The objective: With The Core Ten YouTube shorts series, Merrill set out to compress investing insights down to their timeless fundamentals and deliver them in a 60-second video format that people will watch. Amid nonstop market noise and trending hot takes, our goal was to create a series tailored for the YouTube Shorts audience that grounds viewers not in predictions or complexity but in clarity, discipline, and the enduring principles that have guided confident investors for generations.
“In any kind of physical training, you start with the core. That’s what holds you steady. That’s what keeps you aligned. When it comes to investing, it’s no different,” says Chris Hyzy, Chief Investment Officer for Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank, in introducing the series. The Core 10 distills 10 timeless investing principles, introduced by Hyzy and explained by experts across Merrill’s Chief Investment Office, into quick, accessible episodes viewers can easily grasp and refer back to. The series aims to:
Make core investing guidance feel approachable, modern, and human
Highlight Merrill’s bench of experts in an engaging, shortform format
Build an evergreen educational franchise optimized for YouTube Shorts and portable across our social and owned platforms
In a world of short attention spans, The Core Ten helps viewers strengthen their financial “core”—one principle, one minute at a time.
The strategy: We created The Core Ten, knowing that evergreen foundational content performs exceptionally well in the YouTube Shorts’ algorithm.
Each 60-second episode follows a tight structure: a quick open from CIO Chris Hyzy, a handoff to a specialist, and a concise, memorable explanation of one enduring principle—from starting early to staying disciplined to focusing on trendlines over headlines.
Scripts were crafted for crisp delivery, filmed with a light production footprint, and optimized for potential vertical video use across YouTube, Instagram, and Meta. The biggest challenge in drafting them was in ensuring that the end result would seem natural, relaxed and conversational and wouldn’t just be a rehash of what many investors have heard many times before.
To that end, the scripts were designed as thought starters for our specialists, who were encouraged to frame each principle in their own words, and their passion for their subject came through as they delivered many practical insights. For example, as Head of Portfolio Strategy Marci McGregor said in summing up her advice for investors to focus on trend lines, not headlines: “Sometimes patience is your best risk management tool.”
Launched in December 2025 alongside Merrill’s annual Outlook programming, the series aligns with a moment when financial curiosity is highest, positioning these principles as a timely reset for the year ahead. A supporting playlist structure on Merrill’s refreshed YouTube channel enhances discoverability and encourages sequential viewing.
The results: Though newly launched, The Core Ten is already establishing itself as a standout educational asset in Merrill’s content ecosystem. Its evergreen foundational focus gives it long-term value, and early platform analytics show strong engagement with the YouTube Shorts’ target audience of emerging and nextgen investors.gen investors.
The series also, importantly, helps to deepen advisor-client engagement. It’s just the start of more accessible and engaging investing and financial planning content to be produced for YouTube Shorts as we build our audience on YouTube.