Just found a story in MarketWatch titled “An active manager can offer protection,” which features an interview with Dan Wiener, editor of the Independent Advisor for Vanguard Investors. It’s a rehash of the battle of the indexing folks against those preferring to use actively managed funds. Dan said that “fund buyers should be looking first for great management — and …
Happy 4th of July: No Load Fund/ETF Winners and Losers
As per request, I have updated the ETF Master List midweek to give you a glance at those ETFs which have performed well enough to create their own fireworks. FXI still tops the list with a 4-week performance of +16.17%. Year-to-date it’s up +20.21%. The bottom of the barrel is natural gas (UNG) with a 4-wk loss of -17.81%. Forbes …
No Load Fund/ETF Investing: Identifying A Weakling
I just found this story called “Utilities, REITs losing luster,” which features some of those sectors that have been the strong men over the past few years, but have lost their upside momentum.I am talking about all REITs and Utilities; no matter whether you hold them as ETFS or no load funds. If you read my weekly StatSheet on a …
No Load Fund/ETF Investing: The Ignorance Of Forecasting
Reader Bill e-mailed a feature story in MarketWatch called “Get set for lower long-term stock returns” featuring quotes from Paul McCulley, who is the managing director at PIMCO, the bond guru firm.He said that “stock returns will be lower for the next 25 years than they were in the last quarter century and investors must adjust their expectations to lower …
Sunday Musings: A Psychological Oddity
E-mail exchanges and conversations with thousands of my readers over the past few years have exposed me to an unusual and at times odd behavior when it comes to money and investments. One thing I found was that some investors on one hand are trying to save pennies while on the other wasting dollars by the thousands without even being …
Closed End Funds: Are 9% Yields Worth It?
Recently, I read a story in TheStreet.com called “Hot Yields Drive Rebirth of Closed-End Funds.” It did a good job describing the reasons for the renewed interest in CEFs. As baby boomers are aging and moving into retirement, the goal seems to be to generate as much income as possible. While 5% bond yields are common and boring to some, …