexes, why equal weighting has...
info_outlineIn this episode of the Rational Reminder Podcast, we are joined by Theresa Ebden, Vice President of the Investor Office at the Ontario Securities Commission, for a deep dive into how regulators are thinking about modern investor risks—from AI-powered scams to finfluencers and the gamification of investing apps. Theresa explains how the OSC works to protect investors through policy, education, behavioral research, and direct engagement with the public, and why investor education is one of the most powerful tools regulators have.
Key Points From This Episode:
(0:01:55) Overview of the OSC and why its investor research and education work matters.
(5:42) What the Ontario Securities Commission does and its mandate to protect investors and capital markets.
(6:25) Inside the OSC Investor Office: policy, education and outreach, and the investor contact centre.
(9:28) How the Investor Office identifies priority issues using inquiry data, behavioral insights, and global collaboration.
(12:11) The nature of investor inquiries: fraud, crypto confusion, complaints, and recovery room scams.
(14:01) How contact-centre data feeds into education, outreach, and policy responses.
(16:07) Overview of GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca and its role in investor education.
(20:43) Major retail investor risks today: AI-enhanced scams, finfluencers, dark patterns, and gamification.
(24:43) What to do if you’re impersonated by AI in scam advertisements.
(29:28) What a “finfluencer” is and the different categories they fall into.
(31:01) Research findings on how strongly finfluencers influence investor decisions.
(32:55) Why non-investors are especially vulnerable to finfluencer advice and social-media scams.
(36:11) How investors can evaluate online financial advice and check credentials.
(38:02) Regulatory challenges in overseeing finfluencers and online financial content.
(41:04) How AI magnifies traditional scams and why AI-enhanced fraud is more effective.
(43:42) Mitigation strategies: education, just-in-time warnings, and system-level tools.
(47:25) Relationship investment scams and why they are especially damaging.
(52:53) Research on gamification in investing apps and its effects on investor behavior.
(55:25) The Get Smarter About Trading simulator and how it demonstrates gamification effects.
(57:19) How gamification can be used positively to improve diversification and outcomes.
(58:16) Theresa’s perspective on success and her focus on improving the individual investor experience.
Links From Today’s Episode:
Meet with PWL Capital: https://calendly.com/d/3vm-t2j-h3p
Rational Reminder on iTunes — https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-rational-reminder-podcast/id1426530582.
Rational Reminder on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/rationalreminder/
Rational Reminder on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/
Benjamin Felix — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/
Benjamin on X — https://x.com/benjaminwfelix
Benjamin on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwfelix/
Dan Bortolotti — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/
Dan Bortolotti on LinkedIn — https://ca.linkedin.com/in/dan-bortolotti-8a482310
Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)