A couple of weeks ago, the WSJ featured another article comparing Index Funds and ETFs titled “A Close Race, a Surprising Finish.” With the help of Morningstar, they crunched some ETF numbers all the way back to 1997 and looked at before and after-tax returns. The ‘before-tax’ analysis is shown in the table below (double click to enlarge): The surprising …
Investment Management: When to Hold ‘Em—When to Fold ‘Em
During the last week, a few newsletter readers had questions about the use of sell stops as they pertain to my trend tracking methodology. Here’s one e-mail: I have some mutual funds that are in nose bleed territory, and I have mental sell stops which are about 6-8% below current price. How do you suggest handling these individual funds, which …
Facing Portfolio Reality
With the markets having been in a rally mode for the past 9 months, some of your no load fund/ETF holdings are most likely showing different gains. If you listen to some of the media, however, you should sell your laggards and load up on the winners. While it’s certainly advisable during an uptrend to sell an underperformer (I have …
No Load Fund/ETF Tracker updated through 5/25/2007
My latest No Load Fund/ETF Tracker has been posted at:http://www.successful-investment.com/newsletter-archive.phpSideways action had the major indexes slip slightly. Our Trend Tracking Index (TTI) for domestic funds/ETFs now sits +4.85% above its long-term trend line (red) as the chart below shows:The international index has now moved to +8.88% above its own trend line, as you can see below:For more details, and the …
Investment Management: Court Rules In Favor Of Registered Investment Advisors
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned a long-standing special exemption for brokers known as the “Merrill Rule,” which allowed broker-dealers from offering fee-based accounts without being registered as Investment Advisors. The court found that the SEC had exceeded its authority by allowing such practice. At this point, the SEC announced that it will not fight the decision. The …
No Load Fund/ETF Investing: Is The Chinese Market Heading For A Bubble?
The Asia Times had a piece describing the potential of a Chinese bubble in their highly inflated stock market. One of the items indicative of speculative behavior has been the tremendous change in daily transaction volume. It has risen from some $5 billion per day six months ago to some $50 billion per day recently. While that by itself may …