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Category Archives: Modern Portfolio Theory


I Believe, But Help Me In My Unbelief — Dealing With Market Volatility

A man having a religious crisis of faith initially spoke the famous words of this blogs subject line. He was acknowledging that with tough decisions, there is a continuum, not a simple yes or no answer. You can have conviction, but circumstances come along that challenge it’s depth. Similarly with such market volatility in recent [...]

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How To Not Check Your Retirement Portfolio

There are different types of retirement investors and ultimately, different approaches to growing your money.  Some investors play the high stakes game of competing against the market itself. These investors have entered the largest poker tournament the world has to offer. And who has joined these gamblers at the table? Teams of the smartest minds, [...]

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The big drop – did you yawn or did you freak?

On May 6th of last week, the markets shocked the world with a never-seen-before event – a 1000-point drop in a mere sixteen short minutes. During those brief moments and the hours following, financial programs on TV and radio featured pundits whose heads were spinning while seeking to comprehend how 10% of the market’s value [...]

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If You Are An Index Investor, Where Does Explore Investing Fit In?

In this week’s Forbes column, Rick Ferri asserts that “partial indexing works for Wall Street, not investors”. In this penetrating article, Rick ruthlessly uncovers Wall Street’s agenda is selling indexing for efficient markets while directing clients towards highly priced actively managed mutual funds for “inefficient markets”. As Ferry states, “Welcome to ‘Core and Explore’, also [...]

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Tracking 9 ETF Portfolios – Surprise Winners and Losers So Far in 2008

The famous professors at Yale have proven that asset allocation accounts for 90% of a portfolio’s return and that stock picking and market timing account for less than 10%.   So what a great time to look at how different asset allocations are faring in this market! In 2008 it turns out that asset allocation decisions have [...]

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Barron's Online – 3 Ways Investors Ruin Their Nesteggs

by Karen Hube Monday, March 17, 2008 These are scary times for investors trying to shore up their retirement portfolios. Stocks’ values are down, inflation is ticking up and home prices are sliding. But as investors nervously eye all that, they may be overlooking the biggest threat of all: themselves. “How you react to negative [...]

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