Russell

Best Blogs of the Week

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

Last week’s best blogs include a first-timer, The Hartford.

  1. American Century – Wondering just how to further analyze TIPS beyond the recent negative news coverage?  I was and this long-format post provided a clear examination of the current situation and a reasonable evaluation method.  I could see many FAs re-purposing sections of this post.
  2. Russell – This is  a clear articulation for advisors evaluating client portfolio tools.
  3. The Hartford – Not FA related at all, but helpful common sense nonetheless.  As Memorial Day kicked off “driving season,” they remind drivers on a way to be safe and thrify: tire pressure.

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on May 09, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , ,

Last week presented a few interesting topics we thought to share.

  1. Vanguard – In celebrating the index investing’s 35 birthday (and their own success therein), Craig Stock posts a compact history for indexing.
  2. Virtus – Joe Terranova provides an easily digestible summary of major currencies in one post.  He uses a few charts, but doesn’t become bogged down in statistics or data points.
  3. Russell – The post describes the difficulty in selecting high-performing assets.  Additionally, there’s a 1-question poll that captures readers’ opinions

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on May 02, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , ,

Three worthwhile reads from last week.

  1. American Century makes a strong case about long-term growth.
  2. BlackRock’s weekly roundup links to a word cloud from Bernanke’s speech.  The diagram makes it clear what’s on his mind – inflation.
  3. Russell discusses the AMT and just how much the US Treasury depends on it.  While most everyone agrees about the AMT’s inequity, the post shares the AMT’s role in the overall tax revenue base.

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Apr 24, 2011, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , , ,

Each Monday, we’ll share the last week’s three best industry blogs. Hopefully, it’s something interesting to read as you get back into the flow.

  1. Russell on tax implications for investors – great use of charts and history to make the topic interesting and educational
  2. BlackRock on the construction of its silver ETF – now I know. I did wonder this and knew I could read SEC documentation about it.  But reading that documentation never sounds appealing.
  3. Franklin Templeton’s Mark Mobius on Africa’s potential – he has one theory and then just 2-3 specific reasons to consider that theory.

Did you read anything within the industry as interesting? Let us know via e-mail.

New Complexity with New Indexes

Posted by Anu Heda on Mar 03, 2011, in Thoughts , tagged with , , ,

Last week, Mike wrote a compelling post about index investing, specifically the complexities and volatility.   I thought that was timely after reading the news that Russell Investments and a partner were creating 24 new indexes based on the Fundamental index methodology.  This method uses adjusted sales, operating cash flow and dividends plus buybacks instead of market capitalization for weighting securities within an index.  It’s a really interesting approach and seems to have numerous merits.

I’m not the right person to discuss the merits of one approach versus the other.  This different approach brought a thought to mind: we should evaluate and scrutinize any backwards looking data closely.  I have some first-hand experience with that.  … [read more]