2019 IA25 Portfolio Winners

She's also been busy of late discussing the dreaded inverted yield curve: "For the first time since mid-2007, the 10-year to three-month portion of the U.S. Treasury yield curve inverted [on March 22]; which unleashed a near-2% decline in the S&P 500 on heightened fears of recession. That's the longest stretch of time since at least the early-1960s without an inversion."

What makes the inversion significant? "Every recession since the mid-1960s has been preceded by an inverted yield curve …," Sonders explained. Still, "an inversion doesn't help define either the length of runway between the inversion and the subsequent recession; or the severity of the recession (or attendant bear market)."

The Schwab executive adds that recessions are inevitable endings of economic cycles. There's "much hyperbole being thrown around these days …," she said. "With both yield curves discussed above having inverted, it shouldn't be unexpected that the countdown clock has 'officially' begun."

Also popular on Twitter — with more than 61,000 followers — and with IA25 voters is Sallie Krawcheck, who leads Ellevest, the digital-investment platform she founded to help women improve their financial lives.

The platform just raised $33 million in new funding, including support from Valerie Jarrett, Melinda Gates' Pivotal Ventures, PayPal and Eric Schmidt, former executive chairman of Google and Alphabet. Also in late March, Ellevest said its Private Wealth Management service now has $100 million in assets under management.

"Today, we bring in a group of rock star investors deeply aligned with our mission," according to Krawcheck. "And it's no coincidence that many of them are unparalleled changemakers and advocates for women who understand that being under-invested can cost women a fortune over their lives."

The former head of Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup's Wealth Management business (including Smith Barney) reminds the public and the advice industry that nearly 90% of traders are male, as are about 86% of financial advisors, 90% of mutual fund managers, 95% of hedge fund managers and 95% of venture capital partners. "Where's that meritocracy?" she asks.

The two honorable mentions in this category are Wharton Finance Professor Jeremy Siegel and Allianz Chief Economic Advisor Mohamed-El Erian. Siegel sees stocks, now trading at roughly 19 times trailing earnings, as "pretty fully valued," he told Bloomberg Television; he's concerned that if trade talks with China fail, there could a market drop "of 20% or more."

El-Erian, in his latest opinion column for Bloomberg, said China should quickly implement "more fundamental reform measures needed to power an increasingly complex economy."