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Dear Reader,
March 13, 2012 - Vol 6 No 11
Fortigent and Robeco Boston Partners will be hosting an educational webinar on the topic of long/short investing. The webinar will take place on March 22nd at 4pm EST. Please register to attend this informative event.
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 How Do Spending Needs Evolve During Retirement?
By Wade Pfau
Most people's spending patterns change over the course of retirement - expenses look very different at 90 than they do at 65. Yet most research on retirement withdrawal rates relies on constant inflation-adjusted withdrawals to develop a client's forward-looking budget. Such an unrealistic, one-size-fits-all approach can be disastrous if a client inadvertently retires with insufficient savings. Is there a better way?
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Europe's "Back-Door QE": Good News for Global Bond Investors
Sponsored Content by OppenheimerFunds, Inc.
By restoring confidence in the global financial system, the European Central Bank's Long Term Refinancing Operation has allowed global bond investors to participate in attractive opportunities around the world.
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Europe Needs a Good Crisis
By Michael Edesess
When it comes to economies in general and financial crises in particular, it's remarkable how little we actually understand. While global financial actors struggle to restructure Greece's debt and to avoid contagion throughout Europe's periphery, we should recall the lessons of the Asian-Russian crisis 15 years ago. As the writings of Joseph Stiglitz and Martin Wolf remind us - and those events illustrate - crises are part of an evolutionary process, and the afflicted economies often emerge with surprising vigor.
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Breakthrough Success Lies Outside your Comfort Zone
By Dan Richards
Standout success is rare in every industry, including ours. That is the reality - by definition most companies are average performers. To achieve breakthrough results, you need to be willing to change your business model, as two top business strategists advocate.
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Concentrated Equity Triple Play Higher Returns, Lower Risk, Lower Correlations
By C. Thomas Howard, Ph.D.
Concentrating a portfolio on a few choice assets dramatically increases an investor's chance of superior performance. Nonetheless, most advisors and investors shun portfolio concentration as unacceptably risky. To a great extent, this is driven by the myth that adequate diversification is impossible unless one holds many stocks - a myth I will debunk.
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The Gutenberg Economy
By Michael Lewitt
As commentators near and far speculate on what 2012 will bring to the global economy and markets, there is little question that one factor will be decisive: the central banks' printing presses. Both the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (ECB) will keep printing dollars and euros around the clock until their presses run out of ink.
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Investor Communications: Are You Upbeat, or Upfront?
By Wendy J. Cook
When discussing scary markets with your clients, how do you combine the upbeat inspiration they may want with the upfront, honest information they may need to hear? Striking the right balance makes all the difference.
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Letter to the Editor - Tactical Asset Allocation v. Behavioral Finance
Ken Solow, Michael Kitces and Sauro Locatelli respond to Christopher Sidoni's article, The Conflict between Tactical Asset Allocation and
Behavioral Finance, which appeared on February 21.
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Featured Videos (click image to watch)
Commodities 101: Part 1
by Stan Kiang, VP, iShares Institutional Portfolio Management
Stan Kiang, from the iShares Portfolio Management team, talks about why commodities may be a good addition to your portfolio and outlines three different ways you can gain access to commodities.
 The Current State of Munis
by Russ Koesterich, Global iShares ETF Chief Investment Strategist
With the much anticipated "muni meltdown" never coming to pass in 2011, investors are wondering what to think about municipal bonds going into the new year. Russ Koesterich explains the recent selloff and provides some new context for this important asset class.
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Highlights from Market Commentaries
Here are the top three commentaries from last week.
 Warning: A New Who's Who of Awful Times to Invest
Last week, the estimated return/risk profile of the S&P 500 fell to the worst 2.5% of all observations in history on our measures. This is not a runaway bull market. Rather, it is a market that again stands near the highs of an extended but volatile trading range. Importantly, the market is again characterized by an extreme set of conditions that we've previously associated with a Who's Who of Awful Times to Invest.
Tags: Equities Bearish US
Warning: A New Who's Who of Awful Times to Invest by John P. Hussman of Hussman Funds
 Is Popularity Ruining Indexing?
Scarcity creates value in economics. In our view, what is scarce today is an equity manager doing long-term/long duration equity analysis and institutions/individual investors willing to employ them. Since 33% of the stock market is indexed and most of the other 67% works in very short analytic time frames, we believe the market must be as inefficient as it has ever been. Time is the ally of the long-duration common stock investor and we believe more so now, because indexing is getting too popular and investing in short durations is at epidemic levels.
Tags: Equities US
Is Popularity Ruining Indexing? by Bill Smead of Smead Capital Management
Defining Risk: Warren Buffett's Three Kinds of Investments
In his 2011 letter, Warren Buffett explained the purpose behind investing, the real definition of risk, and the three types of investments which congregate the marketplace. We believe Mr. Buffett struck at the core of the problem that most investors are having. They are defining risk primarily by what happens in the next twelve months, while the Oracle of Omaha is thinking in five to ten-year time frames, at a minimum. These short time frames are combined with eyes locked on the rearview mirror, inhibiting investors from participating in wealth creation as we look out into the future.
Tags: Equities US
Defining Risk: Warren Buffett's Three Kinds of Investments by Bill Smead of Smead Capital Management
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