Short Interruption

Take a look at this article for important information about your 401k.

Size Matters....but only a little

Beware of the man who offers you a reward, in this life or the next.
J. Krishnamurti

Today, we talk about what kinds of stocks make sense in the equity portion of our portfolio.
Back in the beginning of this blog, I talked about BIG STOCKS, Medium Stocks, and small stocks. There's a reason for that. That's the only difference in stocks, capitalization. To reiterate, capitalization is the size of the company. It's measured by the number of shares outstanding times the most recent price. Big doesn't mean the price per share. One stock could be a large cap (BIG STOCK) and sell for $20 a share, and one stock could be a small cap, and sell for $50 a share.
BIGGER is NOT better, but it IS bigger. So lots of investment companies, mutual fund and the like, go for big, because they are, in general, easier to trade in large quantities.
BIGGIE stocks would include the ones in the Dow Jones Industrials, and the S&P 500 indexes.
Middle size stocks would be in the Russell 2000, which also includes some smaller fry,and the S&P mid-cap index.
There are also small-cap indexes and even teeeny tiny cap indexes, called microcaps.
These are worn by elves another wee-people, who like to dance and sing, but are frequently trodden underfoot by the clunky BIGGIES.
In sum, since you, me, or the man behind the tree can't tell which stock is going to 'outperform' any other stock, I strongly suggest you mix your stock portfolio with some BIG, some Middle and some small. Micro is great for miniskirts, not for stock portfolios, skip them.
Next which one of the size selections has done the best in the past(which I'll remind me and you, has nothing to do with the future. However, we have to start someplace.)

Don't Turnover Your Portfolio to a Turnover Manager

Since it has been repeatedly proven (see older posts) that nobody has a secret formula for selecting superior stocks, then it begs the question, why hire someone to pick stocks for you?
The answer is, you don't. Financial advisors may serve a purpose for the undisciplined, or skittish, or reckless investor, but picking out specific stocks, bonds or mutual funds is not one of them.
The most common investment mistake, other than trading a lot, is owning pools of stocks via mutual funds or independent money managers and not knowing what the stocks are. I have almost never reviewed a 401k or investment portfolio that didn't have some kind of overlap.
For instance, you cannot tell what kinds of stocks are in sort of generically names funds, such at the Widget Growth and Income, The Whatsit Value Fund, The Whosis, Global Equity Fund. You have to look underneath the hood. One value manager's idea of a 'good' stock is also some growth and income manager's. So investors wind up owning mutual funds that have 30-50% of the same stocks in them. That defeats the purpose of diversification.
The other great mystery statistic never revealed in any easy to find spot is called 'turnover.'
Turnover is how much the fund managers swaps stocks. It averages somewhere around 58%per year (If it is an asset weighted rate, that is, bigger counts more.)
That means that around 60% of the stocks he owned at the beginning of the year will be changed by the end of the year. One wonders how it is that a stock that was so perfect as to be in the portfolio in January is an ugly stepsister by March or June.
Turnover means costs. No mater how cheaply the fund manager trades, there are costs to trading....ALL of them charged to YOU. Turnover requires increased administration costs, somebody has to keep track of all that buying and selling...ALL those costs are charged to YOU.
Next, how to diversify your equity assets in the only sensible manner.