ETFs started off as a 'savior' product for the retail investor, giving him options at a low cost. That product has turned into a monster in my opinion that has both resulted in distorting the market and destroying accounts. Investors experienced the 2015 flash crash which resulted in index funds dropping 35%+ intraday. At least by the end of the day the prices of these … [Read more...]
We simply went too long w/o a correction
The press tried to find reasons to attach to the drop, but they forgot a basic fundamental fact of finance. With higher returns comes higher volatility. It's that simple. If we define the end of the bull market to be one which experiences a 20% correction, then the current bull market is the 2nd longest in history! As shown below, the longest bull market ended in March … [Read more...]
Outlook 2018
It’s the end of the year and as we enter 2018 investors will ponder on what the future will bring. As, like last year’s popular December issue, I collected a bunch of links to investment and economic outlooks by a variety of financial institutions. Do keep in mind Credit Suisse’s Deputy Global CIO Burkhard Varnholt who said “Here’s the thing: none of us can predict the … [Read more...]
Video: A Variant View on Indexing and Passive Investing
The CFA Institute will invite a limited number of Charterholders to speak at the annual conference in Hong Kong in May 2018. To be considered you had to submit a 15-17 min video on a topic. Below is my submission which I share with you. … [Read more...]
Wall Street Arguments On Bitcoin Are Plain Wrong
The Bitcoin mania continues as greed is part of human nature and grandmas to professionals get involved. The professionals' argument is that it's not correlated to other asset classes and adds to diversification. Former portfolio manager of the University of Chicago and current CIO of a crypto hedge fund, Ari Paul, thinks that endowments should look into crypto. He is quoted … [Read more...]
