Fourth Quarter 2013|Jim Williams| 2013 will be remembered as the year the sky stayed aloft, despite all predictions. With all the bad things that were supposed to happen and that were supposed to drive the financial markets into a tizzy; or a series of tizzies, who would have thought that the equities markets would produce the best year in 16 years? It's probably best not to expect another year like 2013 anytime soon. What are the lessons we learned?
Third Quarter 2013|Jim Williams| A few weeks ago, something occurred that we are proud of. The Nobel committee announced that University of Chicago Professor and Dimensional Fund Advisors board member Eugene F. Fama, has been named a co-recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, in recognition for his contributions to the “empirical analysis of asset prices.”
Second Quarter 2013|Jim Williams| The markets were reacting to recent comments by Fed Chairman Bernanke, signaling that the Fed’s easing policy will be tapered off or pared back only if economic and financial conditions improve. This last signal was somewhat of a retraction of the previous Fed statement saying the central bank plans to slow the pace of asset purchases. The easing policy has held interest rates down at historically low levels. In the context of a national debt exceeding $17 trillion, we have to wonder if the debt level is a problem. Let’s consider.
Third Quarter 2012|Jim Williams| Until recently, the only way to secure guaranteed income has been as an add-on to a variable annuity. But now there is an alternative.
Second Quarter 2012|Jim Williams| Last quarter I wrote about the Behavior Gap, primarily as it relates to investing, and suggested some simple ways to close the gap. This quarter the focus is on some factors that support behavior change.
First Quarter 2012|Jim Williams| It has been well documented that the overall performance of mutual funds is almost always quite a bit better than performance received by individual mutual fund investors. How can this be?