U.S. stock indices have been hitting new highs in recent weeks, prompting many to ask if the market has become “overpriced” and, if so, what can we do to mitigate risk? In order to answer these questions, there are several others that must be addressed first, including…
No, we haven’t decided to short the stock market — not by a long-shot! — but we have decided to shorten the average maturity of our bond holdings. We’re doing this by swapping all of the DFA 5-Year Global Bond portfolio (DFGBX) into the DFA…
We’ve spent the past two decades discussing with our clients the insights we’ve gained from studying the work of Eugene Fama, University of Chicago professor and one of the fathers of Modern Portfolio Theory. Over that time, we frequently found ourselves referring to him as a “future…
The government has now been “shut down” for 11 days and we face the further threat of a default if Congress fails to raise the U.S. debt limit within a week. While the former is painful, ever more so the longer it lasts, the latter would be truly…
In a recent Barron’s article titled, “Where the Smart Money is Headed,” reporter Beverly Goodman highlights mutual fund manager Dimensional Fund Advisors’ success in attracting a growing number of financial advisors who seek to invest their clients’ money in a more “evidence-based” fashion. The attraction…
We made a few changes to our portfolios this week that we thought we’d share. These adjustments are technical in nature and constitute fine-tuning more than anything else. Bond Allocation Updates As we discussed last month (Managing Risk When Rebalancing Into Bonds), we believe that…
Sometimes bigger is better. Bigger paycheck. Bigger responsibilities. Bigger vacation. At Yeske Buie, we talk about having Live Big® goals, which are about having a bigger vision for how you’re going to live your life. When it comes to investing, however, the rules are different. When…
We haven’t failed to notice the stock market declines of the past few days, universally attributed to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s suggestion that the end of extraordinary Federal Reserve action to boost the economy may be in sight. We think this reaction, if indeed it…
It’s been hard to miss the impressive run up in stock prices over the past 12 months – the Dow Jones Industrial Average, for example, gained 22% in the year ended May 31 – and for some, that creates a conundrum. Writing in the New…