by Jim Parker Vice President Dimensional Funds Advisors Investors are being flooded by a wave of securities known as “hybrids.” These instruments combine the qualities of debt and equity, and offer an additional return over plain cash. So far, so good; but what are the risks? Hybrids have been around a long time, but there [...]

The following story illustrates why it is important for individual investors to work with a fiduciary investment advisor instead of a non-fiduciary brokerage firm. If you are currently working with a brokerage firm, I recommend you look carefully at what you are being charged on for monthly statements for various services and transactions. – Charles [...]

Sweep finds big problems with sales practices for structured products, particularly RCNs; suitability a huge concern By Mark Schoeff Jr. July 27, 2011 3:29 pm ET Broker-dealers have been engaging in sales practices for structured products that hurt retail investors, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission report released on Wednesday. In sweep examinations of [...]

Navigating Structured Products by Brian Harris, Senior Editor, Dimensional Fund Advisors In recent years, structured products have gained favor among retail investors in Europe and the US. Investment banks promote these securities as sophisticated tools to help investors manage downside risk, enhance returns, or achieve other investment objectives. Sales have grown briskly since 2006, and [...]

Average Joe smacked by contango, pre-rolling, and Wall Street sharpies; profiting off ‘the dumb money’ The following article from Investor’s News is an eye opener. It is so easy to think investing is easy – think again. And, enjoy reading this article and take heed. Like so many investors in the spring of 2009, Gordon [...]

The first two columns in this series by Brad Steiman offered answers to frequently asked questions about active vs. passive investing, and explored a general set of ideas around market efficiency. The main purpose has been to help build a framework for educating clients on the debate. There are other good reasons to approach the [...]

In the past five years, actively managed stock and bond funds have shown a significant rate of non-survival, and among the survivors, only a few have consistently outperformed their category benchmark. Some people claim that strong financial markets offer opportunities for active managers to add value, while others say that active management works best in [...]

In his previous column, Brad addressed questions related to the theoretical aspects of market efficiency and active manager performance. In this second of his three-column series on active vs. passive investing, he explores the challenges of implementing these strategies in the real world. The previous column in this series focused on some theoretical aspects of [...]

Bradley G. Steiman is Director, Head of Canadian Financial Advisor Services  and Vice President for Dimensional Fund Advisors Canada ULC. This is the first of a three part interview series on the age old debate of Active vs Passive investment strategies. Q: If an active manager can gather information and gain insight or knowledge through [...]

The statement that a money manager or broker cannot, with consistency, outperform “the market” is cause for a fight with most Wall Street types. So, I guess the first thing we should do is ask and answer, “Is this true that money managers cannot consistently outperform “the market”? Let’s begin with some factual data and [...]