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How much passive investing is too much?
Warnings that index funds have broken the stock market all imply a threshold: a share of the market at which price discovery fails. Nobody making the argument names it. Owen Lamont, writing in the Financial Analysts Journal, argues that no such number exists short of complete passive ownership, and that what actually determines whether prices stay informative is who is left doing the trading. His case, the strongest peer-reviewed research against it, and what the performance

Robin Powell
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Why active managers face a tough end to the year
We often hear from active fund managers that we're entering a period when stockpickers will shine. We rarely hear them admit that their...

Robin Powell
Sep 22, 20212 min read


Paying attention to "online buzz" harms returns — research
By LARRY SWEDROE In his 1998 paper, Do Investors Trade Too Much? (the answer was yes for retail clients of discount brokerage firms),...

Robin Powell
Sep 21, 20213 min read


Planning for old age: stop putting it off
Robin writes: Like most people, I don't like to dwell on growing old. But two recent events in my life have forced me to think about it —...

Robin Powell
Sep 20, 20212 min read


The index effect: how serious is it?
Critics of indexing have often pointed to the index effect as an example of how passive investing distorts market pricing. But detailed...

Robin Powell
Sep 18, 20212 min read


What does salience theory tell us about stock returns?
By LARRY SWEDROE While traditional asset pricing theory assumes investors to be “economically rational” and to use all available...

Robin Powell
Sep 17, 20215 min read


Why do councils waste so much money on pensions?
Britain’s cash-strapped local councils are struggling to keep libraries open and pot-holes filled. So why are they overpaying by hundreds...

Robin Powell
Sep 16, 20212 min read


Do institutional asset managers possess skill?
By LARRY SWEDROE Since 2002 S&P Dow Jones Indices has published its S&P Indices Versus Active ( SPIVA ) Scorecard, which compares the...

Robin Powell
Sep 14, 20216 min read


Don’t let your investments go the way of the CD
Thematic investing might sound appealing, but beware of investing in headlines rather than for meeting your goals.

Robin Powell
Sep 13, 20213 min read


Reviewers wanted for my new book
Robin writes: I’ve co-written a book with the highly respected financial blogger and author Ben Carlson about investing. It’s called...

Robin Powell
Sep 11, 20212 min read


Leveraged ETFs: another product for the junk pile
By LARRY SWEDROE The use of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has exploded, to the benefit of investors. They benefit from the structure of...

Robin Powell
Sep 10, 20214 min read


Where will the next shock come from?
It’s a fact of life that economic shocks are never too far away. Yes, we’re still recovering from the last one — the COVID-19 pandemic....

Robin Powell
Sep 9, 20215 min read


The value of a sense of security
Welcome to the latest in our series on the reasons why people should consider paying for professional financial advice. In Maslow’s...

Robin Powell
Sep 8, 20213 min read


Are Dimensional funds worth the extra cost?
There's a big difference in cost between funds — and that includes passive, or broadly passive, funds. Dimensional funds, for example,...

Robin Powell
Sep 7, 20215 min read


There's gold in green
If there is one undeniable trend in finance, it has been the growing interest in green, or sustainable, investing. The focus on...

Robin Powell
Sep 6, 20214 min read


Most stocks are duds (yes, you read that right)
By LARRY SWEDROE Highlighting the riskiness of individual stock selection, recent research has demonstrated that around the globe the...

Robin Powell
Sep 3, 20216 min read


Don't rush into buying a holiday home
Most of us us have dreamed at some stage of owning a holiday home. Around half a million UK households already do — and the number is...

Robin Powell
Sep 2, 20212 min read


Greenwashing: How widespread is it?
ESG investing has grown hugely in recent years. But a lack of consistency in product labelling and disclosure has raised investor fears...

Robin Powell
Sep 1, 202112 min read


A red tide of SPAC returns
By LARRY SWEDROE My May 7, 2021, Evidence-Based Investor article, Spac or Spam?, warned investors about investing in special-purpose...

Robin Powell
Aug 31, 20212 min read


Arif Naqvi: fraudster or philanthropist?
Is Arif Naqvi an amoral conman who managed to defraud the world’s financial and corporate elite, or a well-meaning, if naïve,...

Robin Powell
Aug 31, 20213 min read


Is Australia's affordable advice dream fading?
Assurances by ASIC, Australia’s financial regulator, that it's seeking to make financial advice more accessible and affordable for...

Robin Powell
Aug 30, 20212 min read
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