The Permanent Portfolio, Investing, Finance and Random Thoughts.
Posts tagged Investing
Callan Periodic Table of Investing Returns 2011
4 months ago
by Craig Rowland
in Investing
I love the Callan Periodic Table of Investing Returns. This chart shows major asset classes and how they’ve done from 1992-2011. It shows very vividly the unpredictable nature of the markets and why holding a diversified investing portfolio is a good idea. It doesn’t show gold and long-term bonds that the Permanent Portfolio also uses, but the general idea still comes across.
Callan Periodic Table of Investing Returns
Thanks to the people at Callan for putting this together.
The Suicide Portfolio
8 months ago
by Craig Rowland
in Investing
Over on the forum, member Tortoise came up with a great idea. Instead of trying to make a winning portfolio, why not make one designed to lose as much money as quickly as possible? He called it The Suicide Portfolio. The concept is simple. Instead of following a low-cost passive investing portfolio like Harry Browne’s Permanent Portfolio strategy, you instead hand pick stocks, mutual funds, etc. But you pick these assets using anti-Permanent Portfolio ideas. Use market timing. Go high leverage. Day trade penny stocks. The sky is the limit (or maybe we should say the bottom is the limit).
Investors started with $100K and the goal of the game is to lose it as quickly as possible. After a 12 weeks it looks like we have some people who have a knack for losing piles of cash. Sadly, I didn’t make a serious entry into this contest but intend to do so next time around. However, I see bright futures for the participants managing Hedge Funds on Wall St. with these performance numbers. L82Start is just about ready to start an investing newsletter at this point!
Thanks Tortoise for coming up with this great idea. This is a fun example of how not to invest.
Investing and Speculating – Human Mindset
1 year ago
by Craig Rowland
in Investing
Conventional wisdom on Investing vs. Speculating
Speculating – When something an investor doesn’t own goes up in value. e.g. “Well that asset has been going up, but that’s just a bunch of speculators causing the price increase.”
Investing – When something an investor does own goes up in value. e.g “I am 100% in that asset because it’s a fine investment and my brilliant market analysis has rewarded me with good profits.”
The frame of mind of a person plays a part in how they may be viewing various investments. Use caution when reading investment advice and consider that the person giving it may have certain biases one way or another.
