Photo credit: Bobak Ha’Eri, Wikipedia Creative Commons By Jason Zweig, Liam Pleven, Laura Saunders, Christina Binkley, AnnaMaria Andriotis, Robert Sabat, Dan Fitzpatrick, David Benoit and Brian Costa Dec. 26, 2014 10:59 a.m. ET It’s the time of year for reflection. The Wall Street Journal asked successful people in the world of finance and beyond...
Read MoreWhen Funds Insult Their Investors
By Jason Zweig | 11:24 am ET Dec. 26, 2014 Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet To the insult of chronic underperformance, mutual funds are adding the injury of unusually high taxes. The week of Dec. 15, dozens of mutual funds paid out taxable gains to their shareholders—even as the worst year of fund returns relative to market averages in modern history drew...
Read MoreWhat ‘Petro Panic’? How Investors Should Adjust Their Portfolios
By Jason Zweig | 11:30 am ET Dec. 19, 2014Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet Call it the “petro panic.” As oil prices collapsed, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 sank 5.1% in just seven trading days between Dec. 5 and their bottom (so far, at least) this past Tuesday. Then Janet Yellen rode to the rescue. On Wednesday, the Federal...
Read MoreFull Disclosure: Is Your Adviser Hiding Something?
By Jason Zweig | 1:04 pm ET Dec. 12, 2014Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet Time and again, investors are told to read the disclosure documents before they invest or hire a financial adviser. And so you should. But the required disclosures shouldn’t be the end of your conversation when you select an adviser; they need to be the beginning. Consider a...
Read More‘Juicing’ Stock Returns — and Getting Squeezed
By Jason Zweig | 2:00 pm ET Dec. 5, 2014Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet If you can’t beat ’em, juice ’em. Unable to pick stocks that outperform the market, dozens of mutual funds appear to be chasing higher dividend yields with a costly and potentially risky trading tactic that new research calls “juicing.” A study co-written by Lawrence Harris, a...
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