About the Authors

Matthew Krantz: Matt is a nationally known financial journalist who specializes in investing topics. Since 1999, he has been a writer for USA TODAY, where he covers financial markets and Wall Street, concentrating on developments affecting individual investors and their portfolios. His stories routinely signal trends that investors can profit from and sound warnings about potential scams and issues investors should be aware of.

Matt also writes a daily online investing column called “Ask Matt,” which appears every trading day at USATODAY.com and in USA TODAY. He answers questions posed by the website’s audience in an easy-to-understand manner. Readers often tell Matt he’s the only one who has been able to finally solve investing questions they’ve sought answers to for years.

Matt has been investing since the 1980s and has studied dozens of investment techniques while forming his own. As a financial journalist, Matt has interviewed some of the most famous and infamous investment minds in modern history. Before joining USA TODAY, Matt worked as a business and technology reporter for Investor’s Business Daily and, prior to that, was a consultant with Ernst & Young.

Matt has spoken for investing groups, including at the national convention of National Association of Investors Corporation, and has appeared on financial television.

Matt earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He is based in USA TODAY’s Los Angeles bureau. When he’s not writing, he’s spending time with his wife and young daughter, running, playing tennis, mountain biking, or surfing.

Robert R. Johnson, Ph.D., CFA, CAIA: Bob is a full professor of finance in the Heider College of Business at Creighton University. He teaches in the Master of Security Analysis and Portfolio Management Program and serves as the editor for the Quarterly Journal of Finance and Accounting. He also serves on the board of RS Investments, a San Francisco–based investment management firm that is majority-owned by The Guardian Life Insurance Company.

Bob was formerly Senior Managing Director and Deputy CEO at CFA Institute, responsible for all aspects of the CFA Program for the majority of his 15-year tenure. In 2013, he received the Alfred C. “Pete” Morley Distinguished Service Award from CFA Institute in appreciation of his leadership, stewardship, and outstanding service.

Prior to joining CFA Institute, Bob was a professor of finance at Creighton University from 1984 through 1996. Throughout his academic career, Bob won several teaching awards and, in 1994, earned the university-wide Robert F. Kennedy Award for Teaching Excellence. Bob has over 60 refereed articles in leading finance and investment journals. His publications have appeared in The Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, The Journal of Portfolio Management, Financial Analysts Journal, and Journal of Banking & Finance.

Bob has extensive media relations experience both in the United States and abroad. He has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Barron’s, USA TODAY, Forbes, The Globe and Mail (Toronto), South China Morning Post, The Straits Times (Singapore), and Le Temps, among others. He has appeared numerous times on ABC World News, Bloomberg TV (Europe and U.S.), CNN, and China Business News, among others.

Bob received his BSBA in finance (summa cum laude) from the University of Nebraska–Omaha in 1980, MBA (with a concentration in finance) from Creighton University in 1982, and PhD in finance/investments from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1988. He earned his CFA charter from the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts in 1991. He earned his CAIA charter from the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association in 2011.

Bob lives with his wife in Charlottesville, Virginia. When he’s not working, he enjoys cycling in the Blue Ridge Mountains, hiking with his wife and dogs, and rooting for his beloved Nebraska Cornhusker football and Creighton Bluejays basketball teams.