Index Funds
« Previous EntriesBill Miller vs. the S&P 500 Index
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009If I were to ask you which one performed better since 1986, would you tell me Bill Miller-managed Legg Mason Value Trust or the S&P 500 Index, which one would you pick?
If you picked Value Trust you’d be…
WRONG!
Much was made about the end of Bill Miller’s 15-year streak of beating the S&P 500 Index a [...]
A Look at S&P 500 Index Returns and Time Horizon
Wednesday, June 10th, 20092008 screwed everything up!
Take a look at the returns for the S&P 500 Index over the last 10, 20, 30 and 40 years:
The last ten years were pretty pathetic and have led to new “research” like this.
Anyway, to get an idea of just how bad 2008 was, I looked at the returns for the same [...]
The S&P 500 Hasn’t Fared Well During the New Millenium
Thursday, May 7th, 2009The New Millenium hasn’t been good for the S&P 500 Index. Take a look at the graphic below to see what I mean:
• Through April, there were 112 months during the New Millenium.
• Of those 112 months, 63 had positive total returns, while 49 of them were negative.
• The best monthly total return occured [...]
SmartMoney (or Maybe DumbMoney): Is the Index Fund Dead?
Sunday, April 12th, 2009Just got my May issue of SmartMoney. On page 15 of the magazine is an article titled, “Is the Index Fund Dead? With the S&P going nowhere for 10 years, some index investors look for other options.” (Sorry, there’s no link yet)
From the article:
It’s heresy to academics, and we can already hear the [...]
A Review (and GIVEAWAY) of “The NEW Coffeehouse Investor”
Thursday, April 9th, 2009I read and reviewed the predecessor to Bill Schultheis’ The New Coffeehouse Investor* a couple of years ago. I was impressed with the previous edition so I was excited when the publisher contacted me a couple of weeks ago and asked me if I would read and review the new edition.
I REALLY like this [...]
John Bogle’s Six Lessons for Investors
Thursday, January 8th, 2009John Bogle had an excellent opinion piece in today’s Wall Street Journal titled Six Lessons for Investors. His lessons (along with my commentary):
1. Beware of market forecasts, even by experts. – His point being that forecasts are nearly always optimistic and although sometimes they may be right, they are more often wrong.
2. [...]
AFM Reader: How Should I Go About Buying Stocks?
Saturday, October 11th, 2008This arrived in my inbox yesterday:
I was wondering what’s the best way to go about buying stocks? I have about $10,000 that I am willing to invest and right now during this melt down seems like a good time. I have never bought stocks before, do you have any good advice?
Well, since you [...]
A Quick Look at the Dow Jones Sector Indexes (It’s Not Good!)
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008For those who are interested, here’s a quick look at how the Dow Jones Sector Indexes performed during the month of September (total returns):
The average sector lost nearly 11% during the month of September alone. The worst-performing sector was the Basic Materials Index, which lost 22.5%. The best performing sector for the month [...]
Don’t Give up on Dollar-Cost Averaging!
Monday, July 21st, 2008At the time of this writing, Vanguard’s S&P 500 Index Fund (VFINX) is down 14.04% year-to-date (not including dividends). Where would you be had you dollar-cost averaged into VFINX during the year? To arrive at that answer I assumed a few things:
1. Invested $500 on the 1st and 15th of each month. [...]
Wise Advice From Mr. Bogle: Set it and Forget it
Monday, May 26th, 2008From today’s Houston Chronicle comes this advice from John Bogle:
John Bogle, founder of the nation’s second largest mutual fund company, dismisses many of products hawked these days by financial companies as largely self-serving. His advice for investors seems to square with one popular marketing pitch: Set it and forget it.
The phrase serves as a delightfully [...]