Author - Buz Livingston, CFP®

Even if you have not been good this year, fret not, you still have something under the tree from me. Every six months, the S&P Indices publishes a review of mutual fund performance specifically tracking the performance by the hot hand of prior years. They examine the persistence top half and top quartile (for Auburn folks the latter translates to top 25 percent) funds exhibit.

For actively managed mutual funds, the results are the proverbial lump of coal. Of the funds in the top half in September 2005, only 4.16 percent of large-company funds and 4.55 percent of small company …

Comparing 2008 and 2010

A couple of years ago, reviewing portfolios with clients presented slight problems.  Lest we forget in October of 2008 every asset class went down.  The entire financial system was being battered by a Category Five hurricane.  Remember how portfolio values plummeted, fast-forward two years and meetings are more enjoyable.

We use Principia™ from Morningstar and a report generated last week brought a few salient points.   Morningstar analyzes portfolios by choosing the best/worst three-month, one-year and three-year return over the last ten years.   What fascinated me was the best three-year return for this portfolio (April 2003 to …