Max Money Blog

All tables updated through Wednesday, November 19, 2008.

Looking to invest and not sure what to buy?

If you are looking for a simple buy and hold portfolio and at-most once a year rebalancing, look no further than these Lazy Portfolios that we have profiled. Their latest performance numbers are here.

That’s it, you are done. You are well ahead of the majority of the money managers and actively managed mutual funds out there.

If you are the adventurous kind, we would recommend putting atleast 80% of your money in one of the Lazy Portfolios. See how you do with remaining maximum of 20% first before you jump with everything into Tactical Asset Allocation.

Now that you are settled with a Lazy Portfolio and are looking for some action…

Start with the Asset Class Strength page. Here you can see the current state of Stocks, Bonds and Commodities. You can also see how they have performed in the recent past.

The Asset Class Strength page will tell you where to put your money today, if at all. If any asset class is ‘red’, it may be best to wait it out for now. Once it enters the yellow zone, start with small percent of your money first and wait a week and see it the trend is building up.

The Asset Class strength page, and related three ETFs, are all that you need to beat the star money managers.

Let’s say you have perused the Asset Class Strength page and now know where to put your money, read on…

• If you choose to invest in Stocks…
  You can either buy a broad market fund and be done with it. Our ETF rankings and signals page can help you choose any ETF, including one which invests in a broad US Stock market index.

  If you are looking for a particular size fund, as in Large-cap, Mid-cap or Small-cap; or a style fund, as in growth or value; or a combination of size and style, my Style/Size strength page would be an excellent starting point to determine what is in favor. For the Sector investor, there is a page for you too :-). If you are looking to invest outside the united states, you will find the Country strength page very helpful.

  In either case, once you know which narrow asset class you’d like to invest in, you can come back to the ETF rankings page to find that best fund for you.

• Should you prefer Commodities…
  Your next question should be whether to put the money in Energy, Grains, Livestock, Precious Metals or Industrials. The Commodity Strength page can help you answer that question. Armed with the information, you can view all the Commodity ETFs that maxmoneyblog.com tracks here. You could also get to this page from the main ETF rankings page.
• Finally, if Bonds fascinate you, our preference is TLT or the 20+ year bond. There is a new Vanguard Long Bond ETF too, but we need to let it build some history first. You will, however,  find lots of arguments in literature against buying the long term bond. But we leave that to you. You can find the bond rankings from the main ETF rankings page.

If there is an ETF that you’d like us to track, do leave a comment, or send an email to info@maxmoneyblog.com.

Disclaimer: ETF rankings and signals are for educational purposes only and should not interpreted as an investment advice.

Note: ETF rankings and signals are for educational purposes only and should not interpreted as an investment advice.
 

Top Performing ETFs

Note: ETF rankings and signals are for educational purposes only and should not interpreted as an investment advice.
 

Top Performing ETFs

Note: ETF rankings and signals are for educational purposes only and should not interpreted as an investment advice.
 

Overall Top Performers

Stocks got hammered with small caps and tech leading the rout. On the Commodities side, Crude oil edged up a notch and precious metals ended modestly higher. The treasury yields fell in an apparent flight to safety while the dollar ended unchanged.

Please refer to respective posts for more details on Stocks, Bonds and Commodities.

S&P 500, US Dollar Index, CRBI Reuters/Jeffries Index, US Treasury Yield charts.

Current Outlook

Treasury prices ended higher today in an apparent flight to safety, as stocks got hammered amid financial woes. The 30-year bond yield slid 2 basis points to 4.43%, while the 10-year note was down 5 basis points to 3.83%.

Shorter term treasuries benefit the most from turmoil in the Stock Markets. Yield on the 5-year note dropped by 8 basis points to 3.11%, while the 2-year note gave up 6 basis points to 2.41%.

The slope of the yield curve increased a little today.

Yield charts for 30-Year and 10-Year US Treas Bonds, 5-Year US T-Notes, 90-Day T-Bills and Federal Funds Rate.

Current Outlook

Big Oil, National Interest and Renewable Energy @ InquisitiveMind.

Blossoming ETF assets @ EtfGuide.

Gold ETF Call option most actively traded @ FinancialTimes.

Fed Bernanke requests more power @ Forbes.

Focus on dynamic correlation between various asset classes @ CapitalSpectator.

Looking to invest in Persian Gulf @ IndexUniverse.

Talking about a housing rebound @ CNNMoney.

The precarious state of the Fannies and Freddies @ AlephBlog.

“There’s gold in them thar hills” @ oldprof.

The great inflation divide @ CanadianBusiness.

“Headwinds Index: Financials vs. Oil” @ VixAndMore.

Swapping From TIPS to Swaps @ BullBearTrader.

S&P 500, US Dollar Index, CRBI Reuters/Jeffries Index, US Treasury Yield charts.

Current Outlook

Yield charts for 30-Year and 10-Year US Treas Bonds, 5-Year US T-Notes, 90-Day T-Bills and Federal Funds Rate.

Current Outlook

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