8 Dec 2014

Jim Cramer Gets Burned in Lightening Round

I love Wall Street soap operas. I’ve written about Bill Gross’ departure from PIMCO two times (here and here) and, for me, it’s the gift that keeps on giving. There was another long exposé on Bloomberg yesterday but I decided not to write about it hoping that you aren’t afflicted by the schadenfreude that sometimes gets me. Yesterday, it was reported that an activist investor is going after Jim Cramer,… Read More

By David Ott Tags: ,
4 Dec 2014

Perpetual Income

The question about when interest rates will rise has been a big question around here for several years, and we still don’t know. Most investors are worried about rising interest rates and most people, including me, have been very surprised this year to see the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note fall from 3.00 percent to 2.29 percent, as of yesterday. The direction of interest rates matters when you… Read More

By David Ott Tags: , ,
13 Nov 2014

Financial Advisor Magazine Highlights Acropolis 401(k)s

Hopefully, The Department and Labor (DOL) and Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) will continue to move towards placing employees first in company 401(k) plans.  One step they are considering in raising the legal bar on the advisors to 401(k)s.  Acropolis fully supports a stronger fiduciary standard, the lowering of plan fees, and encouraging more effective employee education, as profiled in Financial Advisor Magazine article below. Click here to read the… Read More

By David Ott Tags: , ,
12 Nov 2014

Finding Meaning in the Morningstar Star System

The Morningstar Star system is, by far, the most popular way for individual investors to assess a mutual fund or exchange traded fund (ETF). While the system is fairly straightforward in theory, it can lead to odd, and often confusing results. As always, it pays to understand how the system works to understand what the stars are telling you. The case in point is the Vanguard Total Bond Market funds… Read More

By David Ott Tags: , , ,
2 Oct 2014

Patience is a Virtue

Every investment strategy requires patience. Let’s say, for example, that you believe, as we do, that small cap stocks tend to outperform large cap stocks over time. You’ve got the empirical data going back to 1926 that clearly shows, with statistical significance, that small stocks outperform large ones. Small stocks are more volatile than large stocks, but that fits elegantly with the theory that to earn a higher return, you… Read More

By David Ott Tags: , ,
29 Sep 2014

Bill Gross, Meet Derek Jeter

When I first saw the headline on CNBC that Bill Gross was leaving PIMCO, I didn’t pay close attention because I assumed it was one of those headlines that didn’t have any facts but asks a provocative question, like ‘Is Bill Gross Leaving PIMCO?’ It’s almost an absurd question, but that’s exactly what happened on Friday after a series of bad public stumbles, some of which I’ve chronicled already (click… Read More

By David Ott Tags: ,
9 Sep 2014

Value in the Modern World

I like old-timers. They have terrific knowledge, perspective and, above all, experience. I love hearing the war stories about how decisions were made, what succeeded and what failed and the people who were in the room. Over the weekend, I watched a rerun of WealthTrack on YouTube, a PBS show that features a reporter named Consuelo Mack interviewing many of the titans of finance. Most of them are from what… Read More

By David Ott Tags: ,
21 Jul 2014

Money and Happiness

Any sensible person knows that you have to save money for the future. At the very least, you need to have money set aside for the so-called ‘rainy-day.’  If you don’t have a cushion, the consequence of a negative surprise can be a lot worse than if you have an emergency fund set aside. Do money and happiness go together?  Can saving actually make you happier?  I wouldn’t have thought… Read More

By David Ott Tags: , , ,
9 Jun 2014

Cash is Trash

A recent report by State Street’s Center for Applied Research recently found that individual investors favor cash the world over.  In the US, investors keep 36 percent of their investible assets in cash.  Globally, that’s a little less than average.

By David Ott Tags: ,
14 May 2014

Dogs of the Dow

The first investment strategy that I can remember hearing about is the Dogs of the Dow strategy. One of my parent’s friends, who knew I was interested in stocks back in high school, told me one of the ‘secrets’ to beating the market. The strategy is fairly simply: start with the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and sort them by their dividend yield.  Buy the 10… Read More

By David Ott Tags: , ,