Insights

by Jay D. Franklin                 Tuesday, February 05, 2013 From the title of this article, you may have thought I was referring to someone who took a short position in Berkshire Hathaway. While I don’t personally know anybody who is crazy enough to have done this, at least one person thought it was a good idea. […]

by Jay D. Franklin                   Monday, February 11, 2013 Quite frequently, an IFA advisor or I will speak to a client who thinks he has lost money because of what he sees on an unrealized gains report. Specifically, a position may show an unrealized loss even though the investor has experienced an investment gain. It is […]

by P.J. DiNuzzo                                                                              November 2, 2012 People living in New Jersey, New York city and surrounding areas are digging out from under the worst storm ever to hit the U.S. north of the Carolinas.  The rest of the country has been looking at terrible pictures of the flooding and property damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, […]

by Weston Wellington Thursday, February 14, 2013   It’s New Year’s Day 2012. In addition to overdosing on televised college football, you’re spending part of the holiday working on the family finances. Armed with a laptop and various online financial tools, you’re on the hunt for appealing stock market opportunities. To prune the list of […]

by Jay D. Franklin                   Monday, March 11, 2013 To borrow from a Vanguard study1, "active share" is defined as the percentage of a portfolio that differs from a benchmark index. It provides a simple measure of the degree of active management in a portfolio at a given point in time. An active share of 100% […]

by Jay D. Franklin                Monday, March 11, 2013 At Index Funds Advisors, Inc., we have long counseled investors not to pay heed to market predictions from the talking heads of high finance. Our latest example of an unfulfilled prediction comes from James Altucher of Formula Capital who stated a year ago on Yahoo's Daily Ticker that […]

by P.J. DiNuzzo                                                                                 March 13, 2013   Coming Soon to a Headline Near You With all the media attention focused on the fiscal cliff, sequesters and the U.S. debt ceiling, the Eurozone's debt crisis has faded into the background–which is no doubt a welcome respite for many investors.  However, Europe's fiscal problems haven't gone away while […]

by P.J. DiNuzzo                                                      March 21, 2013 Island of Debt The Republic of Cyprus, with a population of just over 1 million people (slightly more than the city of San Jose, CA) would seem an unlikely place to trigger a global financial crisis. The island nation in the eastern Mediterranean Sea is divided by a U.N.-monitored […]

by P.J. DiNuzzo                                                      March 20, 2013 The Pope as CEO The Roman Catholic cardinals selected a new pope: Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now more popularly known as Pope Francis I.  With his ascension to the Papacy, the Argentinian-born Jesuit became the second-largest employer in the American economy, behind only Wal Mart.  The Economist magazine estimates […]

by P.J. DiNuzzo                                                                 March 21, 2013 The Fed's Surprising Profitability In 2008, the Federal Reserve famously purchased a lot of subprime bank loans that have been described, in the banking industry, as "toxic waste"–in an effort to clean up the balance sheets of large lending institutions.  Since then, the Fed has been an active buyer […]