Articles (34)

"Sellers were out in force on the market today after negative news on the economy." It's a common line in TV finance reports. But have you ever wondered who is buying if so many people are ...Read More

In light of all this market volatility over the last few days, we wanted to remind you of the benefits of being a buy and hold ...Read More

After a period of relative calm in the markets, in recent days the increase in volatility in the stock market has resulted in renewed anxiety for many investors. From February 1–5, the US market (as measured by the Russell 3000 Index) fell almost 6%, resulting in many ...Read More

Throughout 2017, the S&P 500 Index recorded 62 new closing highs in 251 days of trading. In the first three weeks of January 2018 alone, the index crossed 10 new record closing highs in 13 days of trading. With stock indices continuing to set new highs, does this mean ...Read More

As investors ring in the new year, some may see the occasional headline about the “January Indicator” or “January Barometer.” This theory suggests that the price movement of the S&P 500 during the month of January may signal whether that index will ...Read More

Most of us remember the days at school when we had our routine fire drill. The fire alarms around the school would ring, we would all calmly and collectedly stand up, form a line, and walk out of the school to a safe place. While I am sure many ...Read More

JP Morgan publishes their annual “Long-Term Capital Market Assumptions” report every year with the hopes of providing professionals guidance in terms of what we should expect from markets over the next 10 to 15 years. On its face, being able to accurately forecast ...Read More

At about the same time last year we saw the Federal Reserve raise the Federal Funds Rate by 0.25%. In anticipation to the Fed’s announcement, investors took to the markets to try and get ahead in terms of positioning themselves for the change. We wrote an article covering ...Read More

“You make more money selling advice than following it. It’s one of those things we count on in the magazine business—along with the short term memory of our readers.” – Steve Forbes, publisher of Forbes Magazine It is officially that time of the ...Read More

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” – Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr   We have all said it before. Whether it comes to our finances or any other situation that involves what seems like a high degree of uncertainty, we are all predisposed to ...Read More

We recently came across a survey from the asset manager Blackrock that reported the vast majority of investors are fleeing to cash ahead of this year’s general election. Specifically, “three-quarters of Americans believe the election will have a bigger impact on ...Read More

Next month, Americans will head to the polls to elect the next president of the United States. While the outcome is unknown, one thing is for certain: There will be a steady stream of opinions from pundits and prognosticators about how the election will impact the stock market. ...Read More

The active fund industry is a marketing machine; ready to pitch short term outperformance as an indication of manager skill. Investors subsequently make a large allocation to these “winners” and more often than not end up earning less than stellar performance ...Read More

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein Market timing is and has been one of the most disastrous investment ideas to plague our world. This isn’t due to some natural absolute law like ...Read More

One of the most misunderstood tenants of the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) has to do with assumption that all decisions made by market participants are rational. In other words, the millions of people who are buying and selling securities act as robots where they are ...Read More

In a recent interview with CNBC, founder of Vanguard, Jack Bogle, tells investors do just “stand still,” amid the recent 10% drop in US markets. Highlights include maintaining the same savings behavior for retirement plan participants, the superiority of index ...Read More

The New Year is a customary time to speculate. In a digital age, when past forecasts are available online, market and media professionals find it harder to hide their blushes when their financial predictions go awry. But there are ways around that. The ignominy that goes with ...Read More

Well there you have it folks. The Federal Reserve finally took action to increase the Federal Funds Rate. The catastrophe that was anticipated by many financial pundits ended up being what seemed like no news at all. How could this possibly be? While many market participants ...Read More

Jason Zweig is one of the few financial journalists who writes articles and books that actually contribute an investor's success in capturing the returns that markets have to offer. His books include  ...Read More

Why don’t the media run more good news? One view is bad news sells. If people preferred good news, the media would supply it. But markets don’t see news as necessarily good or bad, rather in terms of what is already built into prices. One academic study appears to ...Read More

Stock prices in markets around the world fluctuated dramatically for the week ended August 27. On Monday, August 24, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,089 points—a larger loss than the “Flash Crash” in May 2010—before rallying to close down 588. ...Read More

Global markets are providing investors a rough ride at the moment, as the focus turns to China’s economic outlook. But while falling markets can be worrisome, maintaining a longer term perspective makes the volatility easier to handle. A typical response to unsettling ...Read More

It is difficult being a patient investor in a frantic and always available news environment. Everyday we are bombarded with “bad” news media:  Will Greece default on their debt and exit the Euro? Is China’s economy going to slow down? There are even ...Read More

No doubt the recent volatility in the market place has investors unnerved. Friends, family, neighbors, work colleagues, are all giving their opinion on where we stand and what will happen in the near ...Read More

What has been the value of following or not following the advice of Index Fund Advisors (IFA), regardless of what happens in the financial markets? A similar question was addressed by Vanguard Research in their Advisor’s Alpha article, where they estimated ...Read More

Like a slow-motion glacier melting into a rushing river, it would appear that the markets have been swept into a period of heightened global uncertainty driven by a long-looming Greek debt crisis. If you’d like to understand the key factors involved in this economic ...Read More

Many measurements seem random, such as the heights of humans, the length of leaves, the roll of 5 dice, and the change of stock market prices. But when academics, statisticians and mathematicians view the world, they see patterns that others do not ...Read More

Does knowing what happened in the recent past with returns of index funds help you predict the future? We explore that question in the new interactive chart below. It allows you to choose one of four IFA Index Portfolios and one of six time period lengths for a total ...Read More

Knowing that we at Index Fund Advisors do not engage in economic forecasting, you can safely assume that the above title is meant to be facetious, just like this Wall Street Journal opinion piece titled “Government Forecasters Might as Well Use a Ouija Board” by ...Read More

“Trying Too Hard” is the title of the 1981 keynote speech delivered by Dean Williams of Batterymarch Financial Management to the Financial Analysts Federation Seminar. Unlike most other investment speeches whose age is measured in decades, this one is 100% relevant ...Read More

As broad market indices such as the S&P 500 have set new record highs in recent weeks, many investors have become apprehensive. They fear another major decline is likely to occur and are eager to find strategies that promise to avoid the pain of an extended downturn while ...Read More

Question: In their book Valuing Wall Street published in early 2000, Andrew Smithers and Stephen Wright claim that the Q ratio popularized by Nobel laureate James Tobin reliably identifies periods of extreme overvaluation and undervaluation in stock prices. ...Read More

Question: Some researchers argue that a market timing strategy based on buy/sell signals generated by a 50- or 200-day moving average offers a more appealing combination of risk and return than a buy-and-hold approach. What is your view? Note: The question above was originally ...Read More

As of today (July 2nd, 2014), the Dow and the S&P 500 Index are flirting with new highs of 17,000 and 2,000, respectively. Both have come a long way from their low points of March 9th, 2009 (6,547 for the Dow and 677 for the S&P 500). While all ...Read More