The IFA Indexes
Data as of Market Close 2/3/12 |
YTD % Change |
IFA Indexes |
Value* |
11.29% |
IFA iP100 |
6,792 |
10.38% |
IFA iP90 |
4,422 |
9.38% |
IFA iP80 |
3,259 |
8.38% |
IFA iP70 |
2,278 |
7.38% |
IFA iP60 |
1,514 |
6.38% |
IFA iP50 |
957 |
5.39% |
IFA iP40 |
577 |
4.39% |
IFA iP30 |
331 |
3.39% |
IFA iP20 |
181 |
2.39% |
IFA iP10 |
94 |
19.45% |
IFA Emerging Market Value |
104,430 |
16.32% |
IFA Emerging Small Cap |
77,765 |
14.81% |
IFA Emerging Markets |
49,216 |
14.06% |
IFA International Small Cap Value |
31,972 |
11.99% |
IFA International Small Company |
20,260 |
11.08% |
IFA U.S. Small Cap Value |
21,944 |
11.94% |
IFA U.S. Small Company |
6,050 |
8.96% |
IFA Real Estate Securities |
5,961 |
8.93% |
IFA U.S. Large Value |
3,604 |
8.93% |
IFA International Value |
2,314 |
7.07% |
IFA U.S. Large Company |
1,496 |
1.01% |
IFA 5 Year Global Fixed Income |
59 |
0.20% |
IFA 2 Year Global Fixed Income |
48 |
0.37% |
IFA 5 Year Government |
58 |
0.29% |
IFA 1 Year Fixed Income |
27 |
| *Index data based on starting value of one, as of Jan 1, 1928. (Calculator). Source: ifa.com/btp & dfaus.com |
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IFA - Podcast (iTunes)
IFA - Podcast (FeedBurner)
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Index Funds is a comprehensive
independent resource on index funds investing, promoting
a commonsense approach that seeks to maximize expected returns
at each level of risk, utilizing index portfolios.
An index fund can be defined as a mutual fund or exchange
traded fund (ETF) with clearly defined rules of ownership, that
are held constant regardless of market conditions. The
fund does not have to follow a well known index.
There are well over 1,000 index funds in the Morningstar database, leaving investors with a new questions about their
portfolios. What allocation of passive investments (index funds)
best matches my risk
capacity?
An extensive database of index funds articles and data can be
found on this site. Including information on Dimensional Fund
Advisors (DFA), Vanguard, Barclays Global, and most other index
funds.
Jan 14, 2011 A great review of why investors should index, by Weston Wellington.
(Click
to play the new DFA Video: What Should Investors Do Now?) Call
Index Funds Advisors for wealth management, investment
advice and access to DFA Funds: 888-643-3133, ifa.com.
Jan 8, 2011 The Big Table of Indexes: Risk and Return of the IFA Indexes over the last 83 years.
Jan 7, 2011 Burton Malkiel: Markets Aren’t 100% Efficient But You Still Can’t Beat ‘Em
Jan 7, 2011 Which Country will be the next top performer? See the latest interactive chart from IFA.
Jan 5, 2011 New Year's Resolutions for Investors, From Brad Steiman, DFA - Do's and Don'ts for 2011 and Beyond, from Dan Solin
Dec 20, 2010 Seventy-eight years ago on December 31, 1932, Alfred Cowles presented his analysis of 45 professional agencies on their ability to forecast the stock market. Conclusion: The most successful were about the same as you would expect from "pure chance." Nothing has changed. - Do you still want to try to pick stocks? If so, read the abstracts from these studies. If they don't cure you, download and read the actual studies. If that doesn't work, then you need to visit a Gamblers Anonymous Recovery Program.
Dec 10, 2010High - Average - Low Analysis of Index Portfolios
Dec 8, 2010Now buy the Digital Version of Index Funds on Google Books.
Dec. 7, 2010 Adjust Returns for Behavior (see bottom left corner of chart)
Dec. 3, 2010 Odds are you don't know what the odds are. The probability of getting a market forecast correct maybe much higher than you expect. For example, if an event has a 10% chance of occurrence and 10 forecasts are made, there is a 65.13% chance that one of those guesses will be correct. How many forecasts do we hear every day? See this chart and test your own assumptions about forecasts.
Dec. 2, 2010 Meir Statman says that index funds are "fabulous." IFA agrees. Also, Kenneth French discusses the "new normal."
CNN Money: Buffett's Investment Advice
What's New Archives from ifa.com. |
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| ADVERTISEMENT from IFA.com -
The Index Calculator |
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For independent investment advice on ETFs and
index funds and access to DFA's highly optimized institutional-style
index funds, call Index Funds Advisors toll free: 888-643-3133
or visit ifa.com.
IFA accepts no fees from investment products they recommend.
IFA advisory fees are for their independent advice, and not product-related
in anyway.
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 From Eugene Fama, Jr.
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Markets work because capital
flows to its efficient uses.
As company prices increase, their
cost of capital - and therefore their expected stock returns
- drop. Old established businesses become safer, less innovative,
and offer lower expected returns.
In the face of these lowered
returns, investors sell and reinvest in smaller companies with
higher costs of capital and more promise of return. The "freeing" of
capital is a growth engine of modern economies. It drives much
of the progress we experience not only in our investments but
in society itself."
Trying to identify "mispriced" securities
is a costly form of speculation.
Markets work because investors
tend to be rewarded for risking their hard-earned capital.
After all, no rational investor would hold a stock unless
he expected a return, so the markets job is to set the price of every stock to make it worth holding.
This doesn't mean
you can't beat the market; it means that the only way to
increase expected return over the market (or any benchmark)
is to expose your portfolio to greater systematic risks.
And the best way to identitfy these risks is through science."
-
Eugene F. Fama, Jr., Microcosm, in The DFA Matrix Book, 2007
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Important
Articles You Need to READ: |
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Eugene Fama doesn't read
Barron's and readers of Barron's don't read Fama!
But the average investor would do better to read Fama than
Barron's. Fama's Market
Efficiency, Long-Term Returns, and Behavioral Finance is
usually in the top 3
downloaded academic paper at ssrn.com, where thousands of
academics publish their research on the web. Read
about Fama's Gospel, from Bloomberg.com.
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From Fama's analysis of the "behavioral
finance" challenge to his market efficiency hypothesis, "...
the expected value of abnormal returns is zero, but chance
generates apparent anomalies that split randomly between under-reaction
and over-reaction [to market news]."
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| Characteristics,
Covariances, and Average Returns: 1929-1997 - Eugene Fama
and Kenneth French - VERY IMPORTANT |
| The
Short Book on Investing - by Mark Hebner |
| Like
Hedge Funds? Analyze this. - Forbes Magazine |
| The
New Indexing: Eugene Fama, Jr. |
The
Probability of Success: William Bernstein |
| Engineering
and Portfolio Construction: Eugene Fama, Jr. |
Capitalism
and Index Funds: Rex Sinquefield |
| The
Small Cap Alpha Myth: Melissa Johnson |
| The
Myth of Fund Ratings |
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