Harvard and Yale Endowments 2008 Performance

was...Harvard: 8.6%Yale: 4.5%Pretty impressive considering stocks were down more than -10% over the same time period. Below is a table of the five main asset classes over the past year and their total returns. The buy and hold allocation is the same allocation mentioned in my paper, namely a 20% allocation to the same five asset classes....

LinkFest

I am marking the bottom in stocks here. My mom just called asking if she should sell some of her stocks - and she has nailed every bottom for as far back as I can remember.----A Dark Mood Among Hedge Funds - sounds like the perfect time to start one...----SEC may require hedge funds to disclose short positions...

Yawn….

That is likely your reaction to this market turmoil if you have been following my global tactical model. It is risk management at its simplest, and depending on your start date, your portfolio would be 80-100% in cash/bonds right now (with 20% in commodities). There is a little (ok, A LOT of) guilty pleasure watching the market dump while...

ETFs that generate K-1s

For those looking to avoid the headaches of dealing with K-1's on your taxes, here is a short list of ETFs that require the filing of one (there are about 120 securities I have found that generate them). In addition to many of the energy related closed-end funds and private equity groups (like KKR, Blackstone, Icahn) here are...

Dogs in the Dumpster

Not surprising to readers of World Beta, but the Net Payout Yield strategy is beating all the dividend strategies this year (and did so in 2007 as well). Before you leave any comments please read the background posts on net payout yield - it is NOT dividend yield.Flying Five (Link to original post here.)Dogs of the Dow (Link...

Palin and Hillary

Too funny (Hat tip: CC). http://www.hulu.com/embed/wyUOSXxioQGZEeIn9cTcyw

Closed-end funds

Wow. There are currently over 100 CEFs that trade at a greater than -15% discount to their NAV. Enterprising investors could be scooping up some funds at nice discounts. ETFConnect is my favorite resource here.  I seem to remember Herzfeld tracks the % of CEFs trading at a discount?

LinkFest

80-100% cash & bonds is a good place to be right now.I think my grandmother's expression to today's market turmoil would be, "Lawd have mercy!".----It is really a shame Wealth Manager magazine doesn't do a better job with their website because James Picerno has an excellent overview of the listed hedge fund space.----Short Target.----A short seller thinks we have...

Mean Reversion After Bad Months

Maybe the market is trying to tell you something - if you just listened? I have written about this subject a number of times. For background you can check out some earlier posts: Time to Put Money to Work Mean Reversion After Bad Months When is the Time to Buy Homebuilders? When to Buy Japan? Idiocracy and Mean Reversion In one study I examined asset...

What Is An ACL Worth?

3 ETFs Morningstar would like to see. They are not really correct on the momentum front, as Powershares has the Value Line Timeliness (PIV) and Technical Leaders (PDP) ETFs.Direxion had some volatility ETFs in the works, but it looks like they may not make it to market.----Time killer of the day - Chronotron.----Like I needed another excuse to...