Search Results
Results 1–50
of 88 found.
Avoiding Groupthink Yield Chasing
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
There was news Tuesday that a one-time dividend investor favorite Seadrill (NYSE: SDRL) was warning shareholders that they should expect to “receive minimal recovery for their existing shares” as concerns have escalated to whether it can continue as a going concern.
The Beginning Of The End Of Hedge Funds As We’ve Known Them?
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
So proclaimed Bloomberg in an interesting column about investors losing interest in hedge funds due to poor performance, or perceived poor performance, and high fees. I won’t defend the fees but will point out that fewer and fewer hedge fund investors pay the full 2 and 20 (2% management fee with 20% of the gain) in the last few years.
Your Chance To Pay It Forward
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
Over the last few weeks I’ve fielded several financial related questions (more personal finance than actual investing) from some younger people in my life (mostly nephews). This is a great reminder of a point I have made quite a few times over the years which is that even if you’re not an advisor...
No, This Time is Not Different
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
A day or two after the election someone (not a Trump fan) asked me about selling out of the market as they apparently thought the market would go down. This is a great example of something that repeats over and over in the market and the thought process of market participants.
Simplicity In All Things Including Portfolio Management
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
A basic stock and bond portfolio is a great starting point for building an effective portfolio. Exposure to things like factors and alternative strategies, when implemented correctly, will enhance a basic stock and bond portfolio, not attempt to replace it.
The Worst Months of the Year!?
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
In late July Bespoke Investment Group posted a table of average returns for the Dow Jones Industrial Average for each of the 12 months of the year*. Over the last 20 years, August has been down 45% of the time an average of 1.30% and September has been down 50% of the time with an average decline of 0.70%.
This Is The New Normal
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
As the world was rolling over into financial crisis in 2008 the stewards at PIMCO coined the phrase New Normal which, very short version, meant low interest rates, very slow growth and in a word; malaise. The malaise seems to be perpetual, the growth might be slower than had been imagined back then and interest rates seem to be going lower.
Time for Something Adventurous
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
A Facebook friend is visiting the Republic of Georgia and the pictures look stunning. He and I engaged in a back and forth in which he said he plans to spend part of his retirement there. He noted that it is very cheap there, it is also stable and safe and while he appeared to be out in the middle of nowhere he was able to communicate with me via his smartphone (speaks to the infrastructure).
Deploying Cash When The Market Is At All Time Highs
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
A reader left a comment on the Seeking Alpha version of last week’s blog post asking for my thoughts on how to deploy cash now given the highs in the markets and valuations that are at the very least stretched (some would obviously say the market is now very expensive). He added the context of someone being 20 years until retirement.
Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
You might be familiar with the quote from the title from a few years ago. It is of course a play on words that I’ve seen several people use. I believe I first read it from Jack Bogle and as it relates to investing it is of course about not overtrading in response to news or other price-moving factors.
Pension Pitfalls
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
The other day I stumbled across an item via Seeking Alpha that Japan’s Government Pension & Investment Fund (the public pension) had investment losses of $50 billion for the year ending in March against an asset base of $1.4 trillion. The losses were attributed to a rising yen and falling equity prices in Japan.
VIX Not The Hedge It's Supposed To Be?
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
A curious thing happened during Monday’s session, day two of the Brexit aftermath. As equities fell so too did the CBOE S&P 500 Volatility Index known as VIX. Many participants of course view the VIX as a way to hedge declines in equity prices through the many exchange traded products (sort of) tracking VIX and the options market.
Hopefully The Short Run Doesn’t Kill You
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
Andrew Lo from MIT was featured in Barron’s over the weekend for several things including the roughly $7 billion he runs at AlphaSimplex Group. The focus of the strategies is alternative in nature and Lo had a lot to say about implementation and expectations.
When To Take Social Security; Still Complicated
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
Yahoo Finance ran an article titled How To Delay Taking Social Security Benefits Until You Absolutely Have To. This sort of thing is always of interest and the article had a couple of interesting even if not original ideas.
It’s The FOMC’s World
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
For the last few weeks in the weekly market update I write for Alpha Baskets, I’ve included a reference to at least one of the many forms of dysfunction that is influencing markets. Last week the Nikkei 225 took a dive because the Bank of Japan did not, for the umpteenth time in a row, ramp up its asset purchases/take rates further into negative territory.
Moderately Constrained
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
The Barron’s cover story was an interview with Bill Gross from PIM….er I mean Janus that was titled Why Interest Rates Must Rise. The why they must rise part of the article focused on Gross’ perceptions of the many consequences of ZIRP and NIRP including the effect on retirees, pensions being able to match their portfolios with their liabilities, as well as how insurance companies oversee their pools of capital.
A Blogger Looks At 50
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
Ten years ago I wrote a post called A Blogger Looks At 40 which was a play on words of the Jimmy Buffett song A Pirate Looks At 40 (long story short, that post is no longer on the internet). Recently, I turned 50 which like other round numbers can be a good time to review and assess where you are in life.
No You Don't Need $20 Million to Retire
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
Americans are facing serious problems accumulating reasonably sized nest eggs for their retirements. Depending on which articles you read, Americans might be having trouble accumulating any nest egg for the future. There are so many stats from so many sources lacking consistency in terms of groups studied and data collection methods that I think they lack value in terms of trying to understand specific numbers. But there can be no doubt that collectively we are horribly under saved for the future.
Avoiding Unnecessary Risks In Firefighting & Investing
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
Over the President’s Day weekend, I saw a big chunk of the movie Backdraft. This is the 1991 firefighting movie with Kurt Russell, Billy Baldwin and Robert De Niro. I was not involved with firefighting back then, so I don’t know how unrealistic the fire ground scenes were, but I can tell you that firefighting has changed dramatically versus how it was portrayed in the movie.
Bear Market Confirmed?
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
Back in September I wrote a post titled Bear Market Coming? Bear Market Here? in which I talked about taking defensive action in the face of what might have been the start of the next bear market. As of now the S&P 500 is down about 11% since a high hit in May, a little better than that factoring in the dividends.
There Is Nothing That Must Be Traded
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
A couple of weeks ago the Barron’s Striking Price column included the following related to the December FOMC meeting; "The rate hike is one of those events that has to be traded, no matter what. No portfolio manager wants to sit on the sideline and miss what could be a big move in the market." The context was probably not aimed at investment advisors but that is unclear and of course the many individual investors who also read Barron’s could be influenced by that sort of sentiment as well.
Understanding Covered Call CEFs
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
Barron’s recently had a favorable write up on closed end funds that one way or another use a covered call strategy as a means of providing income. Where the article focused on CEFs, the yields can be quite high because of the leverage that CEFs often use as well as returning capital, when necessary to maintain a payout. It is also worth noting that there are traditional funds that sell calls and ETFs that sell calls and puts too for that matter.
Myopia & Market Function
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
The Wall Street Journal posted an article written by Shlomo Benartzi who is a professor at UCLA specializing in behavioral finance. The article primarily focuses on the behavioral problems, like myopic loss aversion, that can arise when investors check their account balances or the prices of their holdings which thanks to technology has become increasingly more convenient to do.
Back To Bodie And The 10/90 Portfolio?
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
I wanted to follow up on several different ideas including one from quite a few years ago but they all tie together.
First up is replacement rates in terms of figuring out how much to plan on for retirement. The Wall Street Journal had an article that says research calls into question the “venerable 80% rule” and there was also a companion piece at ThinkAdvisor. So first I always thought the rule of thumb was actually 70% but either way.
Yieldcos or Yieldnos?
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
A little over a year ago we looked at a new income vehicle called a yieldco which was highlighted in Barron’s. Over the weekend Barron’s provided an update on the still small niche and basically they’ve had a rough go in the last three or four months although I should note that for the six months prior they were white hot. Along the way GlobalX listed a fund that tracks the space and although not charted below it has also gone down considerably in the last few months.
Done in By Biases?
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
Howard Gold had a post at MarketWatch noting research that shows baby boomers have too much in equities relative to when they would be likely to retire. He talks about this being poor asset allocation strategy, that it plays into some behavioral finance issues, says that many people need to admit they can’t manage their own money and concludes that everyone should put their 401k money into the target date fund in their 401k most suited to their intended retirement date.
Say Goodbye To The 4% Rule?
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
Wade Pfau has a white paper posted at FA Mag that pretty much blows up the 4% (retirement withdrawal rate) rule or attempts to anyway. Pfau lists several different factors for why 4% may prove to be too optimistic going forward including longer life spans (the 4% rule was originally conceived with a 30 year retirement and now 40 years may make more sense), the prospect for lower equity market returns (which may or may not happen) and historically low interest rates which we know we have but who knows how long they will remain low and various fees related to investing.
Defensive Expectations
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
Last week there was an article in the WSJ noting the performance struggles of one of the larger liquid alternative mutual funds. I am not going to link to the article or name the fund because any fund can do very well, attract a lot of assets, then do poorly and lose the assets which is the arc of this fund’s story but instead want to focus on avoid that sort of loop or at least recognizing the potential for that sort of loop so that no one is surprised if/when it happens.
The Futility of Retirement Calculators
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
USA Today syndicated a post from Motley Fool that did a good job taking down the concept of retirement calculators. The two big points made were that these calculators make an assumption based on people needing a percentage of their pre-retirement income, which does not take into account the particulars of individual circumstances, and that the calculators often overlook other sources of income including, in some cases Social Security.
All That Crap About Not Panicking?
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
It is still true. As I write this post Monday after the close there is still a lot of uncertainty on how Greece will precisely play out. Markets were down on Monday of course, right now the S&P 500 is at 2057 right around where it started the year and is flirting with its 200 day moving average.
The Joy Of Portfolio Boredom
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
Last week I stumbled across an article that favorably critiqued an alternative-strategy ETF for being boring which is its objective. “Boring” is not the stated objective in the prospectus but terms like market neutral, absolute return, low correlation to equities and some others really are about boredom. You can judge for yourself whether a given fund that is supposed to be boring is indeed boring as not every fund will deliver on its stated objective.
25 Things I Wish I Learned Before I Opened My First Brokerage Account
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
Brett Arends had a great post about what he wished he’d learned before graduating high school. It was a great mix of financial nuggets, points about not wasting time or money and some other generally sound ideas. With a nod to Arends; things people should know about finance and investing before they start and should be reminded of every so often as they go along.
Don’t Follow The News? More Like Don’t Overreact To The News
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
Tadas Viskanta has a great blog post up titled Make More By Doing (and listening) Less. The general tone of the article is the extent to which investors too frequently are influenced by stock market media enough that they make changes to their portfolio that end up being the wrong thing to have done.
Does It Make My Portfolio Better?
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
Cliff Asness posted a commentary a few days ago that includes the following;
One of the most basic lessons of investing is to think about how each investment impacts your overall portfolio not just its characteristics stand alone. You don’t evaluate your other investment options based on, “Would I trade my whole portfolio for this?” but rather on, “Does it make my portfolio better?”
Working In Retirement Is A Hope?
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
In this scenario their nest egg increases significantly and their monthly expense goes down a fair bit and keep in mind Wheelhaus is very expensive in this realm. There is a resort in Wilson, WY that has a bunch of these from Wheelhaus, we’ve seen them first hand which is how I know about it at all and they are stunning so this sort of downsizing does not have to mean a double wide trailer at ground zero for some future tornado.
The (Investment) World Is Changing And You Need To Get On Board
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
Fast Company posted an article that looked at existing jobs that are likely to change dramatically or disappear altogether over the next ten years. Change happens of course often spurred along by technology and/or innovation.
Close to Retirement and Under-Saved, What Should You Do?
by Roger Nusbaum of AdvisorShares,
A blog post from the Wall Street Journal back in February noted that “the typical working household with a 401(k) approaching retirement had only $111,000 in a 401(k) and IRA.” There are plenty of articles floating around in the last couple of years lamenting how low retirement balances are. If $111,000 is right, that would be one of the higher averages published (obviously it is all in how the data is collected and who is surveyed but that is not the point of this post).
Results 1–50
of 88 found.
