A Brief History of the Index Fund
On the 40th anniversary[1] of the launch of the First Index Investment Trust (now the Vanguard 500 Index Fund), it is interesting to note how the original premise of index
September 8, 2016
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Using the Fama/French Five Factor Model to Assess Actively Managed Fund Performance
A recent study conducted by Dimensional Fund Advisors assessed the performance of actively managed mutual funds by comparing fund performance to the performance predicted by the Fama/French five factor model.
August 11, 2016
Investor (Mis)behavior
A well-written recent New York Times article seeks to elucidate the causes of investor (mis)behavior through recent research into behavioral finance. In the article, the author, Gary Belsky, details five
March 31, 2016
Dangerous Investment Advice
A recent New York Times article titled “How Much of Your Nest Egg to Put Into Stocks? All of It” makes an unusual argument that investors should invest all or
February 17, 2016
A World Without Stock Picking Skill – Revisited
In a follow up to an S&P Dow Jones Indices Study from the summer 2014 “Does Past Performance Matter? The Persistence Scorecard”, a New York Times article takes a look
March 16, 2015
A Good Time to Review Investor Biases
Investors (all of us) are hard-wired to make poor investment decisions. Among other biases, we become over-confident when markets rise and assume the worst will continue when markets fall. We
March 2, 2015