Category Archives: Indexing/Passive Investing
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
The history of modern investing on a single sheet
If you invested one dollar in small stocks in 1926 and then took an 87 year nap, you’d be waking up today with $18,000+. That’s the power of compounding – one of the many interesting concepts portrayed in the annual … Continue reading
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
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Year 5: Buffett leads in wager against hedge funds
Five years ago Warren Buffett made a big bet, not to enrich himself, but to prove a point. He wagered that an unmanaged S&P 500 index fund would outperform hedge funds handpicked by the Wall Street firm Protége Partners. We’re … Continue reading
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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
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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
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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
Don’t let gravity get you down
“I never want to lose money.” This sounds like a modest and reasonable investment goal, one that would be far easier to achieve than one that, for instance, aims for significant growth over a long time span. But is it? … Continue reading
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