Happy 30th Anniversary
Today marks the 30th anniversary of a day that many investors, including yours truly, will never forget: Black Monday, October 19, 1987, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 508 points in a single day. At the time, that 508-point decline took the market down 22.6%. Today, that same point drop would only register as a 2.2% decline. And yet, I would wager that a 500-point drop in the Dow would still rattle investors today. Given the fact that the Dow crested 23000 yesterday (and actually tacked on another 5 points today), what would it take to experience another October 19? How about a 5,236-point decline. Could it happen in one day? Almost certainly, though it's highly unlikely. Read More »
Buy the Highs
This week brings the 10-year anniversary of the pre-Great Recession market peak. And next week brings the 30th anniversary of one of the more frightening single days in modern Wall Street history: Black Monday, Oct. 19, 1987. What lessons can investors take away from these 'red letter' days? Read More »
Lacking Euphoria
In this month's issue, we'll help you to avoid some of the pitfalls that you could get caught in even while the market is racking up new highs. First, this month's Funds Focus features Vanguard's lineup of sector funds and ETFs—and some fairly dire warnings against betting on your ability to forecast which sectors are going to be up or down in a given year. (Even health care lags the pack sometimes, like in 2010 and 2016.) Next, Vanguard's accounting systems are showing flaws akin to those we've mentioned before in their client service systems, and Vanguard's explanation for it just doesn't add up. Later in the issue, we investigate some deceptive performance claims, one from a brokerage firm and one from a robo-adviser website, that try to fool the unwary into thinking they're presenting apples to apples comparisons. And to round out the issue, we put all the news we have about Vanguard's new global balanced funds, Global Wellington and Global Wellesley Income, at your fingertips. Read More »
Most Recent Forum Threads
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Re: HI yield corporate
teresi (10-21-2017) wrote: I don't think high yield corporate adds much to a portfolio. It has a lot of the volatility of stocks, but underperforms the stock market. Also, it doesn't cushion your portfolio during a downturn. The net asset value of high yield corporate shrinks over time, I think (would check a graph... Read More »
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Re: Healthcare: VHT vs VGHCX
dark_horse (10-20-2017) wrote: Tom, my numbers reflect total returns. I go to Morningstar, enter the ticker symbol for a quote, then scroll down to the "More..." link, remove the two default benchmarks, and add my own. I believe that's the graph that shows total returns with reinvested distributions. Most of my findings do jibe... Read More »
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Re: Advise special report
jsarnow (10-20-2017) wrote: What bothers me most about the "new service" is that I believed I was getting all the necessary information with the "original program" to wisely invest with Vanguard. Ooops! I guess I'm not, and now Dan wants more of my money to give me all I need to know about... Read More »
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Order your copy of the 2017 Independent Guide to the Vanguard Funds today
"America's leading expert on investing in Vanguard funds"
Daniel P. Wiener is editor of The Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors, a monthly newsletter that keeps abreast of recent developments at Vanguard, and the annual FFSA Independent Guide to the Vanguard Funds. Through his newsletter and guide book, Dan helps tens of thousands of Vanguard investors choose wisely among more than 100 Vanguard mutual funds. The Adviser is a five-time winner of the Newsletter Publishers Foundation's Editorial Excellence Award. View More »
Model Portfolio Performance
| Models | September | YTD |
| Growth | 2.6% | 16.3% |
| Conservative Growth | 2.0% | 14.8% |
| Income | 1.8% | 13.2% |
| Growth Index | 2.4% | 13.7% |
| The average Vanguard investor |
1.5% | 11.2% |