Aquater

38 Comments

    • Good Time to Play Utilities and Pipelines [view article]
      This article is from a Canadian perspective, but it seems it can be extended to the U.S. situation as well. Is there a blog that handles the U.S. perspective in terms of utilities and their performance relative to the general stock market? Thanks for this, any way. Defensive characteristics of utilities sector are well known but a reassurance on this front at the present time can be very useful to investors. Aug 28 09:58 AM
    • Defining a Set of Core Asset Classes [view article]
      Thanks for your response. I understand the rationale for three-year look-back, tentative though it is it is back-tested by you. But on what basis is the QPP projection for one year based? I have hard time finding this. All I find is the details of its being tested. I need to see some articulation about the basis and method as to how the projection is made. Thank you, again for sharing what you have. Aug 15 12:18 PM
    • Defining a Set of Core Asset Classes [view article]
      This is a very useful article. It is thoughtful and provokes thinking. A great piece. I have following points, however, to further the dialog.
      1. On the one hand you say timing cannot be done and so one must stay invested in multiple widely uncorrelated asset classes. On the other hand, you want to look forward and marginalize history as backward look. Trying to have it both ways?
      2. Also, no clue is provided as to how exactly you look forward. What tools are used to look forward and how are they better than other timing tools? Just saying QPP is not enough. You may be holding QPP as a proprietary device, but you would gain credibility if you share at least some philosophy behind it.
      3. Thinking about reader comments, the name-calling match between retail and elite was entertaining heat but did not provide much light. The guru stuff was highly speculative. Both timers and non-timers have to resort to past record to justify themselves. It is indeed hard to really discount history. Snap discrediting of it as nothing but looking backward is a bit dogmatic. Its usefulness may be limited but it surely is debatable how to assess it.
      4. It is not consistent to talk about cash as wasting asset because of inflation. To be consistent all assets and not just cash should be systematically weighed against inflation. Any way, cash is better than losing your capital. Including it as one of so many others is not a sin at all. It is also important to take advantage of emerging opportunities. It would be simpler and easier to do it if you have cash.
      5. You hint at percentage allotment to the asset classes. Would like to know more about the concepts behind this.
      All in all, your article is highly beneficial, thoughtful and noteworthy.

      Aug 14 01:52 PM
    • More on Fidelity and ETFs [view article]
      Big mutual fund families stink, with their stupid trade restricting hypocritical rules (while they themselves trade freely and hopelessly, as ever). Let them stay static where they are stuck in their self-created mud. I have shifted to ETF's long ago and will stay there, watching these dynasaurs die their slow death. Aug 09 01:33 PM
    • Bill Gross: The Housing/GSE Bill Is Best Way Out of Credit Crisis [view article]
      Very intelligent and perceptive comments above, chastizing the so-called king of bonds. Patent self-interest shows how the king is shameless in touting what he needs at the cost of the American tax-payer. Incredibly unintelligent of him to think he could get away with this! Jul 26 03:50 AM
    • Tracking Sentiment in the Movement of Sectors and Asset Classes [view article]
      Sooooooo?! What's the point? OK, there is the shift that can be seen clearly. What does it mean for the future? If you have no clue, what does it mean to point it out? As you say, it helps you gain a perspective? But you couldn't articulate the perspective. You say the volatility is both upways and downways. Of course markets fluctuate. That is news?! Above all, you need to express your own insight as to where do we go from here. But you are washing your hands off any such insight. Jul 26 03:29 AM
    • Financial ETFs: June/July Gloom Lifts, But for How Long? [view article]
      Raises good question and puts it in a proper context. However, the author could have attempted at least a tentative clear answer. Jul 19 01:23 PM
    • Alternatives and Absolute Return with ETFs [view article]
      Too messy a portfolio. Seems it is made just to impress a novice by including some currently fashionable sectors and including a complex array of etf's whose overall coherence is not explained or may not be explainable. As a challenging alternative, look at a simpler but highly effective vehicle like PRPFX (Permanent Portfolio). It already as a great record. The proposed hodge podge concoction, on the other hand, will certainly fail unless changed uncannily by correctly anticipating fast changing future events. Any thinking intellect can do better. Jul 10 10:18 PM
    • Treasury Yields: A Real-Time Market Sentiment Gauge [view article]
      A very useful article. The rationale for rise or fall in interest rate may not just be anticipation of Fed action. Basically it may just show market forces at work, including market's estimate of what Fed might do. I have a hard time finding historical data about 2 Year Treasuries. What is the symbol? Thank you. May 18 01:27 AM
    • New Vanguard Treasury ETF Not For Average Investors [view article]
      Thanks for the info. Talk about patronizing attitude of financial institutions. I have been looking for a zero coupon bond
      ETF for some time. This seems to fill the bill but of course they shroud it with "warnings". Mysteries also surround trading zero coupon strips. The fund can be very useful in asset allocation for individual investors. There are so many instruments that would be far more volatile but because brokers make lot of money selling them they do not shroud them with patronizing attitudes. Thanks, again, for the info. Now I can go to the proper place to find full info on the ETF.       Apr 25 12:56 PM
    • MSCI Frontier Markets Index Leaves Emerging Markets In the Dust [view article]
      Not much point in touting something where no instrument for actual investing is available. The least the author could do is point out when and where actual investment opportunity will be available. Apr 03 05:30 PM
    • Calls For A Market Ready to "Rocket Higher" [view article]
      The market has rocketed up on Tuesday, making fools of the bears above. But we will see if it holds up. Anything may happen, but nobody is going to ring a bell at the bottom, especially not the bears who will keep looking for Dow 10000 and, if they get it. they will look for Dow 7000 and so on till they fall flat on their face. If Jason or other bulls did not say anything new, the bears too had nothing new to add. Market at some point discounts the bad news, and nobody knows when that is. You always have to take risk. Apr 01 04:17 PM
    • Investor Sentiment and Market Returns: Now's the Time to Be Bold [view article]
      A plethora of bearish comments that said nothing new and just rehashed concerns that have been repeated ad nauseum by now. Time to at least getting out of shorts and start building portfolio. Those talking bearish after a large bearish move has already taken place will keep doing it way past a bull ride. They will keep predicting Dow lower even at the bottom. Mar 31 01:11 PM
    • Portfolio Theory Vindicated [view article]
      Not clear what is QPP precisely based on. Unless that is specified, the impression will remain that speculation and hindsight are at work. Why can't the author come up with a brief description of QPP or say that it is proprietary and cannot be revealed?
      Mar 27 02:07 PM
    • Leucadia National: Don’t Be Afraid of Companies Not Widely Followed [view article]
      Strong sell?! Buy!! LUK is a buying opportunity for discerning investors. If you want quick kicks and want to be disappointed stay away from LUK. Mar 27 10:37 AM
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