eBusiness

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Oct 19, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , ,

This week’s posts include a newcomer, AllianceBernstein, as well nicely crafted post written mostly in bullets.

  • Wells Fargo – This post presents an interesting view on investing in China. Specifically, the author contrasts the banking sector versus consumer sector.
  • AllianceBernstein – This post covers covers common ground: dollar-cost averaging or not.  It provides a nice idea of what cost an investor may expect with dollar-cost averaging in the event a rapid bull market.
  • American Century – A succinct bullet-based post that provides some opinions from American Century on big market issues such as inflation and interest rates.

 

A Picture is Worth 978 Words

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Oct 14, 2011, in Thoughts , tagged with , ,

Two weeks ago we did a presentation for a client on infographics – what they are, how they can be used, the process for creating them, and some strong examples from asset management. With that discussion fresh in my mind, I read Richard Thaler’s article from last Saturday’s New York Times.

Thaler, whose work I really admire, writes about how the government, companies, and individuals are paralyzed by the current financial climate and holding off on investments they should make now. In other words, those that control the purse strings have become proverbial deer-in-the-headlights.

It’s a solid argument, and Thaler takes 978 words to make it. As I finished the article, I immediately thought of an interactive infographic from John Hancock Funds’ Web site.

This shows the beauty of even a simple infographic. Though Hancock’s message differs from Thaler’s – the focus is on people’s willingness to invest in securities based on recent market performance – they tell a similar story with a visual and 10% of the word count.

The natural communication approach for most asset managers involves charts and tables surrounded by paragraphs of text. This example shows that better options are out there.

Vanguard Making Use of Old Content

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Oct 12, 2011, in Thoughts , tagged with , , ,

This is outstanding:

Vanguard references an article it first published in 2009.

The reason? Vanguard re-used a solid piece of content it initially produced almost two years ago.

In the constant battle to create more and more new content, firms too often forget that they’ve produced tons of great material in the past. Most of it is buried, never to see the light of day. Often this is because firms simply don’t have good organizational memory on what they’ve previously created.

But there is definitely ongoing value in certain less-than-new pieces. It’s good for clients and easy for the firm. Nice job here by Vanguard.

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Oct 11, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , ,

Apologies for the one-day delay. The tremendous weekend weather (in New York) took precedence over this blog.  Though we’re not tracking precisely, the volume of industry blogs is increasing.  More firms are blogging and the firms with established blogs are increasing frequency. Both are encouraging.  This week’s best include three different topics – all highly relevant for advisors fielding calls.

  1. BlackRock – This post shares a few fresh perspectives on gold.  From previous research engagements, I know advisors sometimes get “benchmarked” against gold.  While totally unfair, you can hear an investor saying “why don’t I just invest in gold?”
  2. Russell – This post provides a succinct job of heading off conversations that compare the US economy with Japan’s economy and aging population.
  3. Vanguard – This post provides a succinct job of comparing current economic situations in the US and China.

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Sep 26, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , ,

For the first time, we didn’t find three blogs to present.  We did read two posts that presented important insights.  Insights an FA could pick-up and use immediately.

Virtus – Joe Terranova presents a rational case for his current concerns in US equities.  It’s digestible and probably worth consideration as skittish investors continue to press their FAs for ways to understand if the market will swing upwards.

BlackRock – We are proponents of the dueling opinions format.  Matt Tucker and Russ Koesterich sound off on the Federal Reserves “twist” strategy.  It’s succinct, compelling and shows BlackRock isn’t afraid to showcase different opinions.