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Worth Considering: Three performance problems with most mutual funds
For all their virtues, mutual funds have some serious flaws. To their credit, mutual funds can provide things that most investors desire, things like broad diversification, transparent holdings, good liquidity and easy trading. Unfortunately, most mutual also have serious performance flaws. They underperform. The most serious and often discussed problem is that most mutual funds […]
Worth Considering: Have ETFs made mutual funds obsolete?
In recent years, we have heard mutual funds characterized as outdated and inferior to the newer type of pooled investment known as exchange-traded funds or ETFs. Are they? ETFs are certainly newer and more innovative. New fund launches in recent years have overwhelmingly been ETFs as opposed to mutual funds. Mutual funds, by comparison, can […]
Worth Considering: The stock market isn’t what it used to be
Today’s U.S stock market is very different from the stock market of 40 or even 20 years ago. To start, the universe of publicly traded stocks has become much smaller. There are fewer listed stocks than in the past. The phenomenon is discussed in a report issued earlier this year by Credit Suisse, titled “The […]
Worth Considering: Benchmark your investment performance
Investors should compare their investment performance against an appropriate market benchmark. Let’s take a look at why and how to do it. Benchmarking refers to setting reasonable expectations for investment performance using broad market indices. Many investors will instinctively look at the performance of the S&P 500 Index or, worse, the Dow Jones Industrial Average […]
Worth Considering: Has the shift to passive index investing been overstated?
Investors are shifting away from actively managed funds and towards passively managed funds. The financial media have interpreted this as a “seismic” shift from active to passive investing, but they probably overstate, or perhaps they misunderstand, what is occurring. Lost in the discussion is a crucial distinction between using passive funds and using a passive […]
Worth Considering: A lesson from Buffett’s winning bet against hedge funds
Warren Buffett has won his 10-year bet against a group of hedge funds. The story of the bet is not widely known despite coverage by the financial press, but it holds a valuable lesson for investors. Here is the exact text of the bet: “Over a ten-year period commencing on January 1, 2008, and ending […]
Worth Considering: Take steps to avoid having abandoned investments
Adopting what is loosely referred to as a “buy-and-hold” approach to investing can make great sense for a long-term investor so long as it is properly understood and does not turn into “set-it-and-forget-it.” The “forget it” part can be problematic. Buy-and-hold investing really should be called “buy-and-manage.” Sound portfolio management includes tasks such as routinely […[...]
Worth Considering: The latest scoring by S&P Dow Jones on active fund managers
The latest SPIVA report by S&P Dow Jones offers a mix of old and new news about the performance of active investment managers. What’s new is that their scoring of performance for the first time extends over 15 years, a much longer time period over which to assess the performance of active managers. The old […]
Worth Considering: Understand different approaches to correctly measure your investment performance
The absence of a uniform standard for reporting investment performance presents a challenge for investors. As a rule, investment advisers are not required to report investment performance and, even if they do, there is no uniform standard for how the performance should be reported. In a recent article (“Correctly measuring your investment performance”) we discussed […]
Worth Considering: Correctly measuring your investment performance
Correctly measuring investment performance is a problem for many investors. The problem has two parts. First, many investors don’t even bother to measure their investment performance. Most brokerage account statements do not report the investment performance for the period in question. No investment return is reported for the month, quarter or year. It’s common for […]
Worth Considering: Market predictions as financial porn
Financial columnist Jane Bryant Quinn famously coined the phrase “financial porn” to describe much of the content produced by the financial press. She was referring to the stories and other items in the financial press designed to “tickle our prurient financial interest” as opposed to being in our long-term financial interest. Some financial porn is […]
Worth Considering: Revisiting the fear over rising rates and bond prices
The era of rising rates may be upon us, or not. Time will tell, but it’s clear at least that interest rates have been on the rise since the second half of 2016 and especially since the election. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose by about .60% since the election. It is instructive, therefore, […]
Case Digests
- Fourth Department – Negligent performance: Rosenthal v. Syracuse University, et al.
- Second Circuit – Visual Artists Rights Act: Kerson v. Vermont Law School Inc.
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – Former foreclosure referee: Opinion 22-157
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – College honorarium: Opinion 22-156
- Second Circuit – Reasonable accommodation: Tafolla v. Heilig
- Fourth Department – Labor Law: Primisch v. Peroxychem LLC
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – Judicial candidacy: Opinion 22-155
- Fourth Department – Defamation: Lavine v. Glavin
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – Law clerk: Opinion 22-154
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – Review of another judge’s actions: Opinion 22-153
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – Charitable contributions: Opinion 22-150
- Second Circuit – Class action settlement: Moses v. The New York Times Company
Law News
- Appeals court upholds conviction
- Federal lawsuit reinstated against jail officer over strip search, delayed release
- Hyzon to pay $25M penalty to settle alleged fraud charges by SEC
- NY appeals court reinstates lawsuit over contract to remove snow
- Fourth Department affirms $400K judgment in contract dispute
- Fourth Department affirms decision in NY property dispute
- Greenlight Networks selects Buffalo-based attorney as general counsel
- Barclay Damon hires attorney Matt Smith
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