We hope you enjoy the December NewsLetter from Harold Evensky.
Here are a few ways to leverage video communication, like Zoom, so that it works to your advantage…
A new breed of exchange-traded funds that hide their holdings has been slow to win over fans this year. That may change in 2021.
Given their small size, narrow focus and high degree of specialization, it is reasonable to expect that active sector funds generate alpha. New research shows this is the case – but with a lot of caveats.
This mass exodus of breakaway brokers hasn’t happened, much to the chagrin of us prognosticators, and I know why.
With Tesla Inc. about to be added to the S&P 500, people have wondered where index-tracking mutual funds will find the $80 billion of stock they’ll need to own in Elon Musk’s car-maker. Now they know: at least some of it will come from Elon Musk’s car-maker.
Given all the municipal bonds to choose from, how do you decide which ones should make up the core of your portfolio? With $3.7 trillion of muni debt outstanding1 spread among tens of thousands of issuers, the choice may seem daunting, but we’ll help you break it down.
In the year 2020, lower coupon bonds are cannibalizing higher coupon bonds.
As Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen is almost certain to pursue tighter coordination with the U.S. Federal Reserve next year -- repairing recent frictions -- though observers say she will be careful to avoid any specific move that could trigger a wave of Republican protests.
When we explore the specifics of an advisor’s business, there are commonly asked questions around the nuances between the SEC and FINRA.
Fair trade over free trade will remain the theme in Washington.
There is new reform legislation making its way through Congress which will significantly affect how many of us save for retirement and specifically how, and how much, we can contribute to our retirement accounts and at what ages. This is the most significant retirement saving reform legislation in years. I’ll break it all down for you below.
Defined outcome ETFs have quickly gathered almost $5 billion in assets; Not unexpected given their much lower drawdowns when the market crashed in March 2020; However, they are complex and expensive products and there are viable alternatives.
This is the fifth and last blog in our 2020 series, discussing why Russell Investments believes in the value of advisors. Here we discuss tax-smart planning and investing.
Municipals posted modestly negative total returns in October, with the S&P Municipal Bond Index finishing the month down -0.14%. Interest rates moved higher as economic data remained firm...
Municipal bond defaults have been rising, but investor demand remains robust. This incongruence may suggest the municipal market is behaving irrationally, but we don't think that's the case.
Evidence from the field of behavioral finance suggests investors can’t handle the truth – many delude themselves about their own skills and performance. The ability to delude oneself leads to persistent and costly investment mistakes.
Reflecting on the post-election landscape, Jeffrey Gundlach expects a split government to emerge, with a Biden presidency, Democratic House and Republican Senate. That outcome explains the gains in U.S. equities this week, but stocks are now “really overvalued.”
Illinois voters defeated a measure that would have allowed the state to raise taxes on its wealthiest residents, striking down a pillar of Governor J.B. Pritzker’s plan for shoring up the state’s finances and preventing its debt from being cut to junk.
Paying for qualified prospects from lead-generation services, can be profitable provided that the proper processes are in place to capture, follow up with, and nurture new opportunities.
The roller-coaster ride of 2020 still has a few twists and turns to navigate. But the massive policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic brought a quick, though incomplete, recovery. With volatility expected to continue, where can investors look for opportunities?
Jeffrey Gundlach, who famously predicted Trump’s victory in 2016, says the president will secure another term. David Rosenberg acknowledged that possibility, but is not so sure of the outcome. Both offered their predictions for the post-election economy and markets.
My 2007 book, Wise Investing Made Simple: Larry Swedroe’s Tales to Enrich Your Future, contained 27 tales to educate investors about important investment concepts and strategies. This article is in the spirit of those tales.
There has been increasing focus on the poor performance of a newly popular Wall Street product called special-purpose acquisition vehicles, or SPACs. My Bloomberg Opinion colleague Nir Kaissar dived into the debate recently, citing research showing the returns of most SPACs are subpar.
Investor sentiment is telling a mixed story about the market’s ascent since the March low; begging the question, will the skeptics converge with the optimists?
If beating the market was as easy as becoming a top tennis player, there would be a lot more Serena Williams and Roger Federers. The lessons of acquiring skill in tennis are crucial for investors to heed.
Key Takeaways
The Investment Company Act of 1940 contains a loophole providing institutional investors an advantage over individual investors that some are using to the detriment of closed-end funds and their retail investors.
It is well-established that “lottery” stocks – those offering the potential for outsized returns, like penny and growth stocks – deliver poor performance. While one might expect that naïve, retail investors are the ones buying those stocks, new research shows that is not the case.
High-yield bonds can generally offer more income in a very low-interest-rate world. However, if the economic or stock market outlook deteriorates, it could be a bumpy ride.
The U.S. economy improved significantly this quarter, but investors continue to face several serious risks. In late September, confirmed COVID-19 cases were rising worldwide, and the pandemic may intensify as winter approaches. A combative U.S. presidential election looms.
While the world focuses on COVID-19, there’s another virus that’s getting far less attention – the volatility virus. Investors and traders who embrace and capitalize on volatility (or “vol”) are jumping into indices that track volatility. And 2020 is surely the year to do so.
We believe paying taxes is a scenario where kicking the can down the road can actually be a good thing for taxable investors. Here’s why.
The following remarks were delivered by Ron Rhoades upon receiving the Frankel Fiduciary Prize from the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard on September 29, 2020.
In investing, as in fashion, fluctuations in attitudes spread widely without any apparent logic.
Will Danoff has been wondering why billions of dollars keep flowing out of the giant mutual fund he manages. Performance isn’t the problem; demographics appear to be.
Invesco Ltd. is looking to active, nontransparent exchange-traded funds as the next step forward for the $4.6 trillion industry, hoping the new products will be less vulnerable to traders who exploit expected changes in ETF holdings.
Imagine if you could show your clients the impact of taxes between funds and categories. Now you can. Here’s an exclusive first look at our Tax Impact Comparison Tool.
More than half the racial gap in individual stock ownership has disappeared essentially overnight.
In the revised edition of The Incredible Shrinking Alpha, Larry Swedroe and Andrew Berkin make the case that investors are better off choosing passive investments because markets have become more efficient as managers became more skilled.
Over the past few months, advisors and investors have been whipsawed by market movements and emotions have been magnified due to the pandemic. And while the term behavioral finance has often been discussed in the advisor world, the application of it into practice tends to lag.
Sierra Mutual Funds CIO Terri Spath covers the current state of the markets, and gives three possible ways to participate in investment returns while keeping a close eye on risk.
A debate rages on whether ordinary investors should have equal access to financial markets.
The Federal Reserve has changed its inflation policy. Here’s what it may mean for markets.
It’s open season on capital gains. Four ways advisors can help clients navigate potential unpleasant taxable distributions.
Evaluating the unusual characteristics of the profitability factor
Research based on Morningstar’s “globe” ratings, which measure a fund’s adherence to ESG standards, shows that most conventional funds indeed prioritize sustainability in their mandates, and that highly rated, five-globe funds don’t perform any better than one-globe funds.
Supply is getting tight. Helium is notoriously difficult and expensive to store, for the very good reason that it escapes every known container over time.
The investment grade fixed income market has been unusually active in 2020. Initial concerns about Covid-19 triggered a sharp selloff, but sentiment abruptly reversed when the Fed announced plans to purchase corporate bonds. Spreads have nearly returned to their pre-pandemic levels, but not all sectors have recovered equally, creating interesting opportunities for savvy investors.
A 60/40 portfolio of global stocks and bonds has returned a respectable 8.4% annually over the past five years, but also a heartbreaking 6.2 percentage points a year less than the S&P 500. And the difference seems to be all investors care about.
