Got to agree here. Perhaps they could have said simply: 401(k)s became 361(k)s in Q4 and leave it at that?
An important point that I think was virtually ignored is that 401(k) brokerage accounts are typically options within more traditional 401(k) plans of funds. Thus employees that use these brokerage accounts tend to be more aggressive investors - ones who believe they understand markets and can do better than with the choices already in their plans.
Such investors would naturally tend to lose more when markets swoon. So what?

What's the point here?
Global equities (MSCI ACWI) were down nearly 13% in the fourth quarter and almost 9.5% for the year.

FYI: (MFO Members how did you do ?)
Plan participants using a self-directed brokerage option in their 401(k)s had a brutal fourth quarter.
Retirement plan participants using self-directed brokerage accounts with Schwab lost on average more than 10 percent of their account balances during the fourth quarter of 2018, according to Charles Schwab’s SDBA Indicators Report. For the year, the average loss was about 6.3 percent.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.fa-mag.com/news/self-directed-401-k--participants-were-swamped-in-the-4th-quarter-43785.html?print

FYI: Global stocks were mostly up Thursday as investors awaited the next moves in the Brexit process, though sluggish Chinese economic data weighed on sentiment.
The Stoxx Europe 600 edged up 0.4% in early morning trade. In Asia, Chinese stocks registered steep falls.
On Wall Street, futures pointed to flat openings for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
In currencies, the WSJ Dollar Index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of 16 currencies, was up 0.1%. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose slightly to 2.637% from 2.612% on Wednesday. Yields move inversely to prices.
In Asia, the weak Chinese numbers sent the Shanghai Composite down 1.2%. Stocks in Hong Kong and Japan were mostly flat.
In commodities, Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was up 0.6% while gold prices fell 0.5%.
Regards,
Ted
WSJ:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/global-stocks-shrug-off-weak-chinese-data-to-rise-11552553292
Bloomberg:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-13/asia-stocks-to-rise-after-u-s-gains-pound-surges-markets-wrap
IBD:
https://www.investors.com/market-trend/stock-market-today/dow-jones-futures-current-stock-market-rally-nasdaq-s-and-p-500-intel-stock-arista-mongodb/
CNBC:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/14/stock-market-dow-futures-in-focus-after-mixed-china-data.html
Europe:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-stocks/european-shares-hit-five-month-high-after-no-deal-brexit-rejected-idUSKCN1QV10H
Asia:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/asian-markets-give-up-early-gains-on-weak-china-industrial-data-2019-03-13/print
Bonds:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/14/treasury-yields-move-higher-despite-weak-us-china-data.html
Currencies:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/14/forex-markets-dollar-moves-brexit-vote-in-focus.html
Oil:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/14/oil-markets-global-supply-in-focus.html
Gold:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/14/gold-markets-us-data-brexit-vote-dollar-moves-in-focus.html
Current Futures:
https://finviz.com/futures.ashx

Gundlach conveniently ignores the significance of the junk bond market which has been making all times highs. It made an all time high 11 trading days in a row beginning on 2/15. It backed off just a tad for a few days but when today.’s data is posted ( the BA Merrill Lynch High Yield Master II Index) it will shows all time highs again today the 13th. I can’t predict any better than the man in the moon but I would be very surprised if sooner than later the S&P will be following junk and making a new all time high.

FYI: There is some very good news for defense contractors.
The Department of Defense recently released its fiscal year 2020 budget, and spending is expected to hit $718 billion, about 6% higher than last year.
The increased spending supports sales growth targets for sector, and Wall Street has taken notice. Analysts like the entire sector. About 65% of the ratings on defense companies, such as Lockheed Martin (ticker: LMT), are “buys.” That is about 10 percentage points higher than the average for stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Index.
The message is clear: buy defense. In particular, Lockheed, Raytheon (RTN), and Northrop Grumman (NOC) are three large contractors with strong support from the Street.
Regards,
Ted
M* Snapshot FSDAX:
http://performance.morningstar.com/fund/performance-return.action?t=FSDAX&region=usa&culture=en_US
Areospace & Defense ETFs:
https://www.thebalance.com/invest-in-the-aerospace-and-defense-industry-with-etfs-1215179

Perma bears are as dangerous of overly optimistic managers. Yes, when the bear eventually happens they strike gold but look at Hussman for example. It did make money in 2018 but over 3, 5, 10, 15 year horizons HSGFX has lost money. As smart as they might be they are very poor in predicting or in their fund management skills.

@BenWP Frank Bruni has a column in the NYTimes about how the playing field (for college admissions) isn't level due to the advantages wealth brings. Though he's writing more about parents who donate buildings or pay $50K for someone to guide a child's "career path" through junior and senior high to help get them into college. Not about the more mundane test coaching or tutors for school work.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/12/opinion/college-bribery-admissions.html
It's admirable that you recognize the difference money makes, even at this much lower level. Ultimately such a waste, because testing well on standardized tests has no practical use.
When I was in high school, my father put me up in a hotel room the night before an AP exam, because it would have taken me 1½ hours to get to the exam room otherwise. On the one hand one could argue that this was merely mitigating my disadvantage. On the other, it was still an advantage I got over others who also had to make the same trip. Though a difference here is that this was not a zero sum game. My doing well on an AP exam didn't mean someone else lost out.

OK, I revised the article to add the full-cycle comparisons requested by VintageFreak and to update the tables with month ending February performance ... so, the full 10 years.
The Ten-Year Bull
I made the full-cylce data for just the top bull market performers, but did not run best performers over full cycle, which seems like a different article. Easy enough to do though, so I'll post a sample here.

Hi Guys,
Nothing new here. The performance data remains very persistent in this arena. The few winners in any fund category in any year fail to repeat their outperformance success in the following years. Here is yet another reference that demonstrates that luck is a more significant factor when investing over skill:
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-03-05/s-p-fund-manager-study-shows-luck-a-big-factor-in-outperformance
Newton's first law of motion states that "An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force."
This physical law also seems to apply to investing with an unpredictable infrequency exception of an “unbalanced force”. Good luck on predicting when this “unbalance” perturbation will happen. Over the long haul, being good in the investment universe is just a struggle to stay near the averages. That’s best accomplished by filling a portfolio with Index products.
That’s much easier and ultimately being more profitable then being skilled, and more likely than being lucky. I’m not a very lucky person. It’s hard not to be fooled by randomness,
Best Regards

FYI: Since 2002, S&P Dow Jones Indices has published its S&P Indices Versus Active (SPIVA) Scorecard, which compares the performance of actively managed equity mutual funds to their appropriate index benchmarks.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.etf.com/sections/index-investor-corner/swedroe-2018s-active-vs-index-scorecard

FYI: Global stocks wavered on Wednesday as concerns around global growth weighed on investor sentiment and an impasse in the U.K. on a Brexit deal rippled across the European market.
The Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.1% in early morning trading. U.S. futures pointed to opening losses of 0.5% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average of and 0.1% for the S&P 500.
Asian stocks were mostly lower with the Shanghai Stock Exchange down 1.1%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dipping 0.4% and Japan’s Nikkei dropping 1%.
In Europe, investors were digesting news from London overnight, where British lawmakers rejected a Brexit deal. Parliament is now set to vote on Wednesday on whether a hard Brexit, where the country barrels out of the EU without an agreement at the end of the month, must be avoided.
n Europe, investors were digesting news from London overnight, where British lawmakers rejected a Brexit deal. Parliament is now set to vote on Wednesday on whether a hard Brexit, where the country barrels out of the EU without an agreement at the end of the month, must be avoided.
The British pound was up 0.5% on the dollar and the euro Wednesday, following a 1% drop on Tuesday after the U.K.’s attorney general said Prime Minister Theresa May’s revised Brexit deal didn’t eliminate the risk that the U.K. would be stuck in a customs union with the bloc.
The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index, which is dominated by large international businesses, as well as its FTSE 250 were both nearly flat.
The WSJ Dollar Index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of 16 currencies, was broadly flat on Wednesday.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury edged up to 2.616%, from 2.605% on Tuesday. Yields move inversely to prices.
Elsewhere in commodities, global benchmark Brent crude oil was up 0.3% at $66.84 a barrel.
Regards,
Ted
MarketWatch:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/stock-market-poised-for-tepid-rise-but-dow-remains-under-pressure-amid-boeing-737-8-woes-2019-03-13/print
WSJ:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/global-stocks-waver-as-brexit-growth-concerns-linger-11552467217
Bloomberg:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-12/asia-stocks-set-for-mixed-start-pound-declines-markets-wrap?srnd=premium
IBD:
https://www.investors.com/market-trend/stock-market-today/dow-jones-futures-apple-stock-microsoft-google-stock-market-ipo-stock/
CNBC:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/13/stock-markets-us-markets-focus-on-political-uncertainties-brexit.html
Europe:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-stocks/european-shares-flat-as-brexit-impasse-sinks-in-idUSKBN1QU0YI
Asia:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/asian-markets-lower-amid-weight-of-global-uncertainties-2019-03-12/print
Bonds:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/12/bonds-treasury-yields-move-higher-amid-optimism-over-brexit-deal.html
Currencies:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/13/forex-markets-pound-moves-brexit-negotiations-in-focus.html
Oil:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/13/oil-markets-saudi-oil-exports-us-inventory-in-focus.html
Gold:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/13/gold-markets-dollar-moves-and-brexit-in-focus.html
Current Futures:
https://finviz.com/futures.ashx

Former PIMCO big shot too:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/12/former-pimco-ceo-douglas-hodge-charged-in-major-college-cheating-scheme.html

“The founder of TPG Growth was among dozens of people charged by federal prosecutors in an alleged $25 million college admissions cheating scandal that has ensnared prominent financiers and Hollywood actors, among others. TPG said on Tuesday evening that it had placed William McGlashan, who is a managing partner at TPG Growth and co-founded The Rise Fund, a social and environmental impact fund, on indefinite administrative leave, effective immediately, “as a result of the charges of personal misconduct” against him.”
https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1dht3kl4n0bvk/TPG-Growth-Founder-Among-Financiers-Charged-in-College-Bribery-Scandal
Related: One of Silicon Valley’s most prominent private equity investors — and one of the tech sector’s leading proponents of how to invest ethically and for social impact — has been charged in an explosive college admissions scandal that was revealed Tuesday, March 12. Prosecutors charged Bill McGlashan, a founder and managing partner at TPG Growth — which has made landmark investments in companies like Uber and Airbnb — on fraud allegations for trying to engineer the admission of his son to the University of Southern California. https://www.recode.net/2019/3/12/18262003/bill-mcglashan-college-admissions-scandal-tpg-stanford-usc-yale

I wasn't as clear as I could be. I was trying to compare Merrill Edge's best with Fidelity's "standard". Merrill only offers Blackrock and Federated MMFs. According to their latest rate sheet, the only MMF available for self-directed investors with less than $100K in cash is BPTXX. $5K min, 1.77% yield. Significantly less than SPAXX, but still beats their bank account default by well over 1½%.
https://olui2.fs.ml.com/Publish/Content/application/pdf/GWMOL/ICCRateSheet.pdf

FYI: Key Points:
.“The stock market was and still in a bear market,” the founder and chief executive officer of Doubleline Capital said in an investor webcast on Tuesday.
.Gundlach said stocks could go negative again in 2019.
.He credited the market rebound to the “180-degree turn” from the Federal Reserve.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/12/jeffrey-gundlach-says-the-stock-market-was-and-still-is-in-a-bear-market.html

Here are a few pages from Schwab about their plan. They (or other providers) can set up and manage a plan for you.
DB plans can be very useful for tax purposes, generally for high earners over age 50. The reason for that age is that since these are pension plans, the value of the plan at retirement must be enough to sustain the promised pension. The fewer the years until retirement, the more you can/must put into the plan annually to build up to that value. If you've got many years until retirement, you may find the amount you're allowed to contribute limited (since there's a cap on how large your pension can be).
A couple of caveats excerpted from the first Schwab page:

• Contributions are generally required annually, and this plan is suited for someone who can contribute $80,000 or more for several years. Note: Contributions are not discretionary—you must make the annual required contributions needed to properly fund the plan.
• [D]ue to the permanency requirement, the IRS could disqualify the plan if it is terminated in less than five years

https://www.schwab.com/public/file/P-1604569/SLS25840-05-ST.pdf
Q&A Guide: https://www.schwab.com/public/file/P-1604574/MKT35488_WB.pdf
FAQs:
https://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/investing/accounts_products/accounts/small_business_retirement/personal_defined_benefit_plan/personal_defined_benefit_plan_faqs
Schwab plan/setup/costs:
https://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/investing/accounts_products/accounts/small_business_retirement/personal_defined_benefit_plan (multiple tabs)
A plain English article from the NYTimes with its own set of benefits and risks. In addition to the caveats above, it points out that because defined benefit plans are pension plans, they (like state pension plans) may be required to add extra money beyond what they planned for if the investments don't perform as well as expected. (Amounts in article are from 2012.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/01/your-money/defined-benefit-plans-allow-fast-retirement-saving-but-with-risks.html

FYI: Year after year, when the outlook for equity markets looks uncertain, professional money managers say this could be the year for stock pickers. And year after year it isn’t.
The perennial S&P Indices vs. Active Report—also known as Spiva—released on Monday showed that 2018 was the fourth-worst year for U.S. stock fund managers since 2001.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.barrons.com/articles/stock-pickers-returns-lagged-benchmarks-in-2018-51552381200?refsec=funds
SPIVA Year End 2018: (Upper Left)
https://eu.spindices.com/resource-center/thought-leadership/research/

FYI: The worst ended in 2009. But save your birthday wishes for March 28. And bring six candles to the party.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-03-12/the-bull-market-actually-isn-t-10-years-old?srnd=premium

Some small tax points:
- one gets 1099-DIVs from closed end funds as well as from mutual funds and from stocks
- one gets 1099-INTs from bonds, because they pay interest, not dividends
- 1099-MISC income (e.g. for independent contractors) can usually fund SEP IRAs
It is your employer, not you, who funds a SEP-IRA. To put it another way, for you to be able to contribute to a SEP, you must be your own employer (i.e. self-employed). This is different from a 401(k) where you (as employee) contribute. Though the employer may also contribute via matching or profit sharing.
If you (as the employer) have multiple employees, you must fund everyone's SEP. That can be a strong disincentive to using SEPs.
Another way for your business to save "so much in taxation" is with the new 20% deduction on qualified business income (QBI). Though there's a laundry list of service businesses that don't qualify, e.g. law and accounting. On the other hand, architects and engineers get special treatment. "Just do research and ask ur cpa"