Smart Beta ETFs: Your Complete Guide
Remember when index funds simply tracked the broad markets? I do, but I also remember renting movies on VHS and watching the Leafs in the second round of the playoffs. Today there are ETFs tracking ev [...]
The Next Smart Beta Revolution
{Note: This post was an April Fool's joke!] As the ETF industry in Canada matures, more and more providers are moving away from traditional cap-weighted index funds in favour of more exotic strategies [...]
How Long Will You Wait for Smart Beta to Work?
In my last post I shared some insights from Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense, which argues that investors are generally better off keeping their portfolios simple and straightforward. This idea [...]
It’s Better With Beta
The title of Larry Swedroe’s latest book, The Incredible Shrinking Alpha, raises a question: what happened to the idea that skilled managers can consistently beat the market? In a recent interview wit [...]
Why Your Problem Is Not Your Funds
In Monday’s post I looked at “smart beta,” which promises to outperform cap-weighted indexing strategies. I’m frequently asked if I think Couch Potato investors should dump their traditional index fun [...]
Does “Smart Beta” Really Beat Cap-Weighting?
“Smart beta” has become a buzzword in investing circles, especially among pension funds and other institutional investors. The term may be new, but the idea isn’t: it’s about looking for ways to captu [...]
Letting You In On a Big Secret
Joel Greenblatt has a sense of humour—I’ll grant him that. In The Big Secret for the Small Investor (Wiley, 2011), he pokes fun at the crass title of his previous book, You Can Be a Stock Market Geniu [...]
Fundamental Indexing for Corporate Bonds
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. [...]
Are Bond Index Funds Stupid?
When Rob Arnott, the creator of fundamental indexing, spoke in Toronto last week, his presentation focused exclusively on equities. When he took questions at the end of his presentation, I asked him a [...]
Fundamental Indexing in the Real World
Earlier this week I discussed the promise of fundamental indexing. This strategy takes aim at the shortcomings of traditional cap-weighted indexes, which overweight growth stocks and are prone to bubb [...]
