Featured Articles
Introduction
I’m Bob French, the investments guy at Retirement Researcher. I’m also the Director of Investment Analysis at McLean Asset Management. My goal here is to help you use your investments to meet your retirement goals.
Prior to joining Retirement Researcher and McLean Asset Management, I was in charge of designing the analytical engine for instream – a financial planning tool that financial advisors use with their clients. I became a CFA Charterholder in 2010.
Before instream, I was at Dimensional Fund Advisors, and I was in charge of a data analysis tool that they provided to their financial advisor clients. Aside from helping people with the mechanics of the tool, most of my time was spent helping them understand how to interpret and explain the results to their clients. And it’s this piece – just writ a little larger – that I’m excited to have the opportunity to do here at Retirement Researcher. All of the information that you need to invest well is out there (somewhere), but I want to help give you the context and understanding to use that information to reach the retirement that you deserve.
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…
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.
Some People Are Saying Bonds Don’t Provide Diversification Benefits, and They Couldn’t Be More Wrong
Diversification is a good thing. It’s the only free lunch in finance.
What is Risk?
Risk is one of those complicated concepts that you can’t really pin down to one definition, but it’s the single most important factor for investors.
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?
Indexes 101, Part 1: What Is Index Investing?
Everyone has heard of investing in an index, but not many people understand what that really means, so we decided to break it down for you.
What Is Style Drift and Can It Be Avoided?
All too often, the funds you use end up sabotaging your asset allocation. What if the funds you select don’t do what you think they will? When you use actively managed funds, you have to watch out for something called “style drift” – when a fund’s style (what the fund actually owns) moves over time.