Russell

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 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 Jul 05, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , ,

Last week had a tremendous amount of blog activity.  Wells Fargo had 10 blog posts alone.  This week’s best blogs cover a wide range of topics, from investor sentiment to QE2.

  1. Wells Fargo Advantage Funds – This post describes the ending of the 2nd quantitative easing program.  James Kochan presents a case that nobody really knows if QE2 was successful and how this program impacted markets around the world.
  2. Russell – This post presents an excellent review of bullish versus bearish outlooks from the many money managers Russell works with.  Not only that, but Russell goes on file to declare QE2 a success and lists some reasons why.
  3. BlackRock – I’m a fan of case studies and Noel Archard presents a pretty straight-forward one on ETFs & short squeezes.  A short squeeze is something brought up now and then and he does a good job showing how short squeezes are unlikely to happen in an ETF.

Best of Blogs

Posted by Anu Heda on Jun 20, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , ,

This week has two blog posts and an excellent tweet.  Both blog posts use research (one in-house, the other from AARP) to present a single topic effectively.

  1. Russell – The company continues to use visuals in manners way ahead of other managers.  With good tagging and organization, they will soon have an arsenal of visuals to supplement and support many different discussions with different target audiences.  In this post, Russell shares topics most discussed by financial professionals during Q2.
  2. Vanguard – This post explains how most 401(k) participants pay attention only to explicit fees and how the DOL is changing regulations to help participants better understand costs.
  3. BlackRock – New to twitter (outside of iShares), the tweet below resonates with many financial advisors.  In our discussions with FAs, many talk about QE2 and how they describe the topic to clients.

Tweet on QE2