Marcus Chen

About

Marcus Chen is a former quantitative analyst who spent eight years at Bloomberg before pivoting to data journalism. He holds an MS in Applied Statistics from Columbia and writes with the conviction that most financial advice is either wrong or untestable. He's the kind of writer who won't publish a claim without running the numbers himself — and who takes visible pleasure when the data contradicts conventional wisdom. Every article contains original data tables, source-cited methodology, and scenario comparisons.

Areas of expertise

• personal finance modeling
• salary benchmarking
• investment comparison
• cost-of-living analysis
• tax optimization scenarios
• scenario-based analysis

Articles by Marcus Chen (23)

• The Wash Sale Rule and ETFs: What 'Substantially Identical' Actually Means
  2026-08-15 · Taxes & ETFs

  26 U.S.C. 1091(a) quoted in full — the window runs 30 days BEFORE the sale as well as after, a 61-day span, so a purchase you made three weeks earlier triggers it too. Section 1091(d) then adds the disallowed loss to the basis of the replacement shares, which means the loss is deferred rather than destroyed — except inside an IRA, where there is no basis to recover it through and it is genuinely lost. Plus the phrase the whole rule turns on, which Congress never defined and the IRS has never defined for index funds.

• Why Are ETFs More Tax Efficient? The Actual Mechanism, With the Statute
  2026-08-09 · Taxes & ETFs

  Not a tax break written for ETFs — the same provision covers mutual funds. IRC 852(b)(6) quoted in full (it switches off section 311(b) for redemptions on shareholder demand), SEC Rule 6c-11's definitions of basket, creation unit and custom basket, why the custom-basket rule lets a manager send the lowest-basis lots out of the door, and the fund types where the advantage does not apply at all.

• Can You Lose Money in an ETF? What the Risks Actually Are
  2026-08-02 · Fund Basics

  Yes — the SEC states ETFs are not FDIC-insured and you may lose some or all of what you invest. But the label spans a total-market fund and a 3x sector product, and the risk is not comparable. Where a total loss is effectively impossible versus realistic, the daily-reset arithmetic that makes a 3x fund lose 6.7% while its index finishes flat, what actually happens when a fund liquidates, and how ETFs behaved at NAV discounts in March 2020. Sourced from the SEC.

• How Do ETFs Work? A Plain-English Explanation
  2026-07-29 · Fund Basics

  An ETF owns a basket of assets and sells exchange-traded shares in itself — buy one share and you own a proportional slice of everything inside. The part most explanations skip: a creation-and-redemption arbitrage loop run by authorized participants keeps the market price tethered to NAV, because both directions of the trade are profitable. Nobody enforces the tracking; the profit motive does. That same in-kind mechanism is why broad index ETFs often distribute no capital gains at all. Where your money actually goes when you buy, what an ETF really costs, and why ‘ETF’ is a wrapper rather than a risk level.

• How Is an ETF Expense Ratio Charged? (Daily, Not Billed)
  2026-07-27 · ETF Costs

  An ETF expense ratio is never billed and never appears on your statement — the fund accrues roughly 1/365th of the annual rate daily out of its own assets before striking NAV, so the price you see already has the fee removed. It applies to your full balance rather than your profit, so a losing fund still charges it. Gross vs net waivers that expire, the costs the ratio excludes (fund turnover, bid-ask spread, premium/discount), and what a competitive ratio looks like by fund type. Sourced from the SEC and Investor.gov.

• Do ETFs Pay Dividends? How ETF Dividends Actually Work
  2026-07-24 · Dividend ETFs

  Yes — most ETFs pay dividends, usually quarterly (some monthly). How the pass-through works, where the money comes from, which ETFs don't pay, qualified vs ordinary tax treatment, reinvestment, and how yield is calculated. Sourced from the SEC, Investor.gov, and the IRS.

• What Happens When an ETF Closes or Liquidates? A Shareholder's Guide
  2026-07-22 · Fund Basics

  You don't lose your money when an ETF shuts down. The closure process, your two choices (sell before the last trading day or hold for the cash liquidation distribution at NAV), the tax consequences, and why funds close — sourced from SEC and IRS guidance.

• Dollar-Cost Averaging vs Lump Sum: Which Actually Wins?
  2026-07-18 · Investing Strategy

  Investing a lump sum immediately beat dollar-cost averaging roughly two-thirds of the time in Vanguard's research, because markets rise more often than they fall. The expected-return math, the behavioral case for averaging in anyway, and how to decide.

• Bond ETF vs Individual Bonds: Which Should You Own?
  2026-07-18 · Fund Basics

  A bond ETF like BND holds 10,700+ bonds for 0.03% and pays monthly income but never matures; an individual bond gives you a fixed maturity date and guaranteed principal if held to term. The real trade-off, with issuer data on BND and AGG.

• ETF vs Individual Stocks: Which Should You Actually Buy?
  2026-07-14 · Fund Basics

  One ETF buys 3,639 companies for $3/year per $10,000; one stock buys a single outcome. Bessembinder's finding that 4 of 7 US stocks trailed T-bills since 1926, SPIVA's 89.5% pro underperformance rate over 15 years, and where stock picking still earns its place.

• How Many ETFs Should You Own? (The Honest Answer: 1 to 3)
  2026-07-14 · Portfolio Construction

  VT alone holds 9,818 companies at 0.06%; VTI + VXUS + BND covers 22,000+ securities at a blended 0.036%. Why a fourth and fifth fund usually adds overlap instead of diversification — VOO+VTI is ~83% the same portfolio.

• ETF vs Index Fund: What's the Difference? (Plain-English Answer)
  2026-07-10 · Fund Basics

  'Index fund' is a strategy; 'ETF' is a structure — and they overlap. The real comparison is index ETF vs index mutual fund: trading, minimums (VOO 1 share vs VFIAX $3,000), cost (0.03% vs 0.04%), and tax efficiency. Sourced from SEC and issuer data.

• How Are ETFs Taxed? Dividends, Capital Gains & Tax Efficiency Explained
  2026-07-10 · Taxes & ETFs

  IRS-sourced guide: qualified dividends (0/15/20%) vs ordinary, short- vs long-term capital gains when you sell, why in-kind redemptions make ETFs tax-efficient, and the special rules for gold (28% collectibles), bond, and commodity ETFs.

• VOO vs VTI vs SPY: Which S&P 500 / Total-Market ETF Is Best?
  2026-07-06 · Fund Analysis

  VOO and VTI are near-identical 0.03% choices; SPY does the same S&P 500 job at 0.0945%. What each tracks, ~83% holdings overlap, liquidity, dividends, and when to pick which — sourced from Vanguard and State Street fund pages.

• How Much Do You Need to Invest to Make $1,000 a Month in Dividends?
  2026-07-06 · Dividend ETFs

  The math, shown: $1,000/month is $12,000/year, so at a 3-4% yield you need about $300k-$400k invested; at 2%, about $600k. Real SCHD, VYM, and JEPI yields, the yield-vs-growth trade-off, and dividend tax rules.

• ETF Fee Drag by Expense Ratio (2026): What Each 0.1% Actually Costs
  2026-06-13 · Computed Data

  Computed lost-wealth tables for 0.03%–1.00% expense ratios on a $100k investment over 30 years, plus real same-exposure fund pairs (VOO vs SPY, VWO vs EEM, IAU vs GLD). The math, shown.

• SCHD vs VYM (2026): Dividend ETF Comparison (Yield, Methodology, Returns)
  2026-06-04 · Dividend ETFs

  Two 0.06% dividend ETFs, two different indexes. SCHD's 100-stock quality screen vs VYM's 530-stock high-yield basket — yields, sector weights, dividend growth, and total return with 2026 data.

• VOO vs SPY vs IVV (2026): The Three Flagship S&P 500 ETFs Compared
  2026-05-31 · Fund Analysis

  Same index, three wrappers. Expense ratios, AUM, tracking difference, options liquidity, and the UIT-vs-open-ended structural gap. 2026 data from issuer fund pages.

• VTI vs ITOT 2026: Total Market Index ETFs Compared (With Real Data)
  2026-05-20 · Fund Analysis

  Same 0.03% expense, slightly different benchmarks. Returns, tracking difference, 97-98% holdings overlap, and the tax-loss harvesting pairing case.

• QQQ vs QQQM 2026: Is the Cheaper Version Actually Worth It?
  2026-04-20 · Fund Analysis

  QQQ vs QQQM compared: identical Nasdaq-100 holdings at 0.20% vs 0.15% expense ratios. Liquidity, options, switching math, and when each wins.

• SCHD vs JEPI 2026: The Income ETF Showdown (Yield, Taxes, Total Return)
  2026-04-20 · Income ETFs

  Dividend-growth equities vs. a covered-call income strategy. Real 2026 data on yields, after-tax income, total return, and portfolio fit.

• VTI vs VOO 2026: Tracking Difference, Returns, and Overlap (With Real Data)
  2026-04-20 · Fund Analysis

  Expense ratios, 10-year returns, top-10 overlap, AUM, and tracking difference for VTI and VOO — with current 2026 data, not hand-waving.

• ETF vs Mutual Funds in 2026: A Data-Driven Comparison (With Real Numbers)
  2026-03-30 · Fund Analysis

  Expense ratios, tax efficiency, liquidity, and real return data compared using actual Vanguard, BlackRock, and Fidelity products. The answer depends on your account type.