The Problems with Indexing
Index funds dominate the passive management landscape (though they are not the entirety). But just because there’s no way to guess which active managers will do well in the future doesn’t mean index funds don’t have problems themselves.
5 Companies Comprise One-Third of S&P 500 Returns – Is This the Death of Diversification?
Everyone is always eager to declare the death of diversification. They say it fails in a crisis, that correlations are going up throughout the markets, or that building a diversified portfolio is just too dang time-consuming and expensive (seriously). Now people are ringing the same death knell because so much of the market’s returns are […]
Heads My Stocks Win, Tails Yours Lose: The Difference Between Daily Returns and a Coin Flip
We all wonder how the markets did today. Whether it’s actually useful information or not doesn’t seem to matter. Daily returns present an easy, attention-grabbing story the media can fill a couple minutes with every day.
Do Bonds Help Diversify Your Investment Portfolio?
Diversification is a good thing. It’s the only free lunch in finance.
The Dangers of Putting Our Faith in Statistics
Statistics are great and all, but just because the numbers say something will happen doesn’t make it the gospel truth.
How Index Investing Became What It Is Today
Index investing came from humble beginnings to become one of the most widely used strategies in use today.
What Is the Stock Market and How Does It Work?
Before you go investing your life savings in the stock market, you should have a basic understanding of what the market is and how it works.
One of the Most Successful Active Managers of all Time Shows Why Active Management Doesn’t Work
The appeal of market timing is obvious. Who wouldn’t want to get in and out of the market at the best time every time? We’ve talked a lot about market timing in the past – timing risk premiums, trying to time the markets on a daily basis, and the importance of staying disciplined even when it seems obvious the markets are going to go down.
Indexes 101, Part 2: Why So Many Indexes?
Everyone has heard of the S&P 500 and Dow Jones, but what’s the difference between the two? And which one should you trust?
What Does It Mean When People Say the Trump Rally Has Created an ‘Overvalued’ Market?
A number of people are suggesting that the Trump Rally, along with the longer-term bull market, has pushed prices beyond justification. Therefore, the markets must be on the verge of a downturn. Are they right?
