There is a severe lack of long term perspective by most financial market participants these days. Interest rates, and in particular the potential for a dramatic rise in future rates, is just the most recent example. Most analyses of rising rates don’t go back far enough to be really useful. Read more…
Warning. This post is kind of a finance geek out. I’ll try and keep it as basic as possible but I apologize in advance if I cause any heads to hit the keyboard… In this post I’ll take a look at impact and potential benefits of adding volatility weighting and Read more…
Interest rates are going up. Interest rates are going down. The 30 year bull market in bonds is coming to an end. The FED cannot afford to raise rates significantly without killing the economy. Bonds will have negative real returns going forward. We’re in the biggest bond bubble of all Read more…
11 months down, 1 to go in 2014. Here are the tactical asset allocation portfolio updates for this month. Starting with the most basic portfolios, below are the December updates for the GTAA5 and the Permanent Portfolio. I keep a spreadsheet online that is update automatically. There were no changes from Read more…
One of the more overlooked areas of quantitative investing is how to integrate quant strategies into a diversified portfolio. Let’s look at a few of the issues involved and some possible solutions. I’ve discussed the big allocation decision already, i.e. how much to put into quant strategies vs bonds already. I Read more…
It’s been a while since I’ve done updates for the various IVY portfolios. I’ve noticed that investors still have trouble implementing these portfolios so I decided to start doing the updates again. At least for a few months. Hopefully this helps investors who are trying to implement these portfolios or Read more…
Unfortunately, portfolios are not like a certain type of ring, forged with magical powers to rule over the world, man/hobbit/elf kind, and all other types of investment portfolios. There is no one portfolio to rule them all. There are many different styles and types of portfolios with very different characteristics, asset Read more…
Early in 2013 I presented a quantitative strategy based on dividend paying stocks from OShaughnessy’s What Works On Wall Street. The Enhanced Dividend Yield strategy. The strategy provides market beating returns, higher sharpe ratios, and a healthy dividend stream. One of the best things about this strategy is it’s high Read more…
Maybe the best thing about quant or automatic investing is the peace of mind it provides during times of market turmoil. While I would by no means characterize the recent market action as ‘turmoil’, many investors seem to think it is. It always amazes me how short term the investor Read more…
Value investing holds the promise of great returns over the long run and appeals to many investor’s innate sense of value derived from their personal experiences. But value investing has a couple of key downsides that make it very hard for many investors to stick with the approach long enough Read more…
Today I finally get around to doing something I mentioned way back in my first post on quantitative investing. Quant portfolios can help an investor handily beat the market over time and often with even lower risk. If that is the case then how could they impact safe withdrawal rates Read more…