October 12, 2017. By Mark Barry: Small cap stocks have been on a roll lately, with the Russell 2000 Index hitting several new all-time highs. For the month of September, the Russell 2000 Index (IWM) was up 6.2%, compared to a 2.1% gain for the S&P 500 Index (IVV). Although large cap outperformance has been the trend for the majority of the year thus far, this reversal has seen small cap stocks narrow the year-to-date performance gap. … [Read more...]
The Case for Investing in Smaller Hedge Funds
April 26, 2017. By Mark Barry: The market environment over the past several years has proved difficult for many hedge funds, with several high profile managers making headlines amid declining performance and the resulting loss of assets as investors seek to deploy capital elsewhere. Compounding this poor performance is the fact that hedge fund fees are relatively high compared to most other investment products, and investors are now much less … [Read more...]
Intelligent Index Review, Fourth Quarter 2016
January 17, 2016. By Richard Greene and Mark Barry: In what can best be described as the year of the improbable, equity markets ended the fourth quarter and 2016 in record high territories and registered strong returns across almost all equity sectors. The fact that the majority of gains were registered in the final seven weeks of the year following the election of Donald Trump is testimony to a radical change of sentiment that accompanied … [Read more...]
Investing “Responsibly” with SRI and ESG Factors
December 27, 2016. By Mark Barry: For many years, there has been increasing interest in Socially Responsible Investing (sometimes referred to as ethical or impact investing) from the investing public as well as institutional investors, particularly endowment and pension funds. Given this, we wanted to provide a brief overview on the topic, as well as provide our perspective. Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) integrates social and ethical … [Read more...]
Intelligent Index Review, Third Quarter 2016
November 4, 2016. By Richard Greene: Despite the crazy election rhetoric, the third quarter was the best of the year so far for the market and while economic data was mixed, consumer confidence reached post-recession highs. While economic conditions were relatively unchanged during the quarter the equity markets did manage solid gains. For the first time in several quarters small cap stocks and indices such as the NASDAQ and Russell 2000 … [Read more...]
Intelligent Index Review, Second Quarter 2016
August 18, 2016. By Richard Greene: The March rally continued into the second quarter, albeit at a slower pace, as equity markets rose steadily. This rise was disrupted in late June as the UK voted to leave the European Union, which saw global markets take a nosedive. However, US stocks quickly snapped back, and finished the quarter near all-time highs. For the quarter, the benchmark S&P 500 gained 2.46% while the Intelligent Index … [Read more...]
Intelligent Index Review, First Quarter 2016
An unexpectedly strong March rally allowed the U.S. equity markets to recover from double digit losses earlier in the year and finish marginally positive. For the quarter, the benchmark S&P 500 gained 1.35% while the Intelligent Index Model Portfolio advanced 2.29% largely on the strength of small-cap and mid-cap value indices. Concern over the impact of negative interest rates and ongoing weakness in the global economy served as catalysts … [Read more...]
Intelligent Index Review 4th Qtr 2015
Despite the long anticipated FOMC decision to raise interest rates and the increase in volatility that returned in earnest during the fourth quarter, the S&P 500 managed to gain 7% for the quarter and finish the year marginally positive. The Intelligent Index Model Portfolio finished the quarter positively as well gaining 4.4%. But the weakness that persisted in the small cap indices resulted in the Model Portfolio finishing slightly negative … [Read more...]