T his is the final installment of Ed Rempel’s series on active investing . “If you can’t imitate him, don’t copy him.” – Yogi Berra In the last article, we introduced the concept of “ Active Share ” – the degree to which the holdings in a fund differ from the index – based on a study by 2…
T his is another controversial guest column by CFP and CMA Ed Rempel. Note that this article does not necessarily represent the views of this website. “We were overwhelming underdogs.” – Yogi Berra The popular opinion among investors supported by many studies claims that most fund managers underperform their index, so you are better off just investing in an…
R eal Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are a popular way to get real estate exposure without directly owning the physical property. But as they are equities, how do we go about analyzing if they are good value? I’ve mentioned numerous times before that I’m cautious over buying income trusts as the bulk of them pay out more in distributions…
A s options are a fairly sophisticated method of investing/speculating, I rarely write about them as I’m a big believer in sticking with the basics. However, with the expectation of some sort of market correction between now and October 2010, I’ve had thoughts on ways to hedge a portfolio to reduce the potential for loss. One way to protect…
A t the beginning of 2010, I picked 4 top stocks as part of a blogger stock picking competition. As I was playing to win this year, I picked some pretty aggressive stocks which has come back to haunt me. My Top 4 Stock Picks for 2010 Hanwei Energy (HE.TO) – This Chinese company provides products and services for…
I t’s not your neighbor who once gave you awful advice on a hot stock tip (you’re no longer on speaking terms, unless you need to borrow a power tool). It’s not one of those “market pros” you read about on CNBC who seemed so sure about this one stock that he called it a no-brainer (you bought the…
A round the time of the stock market lows in March 2009, an acquaintance, who is in his mid-fifties, was chatting about the economy in general and, unsurprisingly, touched upon the market downturn. He asked about my investments and I mentioned that (since I was invested solely in stock index funds) I had a paper loss to report too.…
“You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you.” – Yogi Berra H ow did you do with the 12 questions in the first article of this series ? We have found that most investors have quite exaggerated views about long term stock market returns, mainly believing they are much more erratic than they are. Here are the facts regarding…
“Slump? I ain’t in no slump. I just ain’t hitting.” – Yogi Berra H ow did you do with the 12 questions in stock market quiz ? We have found that most investors have quite exaggerated views about stock market risks, especially after 2008. The bear market has created fear, much of which is completely unrealistic, based on actual…
“Half the lies they tell about me aren’t true.” – Yogi Berra W e talk with people and read articles and books every day about investing, and are constantly shocked at how little most people know about the real risks and returns of the stock markets. The bear market of 2008 has only made the misconceptions worse. This is…