4 November 2011

"He is no longer with us, and the world is poorer for it. A restless college dropout, he founded a wildly successful company whose innovative products touched millions of lives. He was a brilliant, dictatorial, and cantankerous leader, relentlessly pushing his staff to solve one impossible problem after another. He had no use for conventional market research, and trusted his own vision to create products with little detectable demand that flew off the shelves upon introduction. He zealously guarded his personal privacy but reveled in his role as a master magician on stage when introducing his firm's latest innovations to eager crowds of industry followers. Stockholders wore big smiles as the shares vaulted to one new high after another. In many ways, he was the antithesis of the conventional corporate chieftain, and despite his demanding persona, he was revered by employees, customers, and even competitors to a greater extent than almost any other chief executive in recent memory."

1 October 2011

"Since 2008, economic uncertainty and market volatility have tested the staying power of investors around the world. Many people fled equities during the worst months of the global financial crisis, while others waited for signs of a turnaround before investing more. Their emotional reactions may have exacted a large price on their wealth."

2 September 2011

"Last week we came across an "Economic and Policy Watch" update prepared by a major investment bank that reviewed recent government proposals to address the nation's funding crisis. Titled "It Just Gets Worse," the report chided policymakers for actions that "look like a poor cover for loose money, rising inflation, and fiscal problems," and warned that "government financing needs are corrupting monetary policy." As a result of these ill-advised tactics, the bank had turned "more negative" on the outlook for financial stability and saw "little hope of improvement in the inflation/currency mix.""

10 August 2011

"The current renewed volatility in financial markets is reviving unwelcome feelings among many investors; feelings of anxiety, fear and a sense of powerlessness. These are completely natural responses. Acting on those emotions, though, can end up doing us more harm than good."

1 July 2011

"The financial services industry works by making products with names that resonate with investors' emotions. Before the crisis, it was all about boosting return, with little regard for risk; now the focus is on minimising risk, with little regard for return."

1 June 2011

"Working with markets, understanding risk and return, diversifying and portfolio structure; we've heard the lessons of sound investing over and over. But so often the most important factor between success and failure is ourselves."

1 May 2011

"If you base your investment strategy on the acumen of an individual, what happens when that individual decides to quit? It's called 'Key Person Risk' and it's a problem that forever haunts forecast-based investment firms."

1 April 2011

"Until recently, twenty-nine of the thirty constituents of the Dow Jones Industrial Average paid regular cash dividends to shareholders (Disney makes a single annual disbursement while the others distribute on a quarterly basis). Cisco Systems Inc. of San Jose, California, was the lone holdout, having never paid a dividend in its twenty-one-year life as a public company."

1 March 2011

"A wise man once said that to profit without risk and to experience life without danger is as impossible as it is to live without being born. That all may be true, but which risks are worth taking and which are not?"

10 February 2011

"A recent article in a popular investment website advised investors that with Australia facing "strengthening headwinds", it was time to restrict one's portfolio to the bluest of blue chips. It was a familiar story."

17 January 2011

"The past year offered an interesting mix of positive and negative news as investors around the world eagerly anticipated signs of economic recovery and financial stabilization. While most financial markets logged positive returns for a second straight year, investors had to endure a host of troubling news and pessimistic market predictions"

2 December 2010

"Reaching understanding on the right way to invest often starts with studying bad investment decisions. But the lessons are far less painful when they are built on others' experiences."

20 October 2010

"September was a relatively good month for US stocks—total return for the S&P 500 Index was 8.92%, the best September result since 1939. Small cap stocks sparkled as well, with a total return of 12.46% for the Russell 2000 Index, the fifth-best month since inception of the index in January 1979."

7 September 2010

"Is everything you need to know about mutual fund investing contained on this napkin?"

27 August 2010

"Is it is worth sacrificing the transparency and liquidity of public equity markets for the promised additional returns and supposed diversification benefits of private equity? Not according to a new study."

27 August 2010

"In recent years, structured products have gained favor among retail investors in Europe and the US. Investment banks promote these securities as sophisticated tools to help investors manage downside risk, enhance returns, or achieve other investment objectives."

27 August 2010

"With interest rates near historical lows, some investors may be anxious about a possible rate climb and its potential impact on their fixed income investments. Rising interest rates typically cause existing bonds to lose value. While investors might hold short-term instruments to manage this risk, an interest rate decline could spoil this strategy by forcing investors to reinvest in lower yields when their short-term instruments mature."

16 July 2010

"A "psychic" octopus correctly predicted Germany's path through the soccer World Cup and Spain's victory in the final over the Netherlands. If only there were such prescient creatures in the financial markets."

27 June 2010

"Research indicates that humans are not naturally wired for prudent, long-term investing. Scott Bosworth of Dimensional describes common forms of behavioral bias and discusses how these biases influence investment decision making."

30 May 2010

"Proponents of active management believe that skilled managers can outperform the financial markets through security selection, market timing, and other efforts based on prediction. While the promise of above-market returns is alluring, investors must face the reality that as a group, US-based active managers do not consistently deliver on this promise, according to research provided by Standard & Poor's."

7 April 2010

"The Chicago Sun-Times recently reported that Grace Groner, a long-time resident of Lake Forest, Illinois, passed away in January at age 100, leaving a $7 million bequest to her alma mater, Lake Forest College. Although Groner lived in one of the country's wealthiest communities, she hardly fit the profile of a trust-fund socialite."

14 March 2010

"Choosing a basic stock-bond mix is an important first step in portfolio design. Although the decision may appear simple, it can have a profound impact on your wealth."

14 March 2010

"Eighteen months ago, markets were fretting about the huge debts carried by major banking institutions. Now the worry is over the debts carried by the governments who bailed the banks out. So what's an investor to do?"

4 March 2010

"It's one of the great urban legends of the investment world—a supposedly fact-based piece of folklore that people eagerly swap around the modern conversational campfire of email, the internet and the media."

3 March 2010

"We humans tend to prefer avoiding losses than securing gains. That's why volatile financial markets make us feel so anxious. Helping us to find a balance amid these natural emotions is the mark of a good advisor."

1 March 2010

"Trying to understand financial markets by tracking the daily media headlines is like trying to tell the time by tracking the second hand of a watch. By focusing on the minutiae, you risk missing the big picture."

1 February 2010

"Like the witches in Macbeth, financial commentators currently claim to be divining all sorts of gloomy market outcomes from their boiling cauldrons. So shouldn't we all be getting rich taking their advice?"

13 January 2010

"While sifting through our stacks of news clippings in preparation for our customary review of the year's events, we came across a number of tidbits from the more distant past that offer some lessons. Big bets on the future that may be life-changing events for some market participants often amount to little more than rounding error for diversified investors."

1 January 2010

"One of the things I enjoy about this time of year is the newspaper and magazine industry's collective look into all things past, present and future. I am sure this year will be no different with the reviews of the last twelve months' events, trends and major news items followed by crystal ball gazing at the prospects for 2010."

15 December 2009

"We relate the compelling story of how hard it is to get the truth from discretionary fund managers regarding their charges."

17 November 2009

"A financial market trend is like those in fashion. By the time you latch onto one, the world has usually moved on. And if you act on it, you just end up with expensive stuff that doesn't suit you and that no-one wants to buy."

20 October 2009

"In a recent rugby league final, one star player in a team sent a police escort to his home to fetch a missing "lucky" red boot. The shoe arrived in the dressing room just in time for kick-off. The player's team ended up losing. So do we blame the shoes? And what lessons are there for investors here?"

18 October 2009

"The average investor does not receive the returns of the markets because of their emotional attachment to investment noise."

12 September 2009

"Just six months ago, millions of would-be investors were reluctant to move into equities because the market was falling too fast. Now many are wary because the market is rising too fast. In the meantime, life moves on."

10 September 2009

"I recently returned from a holiday in North Africa and have mused over the similarity of walking through the local bazaar to the financial journey investors must experience if they have no clearly defined financial plan."

1 September 2009

"The recent global financial crisis and a series of recent scandals have turned a critical light on much of the investment industry and led to public questions about the role and value of financial advisers."

29 August 2009

"Do you want to take the first tentative steps to financial planning and get some free information about the subject; then the Financial Planning Week could be place to begin your journey?"

26 August 2009

"Magus appointed as adviser to major new law firm"

16 July 2009

"When sitting with a prospective client recently, the conversation revolved around understanding investment returns. The client told me about friends who had lost all their investments with Bernard Madoff and said she definitely didn’t want to expose herself to that amount of risk. However, in the same breath she told me that she had heard of structured products offering 16% return in the first year and 32% in the next, and so on."

15 June 2009

"Why change? Our old identity simply didn't reflect how we do things differently at Magus. Our new look and feel reflects who we are, and more importantly, how our clients benefit from a relationship with us."