by Fred Penney
on April 8, 2017
If you enjoy podcasts as much as I do and you have a strong interest in finance and investing, I think you will be fascinated with a new podcast that started in January. Adventures in Finance is hosted by Grant Williams (@ttmygh) and Aaron Chan (@macrodidact). The guests on the podcast are the absolute best and the production is high end. An interesting feature on the podcast is a discussion with fund managers, professors, highly successful investors, etc. titled “What I Got Wrong” in which the guest discusses a mistake they made in the past which is usually a bad investment. It is a reminder that even the very best in the world of finance and investing are wrong on a regular basis.
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by Fred Penney
on March 1, 2017
My ETF momentum strategy gained 1.90% in March giving it a 4.16% return year-to-date and 4.38% 12-month return. Volatility has ticked up a little since the end of February but is still in my comfort zone.
For the first time, I am holding a water ETF namely CGW (Guggenheim S&P Global Water).
Daily portfolio values are provided by Collective2.
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by Fred Penney
on July 25, 2016
Early this year, I was asked to join a new band as the acoustic guitarist. Over the past six months we have recorded an album with fourteen original songs. We aren’t full-time musicians so the recording was done as all five members could find time. The album, Sweet Little Thing by Somebody Famous, has just been made available on Spotify and our first gig is at The Gathering in Burlington next month.
I’d love to hear your feedback on the album. If you don’t have a Spotify account you can sign up for a free one.
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by Fred Penney
on April 1, 2016
January wasn’t kind to investors and my momentum models both suffered setbacks that month. That said, both Pure Momentum (ETF model) and Pure Momentum II (US stock model) both rebounded in February and March. The strategies are down 2.7% and 3.7% respectively year-to-date.
PURE MOMENTUM
PURE MOMENTUM II
Pure Momentum can be followed on Collective2 here and Pure Momentum II can be followed here.
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by Fred Penney
on February 17, 2016
I have become less active here lately as I was invited to join a project that has nothing to with investing but is very interesting from a personal point of view. Another reason for my lack of frequent posts can be understood from an excellent post by Larry Swedroe at ETF.com.
The post discusses how stock investing strategies which have stood the test of time for many decades will have periods of underperformance. We can expect the duration of underperformance to last as much as ten years. This expectation of underperformance is fundamental to understanding why it is so difficult for us investors to stick with a proven strategy – we hate underperformance and are likely to change strategies when a given strategy underperforms for as little as one year never mind ten years.
With January being such a terrible month for most investors, including me, I went on a financial media diet. I intentionally abstained from watching or reading financial media as much as possible. While the markets tossed and turned, I sat on my hands and not once checked on the performance of my strategies. I wanted to see if I could do that for a month as I hadn’t done it before and it wasn’t difficult at all.
I strongly encourage you to read Swedroe’s article. It is one that I plan to read at least annually.
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