Best Blogs of the Week

Best Blogs of the Week #243

Posted by Anu Heda on Aug 29, 2016, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , ,

Negative interest rates? It’s been in the news quite frequently, but the Blackrock post here explains the topic better than I’ve seen elsewhere. Along with that post, three others worth highlighting this week as we approach summer’s end.

BlackRock – How do negative interest rates work? – who would buy a negative yielding security? Obviously not investors looking for income. However, there are institutions like some insurance companies and banks who hold government bonds for specific reasons, such as to meet regulatory requirements. These investors need to hold bonds for safety, no matter what the yield is.

BlackRock – Warming up to emerging markets – Within EM equities we prefer countries showing economic improvement or having clear reform catalysts, including India and ASEAN countries.

Loomis Sayles – The Connected Consumer: 3 Key Themes – I believe the future of the automotive industry will be defined by the ‘connected car’ – vehicles as an extension of our lives.

Invesco – What will real estate’s new sector status mean for investors? – Potential benefits include increased visibility, a larger investor base and a reduction in long-term volatility. We will closely monitor the REIT market for relative value opportunities that may arise from index and ETF changes, essentially nonfundamental drivers of performance, over the short term.

Best Blogs of the Week #242

Posted by Anu Heda on Aug 22, 2016, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with

Russell – Year of the Comeback? Portfolio Diversifiers Rally in first half of 2016 – The last few years have been difficult from a return perspective, but commodities tend to run in cycles and this year’s strong start may be the beginning of a new, more positive cycle for the asset class. Even if not, it is very likely to expect that they will still deliver diversification benefits to the rest of the portfolio.

 

Via Russell Investments

Best Blogs of the Week #241

Posted by Anu Heda on Aug 10, 2016, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with ,

The industry’s blog rate continues to slow as the summer temperatures rise. This week had multiple posts on FinTech and we included the most interesting related post, from BlackRock. That along with an interesting examination of the broad U.S. equity market (Russell) round out our best posts.

BlackRock – The expanding role of technology in financial advice – The process will be far more dynamic and interactive. We’ll be sitting in the pockets of our clients, in their phones, and ready to answer questions, all day every day.

Russell – Go where most passive investors don’t: The “left over” 77% of the U.S. stock market – Russell Investments believes that U.S. equities (represented by Russell 1000® Index) are currently overvalued – and that’s been the case for some time.

via BNY Mellon

Best Blogs of the Week #242

Posted by Anu Heda on Aug 07, 2016, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , ,

Four interesting posts this week highlighted by a game theory discussion via William Blair.

Franklin Templeton – Spotlight on Brazil– Once political stability is restored, tackling much needed structural reforms should be a priority, in our view.

Van Eck – Quality Can Be Rewarding in Emerging Markets Bonds – Overall, investors who maintained exposure to investment grade emerging markets sovereign bonds, with an allocation to BB-rated bonds or 20%, would have earned 7.55% over the past ten years versus 7.83% on the broader emerging markets sovereign index, with lower volatility and higher risk-adjusted returns as measured by the Sharpe ratio.

Vanguard – Do ETFs make the value of the underlying securities more expensive?–  … strong or weak flows into certain ETFs or categories do not inflate or deflate prices any more than mutual fund flows or the collective purchases of individual investors into stocks like Apple or Facebook. Rather, ETFs reflect the valuation of the underlying securities they are composed of, which is driven by the collective wisdom of all market participants.

William Blair – Dimensions of Influence Drive Game Theory Analysis – What does this have to do with investing? Game theory provides a way for us to better organize and process the vast amount of information that affects global economies and markets.

the 5-factor spider graph; a Mike McLaughlin favorite

 

Best Blogs of the Week #240

Posted by Anu Heda on Aug 01, 2016, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with

Only a single post this week worth mentioning and more in format than content. American Century revisited macroeconomic themes in a straightforward manner. Revisiting themes or an outlook is done too irregularly. Yet, I think it’s a valuable way to tie thoughts together for an advisor seeking to insights over a medium or long-term.

American Century – Four Key Themes Revisited – This recalls our discussion of several issues ago about four key economic developments likely to influence large-cap growth stocks in the coming years. Here we revisit these themes in light of events so far in 2016, though we emphasize that our investment philosophy and security selection process remain unchanged.