Here They Come Again—The Soothsayers and Snake Oil Salesmen
Since the stock and bond markets started misbehaving at the beginning of the year, we have been assaulted pretty much non-stop by the usual crop of product-pushers, market timing advocates, and crystal ball gazers. Do yourself a favor and ignore them all. In 2006 Philip Tetlock published his 20-year
An Essential Road Map for TAMP Users
Selecting a turnkey asset management provider (TAMP) to manage your clients’ assets is an investment decision. Thus, it triggers your fiduciary responsibilities to your clients. The SEC made this clear in a Risk Alert issued July 21, 2021. The Commission also provided a roadmap for advisors to
Why Investing Based on Past Performance is a Terrible Idea
Both the SEC and FINRA require performance-based advertising and sales literature to include the statement: “past performance does not guarantee future results.” Is that good advice? Mutual Funds Research by S&P Dow Jones on the persistence of mutual fund performance shows why this warning m
In Volatile Markets, Patience Is Your Friend
The financial markets have been volatile since the beginning of the year. After three great years, the stock market has been down significantly in 2022. Interest rates have risen causing bond prices to fall too. That’s a double whammy we haven’t seen too often recently. In the face of this
Why is Active Management So Difficult?
You have to feel sorry for active managers. According to the year-end 2021 SPIVA Scorecard research from S&P Dow Jones, here is the percentage of actively managed US equity funds that underperformed the S&P 1500 Index over various time periods ending December 31, 2021. It paints a gri
What if You Let Your Clients Build Your Business?
You think you know what clients want, but do you really? We all shake our heads vigorously in agreement when someone says that to have a more successful business, you need to design an excellent “client experience.” We might not know exactly what that means, but with a little digging we learn th
Later this quarter (Q1 2022), First Ascent will be introducing a direct indexing offering to the advisors we work with. We call our new offering Customized Index Portfolios. Customized Index Portfolios hold individual stocks and can be designed to reflect the investment goals, values, and preference
The Glitter of Gold—Should Gold Be a Part of Your Portfolio?
Gold is beautiful to look at and has a rich history, but does it belong in your investment portfolio? The information below will help you answer that question. A Quick History Gold has been valued throughout most of recorded history. It was used to display wealth, power, and status over 5,000 years
What is Inflation? Inflation is a measure of how much prices for goods and services are rising in an economy. Inflation can be caused by a number of factors. Demand-pull inflation occurs when there is more demand for goods or services than the current supply can meet. This allows companies to raise
Fees and Expenses: Do They Really Matter?
Fees Eat Up Return Fees and expenses are two of the most important factors to consider when investing. You can’t control the direction of the financial markets, but you can control what you pay to invest. Every mutual fund or exchange traded fund (ETF) in your portfolio has what’s called an “i
Growth and Value: Understanding Investment Styles
Growth and Value: Two Styles of Stock Investing Stocks are often grouped into two distinct categories or “styles:” growth and value. Knowing the differences between the two and how to incorporate them into a portfolio can help investors smooth out the ride toward their long-term financial goals.
Understanding Exchange Traded Funds – ETFs
What Are ETFs? ETFs are professionally managed, diversified portfolios of stocks, bonds, or other assets that are traded on an exchange. How Common Are ETFs? The first ETF debuted in 1993. Today there are over 2,000 ETFs available in the US. At the end of 2019, there was over $4.4 trillion invested
Big. Some firms say you should work with them because they are very, very big. But who wants to be just another number? Ever try to resolve a problem with your cable company or your health insurance provider? That’s what big looks like. Old. Some firms say you should work with them becau
Gaining an Edge – Understanding Factors
What Are Factors? Factors are characteristics common to a group of securities that help explain their returns. These characteristics are distinct and quantifiable and give rise to similar patterns of performance among the securities within the group that distinguish them from other securities over t
Marketing Timing May be Hazardous to Your Portfolio’s Health
An Elusive Dream The stock market goes up and the stock market goes down, as you can see below. Over time the trend is strongly upward, but there have been significant market declines along the way. Growth of the U.S. Stock Market 1926-2019 US Stock Market as represented by the Ibbotson SBBI
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