Establish Basic Principles of Investing What does Occam’s Razor* principle have to do with investing? Furthermore, what is Occam’s Razor? The principle states that “Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.” The principle is attributed to the 14th century Franciscan friar, William of Ockham. Isaac Newton stated the Occam’s Razor another way with this rule. […]
How Are You Controlling Portfolio Risk?
How are you controlling portfolio risk as we enter an uncertain market period due to the coming contentious election and the ever present Covid-19 pandemic? Are you paying attention to the portfolio risk exposure or do you intend to ride out what might be a volatile period for equities? With bonds earnings very low, is […]
Bullish Percent Indicators: 4 September 2020
As anticipated, the Bullish Percent Indicators took a dive this week. There were a few exceptions, as usual. Technology in particular was pummeled. QQQ hit its TSLO limit in a number of portfolios as readers will see when portfolios are reviewed throughout the month of September. Index BPI All indexes are on defense as we […]
Schrodinger Portfolio Review: 4 September 2020
The Schrodinger is the one passively managed portfolio among all the portfolios tracked here at ITA Wealth Management. This is a computer managed portfolio, or what I call the experimental Robo Advisor portfolio. With this portfolio I do nothing except invest money. The reason for running this test was to respond to a question, “Who […]
How The Maximum Asset Allocation Percentages Work
The following article is designed to help investors use the Strategic or Maximum Asset Allocation percentages that are optional in the Kipling spreadsheet. The default setting is to adjust all percentages to 100% and let the Kipling determine the allocation percentages for each security. There are some asset classes where I prefer not to let […]
Bullish Percent Indicators: 29 August 2020
Bullish Percent Indicators are designed to give investors a broad overview of what is happening to the U.S. Equities market from week to week. Before filling in the numbers, I think back over the week in an effort to see if my general impressions match the actual data. Impressions for this week were that we […]
The Five Ticker Portfolio
If you were given the assignment to construct a portfolio where only five (5) tickers are permitted in the investment quiver, what are those five securities? No changes are permitted for ten years unless the stock/security changes the symbol (ticker letters) or goes out of business. If the latter another ticker can be added to […]
Five Variables That Impact Portfolio Performance
I’ve been grappling over why the performance of different portfolios varies so widely. In this post I’m identifying several variables that I think contribute to performance differences. While this is not exhaustive list, it focuses on several variables we as money managers have some control. If one digs back to some of the academic research, […]