After a successful year in which our hedge fund outperformed the Total Stock Market benchmark*, The Quicker-Picker-Maybe-Upper Fund will continue into 2014. Last year proved the value of a true computer-driven random stock selection method over alternative randomization methods (typically involving blindfolds, darts, and/or various mammals), and we're confident** that our proprietary system*** will continue to deliver superior results for our clients****.
Long:
ARMSTRONG WORLD INDS IN (AWI)
NOBLE ENERGY INC (NBL)
Short:
IDEX CORP (IEX)
REINSURANCE GRP OF AMER (RGA)
* (+32.1% return vs. +30.9% TSM. Source: http://libra-investments.com/hf/bh.html)
** (not)
*** (Excel RAND function)
**** (non-existent)
Search found 118 matches
- Wed Jan 01, 2014 2:56 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Bogleheads 2014 Hedge fund contest
- Replies: 160
- Views: 26554
- Wed Jan 02, 2013 4:33 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: What was your 2012 return?
- Replies: 275
- Views: 30667
Re: What was your 2012 return?
I'll play.
2012 rate of return: 16.0%
Stock/bond allocation: 83/17 (age in bonds minus 10)
2012 rate of return: 16.0%
Stock/bond allocation: 83/17 (age in bonds minus 10)
- Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:50 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Bogleheads 2013 Hedgefund Contest
- Replies: 151
- Views: 23833
Re: Bogleheads 2013 Hedgefund Contest
Heh. Chimps versus computers? Sounds like fun. Or perhaps we're really on the same side if we made blind picks instead of trying to out-guess the market. =)dmcmahon wrote:My team of skilled dart-throwing chimps says "It's on like Donkey Kong!"Raging Mage wrote: These selections were made entirely at random via computer (like a lottery "quick pick"). I used Excel's RAND function to generate the results.
- Mon Dec 31, 2012 2:20 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Bogleheads 2013 Hedgefund Contest
- Replies: 151
- Views: 23833
Re: Bogleheads 2013 Hedgefund Contest
It's been a very long time since I posted at BH, but I couldn't resist jumping into the fray.
The Quicker-Picker-Maybe-Upper Fund
Long:
LUV (SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO)
ERII (ENERGY RECOVERY INC)
Short:
AA (ALCOA INC)
CTXS (CITRIX SYSTEMS INC)
These selections were made entirely at random via computer (like a lottery "quick pick"). I used Excel's RAND function to generate the results.
The Quicker-Picker-Maybe-Upper Fund
Long:
LUV (SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO)
ERII (ENERGY RECOVERY INC)
Short:
AA (ALCOA INC)
CTXS (CITRIX SYSTEMS INC)
These selections were made entirely at random via computer (like a lottery "quick pick"). I used Excel's RAND function to generate the results.
- Sat Feb 18, 2012 11:27 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: "Can you sum-up your investing philosophy in 10 words?"
- Replies: 120
- Views: 11476
Re: "Can you sum-up your investing philosophy in 10 words?"
Haha, this was the best post, IMO.Noobvestor wrote:Diversify all the things!
Here's mine:
"He who gathers money little by little makes it grow." - Proverbs 13:11
- Sat Feb 18, 2012 6:11 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Help with a friend's 401k!
- Replies: 5
- Views: 2385
Re: Help with a friend's 401k!
If that were my 401(k) plan, I'd stick with just the Schwab S&P 500 index fund (SWPPX) and the PIMCO Total Return fund (PTTRX), and use an IRA for other investments (such as an international index fund, a TIPS fund, etc.). Everything else on that list appears to have too high an expense ratio to be worthwhile.
Duckie's suggestion about doing more research on the target date funds is wise. If their expense ratios are low, they might be good alternatives.
Duckie's suggestion about doing more research on the target date funds is wise. If their expense ratios are low, they might be good alternatives.
- Mon Feb 13, 2012 9:49 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Post your asset allocation here:
- Replies: 136
- Views: 16567
Re: Post your asset allocation here:
It's been a long time since I posted here! *blows dust off forum account* Age: 27 Stock/Bond Target: Age minus 10 (83/17) My current allocation is: (percentages may be off due to rounding) 67% - Fidelity 401(k) comprised of: 30% - S&P 500 Index Commingled Pool (ER .05%) 8% - FSEVX (Fidelity Spartan Extended Market Index Advantage) 18% - FSPNX (Fidelity Spartan International Index Institutional) 11% - PTTRX (PIMCO Total Return Institutional) Unfortunately, my company doesn't offer any bond index funds (we only have PTTRX). I'm loving the stock index offerings, though! 33% - TD Ameritrade Traditional IRA comprised of: 6% - VBR (Vanguard Small-Cap Value) 6% - IJS (iShares S&P Small-Cap 600 Value) 7% - VNQ (Vanguard REIT) 1% - EWC (iSha...
- Wed Sep 07, 2011 2:07 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Market Cap of Value Stocks in the Stock Market
- Replies: 18
- Views: 2095
You might find what you're looking for here:
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Approxim ... ock_Market
If I'm not mistaken, stocks are normally divided within the Morningstar grid so that value, blend, and growth each account for 1/3 of TSM.
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Approxim ... ock_Market
If I'm not mistaken, stocks are normally divided within the Morningstar grid so that value, blend, and growth each account for 1/3 of TSM.
- Tue Sep 06, 2011 7:56 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Feedback on this doomsday blog entry?
- Replies: 7
- Views: 1824
You don't need to convince me of the long-term merit of stocks, but thanks for the words of encouragement! I'm 26 and using an age-10 formula, so my portfolio has a stock/bond split of 84:16. My ratio of U.S. to international stocks is about 2:1, and roughly 25% of my equities are small cap/value. Trust me, your advice is already in use.
- Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:54 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: The Case Against Long-Term Treasuries - Now More Than Ever
- Replies: 32
- Views: 4695
It seems that I let this thread fall off the map for the last couple weeks. Whoops! Grayfox, my source is Larry Swedroe's book referenced earlier in the thread. The chart he provided for Treasuries looks like this: Duration / Correlation (S&P 500, '64-'03) / Correlation (EAFE, '69-'03) 1m / 0.02 / -0.11 6m / 0.03 / -0.11 1y / 0.05 / -0.18 5y / 0.20 / -0.02 20y / 0.26 / 0.09 The difference isn't that big, but it does leave me curious as to why it exists, especially since LTTs have seen such larger counter-moves to the broad stock market than ITTs as of late. I'm definitely with you when you say that a single number doesn't provide enough meaningful information. Accordingly, I went digging through some old posts from Robert T per Noobvest...
- Tue Sep 06, 2011 12:29 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Feedback on this doomsday blog entry?
- Replies: 7
- Views: 1824
Like the blog writer, I've only been investing for under a year (and this is a great time to point out that those of us in this group are not experts--we have a lot to learn). What I've observed in my really short time of investing is this: doomsayers, as a whole, currently do not agree on what "flavor" of doom the U.S. is going to taste, if any. For every gold-bug warning of imminent hyperinflation and the death of the dollar, there's a "deflationist" warning of a tidal wide of credit defaults that the government is powerless to overcome with printed money. If you're going to choose one of these sides, you'd better guess right, because the assets that perform well in one scenario may suffer in the other. As for me, I re...
- Mon Sep 05, 2011 1:47 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: How Much Small-Cap Value is Enough?
- Replies: 182
- Views: 29643
I thought I'd look into this a bit myself--here's a chart showing the performance of Vanguard SCV and SCG since 5/16/2003:stevewolfe wrote:Vanguard growth, blend and value small cap indexes all changed on May 16, 2003. The net difference in before and after for the two funds was separated by about 21 basis points.
VISVX vs. VISGX
It looks as if nearly all of Vanguard SCG's outperformance during that period came within the last 2-3 years. Before that, their performance was rather close. This was also true for the iShares ETFs (IJS and IJT) during the same period:
IJS vs. IJT
- Wed Aug 31, 2011 5:04 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Does anybody think that gold may be the next bubble?
- Replies: 29
- Views: 3662
Re: Does anybody think that gold may be the next bubble?
If so, why not try to short it with 5% of play money? The quick "newbie" answer is: Because predicting the tops and bottoms of market bubbles is extremely difficult. Even if one is confident that one has identified a bubble, shorting it is dangerous because there's no telling how much it will grow, or for how long, before it finally pops. Gold's price surge may be at its end, or only at its very beginning. It's impossible to know in advance which position is correct. One may guess correctly, but nobody actually knows. Gold is still a hated asset class. Just look at the posts on this forum, most people see it rising and just shrug it off as non-sense. We aren't even close to bubble levels yet. Be careful with this line of reasonin...
- Wed Aug 24, 2011 7:01 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: The Case Against Long-Term Treasuries - Now More Than Ever
- Replies: 32
- Views: 4695
I think you figured it out correctly. When you mix a high volatility asset with a low volatility asset, the mix is 90% correlated with the high volatility asset. Someone on another thread proved this mathematically. So all portfolios with stocks + IT bonds are 90% correlated to the stock price movements. ST and IT Treasuries hardly budge, so they do no more than dilute the volatility of the stock market. You would need 80% or 90% IT Treasuries to seriously reduce the volatility of stocks. On the other hand, as your graph shows, LT Treasuries actually move counter to stocks during crises (flight to safety), and LT Treasuries are much higher volatility than IT and ST. Thanks for letting me know I'm not crazy! What I still haven't figured out...
- Tue Aug 23, 2011 8:11 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: The Case Against Long-Term Treasuries - Now More Than Ever
- Replies: 32
- Views: 4695
Here's a possibly silly question ( maybe it belongs on the "Help with Personal Investments" board, but I'll leave it here for now): Is there any reason why a young investor with a time horizon of ~40 years wouldn't want to pair up long-term treasuries with equities? So many of the books I've read from the Bogleheads' reading list recommend sticking with short- or intermediate-term bonds (such as those found in TBM), and while I have utilized a TBM fund in my IRA since I began investing, it just hasn't exhibited the behavior I desire so far. I appreciate that many investors use their bond holdings to reduce portfolio volatility and preserve wealth, but what I'm really clamoring for is a bond fund that moves more sharply in oppositi...
- Thu Aug 18, 2011 5:12 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Funny portfolios
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1432
- Wed Aug 17, 2011 9:31 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Tell me why you don't like this form of market timing
- Replies: 29
- Views: 3325
- Wed Aug 17, 2011 5:45 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: New Schwab U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (SCHZ)
- Replies: 41
- Views: 10174
- Mon Aug 15, 2011 9:01 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Do you like polls?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 1589
- Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:53 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Tired of: "Yay Market is Collapsing Shares Are Cheap!!!
- Replies: 80
- Views: 9811
- Mon Aug 08, 2011 4:38 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Poll: Will treasuries rise or fall on Monday (8/8/2011)?
- Replies: 50
- Views: 6829
- Sat Aug 06, 2011 3:25 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: U.S. loses AAA credit rating from S&P
- Replies: 286
- Views: 34466
IMHO they're trying to see the "bright side" of this, and realize they've got a few decades left before they need to worry about withdrawing, so historically cheaper buys means a better end result. Whether that will be true or not in this case, only time will tell. This is exactly right--or at least, it describes the mindset I need to have as a young investor. I recall mentioning in another thread that being able to find contentment in both good and bad markets is key to being able to stay the course. Am I happy that investors closer to retirement, with their much larger portfolios, are suffering in this market? Definitely not. But do I need to see market drops such as this as opportunities to "buy lower" and improve my...
- Thu Aug 04, 2011 10:54 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Anyone Hitting Their Bands This Week?
- Replies: 45
- Views: 7288
- Thu Aug 04, 2011 10:48 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Quick Plug for Permanent Portfolio During Recent Volatility
- Replies: 6
- Views: 1276
I could never choose the PP for myself, because I just can't stomach the idea of devoting 50% of my AA to gold and cash, regardless of how those assets correlate with stocks/bonds. Beyond that, I'm just not confident the PP strategy will provide the returns I need over the long term.
Nevertheless, congrats on your results so far. There are, indeed, many roads to Dublin.
Nevertheless, congrats on your results so far. There are, indeed, many roads to Dublin.
- Thu Aug 04, 2011 10:36 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Deleted
- Replies: 42
- Views: 5400
- Wed Aug 03, 2011 4:13 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Are 200-day market timers ready?
- Replies: 185
- Views: 46076
- Sat Jul 30, 2011 1:20 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: August 2 = Good Buy
- Replies: 73
- Views: 9829
I have no idea what will happen after August 2nd, and I'm not concerned either way. If a debt/budget deal happens and the market recovers, great. On the other hand, if we end up witnessing a market crash, I'll be excited to buy at lower prices. Not that I'm actively rooting for the latter, but I figure an early market dip in a young investor's lifetime of saving will help more than it hurts. Beyond that, I feel that finding contentment in both good and bad market cycles helps with one's commitment to staying the course.
- Tue Jul 26, 2011 4:08 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: ETF historical average bid/ask and premium/discount
- Replies: 3
- Views: 1521
You could try Fidelity's ETF screener, but I don't know if it will give you quite the level of detail you're looking for. If all you need is the one-month average bid/ask spread and premium/discount, it should do the trick. (It will work with Vanguard ETFs, not just iShares.)
http://screener.fidelity.com/ftgw/etf/e ... to/landing
http://screener.fidelity.com/ftgw/etf/e ... to/landing
- Sun Jul 24, 2011 9:06 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: small cap value: IJS or VBR?
- Replies: 17
- Views: 8406
I think the difference in REIT holdings is somewhat more significant than this. Fidelity's portfolio composition tool currently shows VBR at 13.94% REITs.fishndoc wrote:The data on the Boglehead wiki is a lttle dated, but shows VISVX (VBR) at ~9.5% REITS, and current data from Fidelity shows IJS with 8.22% REITS.
http://screener.fidelity.com/ftgw/etf/g ... ymbols=IJS
- Sun Jul 24, 2011 6:05 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: small cap value: IJS or VBR?
- Replies: 17
- Views: 8406
Either choice is perfectly reasonable for one's allocation to SCV. Your choice might come down to which one is available for you to invest in at a lower cost. For example, IJS would be a better choice for Fidelity accounts since it's one of their 30 commission-free iShares ETFs, while those with Vanguard accounts would probably want VBR.
Full disclosure: I actually hold equal percentages of both in my TD Ameritrade IRA, since I can buy either one commission-free and I won't be doing any tax-loss harvesting in the retirement account. IJS is less REIT-centric and tilted more towards small-cap, while VBR has more holdings and is more heavily tilted towards value.
Full disclosure: I actually hold equal percentages of both in my TD Ameritrade IRA, since I can buy either one commission-free and I won't be doing any tax-loss harvesting in the retirement account. IJS is less REIT-centric and tilted more towards small-cap, while VBR has more holdings and is more heavily tilted towards value.
- Sat Jul 23, 2011 12:23 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: What if you don't rebalance?
- Replies: 130
- Views: 14973
Re: Hi
I still do not understand why anyone before their 60's would want to rebalance or put any of their money in bonds. If I am invested 100% in equities (let's say small cap), I have decades before retirement, and I would want the maximum return on that money. Yes that money will fluctuate during the decades, but overall it is going to go up much more than if I had put any of it in bonds. Here's a quick thought from another 20-something (I'm only a couple of years ahead of you): You may be making the mistake of considering stocks and bonds in isolation. Yes, over very long periods, stocks have historically outperformed bonds. However, what you should be interested in is the historical risk-and-return frontier for portfolios with varying ratios...
- Wed Jul 20, 2011 6:12 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: 1 in 20 Fund Investors Beat the Odds
- Replies: 33
- Views: 4348
Interesting. Do you still recommend equal, fixed percentages of Pacific Rim and Europe for international investing? I got the impression from other posters here that you might have moved away from this approach after the introduction (or perhaps I should say improvement) of all-in-one international funds (such as VGTSX/VXUS). It's an academic question for me anyway because the only broad-based international index fund in my Fidelity 401(k) is FSIIX, but I'm interested in your thoughts.Rick Ferri wrote: The other developed market funds I use are the Vanguard Pacific and the Vanguard Europe, which are both large cap core. Adding DFA International Small Value rounds out the developed market portfolio.
- Sun Jul 17, 2011 12:25 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Why Buy-and-Hold Isn't a Good Strategy
- Replies: 50
- Views: 8764
Wow, and some people say Bogleheads members are into self-advertisement...evancox10 wrote:That's great, but try this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGo1fHuc ... re=related
Holy cow, take a look at how gold blew right through that Fibonacci resistance point!!!!!
Are you sure you didn't mean to post this video Taylor? These guys really seem to be on to something!
That video is a reminder to me of how thankful I should be for this community. Sometimes it's nice to see what one's investing philosophy is up against. Thanks for sharing.
- Mon Jul 04, 2011 10:49 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: advertising by Rick Ferri
- Replies: 91
- Views: 11749
Actually, I am having trouble finding the rule against advertising. Policies and Etiquette says that you can't have a commercial message in an avatar, signature, or location, but I don't see that you can't put a commercial message into your post. This is the closest thing I can find in our forum policies (emphasis mine): No Solicitation or Link Farming Please do not solicit business or website traffic on this forum. A discreet link to your website in your profile is allowed. The moderators and administrators reserve the right to determine unilaterally what constitutes solicitation, to remove such material, and to ban a repeat offender if necessary. If you ask me, based on the above rules, we're looking at a non-issue in this thread. Maybe ...
- Sun Jul 03, 2011 6:40 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: advertising by Rick Ferri
- Replies: 91
- Views: 11749
Re: advertising by Rick Ferri
Why does this discussion board allow advertising by Rick Ferri and a few other investment advisors ?? It seems there are selected advisors who are allowed to submit posts that are basically advertisement for their sevices without repercusions. I think advisors, which advertise theirselves, should be banded from the website. I do not appreciate Ferri writing about what a wonderful person he is. My position is the exact opposite of yours--I would hope Rick continues to be a regular contributor here. Possibly without realizing it, he provided me with significant help and guidance when I was getting started with my investment portfolio, and I never felt that I was being hit with "advertisements" at any point. On the contrary, I felt ...
- Sun Jul 03, 2011 7:10 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Valuation-based market timing with PE10 can improve returns?
- Replies: 696
- Views: 139836
I apologize if this (possibly newbie) question has been asked elsewhere in the thread, but assuming PE10 is linked to returns, isn't one already responding to PE10 fluctuations to some degree simply by rebalancing? Eventually I need to get around to writing an IPS (right now an Excel spreadsheet containing my AA is mostly serving this purpose), and once of those decisions will be whether it's worthwhile (or even necessary) to take PE10 into account at all.
- Fri Jul 01, 2011 11:02 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: So how come [people think market up is noise, down is doom]
- Replies: 24
- Views: 2453
Re: So how come...
"After all, for any dollar amount, an X% loss followed by an X% gain results in an overall decrease, and the same is still true if you reverse that order." But there is really no reason to have "X% loss" and "X% gain" in the same sentence. You could talk about "X% loss followed by an Y% gain", but what possible reason could there be for singling out the X=Y case? Maybe my point wasn't clear. It was merely an attempt to highlight another possible reason why, on a psychological level, losses tend to impact people more than gains: it might be partly because of the measuring stick (percentage-based gains/losses) they tend to use. Using equal percentage values in my first post merely offered a convenient ...
- Fri Jul 01, 2011 3:45 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: What percent in equities if you had $5 million TODAY?
- Replies: 65
- Views: 8966
Are you talking about $5M accumulated over a period of years/decades, or a sudden $5M windfall? Either way, I imagine such a tidy sum would eliminate most or all of one's need to take risk, but each of those two situations would call for a different response. If one has worked one's way up to $5M over time, one should have been considering a more conservative allocation for some time. On the other hand, if one receives such a large windfall (and the emotions that will inevitably go with it), one's best immediate response would be to set it aside for a few months and wait for the emotions to die down before making any moves.
- Fri Jul 01, 2011 3:28 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: So how come [people think market up is noise, down is doom]
- Replies: 24
- Views: 2453
Re: So how come...
Maybe mathematics has also helped to "wire" us in that manner. After all, for any dollar amount, an X% loss followed by an X% gain results in an overall decrease, and the same is still true if you reverse that order. Of course, it's a different ballgame if you look at absolute values instead of percentages, but judging from how frequently we tend to use the latter, it's that much easier to settle into the mindset that losses are "larger" than gains.Valuethinker wrote:Humans are risk averse in the domain of losses.
A short term loss produces about twice as much pain as a short term gain does pleasure. Tested in the lab.
- Thu Jun 30, 2011 9:57 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: New Video is Up!! - Active Managers Explain How It Works
- Replies: 24
- Views: 4174
Boglenaut wrote:Raging Mage,
I just noticed your avatar. Pretty funny!
"Be rational... get real"
I can't take credit for making it, but I figured (pun intended) that math humor needed a bit more love.
On a side note, I do wonder what would happen if those two "characters" ever started discussing investing.
- Tue Jun 28, 2011 4:14 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: "Why Money Managers Fail to Beat the Market"
- Replies: 13
- Views: 2642
This is actually one of the reasons the article caught my attention--it was a very Boglehead-like message on a site where I never expected to find such a thing.EvelynTroy wrote:I didn't read the article - I saw what I needed to know about the site at the bottom of the article:
...
For me the credibility of this outfit is about zero.
Evelyn
- Mon Jun 27, 2011 4:52 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: "Why Money Managers Fail to Beat the Market"
- Replies: 13
- Views: 2642
"Why Money Managers Fail to Beat the Market"
At risk of preaching to the choir, I thought this new article on ETF Daily News was a good read:
http://etfdailynews.com/2011/06/27/why- ... he-market/
I'm now strongly tempted to make its opening sentence my new forum signature (okay, forget "tempted"...I just did):
http://etfdailynews.com/2011/06/27/why- ... he-market/
I'm now strongly tempted to make its opening sentence my new forum signature (okay, forget "tempted"...I just did):
Here are three easy ways to beat the market: Deception, irrelevance and bad math.
- Sun Jun 26, 2011 7:37 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: 21 y/o new to investing
- Replies: 27
- Views: 1804
TwentyFour, welcome to the forum!
If you're new to investing, you should definitely start by reading a few books. Any of the "Start-up" selections listed on the Bogleheads Wiki would make for a fantastic start. Don't be in a hurry to get started--accumulating knowledge is most important for you at this point.
If you're new to investing, you should definitely start by reading a few books. Any of the "Start-up" selections listed on the Bogleheads Wiki would make for a fantastic start. Don't be in a hurry to get started--accumulating knowledge is most important for you at this point.
- Sun Jun 26, 2011 7:07 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: 21 year old, ready to pull the trigger with my AA?
- Replies: 16
- Views: 1890
I can't believe I'm the first one to say this, but congratulations on choosing a reasonable stock/bond split. Many of us 20-somethings are tempted to start out with 90% or even 100% in stocks, which isn't necessarily wrong, but is often decided upon without a full awareness of the risks and implications. You might eventually decide upon a different split once you know more about your risk tolerance and needs, but your plan is a great start. A couple thoughts: - Microcaps may or may not be a winner in the future. Frankly, nobody knows for sure. Some investors like overweighting this small portion of the market in an effort to achieve higher returns (albeit with higher risk), while others determine that a small value tilt is sufficient. Keep ...
- Sun Jun 26, 2011 6:39 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Why I would like to own a foreign bond fund
- Replies: 43
- Views: 4450
Great question, Nisiprius. This one weighed heavily on my mind when choosing how to balance U.S. and international stocks in my portfolio (I wound up going 70/30 instead of 50/50). I don't have a good answer for it, but I do have a related question of my own: Have investors historically been compensated for taking on currency risk?nisiprius wrote:why, exactly do you think you need currency diversification?
- Mon Jun 20, 2011 6:08 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: VFSVX or VSS for International Small Cap?
- Replies: 70
- Views: 21126
- Wed Jun 15, 2011 5:53 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Best way to get small value tilt?
- Replies: 10
- Views: 2568
- Wed Jun 15, 2011 5:40 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Shiller and stock valuations
- Replies: 10
- Views: 2117
- Mon Jun 13, 2011 7:01 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Anxiety Now versus Anxiety 2008
- Replies: 42
- Views: 6251
I'm not anxious at all. Of course, it's easy for me to say that because I just started saving last year* and have a very small (not even 5 digits yet) portfolio. If anything, I'd be more excited to see a downward spike in stock prices this year so I can buy on the cheap. (Warren Buffett's "hamburger" quiz from one of his essays comes to mind here.)
*DISCLAIMER: I wasn't here in 2008.
*DISCLAIMER: I wasn't here in 2008.
- Sat Jun 11, 2011 2:21 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: A video introduction to Bogleheads Investment Philosophy
- Replies: 27
- Views: 4322
Rick, these videos are fantastic! Thanks for putting the work into crafting them. I'll definitely have to pass this wiki page along to my fellow 20-somethings. It captures much of the advice I picked up from reading books, but with minimal time investment. =) Retiredjg's suggestion to help viewers with "investing vocabulary" is very good. I'd also suggest giving viewers a quick look at ETFs, and the benefits (and dangers) of using them as investment vehicles. I say this because, as a young investor who was looking to get started with a small amount of investment money and avoid mutual fund initial purchase requirements, it's a subject I came face-to-face with as soon as I got started. Also, I have one quick suggestion for video #8...