A recent study says says it paid to use fundamental indexing in the decade of The Aughts. Rather than losing money, you would have earned a small return. ...
First the good news: The S&P 500 should climb by about 19 percent or so from yesterday’s close, says mutual fund manager Steve Leuthold in his firm’s “Green Book” monthly research report, released this morning. Now the bad news: “Then [it] will give up those gains in the second half of the year.” In short, the bull is getting old. VonAldo.com, the blog of Registered Rep. Editor-in-Chief David A. Geracioti...
Asian stocks have soared this year. Now the average Asian fund sells for a price-earnings multiple of 13, compared to a figure of 10 for European funds, according to Morningstar. Are the highflyers due to crash? Perhaps. But the booming markets of China and other Asian emerging countries have not yet reached bubble territory, said Robert Horrocks, chief investment officer of Matthews Funds. ...
To read the accounts in the popular press of last year's mutual fund performance is to understand the frustration felt by many investors. Exhibit A: Barron's...
Plenty of investors have been unhappy about their municipal bond funds of late. During 2008, the average municipal bond mutual fund lost 7.7 percent,...
The average global active manager beat his benchmark over the last 10 years. So did the average fund manager in a few other style boxes. But global managers may have a better arsenal to keep the trend going...
In an article titled Retirement Casino, on p. 46 of our November 2008 issue, we made an error. In the graphic of an excel spreadsheet on that page, in...
Regulators typically offer a “settlement premium” that is meant to represent a discount on sanctions they would seek at a hearing or trial. Is it worth it?...
Since the credit crisis began unfolding, many strange things have occurred in the fixed-income markets. Among the strangest has been the downturn of municipal...
Can, say, an oil company, be considered an eco-responsible company? What about a company that caters to “non-married” lifestyles? Is that “socially responsible”? One man's virtuous stock is another man’s sinful stock....
I used to think that socially responsible investing (SRI) was basically the politicization of investing. Our society has become so politicized these days,...
Bloomberg.com is reporting today that the legendary fund manager Bill Miller has lost his touch. After 15 years of outperforming the S&P 500, Miller, the manager of the Legg Mason Value Trust (LMVTX), has slipped into a funk, and assets in the fund are in a steep decline....
The growing acceptance of ETFs among wirehouse advisors demonstrates how far they have grown professionally. They’re not your stock jockeys of yore....
For years, regulators have considered altering the 12b-1 fees imposed on mutual funds. But despite hearings and public debate, no new rules have appeared....
The American Dream Planner is designed to develop and stress- test wealth accumulation, management and transfer choices. The software accepts unlimited investments, tax deferred accounts, real property and business interests, income and expenses. Plans can include Trusts (Bypass, Marital, ILITs, CRTs, GRATs), SCINs, marketability and minority interest discounts and other techniques with income, gift and estate tax calculations. Data rich and interactive pie, line and bar charts and tabular data and mail merge provide a source for customizable reports. All versions can share encrypted data. The Personal Edition is intended for individuals with current estates of less than $3-5M. ...
