A recent poll by the Investor Protection Trust, a non-profit devoted to investor education, found that almost 60% of respondents — all professionals who work with the elderly — deal with elderly victims of investment fraud “quite often” or “somewhat often.”   The respondents included state securities regulators, financial planners, medical professionals, social workers, caregivers, and…
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Vanguard, the large mutual fund company, recently released a study that attempted to answer the following two questions: Do hedge funds consistently outperform standard market benchmarks? Do hedge funds represent “alternative” investments with good diversification potential relative to stocks & bonds? Vanguard’s conclusion:  “No” to both questions. Titled “A mixed bag: Performance of hedge fund…
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I mean that quite literally. Volatility causes a drag effect on investment returns. And although modern portfolio theory teaches that investments with expected higher returns generally have higher volatility, volatility itself always negatively impacts returns. This is not a theory but a mathematical fact that can easily be demonstrated. Let’s take a hypothetical example. You’ve…
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In today’s blog we explore the world of leveraged ETFs. For those of you who are not familiar with ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds), they are mutual funds that are bought and sold like stocks. The majority of ETFs are passively managed and based on some index, allowing the investor to purchase a single fund that represents…
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By now everyone has heard of Bernie Madoff and his $50 billion (with a ‘B!’) investment scam. Unfortunately, although his scam was by far the biggest ever uncovered, he was hardly alone. There’s Roberto Heckscher, who allegedly bilked $50 million from mostly elderly investors over a thirty-year period. And, more recently, Kenneth Starr, a New…
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