Ritholtz Wealth Management, the $4 billion registered investment advisor headquartered in New York, has tapped Callie Cox as its first chief market strategist. Most recently, Cox was an investment analyst at social investing platform eToro.
While Ritholtz already has several market gurus, including Chairman and CIO Barry Ritholtz, Director of Institutional Asset Management Ben Carlson, Managing Partner Michael Batnick, and CEO Josh Brown, Cox will be the first fully dedicated to serving advisors. She will act as a liaison between the firm’s investment committee and Ritholtz's 25 advisors.
“Josh, Ben and Michael are wearing a ton of different hats, and talking to Josh and Michael, we realize there’s a need for Wall Street quality research that can go to everyday investors,” Cox said. “My main job is servicing the advisor—building a suite of timely market content for advisors so that they feel empowered to make the best decisions and educate their clients about what’s going on.”
Cox will launch a weekly newsletter called “Cautiously Optimistic,” which will be publicly available through The Compound, the firm’s multiple programs and podcasts. She’ll also become a member of The Compound.
“It’s ironically called that because you will never hear me say ‘cautiously optimistic’ unironically,’” Cox said. “I think a lot of strategists do a disservice to everyday investors by using this jargony, phrase-ridden language, like ‘cautiously optimistic.’ Frankly, a phrase like that doesn’t tell you that much. I’m committing myself to telling everyday investors how markets work in a language they understand.”
Cox’s current view of the market is that while she’s heard the word “recession" thrown around often, the U.S. is currently experiencing a bull market, with the S&P up 50% since a low in October 2022.
“It’s time to start believing we’re in a bull market, mainly because, as an everyday investor, it’s expensive to miss bull markets,” she said. “You can look for value in certain pockets, you can try to outperform the market, but the least common denominator is you need to stay invested when the economy is strong. That’s how you build wealth.
“We think selloffs are buying opportunities, especially because we believe that the Fed has inflation pretty much under control, and it’s likely a rate cut could be coming sometime soon.”
Prior to eToro, Cox held research roles at Ally, LPL Financial and First Citizens Bank. She started her career as a reporter at Bloomberg covering U.S. stock and options markets. She’ll be based in Ritholtz’s Charlotte, N.C., office, which opened in July 2023.
This follows news in April that the RIA opened a new office in the Manhattan Beach neighborhood of Los Angeles. Senior advisor Michelle Katzen and advisor Jordan D. Hanson are leading the new Los Angeles office, having joined the firm 10 and three months ago, respectively.