Index Funds
« Previous EntriesComparing the Monthly Performance of Three S&P 500 ETFs
Wednesday, September 26th, 2012I thought it might be interesting to look at the monthly performance of three different exchange-traded funds that track the S&P 500 Index (iShares S&P 500 Index ETF (IVV), SPDR S&P 500 Index ETF (SPY), and Vanguard S&P 500 Index ETF (VOO)). The newest ETF of the bunch is Vanguard’s VOO, which has monthly return [...]
John Bogle: Invest in Index Funds and Diversify…
Monday, August 20th, 2012I read this NY Times article about John Bogle over the weekend. Pretty good piece. I found this part of the article interesting: …he says, long-term investors must hold stocks, because risky as the market may be, it is still likely to produce better returns than the alternatives. “Wise investors won’t try to outsmart the [...]
Annual Review of the AFM iShares Retirement Portfolio
Wednesday, April 18th, 2012I have been tracking a retirement portfolio for several years here at AFM. It’s split 30/20/50 between domestic stocks, international stocks, and fixed income, respectively. The domestic stock portion is invested evenly in the 10 sector exchange-traded funds that make up the Dow Jones Total Market Index. The international stock portion was invested in the [...]
Interesting Ways to Look at Return and Volatility 1991 – 2011
Monday, March 26th, 2012How’s that for a catchy title? I have monthly total returns for the S&P 500 (S&P 90 prior to February 1957) going all the way back to January 1926. However, I only have the Barclay’s Aggregate Bond Index (formerly known as the Lehman Aggregate Bond Index) going back to January 1991. Anyhow… I thought it [...]
Year to Date Total Returns for S&P 500 and Other Benchmarks (July 2011)
Saturday, July 30th, 2011Well, another month goes into the history books. As you can see from the graphic I have put together (click on the graphic below to bring up a PDF version), it wasn’t a very good month. This most likely had to do with the looming debt ceiling deadline. July marked the third month in a [...]
Year to Date Total Returns for S&P 500 and Other Benchmarks (June 2011)
Friday, July 1st, 2011Here are the total returns for the first six months of 2011 for the S&P 500, S&P Midcap 400, S&P Smallcap 600, MSCI EAFE, MSCI ACWI ex US, Barclay’s Aggregate Bond Index, Crude Oil, and Gold. As you can see, June wasn’t a good month (click on the graphic to view a PDF version). NOTE: [...]
Financial Planning Magazine: Indexing Works
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011Good article: The Big Idea – Indexing Works …according to Vanguard: In four out of seven bear markets since January 1973, the Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market Index beat the average actively managed fund. The two bears in which many funds did better than the index were both in the 1980s. This graphic included [...]
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