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Category Archives: Active Versus Passive Investing


Preparing For Market Panic

“In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.” This quote from Benjamin Graham means that over a long period of time, investors will analyze companies’ financials, competitive strengths, and management and accurately “weigh” what a company is worth. But in the short run, [...]

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If You Can’t Beat It, Join It

We frequently write about the uncontested fact that most stock pickers, professional or amateurs, don’t consistently beat the market. We know that rock-star stock pickers like Peter Lynch in fact used to be able to outperform markets years ago. But global stock markets have changed dramatically over the last fifty years, making it nearly impossible [...]

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Should You Use Currencies to Diversify?

Whether it’s the ancient Greeks quipping about moderation in all things or a mom telling her kids to eat their vegetables and not just Otter Pops, diversification in life is broadly understood to be a wise principle. It’s especially true when it comes to investing. Asset allocation is often cited as principle number one, accounting [...]

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Are You Gambling or Investing?

Are you saving money to travel, buy things you want, help the charities and people you love, send kids to college, stop working, or just plain relax? If so, consult your favorite Wall Street broker, mutual fund, or become a stock picker yourself. Either way, within 20 years, say goodbye to 33 percent of your [...]

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How to Manage Your Investment Anxiety

As uncouth as it may be, worrying about one’s investments seems to be the order of the day. And it’s no wonder. As the markets careen to and fro, publications are replete with stories of advisors and Wall Street pros dumping their stocks in favor or bonds and cash as they scurry to the sidelines. [...]

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How to Invest for the Long Run

Well, we’re scared, but we ain’t shakin’ Kinda bent, but we ain’t breakin’ in the long run Ooh, I want to tell you, it’s a long run in the long run The Eagles, The Long Run The Eagles understood something about relationships that many investors have yet to learn about portfolio management. Success is measured [...]

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Why Most Market Forecasters Get it Wrong

Be it a football game, the weather, an election, or the future of Middle East uprisings, people want to know what will happen before it does. We want to know the future, and we actively seek out experts who can predict it. But facts show that in most pursuits where dynamic and multiple variables determine [...]

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Investment Secrets: How to Worry More and Make Less

We all love stories in which failure breeds success: Michael Jordan being cut from his high school basketball team, Thomas Edison being told by a teacher that he was too stupid to learn, Marilyn Monroe being dropped by 20th Century Fox for being unattractive and unable to act. Such inspirational stories grace the pages of [...]

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ETFs Keep Uncle Sam and Wall Street at Bay

You’ve got money to invest. But it seems that once you have a few bucks, everyone wants to put their hand in your pocket—and keep it there—forever! We’re not talking about your loser brother-in-law. We’re talking about real business partners who want big percentages of all your returns. In the last 80 years, stocks have [...]

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Herd Mentality – Are You Chewing the Cud?

So it appears that the Delphic oracles have emerged from the modern day temple of Apollo, that being Wall Street, to share their wisdom. What is their sage advice you may ask? Sell! Sell your stocks and hunker down in a more defensive position. The numbers are in – employment growth down, real estate down, [...]

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