The Vanguard Small Cap Index fund (VSMAX) plays a significant role in your portfolio by offering a level of diversification within the domestic equities allocation at a low cost. Having a properly diversified portfolio can help boost returns over time and even help reduce the volatility of returns you experience. For example, over the past 3 months VSMAX returned 12.39% compared to the Vanguard S&P Index funds return of 9.1%.  See Fund

The Vanguard Small Cap Index fund (VSMAX) plays a significant role in portfolios by offering exposure to investment factors that have led to higher returns over time: the small cap stock effect, the value effect and the liquidity premium.   a level of diversification within the domestic equities allocation at a low cost. The fund Having a properly diversified portfolio can help boost returns over time and even help reduce the volatility of returns you experience. For example, over the past 3 months VSMAX returned 12.39% compared to the Vanguard S&P Index funds return of 9.1%.  See Fund

Stocks continue rebound from January funk, but bonds flat in May. Return expectations flat lining after post crisis run.

This is the first article in our series on “Behavioral Finance.” Modern economic and investment theory is based on the assumption that people are rational and markets are efficient. These rational people see the uncertainty in the world and in their portfolios and make careful unbiased decisions by impartially judging the payoffs and risks of their choices and acting accordingly.

How to assess the big portfolio risk factors, including falling short and not diversifying properly.

Experts and pundits are notoriously bad at forecasting, in part because they aren't punished for bad predictions. Also, they tend to be deeply unscientific. Moreover, most of us engage in constant forecasting without even realizing it, and that can have an important impact on the way we think about investments. This podcast from Freakonomics Radio will help you rethink the subconscious ways in which we all take forecasting risk. The psychologist Philip Tetlock is finally turning prediction into a science -- and now even you could become a super forecaster.

The DFA emerging markets core equity fund applies a passively managed strategy that offers exposure to a broad base of equities in numerous emerging markets. The fund's main objective is to outperform the MSCI Emerging Markets Index by dipping further into more smaller market capitalization stocks. This sustainable strategy makes the DFA emerging markets fund a great choice as core holding. 

March Thaw brings Leadership Shift

Corrections in the stock market often herald a change in marker leadership. Indeed, the first quarter saw a shift in performance of many of the asset sectors that make up a diversified portfolio. 

The fiduciary rule will help to ensure that financial institutions act in investors’ best interests when providing retirement advice.

Do you understand what diversification does for your portfolio? While people generally know diversification is a good thing, they’re often not sure exactly how or why. Academic research has shown that investors don’t understand diversification's impact on volatility and expected returns.

You want to be a team when it comes to your money...but you're not. Here's why — and what you can do.

by economist John Mauldin

An Open Letter to the Next President, Part 4, Where to Find $1 Trillion of Free Money, Making America Competitive Again, New York, Dallas, and Abu Dhabi

When you invest, it’s good to mix things up.  Diversity applies to many things in life—our friends, our colleagues, food, and sports—but it is most well known in the context of investing, and it’s commonly referred to as being diversified.

The beauty of a well-diversified portfolio is that you can come out ahead by sticking to the middle.

The stock market is a lot like weather in New England – wait a few minutes and it will surely change! In late February, as the wintry weather waned, Wall Street waxed, climbing a proverbial wall of worry.

Investor Sentiment now supportive of a market bottom

The Loomis Sayles Bond fund is a credit intensive fund that is invested in domestic and international high yielding corporate debt. What sets Loomis Sayles apart from the other high yield bond funds is their contrarian view towards the high-yield bond market. The manager of Loomis Sayles, Dan Fuss, has recently expressed his confidence in the high-yield debt market and his overall investment strategy, exclaiming that, “the focus is on security selection.” Loomis Sayles continues to be bullish on high-yield debt and remains focused on the long term cycle of the high-yield bond market.

Are you really worse off after the recent drop in stocks? 

From the perspective of your overall financial health, a big jump in stock prices ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Nor is a drop in stocks as damaging as you might fear. This is the “Even Steven” concept – you lose something in one part of your plan, but you gain it back in another.

 You Find out Who's Been Swimming Naked When the Tide Goes Out

JP Morgan: "The market is going to fluctuate"