Global Investing
5 Rules of Thumb: A Starting Point for Beginning Investors
The world of investing is vastly complex, but only if you let it be. There are some great books and websites on which to get started, but even these can be a bit much for someone looking to put their … Continue reading
Scarecrow Index: The S&P 500 Straw Man Argument
I have heard and read it too many times to count: “Ah, but anyone following an indexing strategy experienced a lost decade over the last ten years!” Active investors and day traders (not to mention: fund companies and brokerages wanting … Continue reading
The Dividend Illusion: Sorry, Stocks Are Not Like Bonds
Some people balk when I call dividends an ‘illusion’ or refer to them as a kind of investment ‘myth’ – and they are right to be skeptical at first: after all, dividend payouts are the means by which companies transfer … Continue reading
Emerging Markets: Did You Remember to Pack Your Free Lunch?
“They account for more than 70% of the world’s population (over five times that of developed markets), 46% of its land mass (twice that of developed markets), and 31% of its GDP (almost half that of developed markets). And, taken as a group, their … Continue reading
Global GDP Over Time: What a Difference a Decade Makes!
There is fact and there is speculation – we can never be sure what will happen to growth rates of markets or Gross Domestic Products over time, but history (illustrated by the chart above) shows they change significantly from one … Continue reading
Equity Crisis Management: 5 Time Periods Benefiting from Global Diversification
Managing portfolio risk starts with larger decisions – allocations to stocks versus bonds, for instance – but, at its best, it does not end there. Consider these five cases from history, where a single-country stock market radically diverged from the … Continue reading
Bad Advice: 3 Terrible Suggestions for Beginning Investors
Novices often have no idea where to begin – they understand their money will serve them better in the short and long term somewhere else besides their mattress, savings or checking accounts, but need some guidance beyond just ‘open an … Continue reading
Tempted to Tinker? Stay the Course (or Be Careful)
Investor personalities play a huge part in behavioral advantages (and disadvantages) faced throughout a lifetime of building a nest egg. Some people (perhaps the lucky ones!) are bored by investing, and would rather buy a few funds, set them loose … Continue reading
Final Frontier: Do Fringe Markets Offer Diversification Benefits?
For a long-term buy, hold and rebalance investor, asset class correlations (or rather: the lack thereof) are a key part of success. In recent years, globalized markets appear to have moved more closely in step with one another, so the … Continue reading