Asset Allocation Guide: Dealing with conflicting goals
Today we conclude our series on how best to make asset allocation decisions. It’s an easy decision when the analysis of your ability, willingness and need to take risk leads to the same conclusion. For example, one can have a high ability and willingness to...
Faith-Based Funds Don’t Mean Divine Returns
Socially responsible investing (SRI) has been referred to as “double-bottom-line” investing. The implication is that you are seeking not only profitable investments, but also investments that meet your personal standards. Faith-Based Funds (FBF) can be viewed as a subset of...
The Advantage Of ‘Go Anywhere’ Funds: Myth Or Reality
Whether they go by such names as “unconstrained,” “tactical asset allocation,” “absolute return,” or “go anywhere,” Wall Street touts the advantages of funds that have the freedom to shift asset allocations to wherever they see the best opportunities. It certainly...
The Lies Of Private Equity
While embarking on scenic tours can make life both interesting and exciting, they’re best avoided when it comes to the world of investing. The reason is that most “interesting” investments fail to deliver on their promise of returns sufficient to...
A Close Look At Emerging Markets
There’s an interesting paper from Martijn Cremers, a professor of finance at the University of Notre Dame, on the performance of emerging market stocks that are the publicly traded affiliates of multinational companies. But like so much in the world of...
Stock Pickers Fell Flat In 2013
Last year certainly provided active managers with plenty of opportunities to outperform, and it’s worth examining if they really did. For example, while the S&P 500 Index returned 32.4 percent, Netflix (NLFX), the top performer in the index, returned 297...
7 Myths About Dividend-Paying Stocks
The most common misconception among investors may be the value of investing in dividend-paying stocks. Almost every week, someone contacts me to extol the virtues of investing in what they call “high quality, dividend-yielding securities.” Often, their interest is spurred...
The Delicate Craft of Misleading Investors
Proponents of alternative investments (like hedge funds) have a very effective presentation. They claim these investments have low volatility (risk), offer excellent risk-adjusted returns, and don’t correlate well with stocks or bonds, thereby providing a “hedge” in troubled times. These...
The Three Kinds of Investors Who Should Sell Their Stocks Now
You should never make investing decisions based on what the market is doing, except for now, maybe. Past experience and reams of studies tell us there is no way to time the market and that we should buy and hold....
Lessons From 2013: Part III
Day three of our lessons from 2013, we'll dive right in with an examination of hedge fund returns. This one holds the title with the most repeat performances, appearing most years. The HRFX Global Hedge Fund Index earned just 6.7 percent. The table below shows the returns for various equity and fixed
