Monthly Archive for: ‘May, 2009’

> There were several economic updates on various aspects of the housing market this week. On Wednesday, data on Existing Home Sales was released by the National Association of Realtors. It’s encouraging that sales have seemingly stabilized (shown on the first chart below), but worrisome that prices continue to post big declines. On Thursday, New Home Sales data was released [...]

> Last week I had the privilege of speaking to the Maryland Chapter of the Financial Planning Association about my book, Buy and Hold is Dead (Again). The results were entirely consistent with my talks to other industry groups about the subject of active management. There were about 5 advisors in the audience nodding their head in agreement because they [...]

> There is an intense debate among investors about whether inflation or deflation is the greater evil lurking around the corner. There’s no question that deflation has been the stronger force since the credit crisis picked up steam starting last summer, causing the global financial system to nearly implode during the second half of last year. Economic activity largely shut [...]

> Lately I’ve been asked if the latest market rally, a record breaking move of 38% or so over the past few months, validates the idea that investors should just buy and hold stocks. For the record, there is no market move, either up or down, that validates the idea that valuations don’t matter and investors should blindly own stocks [...]

> Harry Markowitz is considered the father of modern finance by many, and his paper, Portfolio Selection, published in 1952, is the foundation of the Nobel Prize winning body of work known as Modern Portfolio Theory. It provides the mathematical foundation for strategic asset allocation, which is how professionals apply buy and hold investing to multiple asset class portfolios. To [...]