IFA Direct

IFA's Quote of the Week - Issue 36 - Should You Be Worried About Your Investments?

Fri, 26 Sep 2008

"It is a certainty that equity markets will be full of uncertainty. This uncertainty is the reason investors should expect returns." — Mark T. Hebner President of IFA. Author of Index Funds: The 12-Step Program for Active Investors [Read more here]

IFA's Quote of the Week - Issue 35 - Fallen Market Perspectives

Wed, 17 Sep 2008

"The current financial crisis calls out for new products and services as well as more, not less, information about what is safe and profitable in the future environment." — Jeremy J. Siegel, The Wall Street Journal, "The Resilience of American Finance", 9/16/08 [Read more here]

IFA's Quote of the Week - Issue 34 - What Are You Paying for Your 401(k)?

Fri, 12 Sep 2008

"Fiduciaries should strongly consider index funds as an alternative to actively managed funds. Index funds incur about 80% less in transaction costs than actively managed funds…long-term returns for actively managed funds trail their respective indexes." -- Michael C. Keenan, “The Elephant in the Living Room”, Financial Advisor Magazine, May 2008. [Read more here]

IFA's Quote of the Week - Issue 33 - Commodities: A Cautionary Tale

Fri, 05 Sep 2008

" Remember when you buy a commodity, you're not buying something that generates earnings and profit. You're buying a hard asset and hoping another buyer will be willing to pay more for that asset in the future. " -- Matt, Krantz, USA Today, 6/23/2008, "Read this before you jump on the commodities bandwagon" [Read more here]

IFA's Quote of the Week - Issue 32 - Should You Invest in Down Markets?

Fri, 29 Aug 2008

"The investor who permits himself to be stampeded or unduly worried by unjustified market declines in his holdings is perversely transforming his basic advantage into a basic disadvantage." -- Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor [Read more here]

IFA's Quote of the Week - Issue 31

Mon, 18 Aug 2008

"It's not easy bein' green." --As sung by Kermit the Frog, with lyrics by Joe Rapposo [Read more here]

IFA's Quote of the Week - Issue 30: Mark Hebner Explains the Trouble with Active Investing

Thur, 14 Aug 2008

“It seemed like we needed a 12-step program to cure us of our addiction to buying beaten-up stocks..." --Bill Miller [Read more here]

IFA's Quote of the Week - Issue 29: Mark Hebner Explains the Trouble with Market Timing

Fri, 01 Aug 2008

Widely regarded as the “Father of Modern Security Analysis”, Benjamin Graham (1894-1976) has inspired many investors, including professional investor Warren Buffett. In Graham’s quote above, he explains the importance of selecting a portfolio that enables you to ignore the short-term ups and downs of the market that ultimately have little, if any, impact on long-term returns... [Read more here]

IFA's Quote of the Week - Issue 28: Mark Hebner Explains the Value of Long-term Equity Investing

28 July 2008 12:00:00 PST

Market volatility makes for scary headlines. A healthy dose of history gives some much needed perspective. Read more here.

Another milestone along our path to changing the way the world invests!

22 July 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Index Funds Advisors named the nation’s third-fastest growing financial advisory firm!* -Base on Financial Advisor, July 2008 issue, based on 2006-2007 results for the $1 Billion and over category. [Click to read the press release]

Mark Hebner Explains the Pitfalls of Manager Picking

18 March 2008 24:00:00 GMT

Recent news has dealt a drubbing to many hedge funds investors. The subprime mortgage fallout has awakened a great many sleeping giants whose excessive appetite for leverage seems to have caught them flatfooted when the housing market turned sour and easy credit dried up. In the wake of the crisis, many hedge funds are steeped in leveraged credit risk, facing crises of liquidity and viability that are leaving even some of the most powerful players impotent against collapse. Read the full article.

Mark Hebner Explains the Benefits of Tax Management

14 Feb 2008 24:00:00 GMT

Harvesting Losses Protects Gains Investing Expert’s Insight into Important Tax Strategies As tax reporting documents trickle in and investors ponder their current tax situation, it’s a good opportunity to give you some insight into a powerful tax-savings tool called tax loss harvesting. In fact, the recent market downturn provides you with an opportunity to examine your specific situation to identify whether you can save on future capital gains taxes. Click here to read more at IFA's Quote of the Week page.

Mark Hebner on Market Timing

30 Jan 2008 24:00:00 GMT

"There are two kinds of investors, be they large or small: those who don't know where the market is headed, and those who don't know that they don't know. Then again, there is a third type of investor - the investment professional, who indeed knows that he or she doesn't know, but whose livelihood depends upon appearing to know." - William Bernstein, The Intelligent Asset Allocator William Bernstein’s quote conveys two important messages. First, he articulates an investor’s inability to successfully profit from predicting the short-term future movements of the stock market. Second, and equally important, Bernstein sheds light on the parasitic industry that knows the randomness of short-term stock market movements, but profits wildly by preying upon the hopes and fears of investors. Cleverly crafted charts that describe double bottoms, resistance levels and breakout points, along with pseudo analytical reports alleging predictive profit patterns, all attempt to convince investors that frequent trading will help them avoid losses and earn big returns. Wall Street’s motivation is abundantly clear. Recently, IFA estimated that the brokerage industry makes about $500,000,000 each day on the trading behaviors of active investors that costs them commissions, expenses and bid/ask spreads. Let’s look at why all that activity is distracting and destructive to long-term expected returns. Go to story to read more.

Profound Problems with Performance Chasing

30 Jan 2008 24:00:00 GMT

New! A recently released study reveals the profound problems with performance chasing! “The Selection and Termination of Investment Management Firms by Plan Sponsors” reveals incredibly negative impact of manager chasing. A whopping 8,755 hiring and firing decisions were made by 3,417 plan sponsors in just 10 years. Read the whole story.

Are Active Managers Skillful or Lucky?

01 Aug 2007 4:30:00 PST

In a candid interview with Money Magazine’s Jason Zweig, Bill Miller, manager of Legg Mason’s Value Trust and an improbable hero in the active management arena, talks about index funds and why every investor should own them.

Smartest Author Turns Best Seller

31 Jul 2007 5:00:00 PST

Do-it-yourself guide to indexing makes top lists—Is a mass exodus from big Wall Street brokers in the offing?

Indexer Proves That It Pays To Be Active About Passive

26 Jul 2007 12:00:00 PST

Index Funds Advisors’ assets under management have exploded. The company’s president and founder, Mark Hebner proves that it pays to be active about passive investing. His 20 unique risk-calibrated Index Portfolios offer risk-adjusted returns that have shown to overwhelmingly beat active fund managers over time. Click the link to read the full article.

Welcome to IFA

18 Jul 2007 12:00:00 PST

Welcome to IFA Direct, Index Funds Advisors’ newest content distribution channel. Continually updated with research articles, professional analysis, and easy-to-read graphs, and supported by over 80 years of empirical data, IFA Direct will bring you the most up-to-date information available exposing the myths of active investing. For more information, visit ifa.com, the premier online resource for index funds investing, and check out IFA President Mark Hebner’s podcast series, available via iTunes.

What is this?

18 Jul 2007 12:00:00 PST

IFA Direct, IFA’s new RSS feed, will continually bring you the most up-to-date information available exposing the myths of active investing. If you have the most recent versions of Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook, you should be ready to access IFA Direct. Otherwise, download a stand-alone RSS reader like Rooster (http://e-gadgets.freehostia.com/rooster.htm) or a reader which integrates with Outlook 2003 like IntraVNews (http://www.intravnews.com/). Subscribe to the feed by copying and pasting the IFA Direct URL (http://www.ifa.com/RSS/IFA_rss.xml)into the reader, and sit back and enjoy streaming research articles, professional opinions, and intuitive charts backed by 80 years of professional data. Yahoo! users can also add feeds directly to their My Yahoo! Homepage by clicking on the "Add to My Yahoo!" link on the previous page.