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The Number One Way to Stay Motivated Breakthrough Research from the Harvard Business Review
by Dan Richards,
In a multi-year study, researchers at the Harvard Business School asked 600 managers from dozens of different companies to rank the impact of five factors that are normally associated with motivation - recognition, incentives, support from managers and colleagues, clear goals and a sense of making progress. Dan Richards discusses their findings and the takeaways for financial advisors.
Investors Face a New Health Care Landscape: An Interview with Michael Liss
After a year of intense partisan combat and fiery debates on Capitol Hill, President Obama signed a massive, nearly $1 trillion health care bill on March 23 that reshapes an industry that accounts for one-sixth of the U.S. economy. No one at American Century Investments® has followed the health care reform bill more closely than Michael Liss, vice president and portfolio manager for American Century Value, the company's flagship value portfolio, and he offers his thoughts on legislation. We thank American Century Investments for their sponsorship.
How Much is that Investment Worth in Real Money?
by Adam Jared Apt,
In the latest installment of his series of articles geared to the educated layman, Adam Apt looks at the topic of the time value of money, and how discount rates can be used to determine the value of a security. He shows the practical applications of present value calculations and its limitations.
Lacy Hunt: Keynes was Wrong (and Ricardo was Right)
by Robert Huebscher,
Underpinning the Obama administration's economic policies is the work of John Maynard Keynes, the legendary British economist who called for large fiscal and monetary interventions to counter the Great Depression. On this critical issue, Keynes was wrong, says Lacy Hunt, the internationally renowned economist with Texas-based Hoisington Investment.
Investing Insights from Doctors
by Dan Richards,
Dan Richards works out in the early mornings with a psychiatrist, who recently forwarded an article in the New York Review of Books by Jerome Groopman, a physician and frequent writer on the challenges of modern day medicine. As Dan read it, he was struck by the parallels between the things that cause doctors and investors to go wrong.
Unconventional Wisdom: An Interview with Robert Shiller
by John Heins,
"Few macroeconomic prognosticators have been as publicly right as Yale's Robert Shiller,whose first and second editions of the book Irrational Exuberance laid bare, with remarkable timing, the speculative bubbles forming first in the Internet-crazed stock market and next in residential real estate," writes the highly regarded newsletter Value Investor Insight in its preface to this interview with Shiller and excerpt from his latest book. Value Investor Insight, which bills itself as the "Leading Authority on Value Investing, offers a no-obligation, one-month free trial subscription.
Shameless
by Michael Lewitt,
The fiscal train wreck in the United States has not been set back on the tracks, and the global imbalances that led to the financial crisis have not gone away. Quite to the contrary, writes Michael Lewittin Shameless, the latest edition of his HCM newsletter. In fact, if progress isn't made with respect to these issues, and if intelligent financial reform is not enacted, future instability is guaranteed.
behavioral leapfrog
by tom brakke of the research puzzle,
Analyst projections of earnings per share values help define the market's expectations. Analysts, however, tend to factor in the estimates of other analysts when making their projections, and this leads to a game of behavioral leapfrog that can drive estimates up or down over time independent of actual performance. This leaves investors with a choice. We can adopt strategies that take advantage of the game of leapfrog that we observe, or we can do our homework and, if the time is right, get out ahead of the army of frogs by taking the biggest leap we can.
Fixed Income Short Duration Bonds
The fixed-income team at American Century Investments doesn't foresee sudden surges in inflation or interest rates in the immediate future, but they are on the horizon. "Near-term inflation concerns remain low due to lingering weak economic fundamentals," says David MacEwen, chief investment officer for fixed income. "However, looking long-term, the unprecedented levels of fiscal and monetary stimulus used to fight the recession will eventually result in higher inflation." (This is sponsored content.)
Robert Pozen on the Financial Crisis, Social Security, and the Mutual Fund Industry
by Dan Richards,
Robert Pozen is the chairman of MFS Investment Management and a senior lecturer at the Harvard Business School. In this interview with Dan Richards, he discusses the financial crisis, Social Security, and the mutual fund Industry. We provide a transcript and a video replay of the interview.
Building High Net Worth Client Loyalty with Social Security
Long dismissed as a supplemental income stream only for retirees with fewer assets, Social Security benefits can be important for clients of all asset levels, including high net worth (HNW) investors. As you are well aware, HNW clients are often particularly sensitive to government taxation and are usually interested in strategies which can help them retain or reclaim their money. We thank BlackRock for this article and their sponsorship.
The Potemkin Market
by Michael Lewitt,
We are again privileged to publish the current issue of Michael Lewitt's newsletter, titled The Potemkin Market. Lewitt updates his forecast for the S&P 500, criticizes the current financial reform efforts and the ongoing GSE bailout and Fed Chairman Bernanke. Lewitt argues that risk is overpriced in many segments of the market.
Ten Tips to be More Likeable
by Dan Richards,
When Dan Richards ask advisors about what it takes to attract and retain clients, they give him answers like above average returns, preserving capital in tough markets and strong communication. Those are all true - to these can be added delivering strong value and having clients trust your competence and integrity. One other factor is often overlooked, however - and that's likeability.
Risk Management through Costless Collars
by Geoff Considine,
Nassim Taleb and Zvi Bodie are among those who advocate a wealth management strategy that includes options. Despite their evangelism, though, options are rarely a part of retirement portfolios. The costless collar, a straightforward options strategy, gives investors the upside of an asset class (such as equities) while absolutely limiting the downside risk.
Ned Davis: The Cyclical Bull Rally is Not Over
by Robert Huebscher,
In February of last year, Ned Davis, president and senior investment strategist of an eponymous Florida-based institutional research firm, correctly forecast last year's market decline. In February of this year, he called the market rally that began in March. Now, he says, that cyclical bull rally is not over.
Don?t be Misled by Morningstar?s Box Score Results
by Robert Huebscher,
Morningstar has published its latest Box Score Results, showing the performance of active managers across each of the nine style boxes. We report these results, along with those of another study by William Thatcher of the Hammond Group, which explains why Morningstar's results can be highly misleading.
Luck vs. Skill in Mutual Fund Alpha Estimates
by Michael Edesess,
A long-standing research thread has shown that professionally-managed portfolio returns strongly resemble a random walk about the market average. This is interpreted to mean that professional money managers cannot predictably beat the market. A new study by Eugene Fama and Kenneth French uses a novel statistical approach to add evidence to that record- but with an important caveat.
Retailers Face the New Frugality
by Robert Huebscher,
Whether they sell high-end designer clothing or tractors and pet food, retailers across the country are girding for leaner times. Consumer spending has dropped to 10% below its historical trend line, creating a landscape with far too many stores and far too much merchandise for consumers' thinning wallets to support. Along with the CEOs of Fortune 500 retailers, we attended a conference in New York last week looking at trends in consumer behavior, and we file our report.
Taste Testing Investment Style Sausages
by Ron Surz,
Equity indexes, like those offered by Russell and S&P are the investment-world equivalent of sausages - chopped up pieces of meat in tightly wrapped packages. Most shoppers buy sausages based on brand name, as do investors when they choose their benchmarks. In this guest contribution, Ron Surz dissects these index sausages and explains the real differences in their ingredients.
The Financial Market Solution to Carbon Emissions
by Robert Huebscher,
While health care remains the hot topic on Capitol Hill, another piece of legislation is poised to gain similar attention. Regulating carbon emissions to address the threat of global warning is a top priority of the Obama administration, and its favored approach is to create a "cap-and-trade" market. John Parsons, an expert in the field, explains how this financial market solution might work.
Will Momentum Move Your Portfolio?
by Robert Huebscher,
Instead of mixing value and growth stocks, investors would be far better served by combining value and momentum stocks, according to Cliff Asness, co-founder and Managing Principal of AQR Management. In fact, momentum has "kicked butt" when compared to growth over the last 80 years, Asness said.
Are REITs Now Undervalued?
The last couple of years have been rough for real estate, but there was a time not too long ago when it seemed that this was a 'special' asset class, with REITs providing valuable diversification benefits and consistently high returns. Do today's low valuations represent an opportunity to buy? Can investors expect a return to low correlations for REITs with the major equity market indexes?
Why Credit Matters: Fixed Income Investing in a Changed Landscape
by Janus,
The recent dislocation in the fixed income market is likely to transform how investors and asset managers approach fixed income investing for years to come. The corporate credit sector may now be the single most important sector in generating risk-adjusted outperformance. In Janus' recent brief, Why Credit Matters, they discuss the structural market changes that have occurred and the importance of fundamental, bottom-up credit analysis and robust investment risk management in navigating this changed landscape. We thank them for their sponsorship.
Jim Cramer Exposed: Does He Generate Alpha?
by Adam Jared Apt,
Paul Bolster and Emery Trahan, professors of finance at Northeastern University, were curious about the Mad Money phenomenon, and applied the full force of their analytical powers to a study of Jim Cramer's advice. They published their analysis earlier this year, and it reveals answers to key questions - such as whether Cramer's picks move the market or whether Cramer can legitimately call himself a skillful stock picker.
The New Normal and Asset Allocation Merriman?s Response
by Larry Katz, CFA,
Larry Katz, Director of Research at Merriman, Inc., responds to Geoff Considine's article two weeks ago, What the New Normal Means for Asset Allocation. He has multiple objections concerning much of Considine's logic, and would not recommend his alternative portfolio to their clients.
Moving Average: Holy Grail or Fairy Tale - Part 3
by Theodore Wang,
Buy-and-hold remains deeply entrenched in the financial planning community, despite many of the flaws Ted Wong's previous articles have illustrated. Although many financial advisors suffer dearly from their buy-and-hold practices, they are reluctant to change their approach. Who dares to challenge investment sages like Bogle, Siegel, and Malkiel who emphatically support this long-standing investment principle? Academic research studies overwhelmingly endorse buy-and-hold. How can they all be wrong?
Change or be Changed
New financial services regulation will touch on many areas, and mutual fund evaluation and monitoring is one likely candidate. Over the past two decades, screening has been at the core of most mutual fund evaluation processes. The advisor picks the criteria, sets a minimum or maximum level for each, and comes up with a list of funds that survive all screens. Bob Padgette and Ted Ponko of Klein Systems demonstrate several inherent flaws in this process.
The Retirement Portfolio Showdown: Jeremy Siegel v. Zvi Bodie
When investing for retirement over long time horizons, advisors can choose from two apparently conflicting approaches. They can follow the advice of Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel, who has steadfastly advocated equity-centric portfolios, most notably in his highly popular book, Stocks for the Long Run. Or they can listen to Boston University professor Zvi Bodie, who says equities are simply too risky over the long term, and the core of a retirement portfolio should be Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS). Geoff Considine's article shows how to resolve this conflict.
New Rules for Growing Your Book of Business: Reach Clients and Prospects Through Their In-Boxes
by Dan Sommer,
E-mail marketing is no longer a new marketing channel, but if used effectively it can become a powerful marketing and relationship building tool for financial advisors. In this guest contribution, Dan Sommer explains the benefits of e-mail-based marketing and provides tips to get started down this path.
Compelling Evidence That Active Management Really Works
by Ken Solow,
The majority of academic studies conclude that active management does not add value for investors. However, a closer look at how many studies were conducted reveals several flaws in their methodology that are not as well-known as the accepted conclusion about active versus passive management. Guest contributor Ken Solow revisits work by two Yale researchers showing the value added through active management.
High-Yield Bonds A Potential Opportunity for the Risk Tolerant
High-yield bonds have recently offered investors historically high spreads relative to Treasury and investment-grade corporate bonds, presenting attractive current income potential in today's low-rate environment. The current recessionary environment also poses a heightened risk of default, underscoring the importance of security selection and intensive analysis of underlying fundamentals. We thank Northern Trust Investments for this contribution and their sponsorship.
Tackling Today?s Number One Client Challenge
by Dan Richards,
Talk to advisors about the challenges they face today and you'll get a lengthy list - often headed by unhappy clients, reduced income and a struggle to stay positive and productive. While these are all serious issues, says Dan Richards, for most advisors they are dwarfed by the number one obstacle to getting business back on track - rebuilding investor confidence in our trust and integrity.
Simon Johnson on Obama?s Achilles Heel
by Eric Uhlfelder,
While he agrees with much of what the US administration is doing to confront the economic crisis, Simon Johnson, the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, fears that present policy is not addressing a key issue: the overwhelming influence of the finance industry in US economic affairs. He likens this imbalance to what we see at the core of many emerging markets crises.
Dan Fuss and the Eisenhower Recession Redux
by Robert Huebscher,
Those of us old enough to remember Studebakers and the military-industrial complex will recall the Eisenhower Recession, which began in 1957, lasted eight months and was followed by the 10 month "Rolling Adjustment" recession beginning in 1961. The W-shaped path of the US economy during this period is the correct analogy to today's crisis, according to Loomis Sayles and Company's Dan Fuss.
Results 6,401–6,445
of 6,445 found.
