Main Page
|
Welcome
John Bogle
(1929 - 2019)
Forum postsWelcome to the Bogleheads® wiki, a collaborative undertaking by members of the Bogleheads Community. This wiki is a reference resource for investors. Bogleheads emphasize starting early, living below one's means, regular saving, broad diversification, and sticking to one's investment plan.
Getting started
For US investors:
- Getting started - Start here.
- Bogleheads® investment philosophy - Our investment principles.
- Bogleheads® investing start-up kit - A top-down approach to start investing.
- Investment policy statement - Identify your investment objectives and how you plan to meet them.
- Bogleheads® personal finance planning start-up kit - Other than investing, such as financial planning, insurance, and saving for college.
- Preparing for retirement - Steps you should take before retiring.
- Prioritizing investments - Choosing where to save your investing money, such as an employer's retirement plan or a savings account.
For non-US investors:
- Getting started for non-US investors - Start here.
- Bogleheads® investment philosophy for non-US investors - Our investment principles.
- Bogleheads® investing start-up kit for non-US investors - A top-down approach to start investing.
- Outline of non-US domiciles - Overview of topics specifically aimed at non-US investors.
Today's featured article
An index fund is a fund that pools investors capital for the purpose of investing in securities, typically a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF), that aims to replicate the movements of an index of a specific financial market.
A well-managed index fund provides investors with a simple way to access such advantages as low costs, improved tax efficiency, style consistency and reduced manager risk. Investors should be mindful that not all index funds are low cost and that some indexes can be exploited by active investors when the indexes periodically reconstitute.
The key measure for accessing an index fund's efficiency is how well it tracks its benchmark index. (more...)
This week in financial history
April 12:
- 1991 - The Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) was created as a joint-stock company on April 12, 1991. Source:WSE history
April 13:
- 1928 - Plans were announced for new and speedier stock ticker, capable of running at more than twice the speed of tickers then in use. (Source)
April 14:
- 1720 - The first major secondary stock offering took place, as the South Sea Co. reopened its subscription books in London, hoping to raise 2 million pounds sterling. The company raised half that amount by 10 o'clock in the morning, as mobs of eager buyers poured into the South Sea Co.s headquarters. With ladies pawning jewelry and farmers selling livestock to raise the cash to buy shares, the offering was oversubscribed by more than 10%. Its even possible to flip the shares for an 8% profit on the first day. Source: John Carswell, The South Sea Bubble (The Cresset Press, London, 1960), pp. 126, 132-133.
- 2000 - The NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) composite index fell more than 25 percent this week, trouncing the 19 percent fall that began Oct. 21, 1987, Black Monday. The sell-off gave the NASDAQ its biggest point loss of all time. The Dow tumbled more than 600 points, trouncing the previous record and triggering circuit breakers at the New York Stock Exchange. Source: Nasdaq, Dow take nosedive
April 15:
- 1954 - The deadline for filing income tax was changed from March 15 to April 15, starting in 1955. Source: U.S. Treasury 1900-Present
- 1998 - NYSE implements “circuit-breaker” rules, mandating trading halts when the market drops at least 10%. Source: Feature: This Day in Business History « The Houston Economics Club
April 16:
- 1991 - The Warsaw Stock Exchange held its first trading session with five listed companies, all of which were formerly State-owned companies that had been privatized. Source: Warsaw Stock Exchange - History
April 17:
- 1930 - The stock market hit its post-Crash high, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 294.07, a 48% increase in the five months since the Crash bottomed on November 13, 1929. Over the coming two years, however, the Dow will lose another 85.99% of its value, bottoming at 41.22 on July 8, 1932. Source: Barrie A. Wigmore, The Crash and Its Aftermath: A History of Securities Markets in the United States, 1929-1933 (Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, and London, 1985), p. 137.
- 1991 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average topped 3000 points for the first time. Source: Closing milestones of the Dow Jones Industrial Average
April 18:
Can't find what you're looking for?
Use the wiki's Search box. Or, start from a top-level overview using Site navigation. A complete article list is also available.
You can search or register to ask a question on the Bogleheads forum, or browse recent posts from the Bogleheads' home page or our blog. We're also on Facebook.
Our Canadian sister site, Financial Wisdom Forum, and its finiki, the Canadian financial wiki has a similar focus, many like-minded members, and may be of interest as well.
We also have a sister site in Spain, Bogleheads® España (en español).Contributing to the wiki
Anyone can read the wiki. If you would like to edit it, you must first join the Bogleheads forum. Once you've joined, send a private message requesting access, and you can then become an editor. Information on editing the wiki is available on the left sidebar of every wiki page. Suggestions are welcome by posting in Suggestions for the Wiki.
If you see content in need of improvement, or a new page on a topic not yet covered, consider becoming an editor so that you can contribute to the site. If you find yourself writing a reply to a forum question that's been discussed a number of times before, consider creating a wiki page with the answer. Then you and others can reply to subsequent questions on that topic with a link and a quote of your text. That way, the Bogleheads Community both preserves our knowledge base and makes it more accessible, particularly to those using search engines.