by Carl Resnick | Jul 19, 2017 | UpClose |
Exploring rules-based enhancements for improving returns when invested in risk assets. The goal of active investment management is compelling. Capturing more of an asset class’s upside than its downside is an investment recipe for success. In a simple...
by Linda Ferentchak | Jul 12, 2017 | UpClose |
While bear markets are inevitable, will their impact be exacerbated by the growth of passive index funds—and the accompanying “madness of crowds”? One of the fun aspects of having children is re-exposure to some great kid-friendly literature. In a...
by Perry Kaufman | Jun 21, 2017 | UpClose |
Understanding the tools to better manage portfolio risk throughout different market, volatility, and economic regimes. One major gripe of mine is that some portfolio strategists who consider themselves to be risk managers are effectively just risk...
by Thomas Krawinkel | May 24, 2017 | UpClose |
The problem with using single point values in assessing investment performance. When it comes to assessing investment performance or risk, people like to get information presented in a concise manner. That’s why key figures, metrics, and comparisons to...
by Ed Egilinsky | May 17, 2017 | UpClose |
Alternative strategies provide a valuable tool to help investors manage risk in their investment portfolios, but this growing investment category is often misunderstood. The investment category of alternative investments is perhaps one of the most...
by Tom McClellan | May 3, 2017 | How I See It |
For as long as there have been advance-decline (A-D) data that people have been interested in following, there have been criticisms of that very A-D data for including “the wrong sorts” of issues. Back in 1962, Joe Granville and Richard Russell both...
by David Wismer | May 3, 2017 | UpClose |
Insights on the advancement of active investment management from the 2017 Market Technician Association’s 44th Annual Symposium. I recently had the privilege of attending the Market Technicians Association’s (MTA) 44th Annual Symposium, held in early...
by State Street Global Advisors | Apr 26, 2017 | UpClose |
Practical guidance for advisors and their older clients and their families on the issue of dealing with cognitive decline and its impact on investment planning and decision-making. Editor’s note: We are pleased to present part II of an abbreviated...
by Jeanette Schwarz Young | Apr 12, 2017 | How I See It |
Options provide an arsenal for investors to both express opinions on markets and limit potential losses, above and beyond “going long” and “going short.” Options are contracts that provide the right to buy or sell 100 shares of a specific stock. Calls...
by Linda Ferentchak | Apr 5, 2017 | UpClose |
Does fractal mathematics offer a better way to understand market risk? The traditional test of understanding how something works is to take it apart and then rebuild it. If the clock still keeps time afterward, there is a good likelihood that the...
by Dave Landry | Mar 22, 2017 | How I See It |
Back in the roaring 90s, I received an email from someone who was heavily short the market. They called me a “trend-following moron,” along with some even nastier things. Apparently, I irritated them because I was drawing big blue “up” arrows* on the...
by Jerry Wagner | Mar 22, 2017 | UpClose |
Like a heavyweight title fight, investment plans have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Do your clients’ plans have the dynamic risk-managed strategies and true diversification needed to take the financial punch that markets will inevitably deliver?...
by Marshall Schield | Mar 15, 2017 | How I See It |
How could Wall Street strategists get 2017 so wrong? Barron’s ran a poll of 10 of Wall Street’s best on what to expect in market performance for the year. The average estimate was an S&P 500 Index move to 2,380, with 80% expecting a gain of 2,400 or...
by Eric Sajdak | Mar 15, 2017 | UpClose |
Employing “true” diversification and a dynamic, actively managed portfolio approach may help advisors and their clients successfully navigate a lower-return market environment. As investors, many of us have traditionally been taught that bonds and other...
by Mark Ungewitter | Mar 1, 2017 | How I See It |
Here we go again. Market volatility is near the bottom of a multi-decade range. We therefore anticipate a slew of “analysis” predicting an important market top. But this line of thinking is seriously flawed. Below is what we said in June 2014, and...
by Linda Ferentchak | Mar 1, 2017 | UpClose |
Supplementing asset-class diversification with strategy diversification increases the potential for portfolio risk management and can improve risk-adjusted returns. Using asset diversification as a tool to reduce portfolio risk—while maintaining its...
by Perry Kaufman | Feb 15, 2017 | UpClose |
What offers a better opportunity for investment returns: low-volatility or high-volatility markets? It doesn’t seem possible that low-volatility markets might deliver better returns than the converse of more alpha being delivered in volatile markets. It...
by Mebane Faber | Jan 4, 2017 | UpClose |
How much effect do market outliers have on long-term performance? Can the investor prepare for these anomalies, or are they truly ‘black swans’ that cannot be managed? Editor’s note: Many thanks to Meb Faber and his associate, Prabhat Dalmia, for...
by Tony Dwyer | Jan 4, 2017 | How I See It |
Editor’s note: Tony Dwyer, U.S. portfolio strategist for Canaccord Genuity, and his colleagues author a widely respected monthly overview of market conditions, technical factors, and future market outlook called the “Strategy Picture Book.” The...
by Linda Ferentchak | Dec 14, 2016 | UpClose |
“Know your investment vehicle” is the first rule when it comes to successfully using alternative funds and ETFs. Inverse and leveraged index funds and ETFs offer the promise of dramatically increased profitability by being on the right side of a market...
by Mebane Faber | Dec 14, 2016 | How I See It |
Let’s say you had the choice of the four following investing systems, which would you prefer? WHICH INVESTMENT SYSTEM WOULD YOU PREFER? Well, of course, you would say C, B, D, A (in that order). Who wouldn’t? And if you’ve read some of my other...
