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Active vs passive graph

An Age Old Debate in Finance: Active vs. Passive

Don’t Try to Outguess the Market The competitive landscape makes the search for future winners a formidable challenge. Confronted with so many fund choices—and lacking an investment philosophy to inform their search—some investors will resort to using track records as a guide to selecting funds, reasoning that a fund manager’s past outperformance is likely to […]

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performance of US value and US growth stocks

Value Judgements: Viewing the Premium’s Performance Through History’s Lens

Investing in an Uncertain World There’s a misconception in the markets: value stocks have lost their vigor. Value stocks have underperformed growth stocks over the past decade. In the US, the annualized compound return has been 12.9% for value stocks, or those trading at a low price relative to their book value. That contrasts with

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Frequency of Positive Returns in the S&P 500 index

The Uncommon Average

The US stock market has delivered an average annual return of around 10% since 1926. But short-term results may vary, and in any given period stock returns can be positive, negative, or flat. When setting expectations, it’s helpful to know the range of outcomes experienced by investors historically. For example, how often have the stock

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Performance of a Balanced Strategy

The Market’s Response to Crisis

The Market’s Resiliency Discipline is an integral element to successful investing. However, even the most stalwart investors can be shaken when a clear crisis has hit. Fortunately, the market has a stronger resolve. The chart above shows performance of a balanced investment strategy following a few historical crises. The subsequent one-, three-, and five-year annualized

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US Market Intra-Year Gains and Declines VS Calendar Year Returns

Recent Market Volatility

After a period of relative calm in the markets, in recent days the increase in volatility in the stock market has resulted in renewed anxiety for many investors. From September 30 to October 10, the US market (as measured by the Russell 3000 Index) fell 4.8%, resulting in many investors wondering what the future holds

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