Ask anyone who is worth their investing salt and they will be unequivocal about it:
The stock market is the most amazing money machine that has ever been invented.
But is that still true in today’s frenzied environment?
At some point, all stock market investors face the following question:
What is the right portfolio allocation between US and international equities?
As the data below shows, at the turn of the 20th century, the US stock market represented ~15% of the world’s total.
The biggest refrain you hear from people who think you can beat the stock market goes as follows:
“By definition, 50% of investors do better than the market and the other 50% do worse. Surely it cannot be so hard to be in the first group.”
A lot has been said about the tremendous run-up in the stock market since the global financial crisis. Historically, the S&P 500 returned about 10% a year (nominal, with dividends included). Over the past decade, however, the returns are well into double digits: So far, that trend has continued in 2021. S&P 500 now stands …
On August 5th, 2011, representatives of the S&P rating agency announced their decision to downgrade their credit rating of the US Federal Government. To be fair, the S&P had clearly flagged their thinking earlier on, announcing a negative outlook back in April of the same year. Still, it was a historical decision. For the first …
In what is becoming a recurring theme, a long-time reader (let’s call him Bob) sent me a link to an article about passive investing the other day – and asked for my views. The article itself was unremarkable, a thinly veiled shill for an active investing product. Hence, I won’t honour it with a link, …
It may not seem like it, but as of today, we are just four weeks away from Christmas. One of the most eventful years of the past few decades is beginning the countdown toward its logical conclusion. It’s fair to say that 2020 has delivered more twists, turns, and unexpected outcomes than a John Grisham …
Back in February, when a very prescient colleague of mine was busy liquidating his equity portfolio, a good friend of mine was going in the opposite direction. He and I had discussed investing in the past – and he had fully signed on to the gospel of not looking to beat the market, investing in …
