Questions relating to the collection of an individual's investments, looked at at a whole.
3
votes
0answers
88 views
Couch Potato Portfolio for Europeans?
I recently came across the Couch Potato Portfolio concept and was happy to find an investment strategy that made sense to me. Its origin seems to be the Canadian version, and it has been translated ...
1
vote
0answers
56 views
How can a beginner start an investment portfolio in Europe (France)?
I have been lurking, reading information about personal finances for a few months (if not years) now, but I didn't get the chance to start because I don't know where to start.
Here is the thing: I am ...
1
vote
0answers
41 views
What's the cost of rebalancing when you buy through a fund supermarket?
I was reading about how to rebalance a funds portfolio and the main drawback seemed to be that you could incurred in more costs than you would if you just do it sporadically.
I understand this ...
1
vote
1answer
42 views
How to see a portfolio's overall profit or loss on Yahoo Finance?
On Yahoo Finance, I created a sample portfolio and added a few stocks.
Now when I go to the portfolio, it shows me the current price, how much up and down since the previous day, volume, etc.
But ...
3
votes
2answers
90 views
What risk of a diversified portfolio can be specifically offset by options?
I have been reading articles on portfolios and options. It seems options are used to hedge portfolios for multiple risk factors.
I would like to know why options, and why not futures?
What is the ...
3
votes
1answer
78 views
Overall portfolio vs. your investment product's portfolio?
I'm just starting to invest and going with a managed account.
I'm sure any investment firm would love to manage all my available money, however I'm not ready to put all my eggs in one basket (if ...
1
vote
2answers
162 views
Computing portfolio return with net inflow/outflow
in his book "The four pillars of investing", the author describes this simple method to compute the rate of return for a portfolio that has a net inflow of cash:
Without in- or outflow, the rate of ...
5
votes
3answers
271 views
Investment time horizon: When is it acceptable to withdraw money from investments?
I have received a windfall of 300K dollars. I am 23, have no debt, college educated. I want to have a mini retirement when I am ~40 years old. I plan on managing a diversified portfolio of index ...
1
vote
4answers
313 views
What is an ideal number of stock positions that I should have in my portfolio?
Is there a certain number of stock positions that one should keep in a portfolio? For example what makes more sense ?
Option 1: $10,000 spread among 5 solid stocks, if you find new stock then remove ...
0
votes
0answers
19 views
Research related to Price/Book vs the Q ratio
I understand how the Q ratio shows how over- or under-valued corporate equities are relative to the assets held. In theory, you can expect corrections in the market prices or the asset values or both, ...
4
votes
1answer
103 views
Investment Club - Legal Steps
This is an extension/more detailed question I asked a while ago:
Legal documents required for managing an investment portfolio among friends?
The main question here is do I need to create an LLC to ...
7
votes
1answer
67 views
Is the ESPP discount profit?
My employer offers an ESPP program through which we can buy stocks with some discount. Assume the discount is D and the market price in the day when the stock is purchased is P. The stock is purchased ...
4
votes
1answer
87 views
How can I track the value of options live in my portfolio
With stocks I can enter price and amount into most applications and they allow me track the total Profit / Loss live.
Are there any ways to do this with option positions?
I was considering entering ...
1
vote
3answers
216 views
Why should I worry about the variance of the return?
I have this doubt (I hope that this is not a completely silly question). If my growth rate depends on the long period average return, why should I worry about the variance of the return? i.e. over the ...
1
vote
1answer
149 views
Using the Law of 72 to compute residual income?
Often I check an investment strategy's performance by summing the year-to-date realized gains/losses.
I take the sum of all closing(or market for unrealized) values CT, subtract the sum of all cost ...
0
votes
2answers
414 views
Is it possible to manage my multiple accounts and my wife's multiple accounts as a single portfolio with TD Ameritrade?
Is it possible to manage my multiple accounts and my wife's multiple accounts as a single portfolio with TD Ameritrade's online tools? I would like to do easy asset allocation across all those ...
4
votes
2answers
356 views
Legal documents required for managing an investment portfolio among friends?
I am considering setting up a personal kind of hedge fund / stock portfolio among friends.
I am trying to figure out what kind of a legal agreement I should have them sign for investing with me to ...
7
votes
4answers
618 views
How to convince someone they're too risk averse or conservative with investments?
I have a friend who is very risk-averse, by self admission. By my standards he is too much risk averse for his own good.
He says that his personal experience over the last 15-20 years taught him that ...
2
votes
1answer
270 views
Are there any online tools to examine asset allocation and portfolio diversification?
Are there any good online tools to examine asset allocation, portfolio diversification? I would be interested in being able to plug in numbers, run scenarios etc.
I could build a worksheet in Excel ...
1
vote
2answers
324 views
Are there any online stock portfolio sharing tools?
Are there any online stock portfolio sharing sites that one can use to share access to a portfolio among-st multiple people?
1
vote
1answer
83 views
What is the principle of forming an arbitrage strategy?
I have heard that the arbitrage strategy follows the principle of "short in expensive, and long in cheap" (Or, maybe, it was "short in cheap, and long in expensive."). I wonder how to explain this ...
0
votes
2answers
257 views
Diversified portfolio return calculation & comparison to return from real estate only?
Here's a sample portfolio.
If we assume that he invested $100K in the beginning (2005), is it correct that if he sold his entire portfolio and the end of 2009, he would have received $121,394?
...
9
votes
5answers
150 views
What to sell when your financial needs change, stocks or bonds?
Say I have a portfolio composed of 80% index funds, and 20% bonds. This portfolio was created under the assumption I would have a relatively large income, and wouldn't need to withdraw any funds for a ...
3
votes
1answer
57 views
What's the role of commodities in a IRA portfolio?
People keep talking about percentage of stocks vs bonds to manage risk when building a personal investment portfolio.
What's the role that commodities have in managing risk when building an IRA ...
4
votes
2answers
261 views
Official site to follow Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway change in investment holdings?
Recently, from a public web site unofficial source, I found out that Warren Buffet's company Berkshire Hathaway is increasing its stake in Wells Fargo.
Is there a web site where I can get official ...
3
votes
4answers
466 views
Online tools for monitoring my portfolio gains/losses in real time?
My request is a simple one... I have about 5 stocks that I own currently and have owned for years now. I want to start trading more actively now but want to make informed decisions on how my stocks ...
2
votes
1answer
243 views
What's the best online tool that can track my entire portfolio including gains/losses?
My broker does a great job of keeping my positions current but has really bad views/reports while other sites do a great job of tracking gains/loss and other reports but they don't keep track of ...
3
votes
3answers
327 views
Does financing a portfolio on margin affect the variance of a portfolio?
For example, if the portfolio is financed with 50% margin, does it affect the portfolio variance?
10
votes
1answer
108 views
For higher returns, put money in fewer or more ETFs? w/rebalancing in the equation
I'm evaluating my long-term investing strategy. I am somewhat aggressive and want to stick with ETFs.
Scenario A
60% Vanguard S&P 500 Index ETF (VOO)
40% Vanguard FTSE All-World Ex-U.S. ETF ...
4
votes
2answers
2k views
What is the difference between a fund manager and a portfolio manager?
What is the difference between: a fund manager, a portfolio manager and a trader?
4
votes
1answer
262 views
I would like to publicly share the details of my investment portfolio. What websites add value in this regard?
I want to have the ability to share the details of my holdings and have a website track the return over time while making this information 100% public to anyone who may be interested. What websites ...
6
votes
2answers
349 views
Looking for suggestions for relatively safe instruments if another crash were to happen
My current investment strategy involves having 20% as liquid cash, 30% as bonds (aggregate bond fund), and 50% as a mix of domestic and international equity. The stock portion is invested via index ...
8
votes
2answers
3k views
Where can I find open source portfolio management software?
I am looking for open source code that allows me to do something like Morningstar, but with full export facility, not partial like here, and only for low-cost index funds. I don't want to create a ...
1
vote
1answer
92 views
Using stock markets in Europe, how can I buy commodities / resources, to diversify my portfolio?
I am in Europe and I would like to differentiate my portfolio in buying resources, such as oil, sulphuric acid, titanium etc. Of course not in material form, but as stocks. How can I achieve this?
4
votes
2answers
563 views
Vanguard retirement portfolio suggestions for my 403(b)?
I'm 28 years old and going to start my 403(b) retirement investment.
My investment contributions will be 5% by me and 5% by my employer.
I'm planning to invest 8% in pretax and 2% in Roth.
The ...
4
votes
1answer
139 views
Could someone please provide an example of a portfolio similiar to the GFP or Couch potato, but for Australia?
So I've been reading about MPT and came across the GFP and couch potato sites posted in this link,
in
any-experience-with-the-gone-fishin-portfolio
and wanted to know of anything similiar to the GFP ...
6
votes
3answers
462 views
Where are Bogleheadian World ETFs or Index funds?
The term bogleheadian is a bit ambiguous term but its simplification means low-cost, diversified, tax-efficient -- solutions. The slant is ETFs or index funds.
William Bernstein wrote in some of his ...
5
votes
3answers
65 views
Including the region where you live in your investment portfolio?
Diversification in an investment portfolio is generally recommended. Can my portfolio benefit from avoiding investment in my local economy?
When browsing several US sites for investment advice, they ...
3
votes
1answer
113 views
Are interest bearing checking accounts (rewards checking) covered by FDIC?
I see a lot of banks offering rewards checking accounts (maintain the account in an active status by doing x transactions/month,direct deposit, paper less statements etc, in return you yearn high apy. ...
2
votes
5answers
574 views
What's the most conservative split of financial assets for my portfolio in today's market?
Mid 30's, looking for what split I should have between Australian shares, International shares, property, cash, interest, bonds, options, etc. or maybe none of the above. What is considered to be a ...
0
votes
1answer
168 views
Why are “random” deposits bad?
The deposits of private investors often consists of random securities, caused by tips of friends, banks and exchange newspapers. It is said that the ratio of risk and return cannot be optimal like ...
6
votes
2answers
212 views
Explain the details and benefits of rebalancing a retirement portfolio?
What exactly does rebalancing entail? Does it mean that if I originally had 50% in stocks and 50% in bonds and my stocks do amazingly well that I end up with 75% in stocks and 25% in bonds that I ...
7
votes
2answers
693 views
Asset allocation software: Application or tool to help me rebalance my investment portfolio?
I'm looking for an application that can help me rebalance my investment portfolio. I'm not looking for something that will suggest percentages for each asset class. I'm looking for something that, ...
4
votes
3answers
356 views
Long Term Cash-Equivalent ETFs for “cash” allocation
My retirement account goal analyzer advises that I keep 3% in cash. My retirement date is over 30 years from now, so I can tolerate heavy volatility and certainly don't need liquidity. Does it make ...
6
votes
3answers
795 views
What is a typical investment portfolio made up of?
I understand the idea behind an investment portfolio (investing one's money in diverse ways), but I'm not sure where to begin.
I have a 401k with my current employer and a savings account at a bank, ...
2
votes
2answers
726 views
What percentage of my stock portfolio should be international (non-US) stocks?
I recently read that, based on capitalization, US stocks no longer make up the majority and that to be diversified would mean to hold 50% or more in non-US stocks. Is this good advice?
28
votes
6answers
3k views
What is the best asset allocation for a retirement portfolio, and why?
Based on financial conversations I've had with trusted family members, I believe that asset allocation is one of the more critical things to "get right" during retirement savings.
Based on an ...
5
votes
1answer
770 views
Investment Portfolio Analysis: Could you recommend software or a web application with these features?
I'm looking for software to track my various investments. I have brokerage accounts at TDAmeritrade, Interactive Brokers and ShareBuilder (now part of ING). I also have a 401K at ING. What I'd like ...
6
votes
5answers
270 views
To rebalance or not to rebalance
I have not been able to understand the concept of rebalancing in investing. To me its a form of the gambler's fallacy.
Let:
s_n = stock price at time n
s_{n+1} = stock price at time n+1
E[x] is ...
8
votes
3answers
185 views
What kinds of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) should specifically be avoided?
This is related to my other question. There, I was asking what exchange traded funds I should consider for inclusion in my retirement portfolio. That got me thinking: What kinds of exchange-traded ...
