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 [...]
Earlier this week I described how several US and international equity index funds get their market exposure by using index futures rather than holding the stocks directly. This structure is partly a h [...]
Monday's post discussed the inner workings of the two swap-based ETFs launched by Horizons in late 2010. Many investors are understandably concerned about the risks involved in these rather complicate [...]
On Monday, I took issue with the argument that cap-weighted bond indexes are fatally flawed. Rob Arnott, the creator of fundamental indexing, has argued that the classic model is “patently ridiculous. [...]
Currency hedging can be confusing for investors who use index funds and ETFs that hold foreign stocks or bonds. The basic idea, which I have written about before, is not terribly hard to understand. I [...]
These are good times to be a Canadian equity investor. Not only have we enjoyed back-to-back banner years — the S&P/TSX Composite returned over 35% in 2009 and 17% last year— but Canadian stocks h [...]
I recently had the opportunity to interview Meir Statman, author of the new book What Investors Really Want, and a professor of finance at Santa Clara University in California. Professor Statman is on [...]
Investing can seem so complicated. Building a portfolio can involve dozens of decisions, each of which seems terribly important. Here are a few that readers have mulled over recently, according to ema [...]
Last week reader W.B. asked why I recommend US-listed ETFs from Vanguard for the US and international equity components. His brokerage charges a 1.5% currency conversion fee, and W.B. argued that this [...]
This week I received an email from a reader of MoneySense magazine, where I write regularly about the Couch Potato strategy. Kate was concerned that index investing wasn’t delivering on its promises. [...]
A blog designed for Canadians who want to learn more about investing using index mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.
