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November 6, 2018 Mutual Funds No Comments

Three Steps That Help Make This One Of The Best Mutual Funds

Three Steps That Help Make This One Of The Best Mutual Funds Broad market pullbacks are tough on most diversified stock fund managers. The pullback that began in October is no exception. Colin Hudson, a manager of $ 1 billion Natixis U.S. Equity Opportunities Fu… Continue reading at investors.com Mutual Funds: How To Find The […]

November 24, 2017 Personal One Comment

4 Money-Management Tips To Help You Bootstrap Your Business

4 Money-Management Tips To Help You Bootstrap Your Business Sometimes, people who aspire to be business owners have this idea that they’ll pitch their idea, get millions of dollars in funding and start spending money like pro athletes. But, if they’re anything like the average American, they’ll have an … Continue reading at msn.com Curtis […]

January 12, 2016 Mutual Funds No Comments

How Demographic Trends Help Explain Rising Cash Balances And Persistent Outflows In Mutual Funds And Pension Funds

How Demographic Trends Help Explain Rising Cash Balances And Persistent Outflows In Mutual Funds And Pension Funds For all of the digital ink spent recently on the two interrelated topics of investment managers raising cash holdings and mutual fund outflows, very, very little of has been spent on why we have seen these new trends […]

November 1, 2015 Earnings 12 Comments

Earnings help make beating Wall Street that much sweeter

Earnings help make beating Wall Street that much sweeter Still, not many company have missed. Of the first 340 S&P 500 companies to report earnings for the third quarter, 76 percent of them have beaten estimates, FactSet reports, which is above historical averages. Still, it hasn’t been all peaches and cream … Continue reading at […]

October 24, 2015 Mutual Funds 11 Comments

Amazon, McDonald’s Help Power Stock Mutual Funds In Week

COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK NOTICE | PRIVACY | TERMS OF USE Notice: Information contained herein is not and should not be construed as an offer, solicitation, or recommendation to buy or sell securities. The information has been obtained from sources we believe to be reliable; however no guarantee is made or implied with respect to its […]

"Check references and Better Business Bureau ratings", Lubaszka adds. "Deal with a company that takes an active interest in doing business with you. World Financial, for example, offers a five-star customer satisfaction guarantee. If questions are not answered or we fail to respond to a prospect's call or email within 24 hours, that person receives a one ounce silver American Eagle coin free of charge. A financial advisor's job is to ease the investment process, and to insure that customers get the most for their money. Good advisers are merely good, but the best are worth their weight in gold."

Wherever you look, you will find various rating systems on mutual funds, each of which uses a different approach. All of them are designed to weed through the thousands of funds to get to the best ones. But is there really such a thing? Does a high rating really mean a fund will do better in the future? Many people seem to think so. A recent study showed that Morningstar, North America's most recognized rating system for funds, has a tremendous influence on fund sales. If Morningstar gives a five-star rating, those funds typically enjoy increased sales as a result.

Past performance is no guarantee of the future. You have probably heard this disclaimer a thousand times before, but it is really important to understand. Most rating systems have little to no predictive element in them. It's natural to think that the best performer of the past will be the best performer in the future. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Just think about it; if it were that easy, investors would just continue to buy last year's winners knowing that they will be this year's winners. And that seldom works.