Objective research to aid investing decisions

Value Investing Strategy (Strategy Overview)

Allocations for February 2025 (Final)
Cash TLT LQD SPY

Momentum Investing Strategy (Strategy Overview)

Allocations for February 2025 (Final)
1st ETF 2nd ETF 3rd ETF
Filter Research

Investing Research Articles

93 Research Articles

Value of Full-service Brokers?

Do individual investors truly benefit from using full service brokers? In the February 2011 draft of their paper entitled “What is the Impact of Financial Advisors on Retirement Portfolio Choices and Outcomes?”, John Chalmers and Jonathan Reuter compare outcomes for those Oregon University System’s Optional Retirement Plan participants who choose a firm that uses brokers… Keep Reading

Trading Friction and Investor Behavior

…evidence indicates that sophisticated investors appear to recognize the importance of trading friction to net return and gauge holding periods accordingly.

Hiring and Firing Investment Managers

…the sponsors of retirement/endowment plans show little timing ability in hiring and firing investment managers. There is some evidence that more sophisticated sponsors (of large plans and of plans that invest internationally) make better decisions.

Weekly Summary of Research Findings: 6/10/19 – 6/14/19

Below is a weekly summary of our research findings for 6/10/19 through 6/14/19. These summaries give you a quick snapshot of our content the past week so that you can quickly decide what’s relevant to your investing needs. Subscribers: To receive these weekly digests via email, click here to sign up for our mailing list.

Combining and Exploiting Stock Market Forecasting Variables

Does the set of variables that have the strongest correlations with subsequent U.S. stock market returns over the prior decade usefully predict market returns out-of-sample? In the July 2015 draft of their paper entitled “A Practitioner’s Defense of Return Predictability”, Blair Hull and Xiao Qiao apply this correlation screening approach to a set of 20 published stock market forecasting variables encompassing… Keep Reading

Evaluating Strategy Backtests

How should investors assess the credibility of investment strategy backtests? In his October 2013 paper entitled “Telling the Good from the Bad and the Ugly: How to Evaluate Backtested Investment Strategies”, Patrick Beaudan recommends ways to judge investment strategies and backtests based on his years of experience in evaluating, managing and investing in algorithmic strategies. His perspective… Keep Reading

Book Preview – Chapter 7

Here is this Friday’s installment of Avoiding Investment Strategy Flame-outs, a short book we are previewing for subscribers. Chapter previews will continue for the next two Fridays. Chapter 7: “Thinking about Taxes” “To the extent that governments tax different kinds of income/investment returns (interest, dividends, long-term capital gains and short-term capital gains) differently, taxes may be decisive… Keep Reading

Investor Return versus Mutual Fund Performance

Does the average mutual fund investor accrue the average fund performance, or do investor timing practices alter the equation? In their July 2014 paper entitled “Timing Poorly: A Guide to Generating Poor Returns While Investing in Successful Strategies“, Jason Hsu, Brett Myers and Ryan Whitby compare the average dollar-weighted and buy-and-hold returns of different U.S. equity mutual fund styles, with focus… Keep Reading

A Few Notes on The 3% Signal

In the introduction to his 2015 book entitled The 3% Signal: The Investing Technique that Will Change Your Life, author Jason Kelly states: “Ideas count for nothing; opinions are distractions. The only thing that matters is the price of an investment and whether it’s below a level indicating a good time to buy or above a level indicating a… Keep Reading

Weekly Summary of Research Findings: 12/2/19 – 12/6/19

Below is a weekly summary of our research findings for 12/2/19 through 12/6/19. These summaries give you a quick snapshot of our content the past week so that you can quickly decide what’s relevant to your investing needs. Subscribers: To receive these weekly digests via email, click here to sign up for our mailing list.