It’s hard to believe 2011 is already winding down. Soon we’ll be busy with holiday preparations, year end reviews and goals for 2012. It’s been a beautiful fall in our new city and I look forward to experiencing Christmas here for the first time. Now ~ 1. Where to find a tree? & 2. Where to put it in the new house? Hmmm . . .
While I wrestle with these profound questions, I’ll leave you with a selection of 2 cents from 10 different places. Enjoy!
1. Jonathan Burton of Market Watch wrote an interesting article on Why Geezers Give the Best Investment Advice. ‘Based on the evidence found in the research, anyone between 43 and 63 “is really in their cognitive sweet spot.”’ Woo hoo! I’m almost in my cognitive sweet spot! Wait . . . does that mean I’m almost a geezer?! 
2. Brent Arends of Smart Money brings us 10 Bogus Investing ‘Truths’. “In this market, the conventional wisdom no longer holds.”
3. Mark Hulbert of Market Watch shows how Cash Is King – Even in a Bull Market. He profiles a money manager who has beaten the market in spite of carrying a very high cash position since the 80s. He chose a select group of boring blue chips and a big gold miner for his small equity weighting. Interesting approach.
4. Rob Bennett wrote about Investing and Human Emotion, concluding that we are Stock Drunk. Otherwise, why would we pay for overvalued securities?
5. Clark wrote about How Leveraged ETFs Work at Million Dollar Journey. I used to trade the leveraged inverse ETFs before the single inverse versions became available. The leveraged ETFs are too fast for my pace. Handle with care. 
6. The Wealthy Barber is back with another book for Canadians. Jim Yih loved the book and wrote a great review at Retire Happy Blog. I haven’t read the book yet myself, but it looks like it’s just as good as the first one.
7. My Own Advisor posted a great article on DRIPs (Dividend Reinvestment Plans). Check out his list of DRIPs the DRIPers DRIP.
8. Canadian Finance Blog asks and answers this important question: Will Rising Interest Rates Affect My Variable Rate Mortgage?
9. Mashable had a fascinating infographic on How Recruiters Use Social Networks to Screen Candidates. This is a must-read for anyone hunting for a job, looking to move up the ladder, or simply maintain a professional profile. Note to self: The social media revolution means we are all expressing our character (or lack thereof) on a global stage.
10. Here’s What’s Wrong with the Economy (And How to Fix It). This rather long post by Henry Blodget of Business Insider is well worth a few minutes of your time. Whether you agree with his fix or not, the article does a great job of delineating the rather daunting challenges we currently face on the economic front. There are lots of facts and stats, which are always good food for thought.
Thanks to all of these great authors for sharing their 2 Cents with us this October!
Please share your thoughts on any or all of these selections!
The article on the cash portfolio mentions “this is not entirely an apples-to-apples comparison, since I didn’t include dividends in the Dow’s calculations”. That’s like telling us the return was great except on the cash portion of the portfolio! The lesson here is quite profound: those who make up facts don’t teach us anything.
I wouldn’t consider the author to have made up facts unless he failed to mention his exclusion of dividends. His point was simply that most people wouldn’t have thought the returns on a portfolio so heavily weighted in cash would even come close to one with a heavier equity weighting. Clearly, it did. There are infinite ways to make or lose money in the markets. This is just one case study.
Thanks for your comments.
The facts were true, just not very useful. If I remember the chart the gap between the endpoints was pretty small so it wasn’t exactly doubling the return from the DJI, though it had less volatility. But just adding a 2.5% return (similar to dividends these days) over 25 years should increase the portfolio value by 85%, nearly doubling it. I think most people would agree that’s nice to have.
I know I would!
Thanks for the mention. Maybe you’ll get a copy of The Wealthy Barber Returns for Christmas!
Cheers!
Jim
Hmmm … Thanks for the idea Jim!
Thanks for including “Stock Drunk” in your roundup, Two Cents. I used that term as the title of one of the sectiosn at my web site dealing with Behavioral FInance topics. It took me about a year from the time I thought it up to work up the courage to actually post it as the title of the site section. That fact alone should tell us something about how our desire not to violate Social Taboos permits the development of runaway bull markets.
The article by Bret Arends is Scary Good. They had better get that fellow under control or he is going to give away all the secrets. That would bring the economic crisis to an end! What would we all write about then?
Rob
I would be happy to write some articles in the flavour of “10 Ways to Take Advantage of the New Prosperity” or “Activities to Consider While You’re Not Worrying about Your Retirement Savings.” Someday …
Thanks for the article and for your comments Rob!
Thanks for the mention Kim, I always appreciate your shout outs!
Cheers,
Mark
My pleasure Mark!
Great group of articles! Thank you.
It’s amazing how much great stuff is available on the web isn’t it?
Thanks Ken!