While the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor’s 500 index reached record highs on the last day of October, most active stock managers have struggled in 2014. One of the primary difficulties has been the wide divergence in performance between the largest-capitalization and smaller-capitalization stocks.
The latest trend enabled by computers is “robo-advisers.” These computer-driven financial advisers are springing up to offer low-cost, automated portfolio management.
I’ve written a number of columns with advice for when the talking heads are screaming about the coming apocalypse, so I thought it might be useful to review some of those concepts.
Chalk this up as one for “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” The employees of some well-known financial firms have sued their employers for placing their own company’s proprietary mutual funds in their 401(k) plans.
California Public Employees’ Retirement System is dumping its entire hedge fund program. The reason, according to Ted Eliopoulos, the chief investment officer, is “their complexity, cost and lack of ability to scale to CalPERS size.“
Recently, financial academics, like Rob Arnott of Research Affiliates, have published white papers supporting a different type of index investing. They call their creation “smart beta.
Instead of assembling a pretend roster for your fantasy football league, how would you like to actually own a piece of Andrew Luck or your favorite player?
While the goal of many investors is to “beat the market,” it is a well-known fact that most investors (including professionals), underperform the market over the long run. Hence, the argument to buy index funds. Investors who invest in index funds accept the aggregate ups and downs (volatility) of the broad stock market.
A college education is one of life’s costliest investments, so you want to maximize your return on that investment.
The Securities and Exchange Commission last month approved new rules for money market funds, which require institutional “prime” money funds and municipal funds to have a floating net asset value, or NAV.
Accurate information about low-priced stocks issued by the smallest of companies can be difficult to find. This makes it easy for fraudsters to spread false information. It’s truly the Wild West of speculation.
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest public pension fund in the United States, recently announced it would reduce its hedge fund investments by a dramatic 40 percent.
Admiral William H. McRaven, a Navy SEAL and commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, spoke this May to the graduating class of his alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, with advice on “if you want to change the world.”
When it comes to investing, some deep thinking can provide perspective on your finances. A reflective investor will find himself challenging some of the accepted beliefs held dear by the investment industry.
A persistent seasonal anomaly for stocks is the “presidential cycle,” a pattern of performance coinciding with various years of a presidency.
Considering that annual fees can run 3 percent or more, and investment performance for the vast majority of these funds has been subpar, if offered a liquid-alt mutual fund, our decision would be to pass.
It’s amazing how the 24/7 media bombardment of random noise and sound bites on the economy and markets has investors continually on tenterhooks. It seems Armageddon is always lurking around the corner.
Wall Street’s propensity to create arcane products and sell them to investors within broad asset-allocation programs has increased portfolio complexity and altered overall performance.
If your employer offered to double your salary, would you jump at the chance? In a rational world, you’d take that deal 100 times out of 100. However, you’ll probably be surprised to learn how we make a “no brainer” decision like this depends on whether someone else is involved.
Investors continue to pour money into hedge funds, even though their performance has been downright awful.
