Finance explained.
There was another great article in Financial Advisor magazine this month which highlights the sort of fears and concerns that plague many generations of today’s investors, specifically those nearing retirement who are trying to better preserve capital. It’s no longer just about the magic number one needs to retire comfortably or which financial product you…
There is a tremendous amount of money invested in mutual funds in the United States. In some cases people own mutual funds for their personal investments. In other cases people own mutual funds in their employer retirement plan, whether it be a 401k, 403b, Simple or Sep IRA, etc. I’ve found that the majority of…
In my opinion, no, that’s ridiculous. As I wrote in my book back in 2007, I believe ETFs are one of the best financial innovations to hit the market in decades, perhaps since the mutual fund made its debut. ETFs allow investors to own broad, diversified portfolios at low annual costs. That’s what mutual funds…
It would be hard not to notice the recent surge in market volatility. As a firm believer in the low-cost, transparent nature of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), I wanted to provide some tips to my clients and readers about how to handle trading ETFs in this environment. I should note that large, popular ETF issues, particularly…
With interest rates at rock bottom and a growing expectation that rates will move upwards over the next year, many investment managers are jumping back into the floating rate bank loan space—an asset class which historically performs very well in low and rising interest rate environments. However, I’ve noticed with my own clients that while…
There has been much debate over the past decade about the value proposition of actively-managed mutual funds to the average investor. The potential advantage which you’re really paying for with mutual funds is the possibility of choosing a brilliant portfolio manager who can beat their benchmark year after year. I’ll only break out one statistic…
When people refer to mutual funds they are most often referring to ‘open-end’ mutual funds in which investors buy and sell shares on a regular basis. Most mutual funds have active managers who, with their teams, make decisions as to the fund holdings which correspond to the fund’s stated objectives. These objectives are often growth,…
The craze of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) which employ leverage (the use of borrowed capital to increase the potential return of an investment) has been on a tear over the past year.* It makes sense that speculative investors would toy around with such vehicles given the extreme market volatility we’ve been experiencing of late. Combine that…
Many of my clients and readers understand my general preference for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) over mutual funds.* It isn’t that I doubt the ability of any active mutual fund managers to outperform their benchmarks—plenty of them do. It’s just that if I have to pick an overall methodology to follow in my practice, I’d rather…
A good financial advisor will try to explain concepts in such a way that their clients can really grasp the knowledge. As obvious as that may sound, many people who work with financial advisors do not learn much about how to make financial decisions, they merely pay to have those decisions made for them. Mutual…