Portfolio Construction
Keep up with the latest news on key elements for successful portfolio construction including asset allocation, asset management options and investment strategies.
Rarefied Air for Stocks
By Staff WriterThe stock market had another good showing last week with the Dow Jones industrial average making new all-time highs and the S&P 500 posting recovery highs. Bond yields spiked higher for the second straight week while crude oil tested the recent lows in the $57 per barrel area.
October 06, 2006
Merrill Lynch Investment Management and BlackRock Merger CompleteBlackRock Inc. and Merrill Lynch Investment Management have completed the merger of their investment management businesses, creating a company that will have more than $1 trillion in assets under management, operating chiefly under the BlackRock name.
October 06, 2006
Fewer Firms Increasing DividendsStandard & Poor's announced that of the approximately 7,000 publicly owned companies that report dividend information to Standard & Poor's Dividend Record, only 377 increased their dividend during the third quarter of 2006. This represents a 3.6% decline from the 391 issues that increased their dividend during the third quarter...
October 02, 2006
The Case for True Diversification--Searching for Alpha, October 2006It's been a long six years for investors in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. After a spectacular third quarter this year, the oldest index of U.S. stocks is now a breath away from the all-time high of 11,722.98 set on January 14, 2000.(Searching for Alpha, the monthly index newsletter for...
October 01, 2006
Remember To Pay The MortgageMortgage-backed securi-ties, a somewhat overlooked, though very large, section of the fixed-income universe, are becoming more attractive to investors in light of a softening housing...
October 01, 2006
ETFs for 401(k)s Are OKNow that the Pension Protection Act has become law, plan sponsors should refrain from using money market and stable value funds as default options in...
October 01, 2006
'Tis the Season(ality)Attempts to predict the direction of the stock market run the gamut from the sublime to the ridiculous. Besides the usual suspects of fundamental and...
October 01, 2006
Strategies and StrategistsIn his IA Leader's Interview in the October 2006 issue of Investment Advisor, Gene Balliett of Balliett Financial Services in Winter Park, Florida, discusses how...