Missing the market’s top-performing days can prove costly to a portfolio’s worth. Let’s consider an investor who missed only the 10 top-performing days during the 20-year period from 1993–2012. That’s 10 out of 5,040 trading days. That investor who was out of the market for those 10 days would have earned half as much as …
Investing Blog
The High Cost of Bad Timing
Dispelling Investment Myths: Market Timing
The Myth: Money managers are able to utilize market timing to predict when markets will rise and fall. The Truth: It’s virtually impossible for even the most experienced traders to consistently jump in and out just in time to catch the best days and avoid the worst days. nobody knows what stocks are going to …
Dispelling Investment Myths: Stock Picking
The Myth: Investment advisors can consistently add value to your portfolio by exercising superior skill in individual stock selection. The Truth: Regardless of how intelligent or talented a financial advisor is, his past ability to pick stocks has little or no correlation with his ability to repeat stock-picking success in the future. Here’s a question …
Definition:Financial Benchmark
A benchmark is a basis for comparison. A Financial Benchmark is thestandard against which the performance of a stock, bond, mutual fund, or any other financial instrument can be measured. That’s how you know if your mutual fund is outperforming the norm for a particular category of investment. In the financial world, there are dozens …
Don’t Fall for the Hype
By David E. RosenYou’ve seen the ads for those “financial entertainment” programs. Some channels are populated by little else. There’s a whole financial entertainment industry built around “experts” screaming advice through television screens. Poised just above streams of numbers whizzing by on the screen, they bark bits of information and opinions at us. They lead us to believe …
An Investment in Knowledge Pays the Best Interest
By David E. RosenAs Benjamin Franklin once observed, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” My purpose here is to help you understand the process of growing your funds through investment, and know what questions to ask your financial advisor. There are no “secrets;” there are no “tricks” to learn. It is a matter of having a …