Recently, my family needed a new vehicle. I’ve always wanted a truck, and I knew we would get tons of use out of it. Could I have found a cheaper vehicle? Sure. But I knew we could afford the truck, so after lots of careful thought, we decided to buy it. Anytime I make a …Read More.
It’s sad that terrible advice is so freely dispensed in tough times. Investors are at their most vulnerable, reeling from the market selloff. Many in the financial media see this as an opportunity to boost ratings and generate revenue for the big brokerage firms that support them with huge advertising budgets. They seem indifferent to …Read More.
Every year, right around this time, all the big brokerage firms, economists and banks come out with projections of what’s supposed to happen next in the financial world. This year is no exception. Especially prominent in the news has been the Royal Bank of Scotland warning, in no uncertain terms, that people should “sell everything” …Read More.
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal proposed that investors consider five factors before investing in emerging markets. One of these five factors was the flexibility of active funds. The author, Michael Pollock, writes: “Managers of active funds can make distinctions among that huge range of stocks that an index-tracking fund doesn’t make.” The …Read More.
Unless you made a resolution not to read, listen to or watch the news in 2016, you’ve likely noticed that “the market” is off to a stumbling start. Indeed, one glance at the headlines, at least the ones that don’t involve the presidential election, quickly reveals that the market is having one of its worst …Read More.
The financial industry would prefer you to believe that you can’t be a successful investor without it. That’s good for business but it’s not exactly true. In fact, it may be truer to suggest that a layperson with a reasonable grasp of middle school math—combined with the rarer traits of discipline, grit and humility—is capable …Read More.
When you sit down with a client for the very first time, what happens when you start talking about diversification? I’m betting you talk about picking a mix of investments, like stocks and bonds, maybe even some cash or real estate. You probably even discuss risk (another fun word). But I’m betting that most of …Read More.
Life insurance is one of the pillars of personal finance, deserving of consideration by every household. I’d even go so far as to say it’s vital for most. Yet, despite its nearly universal applicability, there remains a great deal of confusion, and even skepticism, regarding life insurance. Perhaps this is due to life insurance’s complexity, …Read More.
At the end of 2014, Tom Lee, co-founder and head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, explained why only about one out of five actively managed funds were able to outperform their benchmark index that year, and why he believed that 2015 could be huge for stock pickers. In fact, “2015 should be a very …Read More.
Every year, the market provides us with important lessons on the prudent investment strategy. Many times, the market will offer investors remedial courses, covering lessons that it has already delivered in previous years. That’s why one of my favorite sayings is that there’s nothing new in investing; there is only investment history you don’t yet …Read More.
Earlier this week, we began discussing 10 important lessons that the markets taught us in 2015 about the prudent investment strategy. In lessons one through three, we explored active management as a loser’s game, the “conventional wisdom” about the correlation between the economy and the stock market, and the “Sell in May” myth. Today we’ll …Read More.
Hedge funds began 2015 coming off their sixth-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 2014, one that included the worst bear market in the post-Depression era, the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index returned just 0.7% per year, underperforming every single …Read More.
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal contained a headline that very likely frightened many investors — and in my opinion, that’s precisely what it was meant to do. Otherwise, why inform investors that “U.S. public pension plans and mutual funds are sheltering more of their holdings in cash than they have in years, …Read More.
How about that 550-point intraday dive last week in the Dow! Did that finally get you to sell? Or was it one of the many headlines about the trillions of dollars that have been wiped out of the stock market in the worst start for the Dow in history — since 1897! And worst start …Read More.
So far, we’ve covered seven important lessons that the market taught investors in 2015 about the prudent investment strategy. These lessons, some of which repeat year after year, have addressed active management as a loser’s game; the correlation between the stock market and the economy; the “Sell in May” myth; fear about inflation; the mistake …Read More.