2012 Q2 Updated Rankings
Advisor Perspectives, a leading publisher serving financial advisors and the financial advisory community, has published its quarterly update for the Venerated Voices awards. Rankings were issued in three categories: The Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Firm, The Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Advisor and The Top 10 Venerated Voices™ by Commentary.
Leading the Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Firm category was Boston-based global asset manager Grantham, Mayo, van Otterloo (GMO). In second place was Anderson Griggs Investments, followed by Oaktree Capital, managed by Howard Marks.
Among individual commentators, the most-widely read was GMO’s James Montier, followed by Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital. Adam Butler and Mike Philbrick of Butler, Philbrick, Gordillo & Associates was the third most followed commentator.
The most-widely read commentary of the second quarter of 2012 was The Flaws of Finance by James Montier of GMO. Published on May 14, it was based on a speech delivered at the 65th Annual CFA Institute Conference in Chicago on May 6, 2012 examining the factors of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Next was Anderson Griggs’ piece, ‘Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor: Chapter Eight’ in which he summarizes the takeaways of Graham’s chapter on bonds. It's All a Big Mistake was published by Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital on June 22. In it, he writes to point out that mistakes are all that superior investing is about.
Advisor Perspectives’ website currently attracts over 140,000 unique visitors per month, virtually all of them financial advisors serving high- and ultra-high net worth individuals. The company publishes economic and market commentaries that were submitted by fund companies, advisors and independent research firms. Last quarter, nearly 700 such commentaries were published and made available through a daily newsletter, Research Perspectives, which the company emails to its subscribers.
Venerated Voices™ rankings were determined based on the number of unique readers of each commentary, using data provided electronically by the third-party web analytics service WebTrends. The data were normalized to reflect the fact that usage of Advisor Perspectives’ website grew steadily over the course of the quarter. While for the annual awards for the firm and author, a minimum of four commentaries must have been submitted during the year, any participant is eligible to receive mention in the quarterly update. Each firm and author was assigned a relative score, with a score of 100 equal to average readership.
Advisor Perspectives was founded in 2007 and is based in Lexington, Mass. In addition to Research Perspectives, it publishes a widely read weekly newsletter, Advisor Perspectives, which contains original articles on the markets, the economy and practice management.
Advisor Perspectives will continue to provide quarterly updates to its rankings, as well as issuing annual Venerated Voices™ awards.
