Posted in ETFs, Investors, Mutual Funds, tagged balanced index fund, Core-4 Portfolio, David F. Swensen, Endowment Model, index fund strategies, investment strategy, models, Yale Model on June 5, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Guest post by Richard (Rick) A. Ferri, CFA, founder of Portfolio Solutions.
Unconventional success from an investment strategy leads to failure for most investors. The excess gains earned by the early adopters of a new investment idea quickly dissipate as growing crowds become increasingly unsophisticated and push down returns. It doesn’t take long before the average return from the strategy falls well below a simple portfolio of index funds. (more…)
Posted in Behavioral Finance, Investors, Mutual Funds, Stock Investing, tagged hedge funds, ideologies, investing strategy, price-to-earnings, value stocks on May 6, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Guest post by Contributing Editor, Robert P. Seawright, Chief Investment and Information Officer for Madison Avenue Securities.
Value has persistently outperformed over the long-term. Why is that?
In the most general terms, growth stocks are those with growing positive attributes – like price, sales, earnings, profits, and return on equity. Value stocks, on the other hand, are stocks that are underpriced when compared to some measure of their relative value – like price to earnings, price to book, and dividend yield. Thus growth stocks trade at higher prices relative to various fundamental measures of their value because (at least in theory) the market is pricing in the potential for future earnings growth. Over relatively long periods of time, each of these investing classes can and do outperform the other. For example, growth investing dominated the 1990s while value investing has outperformed since. But value wins over the long haul. (more…)
Posted in Asset Allocation, book review, Dividends, ETFs, Financial Advisors, Income Investing, Investors, Mutual Funds, Wealth, tagged affluent investors, high beta rich, high-net-worth families, investment portfolios, lifecycle investing, phil demuth, The Affluent Investor on April 9, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
I have known Phil DeMuth for a number of years and I admire his common sense and views on many topics. Phil authored the recently-published book The Affluent Investor that fills a need in the crowded shelves of investment books. As a financial advisor to high-net-worth families, Phil brings valuable perspective to investors who have built substantial portfolios and seek to protect and grow their wealth effectively. (more…)
Posted in Bonds, Investors, Risk, Scams, Volatility, tagged Apple, Apple structured notes, CDs, derivative instrument, Jason Zweig, reverse convertible bond, structured products on February 5, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Jason Zweig at the Wall Street Journal published a disturbing article that deserves more attention. The basic story is this. A number of banks sold a complex financial product to retail investors who have subsequently lost quite a bit of money. Here is the basic pitch that was apparently made to individual investors in 2012. You are going to buy an investment product that is currently invested in bonds and is producing 8% in income per year. The performance of this product is tied to the stock price of Apple, however. In exchange for the high income, you take on the risk of a decline in Apple’s stock price. These products were sold when Apple stock was soaring, so a fair number of people apparently saw this as a favorable bet. With the stock down more than 30% from its peak, many of these investors have lost a considerable amount of money. Read Zweig’s piece for more details. These products have a number of variations and he discusses one specific structure. Here is another. The title of Zweig’s article, How Apple Bit Bondholders, Too, gives the impression that bonds were responsible for these losses. This is not the case, but the title serves to illustrate the subtlety of the problem. (more…)
Posted in Asset Allocation, Investors, Long-term investing, Market Timing, Mutual Funds, Stock Investing, tagged DOW Jones Industrial Average, mutual fund fees, mutual fund investors, mutual fund management on January 25, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
There is increasing evidence of big flows of money into equities and leaving bonds. This is being seen at all levels in the market, including among institutional investors such as pension plans. The Wall Street Journal just published an article discussing this shift called Are Mom and Pop Heading for Wall Street? Mutual fund flows suggest that investors are finally returning to equities, after selling in droves over the past several years. This article summarizes the issue:
From April 2009 through now, mutual-fund investors sold a quarter trillion dollars in stock funds, according to recent data from the Investment Company Institute.
Ironically, that selloff coincided with a period of stellar performance in stocks—when the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped more than 60%. (more…)
Posted in Diversification, ETFs, Investors, Long-term investing, Low Cost Investing, Regular Investing, retirement planning, Risk, Uncategorized, Volatility, tagged diversification strategy, folios, fund performance, Retirement Investing, risk targeting, target date, Target Date Folios, Target Date Funds on January 24, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Folio Investing announced today that, over the five years since they were brought to market in December 2007, its Target Date Folios have significantly outperformed traditional target-date funds. The Folios have provided both higher returns and lower volatility than the competing funds during this tumultuous period. (more…)
Posted in Behavioral Finance, Investors, Market Timing, tagged behavioral bias, bias blind spot, cognitive bias, motivated reasoning, scientific method on January 22, 2013 | 2 Comments »
Guest post by Contributing Editor, Robert P. Seawright, Chief Investment and Information Officer for Madison Avenue Securities.
Pretty much since the day I wrote it, my Investors’ 10 Most Common Behavioral Biases has been the most popular post on this blog. It still gets a surprising number of hits all these months later. Due to the pioneering work of Daniel Kahneman and others, nearly everyone in the financial world acknowledges the reality of cognitive and behavioral biases and their impact on people, the markets and life in general. It’s a very popular subject. (more…)
Posted in 401(k), Asset Allocation, Diversification, Financial Advisors, financial planning, Investors, Long-term investing, Low Cost Investing, Portfolio Investing 101, retirement planning, Risk, tagged individual retirement accounts, investment advice, IRAs, online brokers, self-directed investing, Target Date Funds on December 20, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
There is currently $5 Trillion invested in Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), $4.7 Trillion invested in self-directed retirement plans provided by employers (401(k), 457, and 403(b) plans), and $2.3 Trillion invested in traditional pension plans offered by private companies. These numbers are stunning for a number of reasons. First, self-directed retirement plans (IRAs, 401(k)’s, etc.) dramatically dwarf the amounts invested in traditional pensions. This is part of a long-term trend, as employers move away from traditional pensions, but the magnitude of the shift is striking. With the assets in IRA’s surpassing the $5 Trillion mark earlier this year, the amount of money in individual accounts is moving ahead of employer-sponsored plans. What’s more, it is anticipated that IRA’s will continue to grow relative to employer-sponsored plans as people retire and roll their savings from their ex-employer’s plan into an IRA. This matters because investors in IRA’s have even less help in creating and maintaining their portfolios than investors in employer-sponsored plans. (more…)
Posted in Asset Allocation, Bonds, Commodities, Diversification, ETFs, Inflation, Investors, Risk, Stock Investing, tagged Corporate Bonds, emerging market stocks, Emerging Markets, equity energy, fixed income, gold, government bonds, investing strategy, Municipal Bonds, real estate investment trusts, REITs, stock market index, TIPS, Utility stocks on November 28, 2012 | 1 Comment »
One of the most important questions for investors and advisors is identifying a set of asset classes that will be considered for inclusion in a portfolio. Some people will decide that all they need or want is one broad stock market index fund and one bond fund. Others will choose to include Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and commodities. There are well-thought-out arguments that inflation-protected government bonds (TIPS) are a major core asset class. It is also quite common for investors or advisors to break stocks out into value vs. growth and small cap vs. large cap. (more…)
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