Guest post by Contributing Editor, Robert P. Seawright, Chief Investment and Information Officer for Madison Avenue Securities. A new paper by Robert Haugen, president of research house Haugen Custom Financial Systems, and Nardin Baker, chief strategist, Global Alpha, Guggenheim Partners Asset Management, claims that low risk (really low volatility) stocks consistently delivered market-beating returns in all of the [...]
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Does “Low Risk” Outperform?
Posted in Market Outlook, Market Timing, Portfolio Investing 101, Stock Investing, Uncategorized, Volatility, Wealth on May 16, 2012 | 1 Comment »
The Most Common Mistake Investors Make
Posted in Active Investing, Asset Allocation, Behavioral Finance, Bonds, Diversification, ETFs, Financial Advisors, financial planning, Investors, Long-term investing, Low Cost Investing, Market Outlook, Market Timing, Media and the markets, Mutual Funds, Personalization, Retirement, retirement planning, Stock Investing, Uncategorized on May 11, 2012 | 5 Comments »
Each year, the research firm DALBAR publishes their Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior. Every year, the results show that individual investors are their own worst enemies. And this year is no exception. The QAIB examines the real returns earned by investors in equity mutual funds, bond mutual funds, and asset allocation mutual funds. Over the [...]
The Hidden Risk in Target Date Funds
Posted in Asset Allocation, Behavioral Finance, financial planning, Long-term investing, Low Cost Investing, Market Outlook, Mutual Funds, Retirement, retirement income, retirement planning, Risk, Uncategorized, Wealth, tagged 2009 market crash, 2010 target date folios, diversification, investing for retirement, mutual funds, retirement, retirement planning, Risk, Target Date Folios, Target Date Funds, volatility on May 8, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Lately, Target Date Funds (TDFs) have been the subject of intense scrutiny and criticism, because investors have realized (in many cases, after the fact) that these types of funds can be very volatile. In the aftermath of the 2008 collapse of the financial markets, TDFs for investors near retirement (funds with a projected retirement data [...]
What’s Driving the Price of Oil?
Posted in Active Investing, Asset Allocation, Commodities, Uncategorized, Wealth, tagged energy, Exxon, gas, Inflation, oil on May 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
There’s lot’s of talk right now about the price of oil and, particularly, gasoline. Oil is trading at more than $104 per barrel and the national average price of gasoline at the pump is $3.80. It looks as though the price of a gallon of gas will be a significant political topic for the election [...]
Stocks and Shocks: What to Do?
Posted in Behavioral Finance, Bonds, book review, Commodities, Corporate Governance, debt, Diversification, financial planning, Global Investing, Leverage, Long-term investing, Market Outlook, Market Timing, pension plans, pensions, Personalization, retirement planning, Risk, Stock Investing, Uncategorized, Volatility, Wealth, tagged China, energy, energy policy, Euro, Europe, european debt, FDIC, France, Iran, Italy, Obama, oil, Persian Gulf, Spain on May 2, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Guest Post by Contributing Editor, David Kotok, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer, Cumberland Advisors. How do we avoid walking into a “left hook” in the markets? That was the discussion this week during a client review. “Can’t you see them coming and avoid them?” he asked. Well maybe some folks can, but the issue of [...]
Why Mutual Fund Managers May Not Act in Your Best Interest
Posted in Active Investing, Behavioral Finance, Diversification, Financial Advisors, financial planning, Market Timing, Markets, Mutual Funds, Retirement, Stock Investing, Uncategorized, tagged herding mentality, Index Funds, Jeremy Grantham, mutual fund managers on April 27, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Jeremy Grantham has produced yet another truly outstanding essay in GMO’s Quarterly Letter to Investors for April 2012. Never reluctant to take on controversy, he focuses on the ways in which mutual fund managers have strong incentives to behave in ways that are often not in the best interests of investors in their funds. In [...]
Financial Literacy is the Issue of the Month? Try Issue of the Century.
Posted in Active Investing, debt, Diversification, financial planning, Investors, Leverage, Long-term investing, Market Outlook, Market Timing, Markets, mortgages, Mutual Funds, pension plans, pensions, Real Estate, Retirement, retirement income, retirement planning, Risk, Stock Investing, Uncategorized, Volatility, Wealth, tagged budget, credit card debt, financial literacy, housing bubble, student loan debt on April 24, 2012 | 3 Comments »
April is Financial Literacy Month. All month long, I have been trying to think of how to write a post that can express the depth of my conviction that the lack of financial knowledge is at the core of some of the biggest problems that we, as individuals (and as a nation) are facing. There [...]
Sell in May? 9 Trillion Reasons to Say “No”
Posted in 401(k), Active Investing, Asset Allocation, Diversification, financial planning, Global Investing, Investors, Leverage, Long-term investing, Market Outlook, Uncategorized, tagged bonds, Fed, Federal Reserve, G4, interest rates, sell in may, sell in may and go away, stocks on April 20, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Guest Post by Contributing Editor, David Kotok, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer, Cumberland Advisors. The old adage “Sell in May and go away” was good guidance for stock markets last year. The market peaked on April 29 and bottomed out on October 3. For a detailed discussion of this period and the subsequent bull-market recovery, [...]
Chasing Yield: Is the Flow of Money into Munis and High Yield Bonds Rational?
Posted in Uncategorized on April 18, 2012 | 3 Comments »
There has been a steady flow of money into junk bonds and municipal bonds over the last several months. In fact, we have had a string of eighteen weeks with increases in mutual funds assets that invest in high-yield bonds and munis. There is also evidence of money flowing into ETFs that focus on preferred [...]
Sell in May?
Posted in financial planning, financial ratios, Investors, Leverage, Market Outlook, Risk, Uncategorized, Volatility, Wealth, tagged zacks on April 13, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Guest Post by Contributing Editor, Kip Robbins, CFA, Zacks.com. This week, I bumped into a friend who remembered my article based on seasonal investing in which I suggested to buy around Halloween and sell in May (see “Goblins, Ghouls and the Halloween Effect“). He reminded me that May is soon approaching, and asked me whether [...]
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