| Covered call strategies don't shine |
| 07/05/25 | | Funds |
"Invesco's covered call ETF (PBP) has underperformed State Street's SPY (a simple S&P 500 Index ETF) by a mile over more than seventeen years - by nearly six percentage points per year. During the period closest to the flat market identified in the first set of tables above, Invesco's covered call ETF slightly lagged SPY's pure stock exposure."
|
| The institutional cost mirage |
| 06/16/25 | | Funds |
"Ennis develops a model correlating alts allocation with total expense ratios for public pension funds, demonstrating that portfolios heavily tilted toward alternatives can easily incur annual costs exceeding 3.6%. Compare this to the near-zero fees of public market index strategies, and the scale of value destruction becomes self-evident."
|
| Rebuffed: options-based strategies |
| 03/24/25 | | Funds |
"By and large, options-based strategies have not been effective tools to achieve better risk/return outcomes. And this is unlikely some fluke of the past five years. Economic theory would argue investors should have expected this result, and that they should going forward, too."
|
| Persistent alpha |
| 12/16/24 | | Funds |
"It's possible that their edge lies in dynamic capital allocation to short-term alpha generators, rigorous risk management using advanced risk models, and the strategic use of leverage to amplify returns. If those are indeed the core building blocks in the model, there's no reason it couldn't be reengineered using the thousands of public managers plying their trade in liquid funds."
|
| Frequent fees matter more |
| 11/24/24 | | Funds |
"What happens here is essentially the eighth wonder of the world in reverse. If fees are charged more often, capital cannot compound at the same rate because any recovery in funds is interrupted by the fees being charged. Over time this is the same as consuming dividend income in a stock instead of reinvesting the dividend into the stock. And this small difference grows larger and larger the longer that happens."
|
| Asset managers' profits get thinner |
| 07/21/24 | | Funds |
"In addition to feeble inflows and weaker company brands, the cost of doing business as an asset manager continues to meaningfully rise. Operating expenses grew at a rate between 2020 to 2023 that has cut into profits. The growth rate for data and technology was 13 percent over those three years; operations was 9 percent; business and support functions was 6 percent; investment management was 5 percent; and sales and marketing was 4 percent."
|
| Ray Dalio's famous trade is sputtering |
| 04/28/24 | | Funds |
"The only time risk parity was really successful was at the time of the Great Financial Crisis and that was really its heyday."
|
| Performance of the hedge funds |
| 04/21/24 | | Funds |
"confirmed prior research findings that hedge funds with results available on data vendors have been, in aggregate, poor investments, producing negative alphas and thus subtracting hundreds of billions of value from investor portfolios."
|
| Diseconomies of scale |
| 12/08/23 | | Funds |
"We find that quant strategies are less plagued by diseconomies of scale compared to fundamental strategies."
|
| Performance chasing |
| 11/05/23 | | Funds |
"First, investors are chasing past returns. But on average, funds that have great returns in the last five years tend to have poor returns in the next five years. That means that investors who chase past returns and put their money into the best performing funds of the last five years tend to underperform. How long do investors underperform? The red line in the chart indicates that fund managers have about five years before their investors turn their backs on them. After five years of underperformance, there is no stopping disappointed investors from leaving the fund. My personal experience with investors is that five years is a long time. Most investors will get nervous after six to twelve months of underperformance and leave you after two to three years of underperformance."
|
| Solo vs. teams |
| 04/30/23 | | Funds |
"In other words, while the average single-manager hedge fund has better performance, individual funds can be at the very top or at the very bottom, depending on the decisions of the fund manager. Team-managed funds are in the murky middle, neither particularly good nor particularly bad."
|
| Crispy bacon |
| 01/15/23 | | Funds |
"Being wedded to a benchmark by relative return fears, career risk, and investment mandates, in our opinion, practically guarantees a highly correlated and ordinary outcome. If the objective is to achieve higher returns with less risk, we do not believe looking like everyone else, or serving soggy bacon, is the answer. Bacon, in our opinion, should be served crispy."
|
| Volatility laundering |
| 01/08/23 | | Funds |
"Given the massive popularity of private investing today, it may very well be true that, as a great man once almost said, 'Never have so many paid so much to so few for the privilege of being told so little.'"
|
| Performance benchmarks |
| 12/04/22 | | Funds |
"Just like mutual funds, public pension plans and endowments are allowed to use benchmarks of their own choosing, typically referred to as custom or strategic benchmarks."
|
| The survival game |
| 10/16/22 | | Funds |
"There is a major incentive problem at the heart of the asset management industry, where the interests of clients and the professional investors who run money for them are often poorly aligned."
|
| Active fund selection is difficult |
| 09/11/22 | | Funds |
"For active investors, reducing fees paid is the easiest lever to pull to improve the odds of success."
|
| Does turnover still matter? |
| 06/12/22 | | Funds |
"For professional fund managers, transaction costs have come down significantly as well and risk management tools have become more sophisticated and which may have reduced the relationship between portfolio turnover and fund returns."
|
| Concealing volatility |
| 06/05/22 | | Funds |
"Don't listen to investment sales pitches which tell you to avoid the volatility of the public equity and debt markets, when they are taking the exact same risks in the private market, and they cannot or will not measure the risks for you, no matter how thick or thin the 'disclosure' document is."
|
| The high cost of gender bias |
| 03/08/22 | | Funds |
"A new, global survey from BNY Mellon looked at the barriers faced by women investors. It concluded the industry is losing out on US$3 trillion in assets under management (AUM) by not making investing more accessible. More than 9-out-of-10 asset managers admitted they target their products to men and saw them as their target market."
|
| The evidence mounts against active share |
| 03/06/22 | | Funds |
"Since the initial publication of research documenting active share, its advocates have clung to the belief that the metric could identify funds that would outperform. But the academic evidence has all but disproven that thesis."
|
| Model portfolios |
| 01/09/22 | | Funds |
"On average, affiliated ETFs charged 6 bps higher expense ratios and generated 67 bps lower net year-to-date returns than unaffiliated funds (significant at the 1 percent confidence level). Their past performance, measured by the performance-rank percentiles over the previous one and three years, was also five and six ranks lower, respectively."
|
| Picking funds and indices |
| 01/09/22 | | Funds |
"Unfortunately, the natural desire to allocate more money to better-performing asset classes turns out to be exactly the wrong instinct. While asset classes exhibit short-term (one-year) momentum, they tend to mean revert over the long term, as shown in the chart below."
|
| Fees are your foe |
| 11/21/21 | | Funds |
"Investors shouldn't let their judgment be swayed by the Veblen effect, and instead should take another look at the question of fees, especially when they're couched as 'only 1%.' They may be surprised at how high active management fees really are - when framed in other ways"
|
| Negative value-add |
| 09/12/21 | | Funds |
"Low-fee funds tend to have positive net value-added while high-fee funds have negative net value-added, suggesting, again, a systematic relation between net value added and percentage fees. However, in aggregate, the total net value added for the 'All funds (Index + Mutual)' sample amounts to a negative $125 billion USD. This number can be interpreted as a measure of the total economic value added or lost by the mutual fund industry for its investors."
|
| Avoid 'breaking the buck' |
| 09/05/21 | | Funds |
"Why penalize those who exit in a crisis? They are causing the crisis. Liquidity is not a free good, and certainly not in a crisis. This will make them think twice about liquidating, because they will absorb a disproportionate amount of the loss."
|
| Deferred sales charges banned |
| 05/09/21 | | Funds |
"The Ontario government is allowing the province's securities regulator to join the rest of Canada in banning early withdrawal fees charged by mutual funds."
|
| Hedge fund performance fees |
| 06/26/20 | | Funds |
"Overall, investors collected 36 cents for every dollar earned on their invested capital (over a risk-free hurdle rate and before adjusting for any risk). In the cross-section of funds, there is a substantial disconnect between lifetime performance and incentive fees earned. These poor outcomes stem from the asymmetry of the performance contract, investors' return-chasing behavior, and underwater fund closures."
|
| Dear fellow investors |
| 04/17/20 | | Funds |
"Let us start by saying that in our entire careers, we have rarely seen an opportunity to add as much long-term value for our investors as we do right now. This isn't to say that we believe that things will start getting better tomorrow, as we have no idea how this situation is going to play out over the next few weeks or months. But we do believe that the long term is what really matters in investing, and our confidence level is much higher for the longer term."
|
| Mind the Gap 2019 |
| 08/19/19 | | Funds |
"On the one hand, allocation funds produced a positive gap of 0.22% on annualized returns of 5.54%. A positive gap means a majority of the money going in was well-timed. The reasons are instructive about what works best for investors."
|
| 2018 Morningstar fee study |
| 05/01/19 | | Funds |
"Morningstar's annual fee study of U.S. open-end mutual funds and exchange-traded funds found that the asset-weighted average expense ratio was 0.48% in 2018, a 6% decline from 2017."
|
| OSAM Q1 letter |
| 04/13/19 | | Funds |
"One of the best ways to evaluate a manager is to ask them about their research graveyard. Of the research projects we've pursued over the decades, a significant majority end up like the ownership data project - dead. The quantitative research process is default frustrating."
|
| How hedge funds get rich |
| 03/11/19 | | Funds |
"However, what if I told you that in less than 20 years the hedge fund would have more money than you (regardless of the size of your initial investment)."
|
| Mawer on sale |
| 11/12/18 | | Funds |
"Closely held Mawer Investment Management Ltd. has hired Bank of Nova Scotia to explore options such as a sale, following a wave of transactions involving Canadian money managers."
|
| Lessons from Peter Lynch |
| 09/17/18 | | Funds |
"Multiple analyses have been performed with the purpose of deconstructing and explaining Lynch's success, and the conclusion seems to be that higher beta, momentum, and size were among the primary sources of Magellan's amazing performance."
|
| Fake returns |
| 09/06/18 | | Funds |
"IRRs are meaningless and should never be used."
|
| Chasing mutual fund performance |
| 09/06/18 | | Funds |
"So does performance chasing in the mutual fund universe deserve its less-than-stellar reputation? It depends. If the momentum strategy is systematically implemented, frequently rebalanced, and has low transaction costs, it can generate excess returns. But as a rule, performance chasing is best avoided. Our analysis indicates that investors would be better off betting on mean-reversion."
|
| Chasing returns |
| 04/22/18 | | Funds |
"The authors illustrated how the probability that a talented manager's performance will exceed the best in a pool of untalented managers can be surprisingly small, even over long periods. It helps explain why performance-chasing has produced such poor results for individual and institutional investors alike."
|
| The dead man fund |
| 11/12/17 | | Funds |
"William Steadman's four funds regularly appeared on fund-watchers' lists of the worst investments. By extracting from investors such high expenses, he had conned them within the limits of the law."
|
| Institutional investors, just like us |
| 06/18/17 | | Funds |
"But what if you picked the top allocation per decade for the next decade, how would that do? ... It would reduce your return by 1.5% per year"
|
| Index fund contrarian |
| 05/07/17 | | Funds |
"Global value investor David Winters takes on index funds, saying they are more expensive, less diversified and higher risk than commonly believed." [video]
|
| O'Shaughnessy and O'Shaughnessy |
| 03/26/17 | | Funds |
"My guest this week is my father, Jim O'Shaughnessy. He was a pioneer in quantitative equity research, part of an early group of explorers who combed through data to find factors which predicted future stock returns." [audio]
|
| DFA Funds and fees |
| 03/12/17 | | Funds |
"DFA adviser fees in some cases all but erase their advantages"
|
| Risky risk ratings |
| 01/15/17 | | Funds |
"Over the past two years, I tracked risk rating changes for nearly 100 unique mutual funds and ETFs. 77% of those funds saw risk ratings reduced despite the fact that we're nearly 8 years into one of the longest bull markets in history for stocks and bonds."
|
| The three coolest studies of 2016 |
| 12/11/16 | | Funds |
"It appears that ETFs dropped portfolio returns by 1.1% annually even when they accounted for only a small portion of an investor.s portfolio."
|
| Joel Greenblatt interview |
| 11/06/16 | | Funds |
"How do you prevent investors from buying and selling at the wrong time? Financial innovator and successful value investor, Gotham Funds' Joel Greenblatt explains his new hybrid approach combining indexing and his active long/short strategies." [video]
|
| Sued over retirement plan fees |
| 08/14/16 | | Funds |
"The complaints allege that the universities, as the plan sponsors, failed to monitor excessive fees paid to administer the plans and did not replace more expensive, poor-performing investments with cheaper ones. Had the plans eliminated their long lists of investment options and used their bargaining power to cut costs, the complaints argue, participants could have collectively saved tens of millions of dollars."
|
| Curse of the benchmarks |
| 04/02/16 | | Funds |
"Indeed, benchmark requirements coupled with short-term horizons, ironically, serve as poison for investors who allocate to active funds. The only solution is to marry active strategies with investors who are educated and can internalize the fact that sustainable active investing has to be difficult."
|
| Chasing returns |
| 02/21/16 | | Funds |
"The indexes show strong performance leading up to the ETF launch (or more accurately, until 6 months before launch, when the decision to launch the ETF was probably made). Next the evidence shows that on average, ETF performance subsequent to launch tends to be ... average."
|
| Sequoia sued over Valeant stake |
| 01/16/16 | | Funds |
"The investment firm that runs the Sequoia Fund, long known for its ties to Warren Buffett, was sued by shareholders who claim it recklessly took a huge stake in embattled drug company Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc, causing more than $2 billion in losses."
|
| Revealing the closet indexers |
| 11/28/15 | | Funds |
"The problem with closet indexing is that you wind up paying substantial fees for a fund that delivers little in the way of independent investing judgment. The extra charge - compared to what you could pay for a plain-vanilla exchange-traded fund that cheaply and efficiently tracks the same index - typically amounts to somewhere between one and two percentage points a year."
|
| No place for 1.75% trailer fees |
| 11/07/15 | | Funds |
"In fact, some go as high as 1.75%, prompting some within the industry to wonder why regulators don't cap trailers - if not ban them outright."
|
| Alpha wounds |
| 07/30/15 | | Funds |
"Chief among the alpha wounds is that the benchmark tail wags the portfolio management dog. What I mean is that benchmarks were supposed to be the foundation for understanding a portfolio manager's performance after the fact. Instead the investment industry evolved so that benchmarks are now the navigational compass for investment managers before the fact."
|
| Advisors behaving badly |
| 03/20/15 | | Funds |
"Investors should similarly watch out for advisors changing firms or recommending moving portfolios to segregated funds or other DSC mutual funds that may trigger a new set of commissions. (New DSC purchases will also have you pay a fee to exit the funds within the next 6-7 years.)"
|
| Cliff Asness interview |
| 03/01/15 | | Funds |
"In a far-ranging 90 minute conversation, we discuss everything from value to momentum to the small cap effect. We also discuss the Efficient Market Hypothesis, how and why markets can be irrational, and what it was like to be part of the Quant Flash Crash of 2007. If you are interested in what quants actually do, be sure to check out the podcast portion when its posted."
|
| No new bets in 80 years |
| 03/01/15 | | Funds |
"Equity investors pursuing a buy-and-hold strategy might want to check out a fund that hasn't made an original stock market bet in 80 years. The Voya Corporate Leaders Trust Fund, now run by a unit of Voya Financial Inc bought equal amounts of stock in 30 major U.S. corporations in 1935 and hasn't picked a new stock since."
|
| Doubling down |
| 11/23/14 | | Funds |
"With a sample from 1/1990 to 12/2013, the paper finds that a portfolio formed of the positions that fund managers add to after recent stock-level underperformance generates significant annualized risk-adjusted outperformance of between 5% to 15% (Table below shows the monthly performances). Double down portfolios perform best with around a 6 to 9 month holding period."
|
| Index-linked notes: buyer beware |
| 11/08/14 | | Funds |
"I'm reminded of the knowledge gap every time I open the newspaper, or walk by a bank branch, and see an ad for an index-linked GIC. Despite intense industry criticism, these products remain in vogue and are heavily promoted by the banks."
|
| Curiosity killed the copycat |
| 10/26/14 | | Funds |
"The funds that get copied, unsurprisingly, are typically those that have performed well in the past and are highly ranked by Morningstar. In the short term, the strategy appears to work; the copycats manage to improve their performance and the copied funds continue to do well. But over a longer period of four years or so, this effect disappears."
|
| The Peculiar Passivity of Active Management |
| 08/29/14 | | Funds |
"If active stock-pickers are going to prove their worth, they'd better start getting a lot more active - not by trading more, but by looking different from the indexes they are trying to beat."
|
| The lure of hedge funds |
| 04/19/13 | | Funds |
"Investors often buy what they think is exciting, sophisticated, and complex with the embedded assumption that all of these attributes will lead to greater returns. We see this today where we witness the continued explosive growth of hedge funds. But, a careful examination of the data reveals that these fancy lures fail to hook as much in excess, after-fee returns as more time tested strategies."
|
| Why investors lag funds |
| 02/16/13 | | Funds |
"Big surges and big declines spur greed and envy, then fear and anger. The more emotional an investor, the worse his decisions will be. The past two bear markets are perfect examples. Some people bought stock funds heavily prior to the bear markets only to see their investments plunge. Then they bailed close to the bottom only to miss big rebounds. Not everyone did that, of course--many were patient--but flow data tell us too many went in the wrong direction."
|
| He's not a billionaire, he just plays one on TV |
| 09/29/12 | | Funds |
"'[O'Leary's] stated investment philosophy was at odds with what they are doing,' says Hallett. 'My basic conclusion was there was a lot more marketing than real investment steak.' When asked whether he would invest with O'Leary Funds today, Hallett said, 'There are no funds they have that really jump out at me.'"
|
| How Eric Sprott got solar burn |
| 08/31/12 | | Funds |
"The story of Timminco - which concluded early this year with the bankruptcy of the company and the delisting of its stock on the TSX - has, since its beginning, inspired doubters and believers. The company never delivered on its promise to produce cheap solar-grade silicon on a commercial scale. The believers maintain Timminco never got the chance to prove itself because the solar industry collapsed and demand for high-purity silicon dried up almost overnight. The doubters insist the company could never have made the breakthrough."
|
| Third Avenue is buying HK real estate |
| 07/20/12 | | Funds |
"Wolf started buying up Centro's distressed debt at less than 60 cents on the dollar late last year, while it was still in bankruptcy. The debt was converted to equity, and now Third Avenue owns more than 13.8 million shares of the new company."
|
| Funds vs. ETFs |
| 07/07/12 | | Funds |
"The question is, would these studies arrive at a different conclusion if mutual funds were compared to ETFs instead of uninvestable indexes? It's hard to say definitely without getting into the data, but a rough assessment based on the Vanguard numbers would suggest that Canadian equity ETFs would still be leading an albeit closer race. If a charge for investment advice was factored in, it would be a dead heat, with some categories going to ETFs and others to mutual funds."
|
| Investors prefer ethical ETF |
| 07/05/12 | | Funds |
"Of course, what those standards actually are is a complex question, which is why it is important investors make sure they understand the parameters used to make such judgments, Mr. Rothery said. 'I'd caution anyone thinking about buying one of these funds to make sure that your morals and ethics correspond with that of the fund,' he said. 'It can be very tricky.'" [Please ignore the 'financial advisor' reference, it was a holdover from my days working for Dan Hallett. I don't take on private clients these days.]
|
| Why Mutual Fund Boards Are Failing |
| 06/21/12 | | Funds |
"But while individual qualifications are rarely an issue, investor advocates say mutual funds allow far too many directors to serve on multiple boards. In the realm of public companies, people can draw criticism for sitting on more than a handful of boards. But YieldPlus's trustees, in 2010, each served on the boards of 72 other Schwab funds -- each with its own lengthy prospectus, regulatory filings and compliance issues to review. And that, it turns out, is nothing compared with Bruce Crockett's responsibilities on behalf of investors in the Invesco family of funds. Crockett, a former CEO of satellite company Comsat, is a shareholder watchdog for 140 stock and bond funds, roles for which he was paid $693,500 in 2011. For many critics, vetting so many funds is hard to fathom and is a prescription for overwhelmed and passive boards. 'Maybe we're just not as smart as they are,' says Steven Melnyk, a former ABC golf commentator-turned-investment banker, who says he has his hands full serving on three fund boards at Longleaf Partners. 'But I can't imagine how, if you're at a large fund complex, you could find the time to really review everything you need to look at.' The required reading alone, says John Bogle, founder of fund giant Vanguard, underscores the challenge. 'Mutual fund directors,' he says, 'are either not being paid nearly enough for what they should be doing -- or far too much for what they actually do.'"
|
| When Julia tried to start a business |
| 05/11/12 | | Funds |
"Last week, the Obama Administration released a campaign piece about the life of Julia, showing how Julia benefited from taxpayer largess and oversight by the state at many points in her life. But the campaign piece was incomplete, and missed the part where Julia attempted to start her own business. Long before she started a web business out of her home, she tried to start a retail business."
|
| Lessons learned in the wealth management |
| 04/14/12 | | Funds |
"The investment industry has the attention span of a 4-year-old. Two of its key drivers - compensation (fees and commissions) and past performance (what's done well recently) - lead to changing strategies and a steady stream of new products. Unfortunately, this hyperactivity kindles clients' psychological need to take action (especially males). It makes a "stay the course" strategy, which is often the best option, difficult to maintain."
|
| Another look at the performance of active funds |
| 02/27/12 | | Funds |
"In this study we evaluate the performance of actively managed equity mutual funds against a set of passively managed index funds. We find that the return spread between the best performing actively managed funds and a factor-mimicking portfolio of passive funds is positive and as large as 3 to 5 percent per annum. Our findings are inconsistent with the view that active funds have little or no incremental economic value over low-cost index funds."
|
| Mutual funds vs ETFs |
| 01/16/12 | | Funds |
"The market share lost by mutual funds is not surprisingly shifting to ETFs. ETF fees tend to be lower, yet they provide better liquidity and the ability to time the market, including intraday trading. That makes ETFs appealing not just to retail investors, but to institutions as well."
|
| Hedge-fund performance and liquidity risk |
| 09/08/11 | | Funds |
"This paper demonstrates that liquidity risk as measured by the covariation of fund returns with unexpected changes in aggregate liquidity is an important predictor of hedge-fund performance. The results show that funds that significantly load on liquidity risk subsequently outperform low-loading funds by about 6.5% annually, on average, over the period 1994-2009, while negative performance is observed during liquidity crises. The returns are independent of share restriction, pointing to a possible imbalance between the liquidity a fund offers its investors and the liquidity of its underlying positions. Liquidity risk seems to account for a substantial part of hedge-fund performance. The results suggest several practical implications for risk management and manager selection."
|
| Who got the margin call? |
| 08/08/11 | | Funds |
"The market is not puking. Some prime broker is puking the stocks held by one or more very large hedge funds. So lets play the game: guess who got the margin call!"
|
| Index-beaters |
| 07/18/11 | | Funds |
"Among the index-beaters, Mawer Canadian Equity, which is run by Jim Hall of Mawer Investment Management Inc., led the way with a 7.1-per-cent gain. Mr. Hall has been cautious on commodity stocks, a stance that helped his fund gain 8.5 per cent for the first six months of this year. A common thread among many of the outperformers was low fees, with most charging well below 2 per cent."
|
| Fund facts risk and suitability get thumbs-down |
| 07/16/11 | | Funds |
"A new regulatory initiative - i.e. Mutual Fund Point of Sale - was launched this year in an attempt to better inform investors about the investment funds in which they invest. The key feature of this Point of Sale initiative was to provide an investor-friendly 2-4 page document called Fund Facts summarizing each fund's most important information. The idea was based on the observation that only a tiny minority of investors ever read a fund's simplified prospectus (i.e. the document that lays out all of a fund's details). There was no shortage of opinions on this Point of Sale initiative - a collaboration of various financial regulators - while it was in the planning stages. (Including one from yours truly.) But now the first stream of Fund Facts documents have been rolled out and a central repository has been set up at www.fundfacts.com to house some documents. Unfortunately, Fund Facts continues to suffer weaknesses in the two most important areas for investors and their financial advisors."
|
| A free checkup for low-cost investors |
| 07/09/11 | | Funds |
"Here's some free advice for you. If you're interested in building a portfolio with low-cost mutual funds, you can sometimes get ongoing investment advice at no extra charge. Wondering how much you should invest in stocks and bonds, or how much global diversification you should have? This is exactly the kind of free advice that is available when you buy funds directly from Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel, Matco Financial, Mawer Investment Management, Phillips, Hager and North and Steadyhand Investment Funds."
|
| The Paulson Sino Forest loss |
| 06/27/11 | | Funds |
"The shortcuts we use as portfolio managers (and these are often sophisticated shortcuts born from some deep understanding of the industry) can make even the best portfolio manager susceptible to fraud."
|
| Income funds' payout sustainability 2 |
| 06/03/11 | | Funds |
"Earlier this year, I wrote about how to gauge the sustainability of monthly income funds' fat distributions so that investors and advisors could make better decisions and set realistic expectations. Since then, I've received a steady stream of phone calls and emails, mostly expressing concern over many funds. However, one fund in particular keeps popping up in such inquiries, so I thought it was deserving of its own blog post. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised by the continued interest in such funds but I am. Individual investors, financial advisors and industry regulators have contacted me to solicit my views on T-series or monthly income funds - both in general and for specific funds. Over the past five months, the one fund that has been most frequently mentioned is the RBC Managed Payout Solution - Enhanced Plus. So, let's take this through our test for distribution sustainability."
|
| Closet indexing, fees, and performance |
| 05/11/11 | | Funds |
"Mutual fund investors face a basic choice between actively-managed funds and index funds with lower expenses. However, the prevalence of indexing is rare in most countries. Rather, actively managed funds in many countries engage in "closet indexing," choosing portfolios that closely match their declared benchmark. The degree of explicit indexing in a country is negatively related to fees, while "closet indexing" is positively associated with fees and negatively with performance. The most actively managed funds charge higher fees but outperform their benchmarks after expenses. The degree of indexing and the ability of active managers to outperform are both associated with competition and fees."
|
| Negative fee fund |
| 02/27/11 | | Funds |
"Those performance fees have led to another distinguishing characteristic for two of Bridgeway's funds: Bridgeway Micro-Cap Limited has an expense ratio of zero, while the recently reopened Bridgeway Aggressive Investors 1 has a negative 0.51 percent expense ratio - it pays investors $5.10 for every $1,000 they have invested in it."
|
| Economic Meltdown Looming |
| 02/20/11 | | Funds |
"Bob Rodriguez says the U.S. has seven months to implement significant budgetary reductions or face tipping point"
|
| Putting monthly distributions to the test |
| 01/14/11 | | Funds |
"I don't make many bold predictions. But nearly a decade ago I did just that. I challenged the most popular monthly income mutual fund of the day, now known as IA Clarington Canadian Income. I stated that this balanced fund's 10% distribution rate at the time could not be sustained and would have to be cut. No recommendation has ever caused me such grief. I received angry phone calls and e-mails. But I turned out to be right. Fast forward to 2011. In today's Global and Mail I take readers through a process for testing whether an investment's monthly cash payout can continue longer-term. It's the same process I used to make my Clarington prediction in 2001. While Clarington and some other firms have adopted more flexible distribution policies, several funds continue to sport unsustainable cash payouts. And I use a popular big bank fund to illustrate our distribution sustainability test in today's article."
|
| Active Share |
| 12/19/10 | | Funds |
"Active share can have a direct influence on returns. Looking at U.S. stock fund performance in the 20 years ending 2009, Prof. Petajisto found that the most active stock pickers beat their benchmarks by 1.26 percentage points annually after fees. On average, funds with lower active share didn't beat their benchmarks."
|
| The megamind of Miami |
| 12/12/10 | | Funds |
"As he nears the end of his morning walk, Berkowitz begins musing on his aversion to losing money. He is not, he insists, interested in taking risks. His contrarian investments may look perilous to outsiders, but to him they are the safest opportunities he can find. He stops and shuffles to the dotted yellow line in the center of the street and points down: 'This is where we can make our shareholders plenty of money.' For Berkowitz, out of the ordinary is middle-of-the-road."
|
| But still expensive |
| 08/22/10 | | Funds |
"A few years ago, a research paper by three academics claimed that Canadian mutual funds levied higher average fees than funds in seventeen other countries. Since average Canadian fund fees are high, the media jumped all over this research - despite being incomplete. Reading through many versions of the paper, it became clear that the core data and underlying assumptions were questionable."
|
| Stewardship common sense |
| 07/16/10 | | Funds |
"In the course of our research we've uncovered a fund company - one that received a good culture grade and had no regulatory deductions - that purchased shares in a related company in one of its funds. Since the firm has followed all of the rules, technically, it's not considered a regulatory issue. Accordingly, the trade was not reviewed by the IRC. But when we discovered all of the facts, we have zero doubt that a conflict of interest existed, whether or not the law defines it as such."
|
| Reward for punishment |
| 03/20/10 | | Funds |
"Short-term redemption fees may prevent investors from frequently trading in and out of mutual funds, which results in an implicit wealth transfer from long- to short-term fund investors. This paper studies the impact of short-term redemption fees of various structures on long-term fund performance. We observe that fund performance is increasing in the magnitude of the fee and the time period during which an investor would be subject to it. Redemption fees are associated with up to a 327 annualized basis point increase in average abnormal returns."
|
| Keys to success |
| 01/12/10 | | Funds |
"Berkshire has really figured out how to behave with large insurance exposures that could potentially pay out billions from catastrophic events. There is a huge benefit to having so many non-insurance operating businesses affiliated with their insurance businesses, especially large utilities and railroads, where you are highly confident that you are not going to take a big hit. You can't have a bunch of operating businesses that could potentially lose much and also face a Katrina or a Wilma. That's where you have brilliance."
|
| Currency-neutral trap |
| 01/04/10 | | Funds |
"Over the past 4 years, XSP has trailed the returns of IVV by an annualized rate of 2.99%. A Canadian investor betting that the C$ would appreciate against the USD and opting XSP over holding IVV directly would have been right on the first count but made no money on the bet. The C$ appreciated at an annualized 2.73% against the USD but the tracking error of XSP wiped out all the gains."
|
| Excess cash and mutual fund performance |
| 12/16/09 | | Funds |
"I document a positive relationship between excess cash holdings of actively managed equity mutual funds and future fund performance. The difference in returns of portfolios of high and of low excess cash funds amounts to over 2% annually, or approximately 3% after standard risk adjustment. I study whether this difference in performance can be explained by the differences in managerial stock selection skills, market-timing abilities, fund liquidity needs, and operating costs. I show that managers of high excess cash funds make more profitable stock purchasing decisions, while low excess cash fund managers make better sell decisions. Neither high nor low excess cash groups exhibit significant market-timing skills; however, funds with volatile excess cash holdings are successful market timers. The difference in returns between high and low excess cash groups is particularly pronounced during periods of low fund flows, suggesting that high excess cash funds are better able to anticipate fund outflows. Finally, I show that high excess cash funds incur significantly lower operating expenses than do their low excess cash peers. I additionally document new important determinants of mutual fund cash balances, showing that funds with riskier or less liquid shareholdings, as well as those with higher return gap measures hold more cash. The determinants I consider jointly explain three times more cross-sectional variation in cash positions than variables studied in prior literature."
|
| Investor timing ability |
| 10/20/09 | | Funds |
"We examine the timing ability of mutual fund investors using cash flow data at the individual fund level. Over 1991-2004 equity fund investor timing decisions reduce fund investor average returns by 1.56% annually. Underperformance due to poor timing is greater in load funds and funds with relatively large risk-adjusted returns. In particular, the magnitude of investor underperformance due to poor timing largely offsets the risk-adjusted alpha gains offered by good-performing funds. Investors in both actively managed funds and index funds exhibit poor investment timing. We demonstrate that our empirical results are consistent with investor return-chasing behavior."
|
| Take off the blinders |
| 10/18/09 | | Funds |
"In the mad dash to buy bond funds -- about $200 billion so far this year -- investors are overlooking fees. Most of the new bond money is going not into dirt-cheap index funds, but into far more expensive, actively managed portfolios. The average annual cost of owning a taxable bond fund, according to Morningstar, is 1.03% of invested assets, with a maximum of 2.98%. In a world of 3% to 4% Treasury yields, with the risk of losses if interest rates rise, those fees loom large."
|
| High turnover could be a red flag |
| 08/18/09 | | Funds |
"Perhaps most significantly, funds that trade a lot can be hard on investors' wallets. That's because a fund incurs transaction costs each time its manager buys or sells a stock. Not only do funds pay commissions to buy and sell, but they also incur so-called market-impact costs. Large funds rack up market-impact costs because it might take them a while to buy or sell securities; as they're doing so, they may ultimately obtain a less advantageous price than a smaller, more nimble fund would receive. Shareholders ultimately foot the bill for these costs through lower net returns."
|
| Are funds pawning shares at your expense? |
| 06/01/09 | | Funds |
"Your fund should lend out your securities, but the proceeds should go to you. And fund managers should reinvest the collateral only in absolutely safe securities. The current system, where they keep half the gains and stick you with all the risks, has got to go."
|
| The manager who gave back his fees |
| 04/02/09 | | Funds |
"The mutual fund industry is going to hate this. Investors will be angry that they don't see more of it. Unhappy at the returns he has generated for clients, money manager Francis Chou is refunding almost all the management fees collected by his Chou Europe fund since it opened for business in September, 2003."
|
| Fund industry against Ontario tax proposal |
| 03/16/09 | | Funds |
"Canada's mutual fund industry is concerned a proposal to harmonize the province's sales tax with the federal GST would unfairly punish the industry and investors who use its products."
|
| Higher risk, lower returns |
| 03/09/09 | | Funds |
"This study makes a critical distinction between the returns of hedge funds and the returns of investors in these funds. Investor returns depend not only on the returns of the funds they hold but also on the timing and magnitude of their capital flows into and out of these funds. The capital flow effect exists for any investment but is especially relevant for hedge funds because of the large magnitude and variation in the associated capital flows. We use dollar-weighted returns (a form of IRR) to assess the properties of actual investor returns on hedge funds and compare them to buy-and-hold fund returns. Our first finding is that annualized dollar-weighted returns are on average about 4 percent lower than corresponding buy-and-hold fund returns. This performance gap rises to as much as 9 percent for "star" funds with the highest buy-and-hold returns and for funds with high volatility of capital flows, a remarkable difference in assessing long-run investment performance. In addition, dollar-weighted returns are below comparable returns for broad-based stock indexes. Our second finding is that dollar-weighted returns are more variable than their buy-and-hold counterparts. The combined impression from these results is that the return experience of hedge fund investors is much worse than previously thought."
|
| Fund manager reports |
| 03/02/09 | | Funds |
"Mutual fund managers' quarterly letters, market commentaries, forecasts, and other reports are full of interesting tidbits and, if one looks carefully, investment ideas. Every quarter, mutual funds are required to publish reports, and many portfolio managers, research chiefs, and advisors take the time to express their opinions about the markets, individual stocks, or other items on their minds. Some fund shops publish more frequently--on a monthly or even weekly basis."
|
| The charges laid against us |
| 01/31/09 | | Funds |
"How much of Buffett.s $62bn would be the property of Buffett Investment Management and how much the property of the Buffett Foundation? The - completely astonishing - answer is that Buffett Investment Management would have $57bn and the Buffett Foundation $5bn. The cumulative effect of 'two and twenty' over 42 years is so large that the earnings of the investment manager completely overshadow the earnings of the investor. That sum tells you why it was the giants of the financial services industry, not the customers, who owned the yachts."
|
| The man who made too much |
| 01/07/09 | | Funds |
| Hedge funds ruined by withdrawal limits |
| 01/06/09 | | Funds |
| The ponzi scheme in every hedge fund |
| 01/06/09 | | Funds |
| The go-go investor |
| 01/02/09 | | Funds |
| Time to ditch the style box |
| 11/08/08 | | Funds |
| Beware ETNs |
| 09/24/08 | | Funds |
| Beware ETNs, Part 2 |
| 09/24/08 | | Funds |
| Hedge fund returns money |
| 09/22/08 | | Funds |
| Money market fund says customers could lose money |
| 09/17/08 | | Funds |
| Running a hedge fund is harder than it looks |
| 08/19/08 | | Funds |
| Manulife shows Mawer love |
| 08/07/08 | | Funds |
| John Templeton dies at 95 |
| 07/08/08 | | Funds |
| America's hottest investor |
| 06/12/08 | | Funds |
| The folly of short term performance |
| 05/29/08 | | Funds |
| Catch two-and-twenty |
| 05/22/08 | | Funds |
| Why today's hedge fund industry may not survive |
| 04/27/08 | | Funds |
| Investing is about stacking the odds in your favour |
| 03/09/08 | | Funds |
| Money for old hope |
| 02/28/08 | | Funds |
| Dark days for hedge fund king |
| 02/25/08 | | Funds |
| The code breaker |
| 12/20/07 | | Funds |
| Investor timing and fund distribution channels |
| 12/06/07 | | Funds |
| Chasing performance hurts load fund investors |
| 12/06/07 | | Funds |
| The blow-up artist |
| 10/11/07 | | Funds |
| Scale effects in mutual fund performance |
| 07/10/07 | | Funds |
| A legend sizes up the market |
| 06/15/07 | | Funds |
| Monte Carlo may be answer to closet indexing |
| 06/08/07 | | Funds |
| Cundill's quest for hidden value |
| 04/21/07 | | Funds |
| TERs: Another fund cost to consider |
| 04/14/07 | | Funds |
| How did investors really do? |
| 12/01/06 | | Funds |
| Saxon finds value in oilpatch juniors |
| 09/13/06 | | Funds |
| Is seg fund security worth the high cost? |
| 07/11/06 | | Funds |
| Protectednotes may leave you exposed |
| 07/11/06 | | Funds |
| Who cares about fund categories? |
| 06/22/06 | | Funds |
| Even the managers won't buy these funds |
| 06/10/06 | | Funds |
| Curse of the cold hand strikes |
| 05/30/06 | | Funds |
| Mild-mannered Francis Chou |
| 04/02/06 | | Funds |
| RBC announces massive fund overhaul |
| 03/31/06 | | Funds |
| TERs tell you the exact cost of owning a fund |
| 03/12/06 | | Funds |
| Norshield receiver finds little money |
| 11/19/05 | | Funds |
| Volatility, thy name is bonds |
| 11/06/05 | | Funds |
| How fund rankings can cause stocks to gyrate |
| 10/09/05 | | Funds |
| Trailer fees: a vitamin or toxin? |
| 10/09/05 | | Funds |
| Saxon fund keeps it simple |
| 09/30/05 | | Funds |
| Allegations aside, Norbourg a plain dumb investment |
| 09/11/05 | | Funds |
| Labour funds reel as Ont. axes tax credit |
| 09/04/05 | | Funds |
| Turnround hope can be bad for you wealth |
| 08/30/05 | | Funds |
| IFIC chairman Michel Fragasso steps down |
| 08/25/05 | | Funds |
| Winning the active management game |
| 08/13/05 | | Funds |
| Leith Wheeler doesn't buy 'new era' |
| 07/22/05 | | Funds |
| Investors turn on hedge funds |
| 07/18/05 | | Funds |
| Hedge funds: a wild quarter |
| 07/03/05 | | Funds |
| Great shareholder letters |
| 06/29/05 | | Funds |
| Protect your funds from an oil spill |
| 06/26/05 | | Funds |
| Fund firms plan to give investors a break |
| 06/26/05 | | Funds |
| PH&N to launch higher-fee funds for clients seeking advice |
| 05/17/05 | | Funds |
| Investors get break on costs of mutual funds |
| 05/09/05 | | Funds |
| Mutual fund price war |
| 05/08/05 | | Funds |
| The origins of mutual funds |
| 04/17/05 | | Funds |
| Here's one good reason to fire yourself |
| 04/10/05 | | Funds |
| No need for foreign equities in Canadian funds |
| 03/27/05 | | Funds |
| Fund firms moving to kill clones |
| 03/11/05 | | Funds |
| The new money men |
| 02/18/05 | | Funds |
| Forget the luxury hook; fund makes promises it can't keep |
| 02/11/05 | | Funds |
| O'Shaughnessy sticks to the numbers |
| 01/20/05 | | Funds |
| A fund for '05 |
| 01/20/05 | | Funds |
| Suits contend funds fail to collect |
| 01/20/05 | | Funds |
| AGF introduces low-load option |
| 01/12/05 | | Funds |
| Assante latest fundco to cut fees |
| 01/12/05 | | Funds |
| Mutual-fund giants pay price of betrayal |
| 12/17/04 | | Funds |
| Bank-sold wrap accounts don't live up to sales pitch |
| 12/05/04 | | Funds |
| Who are the low-cost leaders? |
| 11/28/04 | | Funds |
| Fund companies tinker with sales charges |
| 11/22/04 | | Funds |
| Too patient with your funds? |
| 11/21/04 | | Funds |
| OSC can still turn investigation into victory |
| 09/23/04 | | Funds |
| OSC strike against fund industry |
| 09/23/04 | | Funds |
| Bond fund risks outweigh rewards |
| 09/07/04 | | Funds |
| Vanguard shuts out int'l small-cap investors |
| 09/03/04 | | Funds |
| How many funds are too many? |
| 08/29/04 | | Funds |
| Battling fund myths |
| 08/22/04 | | Funds |
| Fund mergers bring tax headaches for unitholders |
| 08/08/04 | | Funds |
| Mutual fund taxation |
| 08/08/04 | | Funds |
| Let's get fund brokerage fees out in the open |
| 07/22/04 | | Funds |
| From alpha to omega |
| 07/16/04 | | Funds |
| Can we trust the mutual fund industry yet? |
| 07/14/04 | | Funds |
| Bond mutual funds -- here's the best of a bad lot |
| 07/09/04 | | Funds |
| When funds have to show their hand |
| 07/04/04 | | Funds |
| The search for low-fee investments |
| 06/27/04 | | Funds |
| Seg funds |
| 06/25/04 | | Funds |
| PHN's entrepreneurial spirit keeps its costs low |
| 06/23/04 | | Funds |
| It's not how it performs, it's about commission |
| 06/23/04 | | Funds |
| How we probed the churn patterns |
| 06/21/04 | | Funds |
| Select few reap unfair gain |
| 06/21/04 | | Funds |
| Understanding downside risk |
| 06/13/04 | | Funds |
| Dig deeper |
| 05/20/04 | | Funds |
| Maverick managers hit on brainwave |
| 05/14/04 | | Funds |
| U.S. watchdog calls for end to trailer fees |
| 05/13/04 | | Funds |
| Why I like Saxon |
| 05/12/04 | | Funds |
| They're called trailing commissions |
| 05/11/04 | | Funds |
| Are DSCs finally on their way out? |
| 05/09/04 | | Funds |
| The sleaziest show on Earth |
| 05/08/04 | | Funds |
| Earn a solid return in the slow lane |
| 05/08/04 | | Funds |
| Small names are big winners |
| 04/24/04 | | Funds |
| True value stocks different from those in value funds |
| 04/18/04 | | Funds |
| Funds' dirty little secrets |
| 04/17/04 | | Funds |
| McLean Budden chops MERS again |
| 04/06/04 | | Funds |
| Hard line on 'soft dollars' |
| 04/06/04 | | Funds |
| The disgrace of soft dollars |
| 03/23/04 | | Funds |
| 7 funds with high fees, low returns |
| 03/20/04 | | Funds |
| Putting water in your wine |
| 03/19/04 | | Funds |
| Canadian fund fees not that much higher than U.S. |
| 03/09/04 | | Funds |
| Value funds outperform growth |
| 03/08/04 | | Funds |
| True costs of mutual funds difficult to determine |
| 03/04/04 | | Funds |
| Canadians mutual fund sales soar |
| 03/03/04 | | Funds |
| A wake-up call to the fund industry |
| 02/21/04 | | Funds |
| RRSP ads once again promoting track record |
| 02/11/04 | | Funds |
| IFIC should aim its guns at other fund industry issues |
| 02/04/04 | | Funds |
| Mutual-fund industry wants federal ads axed |
| 02/03/04 | | Funds |
| Don't get hit by falling rates |
| 01/22/04 | | Funds |
| Will scandals spoil the fun? |
| 01/18/04 | | Funds |
| Management expense ratio update |
| 01/11/04 | | Funds |
| Investing: Profession or Business? |
| 01/10/04 | | Funds |
| Watchdog to abolish mutual fund conflict rules |
| 01/10/04 | | Funds |
| Investors beware the backside of the bull |
| 01/07/04 | | Funds |
| More than pure luck |
| 01/05/04 | | Funds |
| Mutual fund portfolio contagion |
| 12/31/03 | | Funds |
| Playing in a closed game |
| 12/24/03 | | Funds |
| Manulife, John Hancock in fund probe |
| 12/24/03 | | Funds |
| Out of sight, out of mind |
| 12/21/03 | | Funds |
| The second largest tax investors pay |
| 12/11/03 | | Funds |
| SEC action on high-yield funds near |
| 12/11/03 | | Funds |
| Mutual funds or hole in the ground? |
| 12/11/03 | | Funds |
| SEC to act against MFS |
| 12/08/03 | | Funds |
| CIBC unit may face class action |
| 12/01/03 | | Funds |
| Putnam: The greed machine |
| 11/25/03 | | Funds |
| Mutual fund abuses found in Canada |
| 11/24/03 | | Funds |
| The real costs of turnover |
| 11/23/03 | | Funds |
| Fund scandals for dummies |
| 11/18/03 | | Funds |
| Bigger fund ripoffs exist than illegal trading |
| 11/16/03 | | Funds |
| A closer look at investment fees |
| 11/16/03 | | Funds |
| Some mutual fund firms just don't get it |
| 11/13/03 | | Funds |
| Investor Behavior = Returns |
| 11/04/03 | | Funds |
| Perigee changes name to Legg Mason Canada Inc. |
| 10/31/03 | | Funds |
| Sceptre rushes to reassure jittery clients over Putnam |
| 10/31/03 | | Funds |
| SEC cracks down on Putnam for self-dealing |
| 10/29/03 | | Funds |
| Gold gives boost to small-cap sector |
| 10/28/03 | | Funds |
| Still waiting for lower fund fees |
| 10/28/03 | | Funds |
| Shadow on the funds |
| 10/27/03 | | Funds |
| Mutual funds weather scandals |
| 10/26/03 | | Funds |
| Mutual recriminations |
| 10/20/03 | | Funds |
| SEC unveils plans to combat late trading of funds |
| 10/12/03 | | Funds |
| Is your fund firm earning its keep? |
| 10/05/03 | | Funds |
| Funds grapple with growing scandal |
| 10/04/03 | | Funds |
| Investors should see where cash goes |
| 10/02/03 | | Funds |
| Mutual fund tax efficiency |
| 10/01/03 | | Funds |
| It's time for mutual funds to stop burying fees in muddy MERs |
| 09/25/03 | | Funds |
| The great fund ripoff |
| 09/22/03 | | Funds |
| Fund scandal may run deeper |
| 09/22/03 | | Funds |
| Parts and labour sold separately |
| 09/19/03 | | Funds |
| Domestic stock funds in red again |
| 09/19/03 | | Funds |
| Illegal trading appears rampant |
| 09/14/03 | | Funds |
| Morningstar rips suspect funds |
| 09/14/03 | | Funds |
| Wait! Think before selling |
| 09/12/03 | | Funds |
| Second solid month for fund industry |
| 09/11/03 | | Funds |
| Mutual funds under investigation |
| 09/03/03 | | Funds |
| Retail investors swim against the market tide |
| 09/02/03 | | Funds |
| The world's most honest money manager tells all |
| 08/29/03 | | Funds |
| For the love of the fund salesman |
| 08/26/03 | | Funds |
| MER heretic fires opening salvo |
| 08/09/03 | | Funds |
| Slim and trim beats the bear |
| 07/17/03 | | Funds |
| Cost matters |
| 07/10/03 | | Funds |
| High MERs can be justified |
| 07/10/03 | | Funds |
| Mutual fund scandal? Enough of the blame-game |
| 07/10/03 | | Funds |
| There are escapes from deferred sales charges |
| 07/06/03 | | Funds |
| The blame game |
| 07/04/03 | | Funds |
| S&P study shows cheaper funds outperform |
| 06/14/03 | | Funds |
| Mutual fund study 'misleading' |
| 06/12/03 | | Funds |
| Fund industry isn't reasonable when it comes to fees |
| 06/12/03 | | Funds |
| What Canadians pay for fund management |
| 06/12/03 | | Funds |
| Fees top $10-billion last year |
| 06/12/03 | | Funds |
| Asset base decline erases good old days in fundland |
| 06/10/03 | | Funds |
| Shun deferred sales charge funds |
| 06/01/03 | | Funds |
| Exchange-traded funds are suddenly looking good again |
| 05/23/03 | | Funds |
| Cundill fund successful with unloved firms |
| 05/22/03 | | Funds |
| How to avoid fees |
| 05/21/03 | | Funds |
| After-tax returns are what matter to fund investors |
| 05/20/03 | | Funds |
| A taxing truth |
| 05/18/03 | | Funds |
| Funds score dramatic turnaround in April |
| 05/14/03 | | Funds |
| Redemption fees will soar at Investors Group |
| 04/15/03 | | Funds |
| Glamour gone for fund managers |
| 04/15/03 | | Funds |
| AIC calls for after-tax disclosure |
| 04/10/03 | | Funds |
| Diversification's fine, but only up to a point |
| 04/09/03 | | Funds |
| Clipped |
| 03/28/03 | | Funds |
| Fund disclosure proposals flawed |
| 03/28/03 | | Funds |
| Fee'd me |
| 03/28/03 | | Funds |
| Too much info |
| 03/28/03 | | Funds |
| Your mutual fund is telling you to stay put |
| 03/25/03 | | Funds |
| Fund firms in survival mode |
| 03/20/03 | | Funds |
| Pension funds hedging on hedge funds |
| 03/20/03 | | Funds |
| Fund critics applaud Buffett's comments |
| 03/11/03 | | Funds |
| Too many funds, says IFIC President |
| 03/06/03 | | Funds |
| Striking the right balance |
| 03/02/03 | | Funds |
| Mutual fund fees may rise |
| 02/25/03 | | Funds |
| Lessons to be learned from shuttered funds |
| 02/24/03 | | Funds |
| Lawmakers question mutual fund fees |
| 02/24/03 | | Funds |
| What are Hedge Funds hedging? |
| 02/22/03 | | Funds |
| Real return bond funds laugh at inflation |
| 02/19/03 | | Funds |
| Canadian mutual funds hit |
| 02/18/03 | | Funds |
| Investors are main cause of high fund fees |
| 02/12/03 | | Funds |
| Labour funds' greatest risks aren't what you think |
| 02/11/03 | | Funds |
| Funds in for the really long haul |
| 02/05/03 | | Funds |
| America For Less Than 2% a Year |
| 02/01/03 | | Funds |
| Small Caps: A size too big? |
| 01/20/03 | | Funds |
| Brace yourself for a wave of mutual fund mergers |
| 01/07/03 | | Funds |
| New year's resolutions for fund investors |
| 01/06/03 | | Funds |
| Templeton Growth fund may be down but ... |
| 12/26/02 | | Funds |
| How fear rules the fund flock |
| 12/19/02 | | Funds |
| Are enhanced index funds worth the added cost? |
| 12/19/02 | | Funds |
| Revealing the secrets of fund turnover |
| 12/10/02 | | Funds |
| Lots of consumer help on money matters |
| 12/05/02 | | Funds |
| November sees more fund redemptions |
| 12/04/02 | | Funds |
| Financial Services Ombudsnetwork running |
| 12/01/02 | | Funds |
| Pick good mutual funds, then commit to long term |
| 11/28/02 | | Funds |
| Two star managers leave Altamira |
| 11/28/02 | | Funds |
| Royal Bond Fund no refuge from stock crises |
| 11/26/02 | | Funds |
| Funds still actively trading |
| 11/24/02 | | Funds |
| Hedge your fund picks with good information |
| 11/21/02 | | Funds |
| Even stodgy bonds can take nasty bite |
| 11/19/02 | | Funds |
| October another tough month for fund sales |
| 11/15/02 | | Funds |
| Hedge funds: Complex animals that bear special scrutiny |
| 11/14/02 | | Funds |
| Dividend funds show long-term strength |
| 11/08/02 | | Funds |
| MFDA launch of investor complaint service |
| 11/06/02 | | Funds |
| Respect your elders |
| 10/30/02 | | Funds |
| Managers get rich while investors lose |
| 10/23/02 | | Funds |
| Performance is a thing of the past |
| 10/20/02 | | Funds |
| A look inside fund returns |
| 10/20/02 | | Funds |
| Now's the time to get active, brokerage says |
| 10/17/02 | | Funds |
| CI merges 33 funds |
| 10/16/02 | | Funds |
| Five-year losers burn investors |
| 10/16/02 | | Funds |
| Learning from the Janus blowup |
| 09/25/02 | | Funds |
| Fund flows prove to be a washout |
| 09/23/02 | | Funds |
| The King is dead. Long live the King! |
| 09/23/02 | | Funds |
| Surprising number of big funds escape bear |
| 09/18/02 | | Funds |
| Mutual funds vanishing at record rate |
| 09/11/02 | | Funds |
| Buy-and-hold strategy's a keeper |
| 08/26/02 | | Funds |
| Closed-End funds |
| 08/25/02 | | Funds |
| Dan on hedge funds |
| 08/23/02 | | Funds |
| Building planning |
| 08/20/02 | | Funds |
| Funds suffer worst 2 months since 1998 |
| 08/15/02 | | Funds |
| How not to buy high and sell low |
| 08/13/02 | | Funds |
| National Bank concludes acquisition of Altamira |
| 08/13/02 | | Funds |
| If slacker funds aren't doing their job, fire them |
| 07/19/02 | | Funds |
| The tortoise & the hare revisited |
| 07/06/02 | | Funds |
| When value isn't really value |
| 06/27/02 | | Funds |
| ABC monthly commentary |
| 06/25/02 | | Funds |
| National Bank swallows Altamira |
| 06/23/02 | | Funds |
| PH&N Canadian Bond Performs |
| 06/21/02 | | Funds |
| Investors sell mutual funds |
| 06/18/02 | | Funds |
| AGF appoints new managers |
| 06/17/02 | | Funds |
| More quality needed in mutual funds |
| 06/14/02 | | Funds |
| SEC may probe hedge funds |
| 05/27/02 | | Funds |
| The end of mutual fund dominance |
| 05/20/02 | | Funds |
| Warning: Fund stats offer little help |
| 04/20/02 | | Funds |
| MERs offer best guide to funds' future peformance |
| 03/20/02 | | Funds |
| Beating the market, until the expenses pile up |
| 03/12/02 | | Funds |
| Active fund trading costs remain high |
| 01/24/02 | | Funds |
| Redemption "iceberg" ahead |
| 12/14/01 | | Funds |
