INTRODUCTION – By Matthew Vincent, FT
CHAPTER 1 – Investing 2.0 The Revolution Begins
· Decline of the stockpicker and now the decline of active fund manager
· Need to emphasize cost in this low return world
· Investors waking to the reality that they have to diversify especially after bear markets
· The rise of asset class investing, related to but separate from ETfs and index funds
· The rise of the dreaded term beta…
CHAPTER 2 – A BIT OF THEORY
- Where it all came from academically. The academic revolt
- The efficient markets theory
- The fundamentalists wade in
- The first ETF structures and index funds. The legendary John Bogle and the Vanguard Phenomena
CHAPTER 3 – WHAT ARE INDEX OR TRACKER FUNDS?
- Index mutual funds and how they developed from these into these…
- Exchange Traded funds, US Style
- European ETFs – the rise of the swap
- ETNs in the US and certificates in Europe
- ETCs (commodities) and synthetic ETFs
- The mechanics – full replication, partial replication, fully synthetic replication
- Comparing ETFs vs traditional mutual funds vs index mutual funds
- Advantages of different structures and the regulatory structure
- New innovations – inverse ETFs, multi-ETF portfolios, actively managed ETFs
CHAPTER 4 – THE FIDDLY DETAIL….RISKS, CAVAETS and the INIDICES
- What to watch out for – premiums/discounts, tax complications, tracking error, charging (some are expensive – the 1% rule)
- Counter Party Risk
- Why the index matters – not all indices created equally. Some are too concentrated, carry currency risks, aren’t very liquid, and some are just pointless
CHAPTER 5 – THE RISE OF THE FUNDAMENTALISTS
Guest writer – Rob Davies, fund manager of the Munro Fund, a fundamental index fund
- The academic theory surrounding fundamental indexing
- Does it work ? The results so far
- How to implement it via a fund – black boxes, dividends and the measures used
- Will it work in the future – might value investing be dead ?
CHAPTER 6 – BIG THEME INVESTING AND INDEX FUNDS
Guest Writer – Stephen Barber, Head of Research at Selftrade
- Momentum investing works and particularly a focus on big themes, big structural changes
- Emerging Markets
- Alternative Assets
- New Energy and Green markets
- Infrastructure and utilities
- Commodities
CHAPTER 7 – RUNNING A PORTFOLIO : SOME BASICS
Guest Writer – James Norton, Head of investment at Evolve Financial Planning
- A passive portfolio – why it matters vs Active
- Buy and Hold
- Asset Allocation explained – correlation and diversification
- Inflation
- Income investing
- Long Term returns ?
- The GlidePath
CHAPTER 8 – ACTIVE PORTFOLIOS USING ETFS
Guest Writer – Mark Glowrey, Investors Intelligence
- How to combine ETFs into an active portfolio using technical analysis
- The measures sued
- Running the portfolio
CHAPTER 9 – PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER INTO A PORTFOLIO THAT WORKS FOR YOU !
- Asset Class Investing
- Value vs Growth vs Momentum – all work but difficult to capture these strategies
- Importance of international diversification
- Lazy Portfolios and why they’re so useful
- The idea behind building your own MASTER PORTFOLIOS
- Lifeycle Investing
- Our MASTER PORTFOLIOS – the assumpti
