Columbia Threadneedle

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Jan 08, 2014, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with ,

Happy new year. We hope the holidays were relaxing and delicious

In this week’s post, we did not include any year-end or forward-looking posts. Those posts provide a bit too much of the predictable. So this week we found two excellent posts that simplify complicated, important issues.

  • AllianceBernstein – This post makes a nice case for looking into Emerging Markets value stocks and that broad-based EM equity indexes may be tilted to high P/E stocks with limited upside. Interesting thought after the 2013 global bull market.
  • Columbia – This post explains the Volcker rule from creation to potential impact.

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Nov 11, 2013, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , , ,

After two consecutive one-post weeks, best blogs found a large set to share.

Municipal Bonds

No denying the importance of municipal bonds. I attended a media relations lunch event for one of our clients last week and multiple reporters touched on muni bonds. Here are three solid and slightly different views on the topic:

  1. American Century – post covers Puerto Rico’s future
  2. Columbia – post covers rising tax rate environment
  3. Invesco – post includes considerations for Q4

 … [read more]

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on May 28, 2013, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , ,

This week saw a tremendous uptick in blog quality (I added a 4th). And the plurality of posts were around Japan and the US Equity markets. There’s both demand for the topics and asset managers are not short of opinions/ideas there as well.

  • BlackRock – Matt Tucker takes the time to explain how bond indexes work, relative to the recent Apple offering. Pretty helpful for any FA that uses bond ETFs.
  • Columbia – This post provides the clearest Japanese economy breakdown with considerations.
  • Pioneer – I appreciate this post mostly because the second point counters most current industry thought leadership. While most preach avoiding the hunt for yield through global (aka risky) markets, the author provides some clarity on when taking that risk may be valuable.
  • Russell – Simple premise here: developed nations need infrastructure. If you agree, then this post walks through investing into that long-term need.

 

 

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Apr 08, 2013, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , ,

This week had a strong contingent of thought-provoking, investment blog posts. These were difficult to choose. The industry’s blog posts are much better today than 12 months ago.

  • Columbia – Duration is a critical topic for yield seekers. This post is helpful for an FA having that discussion.
  • Pioneer – This post does a nice job of starting the discussion on what’s’ next for Europe and how does that impact the American investor.
  • Vanguard – The ETF expense chart in this post is helpful.

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Mar 18, 2013, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , ,

This week’s best posts are plastered with great charts and tables. FAs (like all us) gravitate towards them to decide whether we should read this blog post. Additionally FAs can reference these graphs/charts easily in conversations.

  • Columbia – Well Zach Pandl (pdf) had us with his first sentence. The post provides insight on a difficult (and common) decision, when to start slowing investment in fixed income, especially government bonds.
  • Russell – This post explains a straightforward answer process to the question: how much 401(k) invest is right for me?
  • Russell – Any chart that shows returns by asset class is immediately helpful in making the case for a balanced asset allocation model.
  • Vanguard – No surprise that the moral of the story is low-cost and diversified investing. Still the post is effective in supporting that discussion for the thousands of Vanguard-producing FAs.