CNN Article regarding Index and Actively Managed Funds

[NOLA]

http://money.cnn.com/m/?url=http://mone ... est%20News

The article had such a promising start, then it kind of changed a little bit. Wish the author could have added some information about trading cost etc.

Update - Buu, thanks for letting me know. The link should work now, the article is called "Long-term investing, keep it simple"

[bUU]

Your link isn't leading to a specific article, nor to a page that has any article with the word "index" in the title.

Is this the article you are referring to?

http://money.cnn.com/2012/12/11/pf/expe ... index.html

[KyleAAA]

Well consider the audience. A discussion of trading costs would go right over most people's heads.

[NOLA]

Kyle - I agree, just kind of scary when the author tells you to go look at a list to find "Top-rated mutual funds".

[pkcrafter]

Link is still not right. Nola, your link only shows the article's title and the picture. bUU posted a different article, which is a good one. I really like point No. 1 in that article:

1. Greater certainty. One of the most valuable features about index funds is that you know exactly what you're getting when you invest in one."

This is a great benefit of indexing and it doesn't get near enough recognition. It's very difficult to stay diversified as intended with most active funds because of style and size drift (a.k.a performance chasing).

I think this is the original article Nola was referring to, and both articles are very similar.

http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/30/pf/expe ... _INV_River


Paul

[NOLA]

Paul, thanks for adding the link. Yes, that's the article I was referring to, weird because it works for me. Maybe my computer thinks its Monday.

Thanks again.

[nisiprius]

Seems like a pretty good article to me, and it could hardly be any more unequivocally pro-indexing. But then I've noticed that I usually like Walter Updegrave's articles.

Or you can make things really simple and invest in a total U.S. stock market index fund, in which case you get all U.S. stocks -- large, small, value, growth, all industries -- in a single fund. Throw in a total international stock index and a total U.S. bond market index fund, and you've got a fully diversified portfolio with just three funds.

Now, where have I heard that before?

Total global cap-weighting is not to my personal taste, but it does surprise me how writers keep overlooking the existence of the Vanguard Total World Stock Index fund and the iShares MSCI ACWI ETF.

[ObliviousInvestor]

But then I've noticed that I usually like Walter Updegrave's articles.

I've suspected for a few years that he's a Boglehead. I like his articles too.

[Clever_Username]

While I can't attach the Boglehead title to him, he did write very well about index funds - and Vanguard - in his book almost two decades ago, The Right Way to Invest In Mutual Funds. I read this summer 2008 when I was first learning about investing, as my summer internship had a 401(k) option and I wanted to know what I was doing. Of course, you could go to the threads about mistakes one has made as an investor to see that I didn't follow that as well as I should have.

Back to the topic: great article; Updegrave's almost always are.