Asset allocation

Market Insights

Dividends remain the smart play

Even as the world gets its economic act together, it’s still too early to abandon a dividend strategy.

By Staff |February 21, 2012

3 min read

Market Insights

Yes, you can still make money in bonds

Yields may be at record lows, but bonds still serve as a valuable counterbalance to “bad events” that can occur in a portfolio.

By Staff |February 14, 2012

2 min read

Market Insights

Stick with bonds for safety

A constant stream of scary global microeconomic cues has created unprecedented risk aversion among investors who are now playing for capital preservation rather than capital gain.

By Vikram Barhat |February 1, 2012

2 min read

Market Insights

Tune out the noise, invest in North America

The average retail investor is notorious for trying to time the market—and for doing a remarkably poor job at it. Rather than wait for incontrovertible evidence of a bull market, your clients should probably be getting back into risk assets now.

By Staff |January 26, 2012

2 min read

Art tops equities, again

When new money finds old masterpieces the result is historic financial performance. As an atypical asset class, art has been steadily growing as a preferred haven for wealthy investors shunning wild swings in stock markets.

By Vikram Barhat |January 9, 2012

2 min read

The Place of ETFs in Portfolio Allocation and Diversification

Asset allocation is the strategy investors follow to divide their money between different assets like stocks, bonds and cash. The underlying principle is that prices of different assets move in different(uncorrelated) ways, leading to the idea that diversification protects against risk, which is defined as volatility. But asset allocation says little about the investor’s objectives.

December 5, 2011

13 min read

Europe: An argument for active management

Since news of Europe’s banking and sovereign debt crisis broke in the latter part of 2009, sales of European equity funds have been in continuous decline, while the volatility of the MSCI Europe index has increased.

By Rayann Huang |October 27, 2011

6 min read

Explaining tactical allocation

Should investors chisel their portfolios onto granite and wait them out for the long haul, regardless of what happens in the markets on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis? Or should money managers take a more flexible approach to the way they slice up their clients’ asset class percentages? Two top portfolio managers answer this question by explaining the difference between strategic and tactical asset allocation, and how and when to employ the latter.

7 min read

Asset allocation

Dividends remain the smart play

Yes, you can still make money in bonds

Stick with bonds for safety

Tune out the noise, invest in North America

Art tops equities, again

The Place of ETFs in Portfolio Allocation and Diversification

Europe: An argument for active management

Explaining tactical allocation

Investing in art

Uncertainty bolsters home bias