The week's best financial advice

Here are three of the week's top pieces of financial advice, gathered from around the web:

When brokers get the blues

"Bad weather isn't good for investors," said Charlie Wells at The Wall Street Journal. Gloomy conditions outside can trigger "mild depression" in brokerage analysts, a new Stanford University study has found, making brokers slower to respond to earnings announcements. Analysts working in bad weather were 9 to 18 percent less likely to issue buy or sell recommendations following such announcements. Late reports "can mean missed opportunities for investors large and small." "In behavioral finance, we like to think in terms of humans as completely rational beings," said Stanford accounting professor Ed deHaan. "But we're learning from psychology that, obviously, humans are very affected by all sorts of stimuli."

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Dubious warnings on money trackers

Big banks "wary of hacking risks" are trying to scare customers away from apps and websites that help users track their spending, said Liz Weston at Reuters. JPMorgan Chase and Capital One, among others, have warned customers against sharing their account passwords with third-party services like Mint​.com, saying individual users could be liable for any fraud on their accounts. "The banks' warnings, however, are off base." Federal banking rules "sharply limit" customers' liability for unauthorized transactions as long as they report fraud promptly. Even negligence, such as writing a PIN on a debit card, does not increase a customer's liability. Critics say that banks are likely just as worried about competition from account aggregators as they are about hacking.

How to stress test your portfolio

"While most of us think we're comfortable with risk, it's often not true," said Ryan Derousseau at US News. To really get a sense of what you're willing to endure in a downturn, give your portfolio a stress test. Financial advisers can provide detailed analyses of how your portfolio will react in different scenarios, like an interest rate hike or a 10 percent drop in the stock market. These hypotheticals can help investors cut back on their risk if they're taking on too much, or avoid the temptation to sell when the market hits turbulence. Stress testing can also reveal the impact of fees, which can ultimately hurt a portfolio more than any downturn. To get a comprehensive analysis, go through your adviser. Hidden​Levers.com also offers free software for stress testing based on your portfolio allocation.