Investment manias and financial bubbles have likely existed for as long as humans have been involved in financial markets. In this research piece we take a look at some of the more famous market bubbles in history and the extreme volatility and drawdowns they experienced. We then examine a...

Below we examine market outliers in financial markets. How much effect do these outliers have on long term performance? Can the investor prepare for these anomalies, or are they truly ‘black swans' that cannot be managed? In this issue we examine numerous global financial markets on daily and...

Does the intersection of two market anomalies set the stage for outsized performance? The first is what is known as the Presidential Cycle. This theory goes that equity returns during the third and fourth years of a President's term are more favorable than the first two years. A second market...

It is well known that pension funds in the United States are underfunded even if they achieve their projected 8% rate of return. The scope of pension underfunding increases to an astonishing level when more probable future rates are employed. A reduction in the future rate of return from 8% to...

We use the Shiller CAPE Model proposed by Mebane Faber as a template for the exploration of a variety of portfolio optimization methods. By virtue of the Model's systematic allocation to the 'cheapest' markets with the highest theoretical risk premia, the model has the potential to extract high...

Over seventy years ago Benjamin Graham and David Dodd proposed valuing securities with earnings smoothed across multiple years. Robert Shiller popularized this method with his version of this cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio (CAPE) in the late 1990s, and issued a timely warning of...

Many investors are surprised to learn that the largest asset class in the world is foreign debt. US investors often allocate very little to foreign bonds, and when they do, it is through capitalization weighted indexes. These indexes allocate the highest weighting to countries with the most debt...

Sorting stocks based on value and momentum factors historically has led to outperformance over the broad US stock market. However, any long-only strategy is subject to similar volatility and drawdowns as the S&P 500. Drawdowns of 50%, or even 60-90% make implementation of a stock strategy very...

Let's say one sets out to design a portfolio, knowing everything we know today about investing. Where would a logical, evidence-based investor even start? Investors today have access to more market data and strategic information than at any other time in history. While beneficial in some ways,...