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Value Beats Glamour

Date02 May 2016

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Earlier this week, we examined a recent study contributing to the literature that supports a behavioral-based argument for the value premium, in particular that investors persistently overvalue the earnings prospects of growth (“glamour”) stocks. The study—“Glamour, Value and Anchoring on the Changing P/E”—posits that the differing experiences of glamour and value investors could be explained...

Taxes Can Be A Real Drag

Date02 May 2016

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As the annual S&P Active Versus Passive (SPIVA) scorecard demonstrated, 2015 was another painful year for U.S. actively managed funds. It found that 66.1% of large-cap managers, 56.8% of midcap managers, 72.2% of small-cap managers and 61.9% of real estate investment trust managers underperformed the S&P 500, the S&P MidCap 400, the S&P SmallCap 600...

Hedge Funds Fail To Impress In Q1

Date02 May 2016

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Hedge funds entered 2016 coming off their seventh-straight year of trailing U.S. stocks (as measured by the S&P 500 Index) by significant margins. And for the 10-year period ending 2015—one that included the worst bear market in the post-Depression era—the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index managed to return just 0.7% per year, underperforming every single...

It’s Still Open Season on Retirement Plan Participants

Date02 May 2016

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Don’t get me wrong. I believe the new fiduciary rule recently announced by the Department of Labor (DOL) will be a net plus for retirement plan participants. The rule expands the definition of “fiduciary investment advice” and requires all financial professionals (a ubiquitous term that encompasses registered investment advisors, brokers and insurance company representatives) to...

‘Sure Things’ That Weren’t This Year

Date02 May 2016

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At the start of each year, I put together a list of predictions made by gurus (and often repeated by investors, who hear about these forecasts through the financial media). It’s sort of a consensus of things “sure” to happen in the upcoming year. We keep track of these “sure things” with a review at...

Annuities & Problems Of Longevity

Date02 May 2016

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As the director of research for The BAM Alliance, I frequently receive questions related to the advisability of purchasing payout annuities (as opposed to variable annuities, which I generally categorize as products meant to be sold, not bought). Combine the relatively poor performance of equities since 2000 (the S&P 500 returned just a little more...

Glamour Can Distract Investors

Date02 May 2016

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There’s very strong historical evidence to support the existence of a value premium in equity markets. While there’s no dispute over the existence of the value premium (value stocks have provided an annual average return 5% higher than growth stocks over the long term), there is much debate over the cause of the difference in...

Don’t Bother Timing Premiums

Date18 Apr 2016

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Because of the magnitude, persistence, pervasiveness and robustness of their related premiums, several factors have dominated the academic literature. Among them are market beta, size, value, momentum and profitability. However, despite their persistence, each factor has undergone even fairly long periods during which it produced negative returns. Said another way, while investors can raise expected...

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