Barron's reports quarterly on exchange-traded mutual funds. Most of the report is pointless: short-term performance is essentially random, so looking at what a fund did last quarter is misleading. But the article includes one useful table, shown below. [more...]

At a restaurant in Palo Alto in 1999, I overheard a woman say she hoped her stock options would keep converting profitably, because "I need them to pay my rent." She was the Silicon Valley equivalent of today's house-flipper. [more...]

If you believe my recent articles, you don't want to hold broad index funds, nor growth stocks, nor bonds of duration greater than 1 year. You want to limit dollar assets, yet it's too expensive to invest in foreign assets on your own. Good grief, what's left? Finally, some answers. [more...]

Common wisdom is that index funds outperform managed investments over the long term, because market efficiency gives no advantage to judgment. Right? Well... generally. But here's an illustration of how one simple, basic judgment can provide superior returns. [more...]

Publicly registered, thinly traded real estate limited partnerships (RELPs) can provide attractive income with safety to the small investor. These are perhaps less risky than buying interests in new limited partnerships. [more...]