We love Carl Richards money doodles on the New York Times ‘Bucks’ blog, and noticed this older post, which is even more timely than ever, the topic of diversification. The angle – diversification isn’t all roses and candy canes. It’s hard to stick to because it involves giving up something (hitting home runs) in order to get something (never striking out).
Category: Markets
15
Nov
2013
Asset Class Scoreboard — October
No surprise here… U.S and World stocks remain on top for their performances so far throughout 2013… It’s pleasant to see Managed futures show a positive performance number in October, moving up a position on the scoreboard. {Disclaimer: past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results}. Here’s a look at the rest of the asset classes YTD.
12
Nov
2013
Did he just say that Diversification was broken?
We’ve been starting to see more and more of this lately…. People eschewing diversification for the big returns from being fully invested in the stock market. Columnist John Authers joins the list with an article, stating “Diversification looks bad when it turns out you don’t need it.” That’s a harmless enough statement in and of itself. A lifejacket looks silly when you don’t need it. But Authers calls out the post child of diversification, the Yale Endowment, and we think otherwise.
29
Oct
2013
NYSE Margin Debt: Spooky Scary or just another number?
The financial world is abuzz lately, attempting to decipher what exactly record levels of NYSE margin debt means for the future of the stock market rally. The numbers are a little scary at first glance, but is this a premonition for a surge in the market before a flop, or a repeat of one of the best bull markets in existence?
25
Oct
2013
The picture from Space that shows why Commodities are non-correlated to the Stock Market:
Right about now, you’re sitting there thinking: How on earth does this weather picture of the Wyoming & South Dakota have anything to do with stocks not being correlated to commodities? Well, the storm ended up killing tens of thousands of cattle in South Dakota because they hadn’t grown their winter coats yet. That came out to be 15 to 20% of cattle in South Dakota. But how does this prove stocks are non correlated to the stock market?
15
Oct
2013
YTD Asset Scoreboard
How are asset classes looking Year To Date? Both U.S. Stocks and World Stocks surged in September to remain at the top of the scoreboard. Meanwhile, Managed Futures continues to slip lower in the rankings, Elsewhere, buying and holding Commodities isn’t fairing well; with September’s numbers bringing it back into the red, while real estate (at least by our measure) remains down for the year.
03
Oct
2013
Chart of the Week: Does the Government Shutdown Cause a Market Scare?
With the a compromise on the government shutdown far from over, the question of everyone’s mind from and investment standpoint is, will the stock market take a hit? The natural conclusion could be that investors will pull out their money based on uncertainty of when a compromise will be made. But is that the truth or just the perception based on past shutdowns? Here’s a look at S&P 500 returns after every shutdown dating back to the 1970’s.
02
Oct
2013
Managed Futures Down -0.74% in September; time to Clap if you believe!
Managed Futures is running out of time to turn things around in 2013. Things were looking up halfway through September, but after the fed announcement not to taper, things went downhill from there. We’re starting to feel a little like Cathy Rigby in a Peter Pan play, urging people to ‘Clap if You Believe’ to resurrect good ol’ TinkerBell. But we don’t need the magic of children to resurrect managed futures. We just need some directional volatility to appear.
16
Sep
2013
YTD Asset Class Scoreboard:
We’ve expanded our monthly post on asset class scoreboard for August YTD, adding the monthly change, and a nice chart. Read ‘em and rejoice/weep, depending on your asset allocation:
12
Sep
2013
What Everybody Ought to Know About Managed Futures Asset Class Growth
The managed futures industry prides itself whenever assets under management is brought into the discussion. It’s grown exponentially over the years (past performance is not necessarily indicative to future results), but as we’ve pointed out before, that total AUM number includes the largest Hedge Fund in the world — Bridgewater — which we don’t consider to part of the group. This suggests that this AUM number can be quite deceiving, so we decided to recreate total AUM without the growth from Bridgewater, and managed futures’ largest program, Winton. Plus, a look at the managed futures quarterly growth numbers and why it might be just what managed futures is looking for.
