Briefly Noted

Bonds
Climbing the Ladder: How to Manage Risk in Your Bond Portfolio
Staggering the maturities in your bond portfolio can efficiently balance interest rate risk and reinvestment risk. How to create a bond ladder.

Bonds
Climbing the Ladder: How to Manage Risk in Your Bond Portfolio
Bonds: Staggering the maturities in your bond portfolio can efficiently balance interest rate risk and reinvestment risk. How to create a bond ladder.

Matter of Opinion
Adjusting to Reality When Managing a Small-Cap Value Portfolio
Feature: A quarterly update on the Individual Investor's Shadow Stock Portfolio.

Insurance Products
Estate Planning and Insurance: Does Premium Financing Make Sense?
Insurance Products: Financing permanent life insurance premiums through third-party lenders may not live up to the marketers' promises. Factors to consider before looking at this option.

Portfolio Strategies
What Are You Really Getting When You Invest in a Hedge Fund?
Portfolio Strategies: Hedge funds are touted for providing strong historical returns and being weakly correlated with the stock market. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. What you should know about adding hedge funds to your portfolio.

Hot Links
Hedge Fund Sources On-Line
Hot Links: Where to find information and performance figures on hedge funds on the Internet.

Stock Strategies
How Many Stocks Do You Need to Be Diversified?
Stock Strategies: It has become conventional wisdom that diversification beyond 10 or 20 securities is unnecessary. But a fresh look at the research indicates you will need many more stocks to be truly diversified.

Stock Screens
Strategies End Mid-Year on Upside of a See-Saw Market
AAII Stock Screens: Thirty-four of the 54 strategies tracked on AAII.com showed positive gains for the first half of 2004. A look at the year-to-date winners.

The Markets
How to Stay on the Right Side of the Market
The Markets: The massive buying power of institutional investors defines bull and bear markets. Once you learn to interpret their buying and selling, you can avoid being on the wrong side of the market. Gauging the market's general direction.

Departments
Briefly Noted
Current news items of interest to individual investors.

Stock Strategies
How Many Stocks Do You Need to Be Diversified?
Stock Strategies: It has become conventional wisdom that diversification beyond 10 or 20 securities is unnecessary. But a fresh look at the research indicates you will need many more stocks to be truly diversified.