Category Archives: ETFs
What does “Best” really mean?
If you had to predict which players would top the money list in golf or tennis next year, you’d probably give strong consideration to this year’s top money winners. Same goes for top home run hitters and pitchers in baseball. … Continue reading
It’s always something, but rarely everything
Gold’s down this year, fairly dramatically so. This has some investors proclaiming the shiny stuff’s irreversible demise, or maybe wondering why they ever bought into it in the first place. My view is less dramatic: there’s always something that’s down, … Continue reading
NCAA brackets and the challenge of forecasting
The NCAA basketball pool is a blast every year. Your cleverly selected bracket plays out as a month-long clash between delight and despair as some of your teams heroically advance and others are squished like bugs. It’s college sports at … Continue reading
Posted in ETFs, Investment Strategy
Leave a comment
Passive power
People often refer to index-based investing as “passive” investing. Some view that label as a negative – as if that investment style is somehow weak, unsophisticated, or the refuge of the lazy. I disagree completely. And I’ll tell you why.
Posted in ETFs, Taxes and fees
Leave a comment
Play to win
Wouldn’t it be nice to be fairly sure you were going to win every time you went out on the tennis court or hockey rink? Based on recently released performance stats, I guess Vanguard must know that feeling. Its funds … Continue reading
Posted in ETFs, Indexing/Passive Investing
Leave a comment
2012: Despite the headlines, a strong year
Fiscal cliff, high unemployment, euro crisis, stalled economy, divisive election, Congressional gridlock, US debt downgrade, nuclear threat. If you watched the news in 2012, you’d be convinced it was a dismal year for the markets. But it wasn’t. Quite the … Continue reading
Fidelity joins index club?
What’s this? Fidelity, one the largest active investment management companies has index investments? It sure does. Fidelity’s Spartan 500 Index fund, with $48 billion in assets under management, is the flagship in the Spartan family of 14 index mutual funds. What’s going … Continue reading
Posted in ETFs, Indexing/Passive Investing
Leave a comment
Finally a free lunch! Or maybe not.
When one basket of stocks pays a 2 percent dividend yield, and another, seemingly very similar one pays 6 percent, which one do you want to own? In today’s one percent bond yield world, it’s not a hypothetical question. Two … Continue reading
Posted in Dividends, ETFs, Indexing/Passive Investing, International
Leave a comment
Capital preservation through growth
As we discussed last time, it’s just not realistic to hope to stay ahead of inflation’s slow but persistent drain without assuming some risk. For investors whose first goal is to preserve capital, a growth strategy is the appropriate response, … Continue reading
Fee war in your favor
Three exchange traded fund (ETF) sponsors – State Street, Vanguard, and BlackRock – control more than 80% of the massive ETF market. Each can claim advantages. State Street has the two biggest ETFs: SPY and GLD. BlackRock was first to … Continue reading
Posted in ETFs, Indexing/Passive Investing, Taxes and fees
Leave a comment
Categories
