Investments

There is no such thing as “over diversification.”

Despite the appearance of stability, preferred stocks can become especially volatile when markets are reeling.

The greater the number of holdings the lower the turnover rate with one surprising exception.

Stocks less frequently traded have better returns.

The higher the correlation the greater the justification to put them in the same asset class.

“Every pension plan in the nation is paying too much [for private equity], and it’s being hidden.”

Should they be over weighted in your portfolio?

Correlations over the past year have been very low, while correlations over the past 10 years have been higher.

This year’s golden nugget goes to Buffett’s definition of risk.

The cost of commission-based advisors are so hidden that you may be paying more than you realize.

Each quarter brings a different set of returns for each asset class and subcategory.

Here’s how a good advisor should respond when you call about losses in your account.

“Lawsuit lenders do not advertise prices; they advertise convenience.”

There are three rules that we follow when looking for an investment strategy and the low volatility strategy fails two.

Investing in America began with the bankruptcy of the hottest stock in England.

“What do you think of the idea of Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) implemented simply by investing in something like the Domini Social Equity Fund (DSEFX)?”

You cannot help a company by buying its stock.

“Advisers need to sell their value as keeping their clients from doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.”

With three years remaining on a ten year $1 million bet, Buffett is sitting pretty to win it.

“The most important thing I learned from my research was never to attempt to forecast the price of oil.”

At first glance, AUNZ did not have great returns in 2014. But is that the whole story?

Q&A: “I don’t understand how to explain what happened to the share price. What was going on in the fund?”

David John Marotta and radio host Rob Schilling discuss what did well in the market as well as the online security of investments.

How is the change in the value of the dollar computed?

Freedom investing beat the EAFE Foreign index by 7.92% in 2014.

When asset classes are not correlated that means they often move in different directions.

Is there a correlation which would justify talking about “the momentum of the markets”?

Either of these funds would be a good choice for a one-fund investment if you really want to keep it simple, and you could invest in both of them if you want a two-fund strategy.

The best antidote to the stress of market volatility is to understand that the markets are inherently volatile.

David Leinweber calls this technique, “torturing the data until it screams.”

A review of last year’s 2014 gone fishing portfolio returns.

Here are the returns for our six Asset Classes from November 2014.

Here are the returns for our six Asset Classes from August 2014 – October 2014.

When it comes to finances, just shut your eyes and keep them closed.

The stock market is one of the few places that when things go on sale we are less likely to want to buy.

This radio interview covers the basics of what investing is, and how to think about investing, especially in U.S. Markets with a constant stream of information available.

There was an interesting article by Joseph Lisanti in Financial Planning Magazine entitled, “Should You Be Building Bond Ladders?” which read in part: As with many strategies, laddering works best for clients with sufficient assets to benefit fully from it. … Read More

Our brains are not wired well for handling the fluctuations in the stock market. Could a financial advisor help?

Here is the number one criteria you should use in your fund screen.

Morningstar data for the 3-year annualized returns based on style boxes shows us three interesting lessons.

There are several important lessons to learn from this graph.

In our example, your gain/loss could vary from -$1,000 to +$3,500 depending on the method used.

Here’s how to earn a slow million.

Not aiming for where the money is should boost returns.

Many investors don’t appreciate asset allocation or understand intuitively how a diversified portfolio can exceed the sum of its parts.

Recently we did an analysis of the returns of the MSCI Country Specific Indexes

Over the past decade the economically free countries have an annualized return of 11.34%. The S&P 500’s annualized return was 7.78%.

Perhaps they should make this into a mini-series.

You learn a lot by the discipline of reading old news.

I am the trustee for my mother’s living trust and I am trying to help her open an investment account at Vanguard. How do I go about opening a Trust account at Vanguard? Most regular brokerage accounts can be opened … Read More