Why Invest in Equity Markets

Investors should invest for the long-term and should not try to time the markets. This is especially important for retail investors who lack the time, effort and information necessary to trade for short-term gains. Even most professional money managers with access to powerful tools and better information rarely perform better than the benchmarks. Equity markets …

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Why Volatility Also Matters

Diversification of assets is an prudent way to reduce risk in a portfolio. While the concept of diversification is important volatility is another factor that investors should focus on to generate higher returns. Why does volatility matter? The table shows the performance of two sample portfolios with both having an initial investment of $1.0 million: …

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Relative Size of World Stock Markets, end-1899 and end-2011

Here is an interesting chart showing the share of world stock markets at the end of 19th century and last year: Click to enlarge     The size of the stock markets of France and the UK declined significantly in the period shown due to both the countries losing their status as world superpowers. However …

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