A comment to the SEC (this was made during the public comment period before the actual ETPs were launched) explaining why these things probably won't work as intended:

http://www.sec.gov/comments/sr-nasdaq-2 ... 4065-4.pdf

Finally VIX ETFs with no exposure to futures roll, contango, & backwardation: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/accushares-launches-revolutionary-vix-etfs-145654800.html What do the smart folks in this forum think about this? The intention behind the funds is good and I hope they work out....but yo...

That's a great article, MG.  It would be even better if results were presented in real rather than nominal terms, but it's still a very educational read.  From what I can guess just by eyeballing the first graph on that page, it shows a 48% (or thereabouts) total return from mid-1958 to 1-1-1982 fo...

All "rights" are ultimately protected by armed defenders, not happy feelings or pieces of paper. This is easy to forget and ignore when they are not under attack, but it is the nature of rights to need defending when the chips are down, or else they have no meaning. Well, you better arm t...

The wayback machine (internet archive) has part of it, but not the tables, at http://web.archive.org/web/20140605102007/http://europeanpermanentportfolio.blogspot.sg/p/permanent-portfolio.html For the one that still has the tables (since they were saved as GIFs or JPGs instead of as Google spreadsh...

I agree. Heck, drop everything and do the dividend. Imagine how glorious that would be. Bye bye unemployment comp, food stamps, social security, medicare, medicaid, SCHIP, obamacare, and others… hello $1,000 tax-free per person per month. So simple. So effective. You couldn't really drop Medicaid/M...

I thought this article from GMO gave a clear explanation of the key problem with having a volatile portfolio such as a stock heavy portfolio. The problem would be especially acute if the savers were adding to their savings during the saving period (eg adding a bit every year rather than just holdin...

However I disagree with D1984 about making it more conservative after only 10-15 years. Stocks have done crappily for that long in the past. I would say to wait at least 20 years, potentially more if a large number of the first years yield poor stock returns. If you want to make the CAGR game work ...

My kids have a 40 year investing horizon. When I wake early, I play with Peaktotrough.com and have been investigating many portfolio allocations and rebalancing bands. I ask for opinions on a revved up portfolio: maybe 33/33/33 with rebalancing every 3 years.  I notice a max drawdown in the past 43...

ETF Symbol: RSP Nice! I personally think this one is a no-brainer. I HIGHLY recommend you compare RSP with other large cap ETFs on Morningstar. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. However, the reality is RSP is more akin to a largish mid cap fund than a by the book large cap. Beta is higher t...

Quick question: How did the portfolio lose 1.61% in 2009? Equities were up that year by around 26% or 27% and bonds (even if you held the bond allocation in 100% LTTs) were down around 22%; if you had the bond allocation in an intermediate term ETF, the loss was even less than that. Cash might have...

Quick question: How did the portfolio lose 1.61% in 2009? Equities were up that year by around 26% or 27% and bonds (even if you held the bond allocation in 100% LTTs) were down around 22%; if you had the bond allocation in an intermediate term ETF, the loss was even less than that. Cash might have ...

look at the corporate logo, what does it remind you of? Uhhh.... A railroad wigwag? The logo on a Bayer aspirin tablet? A cross bun, looked at from above? Or how about this: " Simon's a computer, Simon has a brain, you either do what Simon says or else go down the drain! " In all seriousn...

NEWMONT MINING (NEM) "Adjusted close" (adjusted for dividends and splits) shown, further adjusted for inflation. Stock prices from Yahoo Finance, inflation data from http://data.okfn.org/    Constant 2015 U.S. Dollars This stock seems to be a deal in the $17-$20 range, historical...

Three words: Too much trouble. (IMHO) Really?....It takes me less than 20 minutes per month to do everything I mentioned above (well, except going to the bank to deposit the MOs...but since I typically have to go to the bank at least once a month or more anyhow, that isn't an extra trip and no more...

I'm pretty sure that I'm missing something fundamental - and would love to hear more from MG or others. It was a huge loss when the CME discontinued its T-Bill futures (mainly used for the T-Bill/Eurodollar spread).  It would have provided us with all the leverage we need to deal with the PP's Achi...

There is another account just like the Mango one (I think I mentioned it on this forum a few years back but I checked a few weeks ago and it's still available) just like this called the Union Plus prepaid VISA; I think it is still for only $5,000 though (and requires a direct deposit). if you just w...

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/your-money/how-many-mutual-funds-routinely-rout-the-market-zero.html They aren't really doing a fair, apples-to-apples comparison. First, they say that to "win" (i.e. to beat the market) each fund had to be in the top 25% over a given 12-month period. Whi...

One more thought.  Forgive me for sounding too cocky here, but I don’t think rising interests are going to hurt to PP much at all.  It may hurt overall performance for a year or two, but then the PP is likely to over-perform.  Here’s why I believe this.  Take a look at this historical chart of Inte...

BTW did anyone read through the Marco Rubio tax plan?  There's all kinds of praise for it but no solid info... I really like it.  Two income tax levels for personal (15%<$75K>35%), one for corporate/passthrough (25%).  All tax deductions eliminated but mortgage and charity. But we've seen this stor...

Since no one here on this forum (AFAIK) has access to CRSP, I think we mostly used the 20-year yields (available from Yahoo Finance from 1962 onwards) and extrapolated them out the 25 or 30 years and then calculated total return using bond price calculators or Excel. How exactly do you extrapolate ...

But, as always, only 10-year Treasuries. Where does one get data for 30-year Treasuries? For 1977 to the present, FRED and Yahoo Finance both have data for these. CRSP has daily 30-year bond total return (price plus interest) and daily 30-year bond yield data going back to late 1961 and monthly dat...

azmat9, Perhaps this is a stupid question but I am curious...how did you come up with a 32.1% performance for 2009 for this strategy? If you had picked the best two assets from 2008, you'd have picked gold and LTTs. In 2009, gold returned a little less than 25% IIRC and LTTs (the ETF TLT) returned -...

Please explain.  The country has been shifting leftward for decades.  I cannot fathom how you could say this. How specifically has it been shifting leftward? Can you imagine a Republican presidential candidate supporting universal healthcare and a quasi-guaranteed income and environmental regulatio...

You guys know who Peter Schiff is right?  I always think about that guy whenever this topic comes up. He was (regrettably) my broker years ago.  Anyways, I shot him over an email when I was shopping for an insurance policy back in 2008... ---------------- Me: Hi Peter, my financial planners have se...