Over the years we have authored these articles to share with our clients and friends. We think they are like an old favorite movie that you will want to see again and again. Please feel free to make copies and share with your friends. Looking for an older article? See our Article Archive.
The wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz screeched this infamous line at the climax of the movie, and we were all relieved as she evaporated, leaving behind nothing but her black hat. But unlike film viewers, many gold investors won’t be rejoicing when this precious metal starts to melt down.
An oft-quoted maxim is, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” While this is generally prudent advice and supports investment diversification, some investors believe it’s wise to have more than one investment consultant.
Three situations collectively offer a strong chance of a long-term benefit from converting to a Roth IRA.
During times of extreme uncertainty and fear, investors are drawn to gold. In prior centuries, gold was the globally-accepted source of power and wealth for kings, empires and aristocrats. As children we read stories and watched movies about gold...
There are two ways to compute the rate of return on a portfolio: TIME-weighted and DOLLAR-weighted. These two methods can produce dramatically different results. Both are correct - they just calculate numbers that have different meanings
You should know if your investment advisor is a Fiduciary. A registered investment adviser has a Fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the client. In the words of the U.S. Supreme Court “... to continuously occupy an…
Jeff Troutner of TAM Asset Management coined the terms “wade” and “plunge” for investing a sum of capital slowly over time or all at once. The wading approach has historically been known as dollar-cost-averaging. Proponents of wading view plunging as reckless and argue wading is much more sensible for the risk-adverse investor. Proponents of plunging believe that wading reduces returns more often than it increases them.
The rewards from investing can be captured most consistently by creating a well-diversified portfolio that is engineered to optimize the risk/reward trade-off inherent in the stock market.
The fundamental axiom of modern portfolio theory is that risk and return are related. Investment strategy is defined as the science of capturing the maximum return at a stated level of risk. The asset class of value stocks represents a distinctive risk for which we expect compensation. When the risk and return characteristics of value stocks are blended with other asset classes, the result is a diversification benefit. Therefore, including value stocks in a broadly diversified portfolio is expected to increase return while reducing risk.
There are only two reasons to add an asset class to your portfolio. Either you want it to reduce risk or you want it to add return. Adding small cap stocks to a portfolio of large cap stocks can do both. Small cap stocks have provided returns with a different performance pattern than large cap stocks. In addition, small cap stocks have...
