BlackRock

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Sep 07, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , ,

We hope everyone had a tremendous long weekend and is settling in for a busy autumn.  This week’s best blogs have no  connected theme, other than being effective and entertaining.

  1. American Century – This post makes a compelling case to add quant strategies into an asset allocation program; probably very helpful for an advisor already trying to make that case.
  2. Russell – This post includes a fantastic and simple graphic along with a few good points on how to engage clients.
  3. BlackRock – The author provides 3 reasons to consider last week’s manufacturing data as crucial to an advisor that has to prognosticate.

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Aug 22, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with ,

These three posts do an excellent job describing relevant situations and issues, post-Debt crisis (has anyone given the August 1st situation a good “-gate” name?).

  1. Russell – This post is humorous and depressing.  The author provides tangible examples of how US debt’s largesse.
  2. Russell – My favorite post of the week (a combination of Excel simulations and good graphics results in information I enjoy), the author provides a clear analysis of high expected risk versus low expected risk.  This analysis arms an FA with straight-forward statistical analysis.
  3. BlackRock – This post relates changes in gold prices to valuations in (gold) mining and consuming countries.  Simple enough; but I hadn’t considered this much and can imagine the value in this line of thinking for a FA discussing geographic diversification and explicit risks.

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Aug 15, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , ,

What a week?  To me, it seems like more than 7 days ago when the global markets reacted to Standard & Poor’s downgrade.  With that historic event, there was significant blogging.  That fact is significant – asset managers are able to ramp up volume and timely blog posts related to market conditions.  Even 1 year ago, that probably was not possible.

I have four excellent posts this week, with Vanguard taking two spots.  All relate to the downgrade and subsequent market volatility.

  1. Vanguard – This post provides a bit of long-term perspective (as expected from Vanguard).
  2. Vanguard – The post re-introduces shortfall risk at just the right time to consider that before listening to media pundits panic.
  3. BlackRock – A nice post, easy FA-to-client sharing, that discusses the week’s volatility and some historical perspective.
  4. Wells Fargo – Single best title of the week is “No, this is not 2008 all over again.”

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Aug 08, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , ,

We had to start this week’s best blogs with the best blog covering the S&P downgrade.  That blog belongs to Wells Fargo.  Additionally, there were two strong posts – one sharing many topics, the other clarifying just one.

  • Wells Fargo Advantage Funds – The author posts a bit about why downgrade and then covers consequences succinctly.
  • BlackRock – This post is the first in a monthly series covering the best of (obviously we have a soft spot) research and reading attributed to the iShares team.
  • Russell – What is the magic around quarter-end?  It seems like short-term bias at its worst and this post shares why quarter-end isn’t that important and how to discuss that with clients.

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Aug 01, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , ,

This week’s posts do not include debt ceiling discussions, though that is the most important topic of the moment.  They do include easily shared content that advisors may value sending on to clients.

  1. Vanguard – Possibly the strongest language I’ve ever read on this blog; the author clearly thinks buying gold is a bad idea.
  2. BlackRock – This post applies a common, short-term  institutional investment approach – cash equitization – to retail and individual investors.
  3. American Century  – This post is the final of a four-part series dedicated to inflation.  The author presents a straightforward case on how inflationary trends may change in years to come.  (Also, the author used commodity intensity – a great term.)