Best Blogs of the Week
Two blogs made this week’s round-up – one for instruction and the other for helpful information.
Russell
Best Blogs of the Week
Three posts this week that do not touch on QE3 since Mike addressed the topic nicely on Friday.
- Columbia – Award for the best blog title of the week. I won’t give it away: post.
- Putnam – This post provides a rare non-investing post. The author reminds FAs of difference succession planning options available to them. For any FA with entrepreneurial clients, this is a critical topic.
- Russell – This post provides advisors with survey data about advisors and their opinions on global investing.
How Did Asset Managers Respond to QE3?
on Sep 14, 2012,
in Thoughts
, tagged with Direxion, iShares, Janus, OppenheimerFunds, PIMCO, QE3, Russell, Twitter, Vanguard, Virtus
It’s almost old news by now. Yesterday, the Fed announced QE3 and ongoing purchases of mortgage-backed securities at the rate of $40B per month. So, how did asset managers respond?
Using Twitter as an (incomplete) proxy for firms’ responses, here’s the short, chronological list of activity as of 5pm on the day of the news:
- Janus gives a 140-character critique of the Fed. No further analysis as of yet, but a responsive opinion.
- Direxion tweets some specifics to traders.
- iShares establishes its point-of-view by calling the buying program “aggressive” and links to a news story from Reuters.
- Virtus ties the Fed’s move to senior floating rate debt and links to an ultra-concise blog post.
- In the #AskMcNabb Twitter Q&A, Vanguard’s Bill McNabb notes that he is not favor of QE3 due to excessive long-term risks. (Note that the questioner also asked how much Mr. McNabb can bench press. Unfortunately, no insight was given.)
- PIMCO links to Mohamed El-Erian’s thoughts on FT.com. Bonus points for being the first long-form response; a slight ding for requiring an extra click to get to the content.
That is six responses within about six hours. As a sidebar, it’s interesting that none of the content referenced any of trending conversations on Twitter (#QE3, #Fed, etc.). Per the screen capture below, a search showed Oppenheimer and Russell taking advantage of Twitter’s social features. But these were from before the Fed’s announcement.
I don’t know exactly what I expected when I started to look, but overall I’d characterize the volume as a bit disappointing. The biggest financial news of the week warranted a bigger, faster response. Firms know that; it’s still a matter of getting the process ironed out.
Best Blogs of the Week
Only two posts made the grade this week, for very different reasons.
- Columbia – This post provides a straightforward quantification to the fiscal cliff. Right or wrong, the methodology is a helpful framing of the potential situation.
- Russell – This post addresses the widespread confusion related to defining alternatives. We get asked this question pretty frequently. I find it refreshing to see an asset manager address the complexities directly.
Best Blogs of the Week
on Aug 06, 2012,
in Best Blogs of the Week
, tagged with BlackRock, Columbia Threadneedle, Pioneer, Russell, Wells Fargo
After a not-so-restful week in beautiful Colorado (long story), we resume the best blogs of the week by reviewing the last two weeks together. Not surprisingly, most blogs covered the Federal Reserve Bank and their decision (to do nothing). We found one post that’s particular interesting on that front. Augmenting that post are a few interesting pieces that appeal to a wide range of advsiors.
- BlackRock – This post presents different investing opportunities related to the real estate recovery. That is an interesting topic and one many FAs hear about from their clients.
- Columbia – This post makes a quick case for U.S. equities and is compelling enough to download the full report.
- Pioneer – This post does an excellent job of covering the Fed’s inaction.
- Russell – Two things we love: word clouds and defining alternatives. This post includes both.
- Wells Fargo – The Q&A about the fiscal cliff does a nice job of simplifying asset allocation in a scenario we’re becoming evermore familiar with.