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Friday, November 17, 2006

New Online Asset Allocation Tool

Dan Solin, the author of "The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read," yesterday announced the launch of a new web site. The site features an interactive asset allocation questionnaire which makes it easy to determine the best way to divide an investment portfolio between stocks (or equity funds) and bonds (or bond funds). The tool bases its results on several factors including age, risk tolerance, and specific investment goals. Your name and email are requested, but don't seem to be required.
(permalink) -- Posted by KenW

Friday, November 10, 2006

New Exchange-Traded Funds with a "Twist"

Katy Marquardt, Kiplinger.com, reports that Rydex, this week, introduced nine new exchange-traded funds [ETFs] that track sectors within Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. She said, "...these are sector ETFs with a twist. Unlike the S&P 500 index, which weights each stock in proportion to its market value, these ETFs divide all stocks equally." According to Marquardt, the idea, says Rydex, is to avoid overexposure to large companies and give more weight to shares of smaller companies, many of which would be excluded or given minimal weighting in a market-value weighted index. For a complete list of these new ETFs and more details, see the Kiplinger article, here.
(permalink) -- Posted by KenW

Friday, November 03, 2006

Small-Caps Led All Equity Mutual Funds in Strong October Rally

David Saito-Chung, Investor's Business Daily, reports that "U.S. equity mutual funds posted brisk gains across the board in October, as investors remained confident that both inflation and interest rates are under control." According to Lipper, diversified equity funds gained 3.48% in October, which puts them ahead 8.80% for the year so far. Continuing a five-year trend, small-cap equity funds outperformed large-cap equity funds. For performance details on 14 fund categories over multiple time periods, see the full IBD article, here, via Yahoo Finance.
(permalink) -- Posted by KenW