Category Archives: Investment Strategy
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
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
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Small changes, big impact
Does one percent matter? If you’re watching the balance in your portfolio for one year, the difference between an eight percent return and a seven percent return can be a fair amount of money, but won’t really change your life. … Continue reading
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
Pursuing better
Now and then a great business emerges because it does something no one else can through a breakthrough technology or discovery. But far more often, success comes to those who simply “do things better.” This may mean improving the auto … Continue reading
The big picture, literally
When we ask what your portfolio looks like, we mean it literally. We find that a visual representation of a few critical metrics can tell us a lot about your portfolio and how it can be expected to perform. Let’s … Continue reading
Posted in Asset Allocation, Investment Strategy, Risk
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What Windham is doing
Windham Global Solutions, the portfolio and risk management experts, is an essential provider for Osbon Capital. Windham held its second annual investment conference last week in downtown Boston. What happens when you put savvy Windham people in a room for two … Continue reading
How Massachusetts Invests
If you had $50 billion to invest, how would you do it? Let’s take a look at the investment strategy of the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management board (PRIM), which invests that sum for the benefit of state employees, teachers … Continue reading
Too big to succeed
First the “flash crash.” Then the Facebook trading debacle. Now, Knight Capital shoots itself, accidentally and critically. What’s going wrong with the basic market function of an orderly match between buyers and sellers? Let’s look closer look inside the maelstrom that is … Continue reading
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