I live in Europe and the majority of this blog readers are European as well. The most recurrent complaint I receive is that I focus on USD investment without acknowledging the related FX risks for European investors. The Model Portfolio is built with USD assets simply because it was easier Read more
Not a long time ago I wrote a post about Target Date Funds and their struggle to survive an inflation shock. With a target post-retirement allocation of 30% stocks / 70% bonds, they are basically bond funds. I recently read two pieces about bonds and retirement strategies that fit nicely Read more
The first days of August have been engaging. I am unsure if many people were waiting so eagerly for some action for so long that they jumped at the first opportunity or if what happened was short but meaningful. For the right or wrong reasons, everyone had to comment. I Read more
It has been a while since I wrote about my whacky alternative investments. Two things happened in the past: P2P Lending I am left with some boomer platforms in this area. Maybe some of these names would generate a bit of nostalgia in the reader; what impressed me the most Read more
I honestly do not know why the “holy s*&t Target Date Funds must have had an awful period” just came to my mind. I wrote a post on the infamous the Cederburg’s paper, A Critical Assessment of Lifecycle Investment Advice, not a long time ago. One of the (few?) reasonable Read more
I wrote an introduction to alternative investments here. Actually, it is more about the risks of alternatives, since the whole blog is about the pros ;). “Catastrophe bonds (or “CAT” bonds) were first introduced to help strengthen reinsurance companies’ balance sheets in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Hurricane Read more
A few days ago a reader suggested I check Testfol.io and…I am so glad he did! (another guy on Twitter later told me that their database is not always correct, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). When it works, Testfolio is the best of PortfolioVisualizer with the best of PortfolioCharts. PV was constrained by Read more
In April 2022, I introduced on this blog The Italian Leather Sofa Model Portfolio. As a reminder, here is the portfolio composition: The idea behind the portfolio is stolen from here. The link offers the best explanation to what I think is the most common question related to it, i.e. why Read more
[yes, I copied this post title from a famous newsletter, what can I say…] Last week Lorenzo Biagi (author, financial advisor and…finfluencer? ;)) posted the following picture, unfortunately without the source links: These two graphs offered him the opportunity to stress how bonds might be unattractive at this point, especially Read more
“The world’s most sophisticated institutions invest using asset/liability matching strategies to help them properly navigate their liquidity needs over time. Banks, pensions and other large institutions don’t rely on vague “risk profiling” processes or Modern Portfolio Theory and instead use practical asset/liability matching strategies. Retail investors, on the other hand, Read more