This Finance survey examines (a) In general, absent any proprietary information, a retail equity investor cannot consistently make accurate predictions about whether the price of an individual stock will rise or fall on a given day; (b) In general, absent any proprietary information, a retail equity investor can expect to do better by holding a well-diversified, low-fee, passive index fund than by holding a few stocks
Keyword: investment portfolio
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panics passive investing patent trolls patents payday lending payroll taxes peer review Pell grants pension funds pensions personal finance pharmaceutical industry physical infrastructure physical risks platforms policy advice policy entrepreneurs political appointments political economy pollution populism portfolio allocation portfolio diversification portfolio management portfolio theory Portugal poverty poverty reduction pre-school education prescription drugs President Biden President Obama President Trump price cap price caps price controls price gouging primary voting private credit private equity private firms private funds private schools privatization product quality production production capacity productivity professional sports teams profitability profits prohibition property rights property taxes protectionism psychology public corporations public debt public finances public goods public health public investment public ownership public policy public procurement public revenues public schools public transport public utilities publishers purchasing power
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This Finance survey examines that Harry Markowitz, the Nobel Prize-winning pioneer of modern portfolio theory, passed away earlier this year: https://afajof.org/news/in-memoriam-harry-markowitz-past-president-of-the-american-finance-association-1927-2023/ (a) Application of the principles of modern portfolio theory allows investors in practice to achieve substantial improvements in the risk-expected return trade-off relative to naive strategies such as equal-weighting that do not take account of return covariances; (b) A continued fall in commercial real estate valuations would trigger another round of banking panic
This Finance survey examines (a) A mandate for public companies to provide climate-related disclosures (such as their greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint) would provide financially material information that enables investors to make better decisions; (b) A mandate for public companies to provide climate-related disclosures would provide material information that enables investors to make better decisions with regards to non-financial objectives (such as aiding portfolio choice based on ESG principles); (c) A mandate for public companies to provide climate-related disclosures would induce them to reduce their climate impact substantially.
This week's European Economic Experts Panel statements:
A) Allowing short selling of financial securities, such as stocks and government bonds, leads to prices that, on average, are closer to their fundamental values.
B) Requiring investors to disclose short positions in a stock at the equivalent threshold as they are required to do for long positions would result in significantly less short selling.
C) Regulatory restrictions on short selling - such as no naked shorts, temporary bans in times of crisis - make it difficult for optimists and pessimists to have equal influence on asset prices.
This week's US Economic Experts Panel statements:
A) Bans on the short selling of financial securities, such as stocks and government bonds, would lead to prices that are further, on average, from their fundamental values.
B) Requiring investors to disclose short positions in a stock at the equivalent threshold as they are required to do for long positions would improve the accuracy of stock prices.
This week's IGM Economic Experts Panel Statement:
In general, absent any inside information, an equity investor can expect to do better by holding a well-diversified, low-fee, passive index fund than by holding a few stocks.
This week’s European Economic Experts Panel statement:
In general, absent any inside information, an equity investor can expect to do better by holding a well-diversified, low-fee, passive index fund than by holding a few stocks.
This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statement:
In general, absent any inside information, an equity investor can expect to do better by choosing a well-diversified, low-cost index fund than by picking a few stocks.
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