SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND
Hard work.
I’m not a fan of actively managed funds. I would never say never use them, but the evidence is overwhelming and categorical that, almost invariably, your net returns will be bigger if you don’t. The average active investor must expect to lose, relative to the average passive investor.
I realise, though, that some people, for whatever reason, will want to dabble in active investing. Even Jack Bogle has suggested that those who can’t help themselves might want to set aside 5% of their portfolio as “funny money”, to invest in whatever they fancy.
For me, if you absolutely insist on buying an active fund, you should at least go about it in an evidence-based way.
Other posts you may have missed..
Which of these funds would you choose?
No one said it was going to be easy
In which countries do fund managers charge the highest fees?
Which countries have the best (or least incompetent) fund managers?
Even by their standards, market forecasters are having a mare
New research highlights the self-serving nature of the fund industry
Investor behaviour..
Plenty has been written on this subject in recent days, understandably given the current market turbulence. Here are some of my favourite articles:
The agony of high returns (Morgan Housel)
Are you a secret market timer? (Mitchell Tuchman)
Keep politics out of your investing strategy (Barry Ritholtz)
Robos won’t stop investors behaving badly (Tim Richards)
Why investors get caught up in market panics (Cass Sunstein)
Also worth reading..
A quick guide to asset classes (Monevator)
The mystery of vanishing premiums (Larry Swedroe)
What exactly is good financial advice? (Mark Hebner)
Do strong returns follow strong returns? (Michael Batnick)
The wonders of dollar-/ pound-cost averaging (Eric Nelson)
What is short-termism and why it’s bad for alpha? (Jason Voss)
Three characteristics of a successful investment firm (Ben Carlson)
How to manage risk when the market owes you nothing (Ben Carlson)
OK, EMH is open to debate, but you can’t argue with CMH (Ben Johnson)
Wall Street wants to lure you into a game only it is likely to win (Dan Solin)
Are female hedge fund managers any better than men? Apparently not (Paul Clarke)
A shout-out for Robert Seawright..
If you don’t yet follow Robert Seawright’s excellent blog Above the Market, you ought to. Robert is an adviser based in San Diego and his blog provides valuable insight for investors and advisers alike. Here are three of his best recent posts:
The fund industry preys on our short-term thinking
Adviser marketing..
I’ve just written a couple of articles on this subject which I hope will be of use to advisory firms:
Want to be on Page 1 of Google? You have two options
Content marketing: DIY or outsource?
If you are considering outsourcing all or part of your content marketing, you might be interested in my adviser video blogs. These broadcast-quality videos are intended to help evidence-based advisers to attract, retain and educate clients. The videos are for the exclusive use of advisory firms — they don’t appear on The Evidence-Based Investor — and they carry the subscriber’s branding, contact details and a call to action if required. We also plan to start offering print (i.e. text-only) blogs in the near future.
Interested? Watch this video:
Giving investors the full picture
Finally.. Can you help?
I’m going to be focussing a fair bit this year on the value of good financial advice — and also the damage caused by poor advice. Have you had some bad advice you would be willing to talk about on camera? Perhaps you’re an adviser yourself, and you know of someone who would be happy to tell their story? If so, my colleague Christina Waider would love to hear from you: christina@regismedia.com, Tel. 0121 285 2585.
Robin is a journalist and campaigner for positive change in global investing. He runs Regis Media, a niche provider of content marketing for financial advice firms with an evidence-based investment philosophy. He also works as a consultant to other disruptive firms in the investing sector.
