50 Years of Evidence-Based Investing (w/ David Booth) | #424

In this episode, we welcome back David Booth, Co-Founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors and author of Stay Calm: Learn to Embrace Uncertainty in Investing and Life. David reflects on his remarkable career at the center of the evidence-based investing revolution, from studying under Eugene Fama at the University of Chicago to helping build investment strategies around decades of financial research.

We explore what the data revealed about markets and professional money management, why implementation matters as much as great ideas, and how investors can make better decisions without trying to predict the unpredictable. David also shares his views on trust, financial advice, public versus private markets, human ingenuity, and the meaning of true wealth. Along the way, he explains why staying calm, having a process, and staying invested can matter far more than finding the next winning forecast.

Key Points From This Episode:

(0:00:04) Introducing David Booth and his new book, Stay Calm: Learn to Embrace Uncertainty in Investing and Life.

(0:01:15) What David learned as a commission-based shoe salesman: Do the right thing and be upfront with people.

(0:03:35) The gift of being an outsider and how financial science changed the investing experience for ordinary investors.

(0:05:38) Why outsiders are often willing to challenge assumptions—and how data changed the debate.

(0:06:53) David's experience arriving at the University of Chicago and studying under Eugene Fama.

(0:07:49) Inside Chicago's rigorous research culture and the lessons David learned from presenting his work.

(0:10:03) The empirical challenge behind efficient markets and why data mattered more than beliefs.

(0:11:41) How Fama and French approach research by trying to prove their own conclusions wrong.

(0:12:05) The two-fish joke and the challenge of understanding the environment we are immersed in.