Getting Started
Test Yourself with Classrooms
The Investor Classroom provides a step-by-step understanding of important investment ideas and techniques. Take a "mini-course" today! View Classrooms »
Better Investing with AAII Guides
AAII has a large collection of Guides for investors at every level. Engage AAII's mass of knowledge to fast-track your investment learning. View AAII Guides »
In Brief
- Model ETF Portfolio: Beats Benchmark, But Total Recovery Not Yet Complete
- After the Storm, Stability Returns to the Model Mutual Fund Portfolio
- Rebound: Model Shadow Stock Portfolio Strongly Up, But Still Playing Catch-Up
- Model Shadow Stock Portfolio Up 66%, as Market Move Mystifies Pundits
- Keeping Fund Portfolio Unchanged Despite Tough Start to 2010
Getting Started Knowledge
It's a Balancing Act
You’ve carefully weighed in your own mind how you want your retirement portfolio to look: just the right amount of your assets allocated to stocks versus fixed-income investments. You feel comfortable with the growth/income and risk profile of your portfolio, and you have carefully diversified your investments over all the investment categories, and even within each category. Then, inevitably, the market jumps up or down, and your portfolio is thrown completely off balance.
First, relax. Your asset allocation guidelines are just that—guidelines.
Archives »
All Averages Are Not Created Equal
Turn to any listing of mutual fund returns, or even stocks, and you will likely see a "summary" of those results, referred to as the "average" return. For example, a listing of mutual funds in a particular category may show the average return for the fund in that category. A different listing may show a particular fund's returns for each of the last five years, and an average annual return over that five-year period.
Many individuals assume those averages are all calculated in the same way.
Investing Basics Articles
- "Stock" Supply Data: Inventory Turnover
- Extreme Anxiety: Evaluating Current Market Levels
- Market Barometers: A Look at Stock Indexes and How They Work
- Measured Reality: What It Takes to Reach a Net Return Goal
- Stand Up and Be Counted: How to Value a Stream of Payments
- The Bottom Line: How to Calculate Your Portfolio's Return
- Great Expectations: Earnings Estimates and Their Impact on Stock Prices
- Making Sense of Profits Using Profitability Ratios
- Proxy Voting
- Dogs of the Dow
