CLS Blog
Bad Investing 101
August 22, 2014
Content provided by Grant Engelbart, CLS Portfolio Manager Let’s step out of the world of “best practices” and “prudent management” for a second and explore some of the things you should avoid when investing. I may or may not have experienced or committed the following acts in my personal investing, but either way it should…
Money Market Reforms Are Good
August 19, 2014
Content provided by Marc Pfeffer, CLS Senior Portfolio Manager As someone who has managed money market funds over four different decades, I probably have a much more biased opinion as to the benefits they provide to all investors. And, I think some of the stories in the press of late have been a bit sensational…
Valuations Matter
August 4, 2014
Content Provided by Paula Wieck, CLS Manager of Investment Research Below is a chart showing the Shiller’s CAPE (or cynically adjusted price-to-earnings) ratio levels and corresponding market returns. The green bars represent the cheapest/lowest CAPE ratio whereas the dark blue represents the most expensive/highest CAPE ratio. As a reminder, the CAPE ratio is a smoothed…
Why Use Fundamentally-Weighted Indexes?
July 29, 2014
Content provided by Rusty Vanneman, CLS Chief Investment Officer What is the difference between a “capitalization-weighted” market index and a “fundamentally-weighted” index? Okay, maybe this question isn’t the top question on most ETF investors’ minds, but I believe in the years ahead, more and more ETF investors will ask this very question. First things first,…
I Did It! What Do I Do Now?
July 10, 2014
Content provided by J.J. Schenkelberg, CLS Senior Portfolio Manager Have you ever set a goal? Something you strived for that required time, patience and hard work to achieve. Maybe it was completing an educational degree, passing a test, running a race, losing weight, or something as simple as waking up a little earlier. Easier said…
How to Build Trust
June 27, 2014
Content provided by Sierra Morris, CLS Junior Investment Research Analyst I think we can all agree that trust in financial professionals was tarnished following the crisis in 2008, and still has not been fully recovered. You can see and hear it anywhere – from Occupy Wall Street to your neighbor who talks about how they…
The Benefits of a Transfer on Death Account
June 25, 2014
Content provided by Nate Wattier, CLS Client Services Manager Earlier this year, I walked a bereaved daughter through the frustrating task of setting up an estate account for a small, individually registered account which had been set up years ago by her recently-deceased mother. Not only was this poor woman coping with the death of…