What's New

January 2016 Performance Review

02/02/16 - Powerfund Portfolios Performance Review

In Wall Street lore, the January effect is the historical pattern where stocks do well in January relative to other months for dubious reasons that include year-end tax loss selling and reinvestment. The first few weeks of 2016 have turned out to be the worst start of any year on record.

Trade Alert!

01/09/16 - Powerfund Portfolios Trade Alert!

It was a rough-and-tumble 2015 - a year in which most funds fell. Very few total portfolios of bonds and stocks posted gains in 2015. We've made some changes to keep portfolio downside risk low for the time being, and we're taking some winnings off

December 2015 Performance Review

01/06/16 - Powerfund Portfolios Performance Review

For the year, our Aggressive Portfolio managed a market-beating 3.06% return, while our Conservative Portfolio slid 1.36%, largely weighed down by bonds and ill-fated stock funds. There are over 1,000 unique fund of fund mutual funds (funds that own other funds to build a total portfolio like our model portfolio). Nobody that owned stock and bond funds was up more than 3.06% in 2015.

November 2015 Performance Review

12/02/15 - Powerfund Portfolios Performance Review

Shorting commodities is really what pushed the Aggressive portfolio above the market benchmarks in November, with our two holdings in this area generating double-digit returns.

October 2015 Performance Review

11/04/15 - Powerfund Portfolios Performance Review

While we have stock funds that did well, with a large weight to bonds, shorts that lost money, and foreign funds that are still lagging the U.S. market, we'll have to settle for just so-so performance in October, relatively speaking.

September 2015 Performance Review

10/04/15 - Powerfund Portfolios Performance Review

The stock market continues down, but in September bonds did well again, notably longer-dated government and investment grade bonds. This bond boost, plus our short positions, kept us falling less than the market — even with many foreign funds underperforming the S&P 500.

August 2015 Performance Review

09/02/15 - Powerfund Portfolios Performance Review

The Powerfund Portfolios are both ahead of the S&P so far in 2015 — down less than 1% in the Aggressive portfolio and less than 2% in the Moderate.

Black Monday For ETFs

08/24/15 - Powerfund Portfolios Feature Article

August 24th was probably the worst day in the history of exchange-traded funds. While the 1,000 point plus loss in the Dow early on 8/24 gets all the headlines, some large ETFs took a dive, albeit a brief one, that would be the equivalent of a 7,000 plus point loss in the Dow. Yikes.

July 2015 Performance Review

08/04/15 - Powerfund Portfolios Performance Review

With interest rates heading back down and a global commodity slide intensifying, the Powerfund Portfolios are back to doing well relative to benchmarks. Our Aggressive portfolio matched the performance of the S&P 500 in July, even with the Aggressive port's 40% (roughly) bond allocation.

Dr. Frankenstein’s Bond Funds

07/07/15 - Powerfund Portfolios Feature Article

Investors have been worried about rising interest rates for years. That fear has created a bond market fueled by funds designed to protect investors from the any-day-now-you-just-wait interest rate disaster. Like 1950s-era bomb shelters, these funds are costly protection you don’t need. Ninety-eight percent of all bond money is invested in funds with marginal interest rate risk. Interest rate risk is a phantom menace.