Gyroscopic Investing

I just got an email from Vanguard:

ESG investing offers a way for you to invest in funds that consider environmental, social, and governance issues like natural resources, community impact, or gender diversity on corporate boards. It's a great option if you're looking to complement your portfolio with funds that reflect what matters most to you.

We currently have 4 ESG stock funds and are pleased to bring you Vanguard ESG U.S. Corporate Bond ETF (VCEB)―a low-cost, broadly diversified index fund with a 0.12% expense ratio.

Does anyone know whether they have any ex-ESG funds, or plans to have some? I'm thinking about writing to ask. Sounds like a good investment.

People ask about this once in a while. The closest answer I've seen to anti-ESG is a list of "sin stocks": alcohol, tobacco, gambling, oil.
It made a lot more sense 10 years ago. These days, and especially during the pandemic, the ESG stocks and bonds (whatever they are) sound better than those four.

i always believed we should leave our morals and religion out of investing .... make your money on whatever you can , then support your cause with the profits if you feel that way

P.S. The young hipster gazing dreamily into the distance was the perfect photo for that page. Well done, Vanguard.

The best article I've seen on ESG investing recently and maybe ever is this recent post from Mr. Money Mustache:

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2020/08 ... investing/

He asks all the right questions. Not anything I personally am interested in pursuing but I think interest in these issues is partially responsible for welcome recent changes such as Vanguard and some other top mutual fund companies becoming more transparent about their votes on things like executive compensation.

Kevin K. wrote: ↑Thu Sep 24, 2020 5:40 pm The best article I've seen on ESG investing recently and maybe ever is this recent post from Mr. Money Mustache:

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2020/08 ... investing/

He asks all the right questions. Not anything I personally am interested in pursuing but I think interest in these issues is partially responsible for welcome recent changes such as Vanguard and some other top mutual fund companies becoming more transparent about their votes on things like executive compensation.

So the top holdings of the "socially responsible" ETF are Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet (Google).

Wow! That's pretty close to my list of the companies I think are the LEAST socially responsible.

Xan wrote: ↑Thu Sep 24, 2020 5:45 pm

Kevin K. wrote: ↑Thu Sep 24, 2020 5:40 pm The best article I've seen on ESG investing recently and maybe ever is this recent post from Mr. Money Mustache:

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2020/08 ... investing/

He asks all the right questions. Not anything I personally am interested in pursuing but I think interest in these issues is partially responsible for welcome recent changes such as Vanguard and some other top mutual fund companies becoming more transparent about their votes on things like executive compensation.

So the top holdings of the "socially responsible" ETF are Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet (Google).

Wow! That's pretty close to my list of the companies I think are the LEAST socially responsible.

I believe that ESG stands for:

Environment
Social
Governance

Therefore, each company is graded on how well they achieve on each of the three, not just Social.

As I was recently doing my over a year and one-half catch up reading of my personal finance related magazines, there were quite a few articles on ESG investing. Many more than there had been in the past. Each evaluator grades each company differently than another. There are currently no hard and fast standards as to what merits a certain grade. Therefore each evaluator has its own set of standards.

On what basis (specifically) do you rate each of the above to be the least? I use each of the above's products or services quite often (though I can go days without using a product or service of Alphabet). The others I'm generally using every day, oftentimes quite extensively.

They each got to be as big as they are by providing the best of its class services or products.

Vinny

They make money by spying on people (Facebook, Google), they use their positions to advance odious political agendas (Google, maybe Facebook), they drive independent retailers out of business (Amazon), they create vertical monopolies of content creation and distribution, which I object to (Amazon), they take computing and networking backwards by mandating walled gardens (Apple), historically they've held back computing by a mile by forcing OEMs to never preinstall other operating systems, but admittedly they've been better lately, and also spy on users through their OS (Microsoft).

Xan wrote: ↑Thu Sep 24, 2020 1:47 pm I just got an email from Vanguard:

ESG investing offers a way for you to invest in funds that consider environmental, social, and governance issues like natural resources, community impact, or gender diversity on corporate boards. It's a great option if you're looking to complement your portfolio with funds that reflect what matters most to you.

We currently have 4 ESG stock funds and are pleased to bring you Vanguard ESG U.S. Corporate Bond ETF (VCEB)―a low-cost, broadly diversified index fund with a 0.12% expense ratio.

Does anyone know whether they have any ex-ESG funds, or plans to have some? I'm thinking about writing to ask. Sounds like a good investment.

The market is on this one for you Xan. https://investorplace.com/2020/03/best- ... -vice-etf/

If you can find it Jared Dillian had an article on just this issue 9/23.

Maybe go long on a total market fund and short the ESG fund?

The only ESG fund that I own is Direxion's ESNG, I pair it with QMJ, both Long Short strategy ETF's. They've both performed as hoped since inception.