Asset allocation funds are mutual funds whose managers believe they can improve returns and/or reduce risk by switching back and forth among stocks, bonds and cash. Many in the investment industry promote these funds as a simple and profitable way to assemble a diversified portfolio. An asset allocation fund aims to shift its portfolio allocations between stocks, bonds and cash in order to capitalize on perceived investment opportunities in any one of those classes. For example, if the managers are convinced the bond market is depressed and due for an upswing, they may invest heavily in fixed-income investments for a few months to take advantage of the change. Some managers make their own judgments when choosing between stocks, bonds and cash. Others use what insiders call a “black box”, a computer program that makes trading decisions based on a preselected set of rules for interpreting financial statistics. Computer modelling gives this investment approach the appearance of being scientific and relatively foolproof. Yet it is just as likely to detract from a portfolio's long-term return as it is to add to it. At TSI Network, we feel investments like asset allocation mutual funds are heavily marketed with brokers. We recommend using our three-part Successful Investor philosophy:
Discover how to make the most of your stock investments in this free special report, Stock Market Investing Strategy: Pat McKeough's Conservative Investing Guide for Making Money & Cutting Risk, from TSI Network.
Asset allocation funds work great in hindsight—but they’re far less effective at forecasting the future.
Traditionally, asset-allocation funds adjust their portfolio weightings between stocks, bonds and cash in order to capitalize on perceived shorter-term investment opportunities in any one of those classes. For example, if the… Read More
Fund providers in Canada and the U.S. continue to actively introduce new ETFs. This month we highlight three recent additions.
Bank of Montreal (BMO) recently launched three asset allocation ETFs that invest in other BMO ETFs.
Each of the three ETFs acts as “fund of funds,” with its… Read More
A: The Vanguard Conservative ETF Portfolio, $24.04, symbol VCNS on Toronto, holds roughly 40% of its assets in Vanguard stock ETFs and 60% in bond ETFs. This $117.8 million ETF started up on January 25, 2018, and has a 0.22% MER. The ETF yields 3.1%.
The… Read More
A: The Vanguard Conservative ETF Portfolio, $24.70, symbol VCNS on Toronto, holds roughly 40% of its assets in Vanguard stock ETFs and 60% in bond ETFs. This $27 million ETF started up on January 25, 2018, and has a 0.22% MER.
The Vanguard Balanced ETF Portfolio,… Read More
Are you aware of what goes into managing investment funds—and the fees that go along with it?
It’s important to know the ins and outs of the different styles (and fees) in managing investment funds.
Below we share information on five types of funds that investors find… Read More
The best long term mutual funds hold well-diversified portfolios of high quality stocks—stocks you can hold for a long time.
The topic of how to pick the best long-term mutual funds came up at the office recently. About a month ago, a friend’s son was considering… Read More
Asset allocation funds aim to improve returns and/or reduce risk by switching back and forth among stocks, bonds and cash. We think they are likely to hurt your portfolio returns rather than enhance them.
Asset allocation funds are mutual funds whose managers believe they can… Read More
Asset allocation funds are mutual funds whose managers believe they can improve returns and/or reduce risk by switching back and forth among stocks, bonds and cash. Many in the investment industry promote these funds as a simple and profitable way to assemble a diversified… Read More
Many people in the investment industry promote asset allocation funds as a simple and profitable way to assemble a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds and cash equivalents.
But as is so often the case, the product rarely lives up to the hype.
How asset allocation funds actually… Read More
Many investors see asset allocation funds as an easy and profitable way to diversify between stocks, bonds and cash equivalents.
What you get when you buy units of asset allocation funds
Asset allocation funds are mutual funds that can shift their portfolio allocations between stocks, bonds and… Read More
The Successful Investor Inc. and its affiliate Successful Investor Wealth Management (referred to hereafter as TSI Network) know that you care how information about you is used and shared, and we appreciate your trust that we will do so carefully and sensibly. This notice describes our privacy policy. By visiting websites owned by or associated with TSI Network, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
This privacy policy is applicable to all TSI Network Visitors, Clients, Employees, Suppliers, Web sites, Management, and all other interested parties. Any links to or from our site are not covered by this policy. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of every site that you visit.
The privacy of the site/store visitor is very important to TSI Network, and is respected at all times. The information we receive from customers helps us to personalize and continually improve your online experience at TSI Network.
We do not collect or disclose personal information, except when it is provided to us voluntarily by the site/store visitor with their consent.
We store subscriber and password files containing personal information securely. These files are stored in secure areas that are not accessible to the general public. We are always working to ensure the security of your personal information.
We are continuously in the process of improving our sites and services. If any new features or policies require a change to this current policy, we will post a clear notice of this change on pages of our site where the privacy policy appears. The principle behind this privacy policy is to collect information with your knowledge and consent.
What personal information do we collect?
The information we receive from customers helps us personalize and continually improve your online experience at TSI Network. TSI Network may collect personal information online for all legal purposes, which include, but are not limited to:
Information You Give Us: We receive and store any information you enter on our website or give us in any other way through sign-up forms or ordering forms for publications and services. You can choose not to provide certain information, but then you might not be able to take advantage of many of our services and features. We use the information that you provide for such purposes as responding to your requests, customizing your web browsing experience for you, improving our website, and communicating with you.
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Information from Other Sources: For reasons such as improving personalization of our service (for example, providing better product recommendations or special offers that we think will interest you), we might receive information about you from other sources and add it to our account information. We also sometimes receive updated delivery and address information from our shippers or other sources so that we can correct our records and deliver your next purchase or communication more easily.
We do reserve the right, however, to collect and perform statistical analyses of the internet traffic to our website for our internal use. However, information collected does not allow us to identify any individual, and will not collect any personal information of the visitor. Furthermore, we do not sell, rent or loan to any outside parties the information collected and analyzed.
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Does TSI Network Use the Information It Receives?
"Contact Us" and Comment Features: TSI Network encourages visitors to its websites to contact us with questions and comments. Email addresses and other information of persons using these features may be collected in order to facilitate our responses to those inquiries.
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Except as provided herein, TSI Network will not sell or rent personal information about you to unaffiliated third parties.
We may disclose personal information you have provided through our websites, for the above purposes, to persons or companies that we retain to carry out and other activities for which you have registered or in which you have otherwise asked to participate. In particular, we may for these purposes transfer information to any country (including the USA and other countries which may not offer the same level of data protection as Canada). We also will disclose personal information if required by law, including compliance with warrants, subpoenas or other legal processes.
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TSI Network does everything possible to prevent unauthorized intrusion to its websites and the alteration, acquisition or misuse of personal information by unauthorized persons. Notably passwords submitted by users of our websites are encrypted using encryption mechanisms. However, TSI Network cautions visitors to its websites that no network, including the Internet, is entirely secure. Accordingly, we cannot be responsible for loss, corruption or unauthorized acquisition of personal information provided to our websites, or for any damages resulting from such loss, corruption or unauthorized acquisition.
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What Choices Do I Have?
Changes to this Policy
This Policy is the sole authorized statement of TSI Network's practices with respect to the collection of personal information through TSI Network's websites and the subsequent use and disclosure of such information. Any summaries of this Policy generated by third party software or otherwise (for example, in connection with the "Platform for Privacy Preferences" or "P3P") shall have no legal effect, are in no way binding upon TSI Network, shall not be relied upon in substitute for this Policy, and neither supersede nor modify this Policy.
TSI Network may revise this Policy from time to time.
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