Investing on the edge: Weekly update on tech, social media and investing (May 22, 2012)
Subscribers (free) to my newsletter received the following this week. It’s my best-shot at providing an overview on
- important research and new investment strategies
- new technologies, apps, and platforms for investors
- insights into the behavior of investors
- changes in the investment business
Investment Products
How fund firms are luring advisors to use their products (Financial Planning)
Posted: May 17, 2012
This article describes the tactics fund firms are using (“value-added programs”) to encourage the usage and sale of their products for/to clients.
Vanguard lapping index fund competition (InvestmentNews)
Posted: May 15, 2012
Vanguard has seen over $65 billion in inflows, 4X the money its largest competitor (PIMCO) has seen.
AlphaClone signs partnership to license hedge fund replication index (AlphaClone)
Posted: May 15, 2012
AlphaClone, a platform that empowers creative hedge fund replication strategies, has taken a step that puts it one step closer to launching a fund based on its data.
Navigating the ETF Galaxy (Systematic Relative Strength)
Posted: May 15, 2012
This article by the folks at Dorsey Wright examines the state-of-the-art in ETF land and where the market is pointing for future growth.
Social Media, Technology and Investing
Financial services startup sector continues solid growth (analysis) (VentureBeat)
Posted: May 15, 2012
Money’s flowing to fintech startups. Here’s some research on how much money has been raised to date, who the winners have been and where the market is headed.
List of Finovate winners, past and present (Tradestreaming)
Posted: May 16, 2012
Here’s a list of historical winners of the leading conference for fintech startups.
Social online brokers Zecco and TradeKing merge (Zecco CEO blog)
Posted:May 15, 2012
Makes sense for the largest second-tier online brokers — both with a strong social bent towards investing — to tie up. Just happened earlier than many of us expected.
Stocial targets students with social network for stock advice (pandodaily)
Posted: May 17, 2012
Taking aim at Stock Track‘s business, Stocial is taking its social network for investing to college students.
Covestor: growing up and growing pains (OnWallStreet)
Posted: May 14, 2012
The marketplace of portfolio managers has been in the game awhile and this article describes where the firm’s come from and where it’s headed.
Wolfram launches finance platform (finextra)
Posted: May 15, 2012
Developer of Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha has turned its attention to the financial sector with a launch of the Wolfram Finance Platform. It’s a “suite of technologies for software development that integrates computation, data analysis, visualization and reporting.
The brilliant Joe Weisenthal (Felix Salmon)
Posted: May 10, 2012
In the wake of the NYT’s Binyamin Appelbaum’s 3000 word essay on the Business Insider’s Weisenthal, Salmon explains why Joe’s a leader in the world all his own.
Investment Strategies and Research
More on the low volatility anomaly (Abnormal Returns)
Posted: May 15, 2012
Tadas has been writing about this funny little bugger for a while and he’s happy it’s getting the light of day. Morningstar explains how low volatility funds may outperform high vol ones.
The best investors use the best data (Gemfinder)
Posted: May 14, 2012
Drawing from a theme in Moneyball, this article shows how Gotham’s Joel Greenblatt (Magic Formula) used its own sources of data for its research. It’s not only about using data better — it’s about using better data better.
Adaptive Asset Allocation: A true revolution in portfolio management (dshort)
Posted: May 14, 2012
This research piece shows how adaptive asset allocation outperforms other techniques.
Reflections on the WSJ Analyst Awards (Integrity Research)
Posted: May 14, 2012
Interesting commentary on the Wall Street Journal’s Best on the Street Analysts Survey published last week.
Investor Behavior
33 must-read investment books for your library (SigFig)
Posted: May 14, 2012
Here’s a list of some of the most important investment books — for beginner investors to professionals. What did I leave out?
The most common mistake investors make (Portfolioist)
Posted: May 11, 2012
Geoff Considine makes it all look so easy — investors still buy high and sell low. Individual investors vastly underperform market returns.
Bloomberg Businessweek captures national mag award (BloombergBusinessweek)
Posted: May 15, 2012
Beyond the self-congratulatory tone, this article says that paid circulation of BBweek has grown 13% over the past 2 years and the firm revealed it has over 100,000 subscribers to the Bloomberg Businessweek + app (launched April 2011).
The Business of Finance
Should investor relations be a rotational role? (Inside Investor Relations)
Posted: May 17, 2012
GE uses a model where IR professionals rotate through various roles. Is this a good model for the rest of the industry?
Quantipulations: Financial advisors’ use of LinkedIn (Snarketing 2.0)
Posted: May 15, 2012
A recent study showed that advisors who prospected on LinkedIn achieved a 62% success rate. This article calls total BS on that stat.
The work of editing economists (EconLog)
Posted: May 12, 2012
Timothy Taylor, managing editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, talks about his editorial job.
Why we need more female traders on Wall Street (Time)
Posted: May 15, 2012
In the wake of JP Morgan’s Ina Drew’s proverbial falling on the sword and resignation, Gary Belsky explains why Wall Street and some of the largest banks would benefit from having more women on staff.
And how would you like that performance reported, sir? (Jonathan Smith)
Posted: May 14, 2012
A tongue-in-cheek article about how financial advisors play around with their performance reporting to make themselves look better.
Why advisors like in-branch brokerage positions (Willis Consulting)
Posted: May 1, 2012
Years ago, bank brokerage programs weren’t all that appreciated. But, here’s why brokers are finding these in-branch positions more and more interesting.
Subscribers (free) to my newsletter received the following this week. It’s my best-shot at providing an overview on
- important research and new investment strategies
- new technologies, apps, and platforms for investors
- insights into the behavior of investors
- changes in the investment business