Portfolio Management | ITA Wealth Management

ETF Rankings: VEU and IDV Lose Ground

January 22, 2014 By Lowell Herr

Two international ETFs lost ground over the last few trading days. Both VEU and IDV are now performing below SHY as Platinum members can see from the rankings table shown below. ETF Rankings: Based on the following data we will continue to lower allocations to asset classes such as

Asset Classes: How Many Should I Own?

January 23, 2014 By Lowell Herr

With much recent attention given to answering the money managers most perplexing question, what percent of the portfolio should be invested in each asset class, the whole idea of how many asset classes to include in a portfolio has been neglected. William Bernstein answers the question

Beginner Advice: Getting Started With Portfolio Construction

March 15, 2014 By Lowell Herr

Several days* ago a friend wrote and asked about setting up a portfolio where $500 would be deposited every month. What advice would I pass on to such an investor? The first bit

ITARR: How To Reduce Losses

April 15, 2014 By Lowell Herr

Zion National Park On page 167 of Mebane T. Faber and Eric W. Richardson’s book, “The Ivy Portfolio: How to Invest Like the Top Endowments and Avoid Bear Markets” we read, “Our research has shown that returns are lower and volatility is higher when asset classes are below

Asset Allocation – Risk Parity Revisited: Part 1

June 12, 2014 By hedgehunter

Having selected a number of assets to include in a portfolio, a key decision any investor has to make is “What percentage of my available funds should I allocate to each asset held in my portfolio?” In the Feynman Study I covered a number of common options: 1. Use of a Strategic

Basic Portfolio and Current ETF Rankings

June 21, 2014 By Lowell Herr

The following data table includes the latest ETF rankings for 20 basic ETFs and the Buy-Hold-Sell recommendations. GLD is the only ETF under-performing SHY so I would avoid gold as an investment. ETF Rankings: The overall strength of this market is illustrated by the fact that not one of

“Markowitz” Projections During Great Recession

July 10, 2014 By Lowell Herr

Readers who have been following the discussion on future return projections will find the following information of interest. Using the Hoadley “Efficient Frontier” software, I set out to see what the optimal projections would be for three different time periods. In each case I selected two years of historical data

Why I Use Index ETFs

August 7, 2014 By Lowell Herr

Why I use Index Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). Let me count the ways. Simplicity: It saves the work of stock analysis. Increases probability of success: A literature search of index investing vs.