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Investing In Gold And Silver
First, it’s necessary to decide how you want to deal with these precious metals. (I’m adding silver into the discussion, though other metals, like platinum and copper, are also significant.) People have been using them for coinage and ornamental purposes... (Continue reading)
Eggs, Baskets, and Diversification
It’s almost Easter and many of us have thoughts of eggs and baskets running through our heads. Everyone’s looking forward to enjoying a little chocolate and some quality time with family and friends. In terms of finance, however, we often... (Continue reading)
Will Actively Managed Mutual Funds Ever Go Away?
These days, the passive investing movement is gaining momentum faster than I get rejected for dates by attractive ladies. And for good reason. Actively managed mutual funds may sometimes outperform the index, but are more often than not surpassed by... (Continue reading)
Markets Finish Higher
The Toronto Stock Exchange finished Friday with a 50-point gain, leaving it up about 290 points on the week. In the U.S., however, markets surged, pushing the gain for the Dow Jones to about 425 points on the week, the... (Continue reading)
Index Investing Becoming a Victim of Its Own Success
Too much of a good thing can end up being bad. That includes using a benchmark index as the basis for an investing apparently. In the July 2010 paper (download here from SSRN; acknowledgement to Stingy Investor where I found... (Continue reading)
Relief by Indexing
My transition from being an active stock-picker to investing in low-cost index ETFs is mostly complete, and I’d have to say that it has been a relief. While I enjoy thinking about investing topics, having to track a basket of... (Continue reading)
Investor Sentiment Declines In Canada
According to a national poll released today for Manulife Financial that measured how Canadians say they felt about investing in 11 different categories and vehicles, the survey recorded declines in all categories and vehicles, showing the largest quarterly drop for... (Continue reading)
Using Put Options to Protect Your Portfolio
As options are a fairly sophisticated method of investing/speculating, I rarely write about them as I’m a big believer in sticking with the basics. However, with the expectation of some sort of market correction between now and October 2010, I’ve... (Continue reading)
Financial Bubble Still Here with Yet More to Unravel?
Is there such a thing as a secular financial bubble? Has the financial sector become bloated out of proportion to the economy over the last few decades and is there be a contraction in store, abrupt or prolonged, back to... (Continue reading)
ETFs Deteriorating
Written on 22 Feb, 2010 at 7:01 in Personal Finance | Comments
The average quality of ETFs has been deteriorating lately. Further evidence of this comes from a Morgan Stanley study where they found that US ETF tracking error in 2009 averaged 1.25% compared to only 0.52% in 2008. (I found this... (Continue reading)
