An ETF Creation Story
The Couch Potato strategy thrives on simplicity, but advanced index investors (geeks) should understand what goes on under the hood of ETFs. One of the most important concepts is how ETF shares are cr [...]
Why You Should Beware of First Dates
Imagine that you’re the marketing director for MegaAlpha Investments and you want to advertise two of your mutual funds. In the September 2011 issue of Performance Chaser magazine, you place the follo [...]
Can the Pros Time the Market?
I never meant to make you cry And though I know I shouldn’t call It just reminds us of the cost Of everything we’ve lost Bad timing, that’s all – Bad Timing, Blue Rodeo One of the promises made by act [...]
Review: Millionaire Teacher
It’s hard not to respect Andrew Hallam. I first learned about him in the pages of MoneySense, where he described how his investment club (made up of fellow teachers) had beaten the S&P 500 year af [...]
When Should You Use an Advisor?
Dan Solin’s excellent new book, The Smartest Portfolio You’ll Ever Own (see my review here), devotes several chapters to whether passive investors should work with an advisor. It’s a question I’ve con [...]
Review: The Smartest Portfolio You’ll Ever Own
There comes a time in every Couch Potato’s life when he or she has to answer a nagging question: can I do better? Sure, the three or four plain-vanilla funds in the Global Couch Potato have an excelle [...]
The Permanent Portfolio v. the Couch Potato
Let’s end the week with one final post about the Permanent Portfolio. Many readers expressed interest in this strategy, introduced by Harry Browne in the early 1980s. I’ve spent so much time on the Pe [...]
Lessons From the Last Decade
This has been a scary few months in the markets, and nervous investors may be tempted to second-guess their strategy. If you’re an indexer, you may be starting to believe that it’s time to reposition [...]
Why Passive Investors Aren’t Really Lazy
A couple of weeks ago, Balance Junkie wrote a post called Why This Is No Market for Couch Potatoes. The main argument of the post—one that has been made many times before—is that passive investing is [...]
Ask the Spud: Can You Time the Markets?
Q. Have you ever done any calculations into the optimal time to purchase index funds or ETFs based on broad market indicators? I’m essentially talking about buying during market dips and corrections, [...]
