The Wrong Way To Evaluate Performance

The Wrong Way To Evaluate Performance

The CFA Institute posted a blog by Issac Presley about The Harvard Crimson, Harvard University’s student newspaper, which ran an editorial last month excoriating the university’s management of its endowment fund.  To quote from the Crimson:  “Harvard Management Company announced a $2 billion loss for fiscal year 2016. Let’s not mince words: this is unacceptable.” …
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ETNs Are Not Just Like ETFs

Mutual funds have been around since the 1920s, although their popularity really began to soar starting in the 1960s.  By now most everyone I meet has a basic familiarity with these extremely useful investment vehicles.  Then came the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), a variation of a mutual fund pioneered in the U.S. by the S&P…
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How Much House Can You Really Afford?

If you are in the market for a new home, especially your first one, you will be faced with a plethora of choices and decisions to make.  Location, size, style; there are so many variables that you may find the process overwhelming.  But the first decision you will face is how much house you can…
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A Key Factor For Financial Success

As an investment professional I spend a huge part of my time helping clients to develop investment strategies and to identify specific investments that balance the need for growth with the need for asset preservation.  And over time, the value of these efforts pays off by maximizing the likelihood of their being able to live…
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Not All Muni Bonds Are Tax Free

At a wedding in 2007 I met a retired treasurer from a prestigious east-coast university.  He told me that all his investments were exclusively in insured municipal (muni) bonds.  The returns he received were good, sufficient to cover all his expenses, and were practically guaranteed.  But the best part of the muni investments, as he…
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The First Retail Index Fund Breakthrough

It was forty years ago last week that Jack Bogle and his new firm The Vanguard Group launched First Index Investment Trust, the world’s first index mutual fund available to retail investors.  Looking back on it from the vantage point of today, you’d probably be surprised at just how difficult the effort turned out to…
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