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All Shooting Stars Burn Out Eventually

May 12, 2021 By Jeremy Jones, CFA

In The Wall Street Journal, Spencer Jakab cautions investors against joining "star managers," who have already had their biggest gains. He uses ARK Invest's Cathie Wood as an example. He writes: Just as unusual as ARK Invest’s marketing has been its performance, growing its assets more quickly than any active exchange-traded fund firm in history. Cathie Wood’s firm went from about $3.5 billion under management across several funds shortly before the pandemic struck to hit the $50 billion mark a year later. But that rapid growth has come back to bite her investors. Even after a major tumble … [Read more...]

Why Service Is King in 1(800)# Teenage Wasteland

April 14, 2021 By E.J. Smith

Service is King, even today when many financial firms treat it like the Joker. Try getting a copy of your 1099, or figuring out a K-1. What you’re faced with is, perhaps, hours in a phone queue maze with no satisfactory answer. Some of these firms, not Fidelity, are too big and end up failing simple tasks. Other’s are left offering funds that are too big (like some of Vanguard’s) and then fail to meet the needs of investors (such as ESG funds from BlackRock and others) while trying to save the world. All you want is what you asked for, is that so hard? For some, in a word, yes. Action Line: … [Read more...]

Did the Floodgates for Actively Managed ETFs Just Open?

March 31, 2021 By Jeremy Jones, CFA

Recently a mutual fund, for the first time, successfully became an ETF. Is this the harbinger of a flood of new actively managed ETFs hitting the market as other mutual funds follow suit? Claire Ballentine reports for Bloomberg: A small mutual-fund provider has made history by becoming the first to formally change its products into exchange-traded funds. Guinness Atkinson Funds announced on Monday that it had converted two of its mutual funds into the SmartETFs Dividend Builder (ticker DIVS) and SmartETFs Asia Pacific Dividend Builder (ADIV). The conversion was a non-taxable event for … [Read more...]

Are You Investing To Stop Climate Change, or To Generate Income?

March 11, 2021 By E.J. Smith

You may have made many investment decisions in your life, but did you ever invest in a company to prevent climate change or to achieve social justice? That's what ESG (environmental, social, and governance-oriented) funds want you to do. In fact, there are activist shareholders who attempt to force corporate boards to include ESG goals in their missions. The SEC under the Trump administration gave some level of cover to corporate boards focused on performing their fiduciary duties to shareholders. The Biden administration may do the exact opposite, emboldening activist shareholders who want … [Read more...]

Vanguard Wellesley (VWINX) vs. Wellington (VWELX): Which Fund is Best?

February 25, 2021 By E.J. Smith

The Vanguard Wellesley (VWINX) and Wellington (VWELX) funds are both balanced mutual funds managed by the Wellington Management company. Wellington and Wellesley both invest in dividend-paying stocks as well as bonds, but there are some crucial differences. We will explain the similarities and differences between Vanguard Wellesley and Wellington to help you decide which fund, if either, works best for you. Richard C. Young an Authority on Vanguard Wellesley & Wellington Young Research has followed both Wellesley and Wellington for over four decades. We aren’t aware of any … [Read more...]

Regulators Call for More Money Market Fund Reform

December 23, 2020 By Jeremy Jones, CFA

Financial regulators are finally admitting money market reforms put in place during the last crisis are insufficient to prevent runs on America’s non-Treasury money market funds. Part of the problem here is that investors bail at the first whiff of trouble. There just isn’t enough return offered in money markets to take the risk. Ultra-low interest rates are partly to blame for that. Reforms are likely to continue to fail unless the government requires an FDIC insurance guarantee for money funds. That’s a bad idea if you favor free markets, but less bad than the alternative. What’s the … [Read more...]

Is Your ESG Fund Betting on the Next Big Short Target?

October 27, 2020 By Jeremy Jones, CFA

At the Financial Times, Billy Nauman examines ESG funds and their potential as victims of short-sellers. He writes: Whenever big money starts flowing into a hot new sector, it seems inevitable that companies that list on the stock market fall short of hype and hope around them. One of the market’s current hottest areas is environmental, social and governance investing. And, like the cryptocurrency boom and cannabis stock surge, the flood of money has been followed closely by allegations of fraud. These claims are often made by activist investors and short-sellers, who bet on the fall in … [Read more...]

Where Money Goes to Die

October 16, 2020 By E.J. Smith

As you’ve seen in this table, the amount of money in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index family is enormous. It’s where money goes to die, and is perhaps one of the greatest bubbles no one sees. You have advisors recommending this index approach until they’re blue in the face. They give presentations to the investment committee of pensions, foundations, LLCs, hedge funds, you name it, and say, “Well Bob, with this fund, you have a slice of the stock market.” A good follow-up question is how much of the total is dependent on just ten stocks? Action Line: Lots of careers are … [Read more...]

The Curse of the Benchmarks

October 15, 2020 By Jeremy Jones, CFA

At the Financial Times, Paul Woolley explains a troubling phenomenon in investing that he calls “the curse of the benchmarks.” He writes: All investing boils down to a choice of two distinct strategies implemented in a variety of ways. One is buying securities that are priced cheaply in relation to their expected future cash flows, which is what everyone assumes is done with their savings. Bizarrely, the other is almost the exact opposite: buying securities whose prices have recently been on the rise or that have already gone up most, both without reference to fundamental value. Another … [Read more...]

Why Vanguard is too Big: Part VI

October 8, 2020 By E.J. Smith

Do you know what career risk means? Of course, you do. It means you could lose your job. Well, in the investment world of pensions, mutual funds, and ETFs, career risk means you might lose your job if you underperform an index. That’s why so many pensions, foundations, and the like are piling into the Jabba the Hutt funds, like Vanguard’s Total Stock Market Index. If they lose a pile of money, at least they can say, “Hey, so did everyone else. We performed just like the market did”. You’ve read here, here, here, here, and here about my concerns with Vanguard being too big. That goes for all … [Read more...]

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