THE AAII JOURNAL AUGUST 2021 ISSUE
COVER ARTICLE
What Are Factors? A Look Behind the Curtain
There are about five to six factors that academics generally agree can explain most of the cross section of stock returns.
Features
in PRISM Wealth-Building Process,Portfolio Strategies,Stock Strategies
Guidelines for Selecting Stocks for Your Portfolio
The choice of a stock—and even whether to hold individual stocks instead of mutual funds or ETFs—should be reflective of each investor’s investment management preferences.
in First Cut Stocks,Stock Strategies
Guns, Drugs & Warfare: Thematic Investing for Vice Stocks
The top alcohol, gaming (gambling), tobacco, cannabis and defense stocks that are passing a growth screen.
in AAII How-To,Mutual Funds
What Happens When a Fund's Management Changes
You shouldn’t immediately switch from a fund when it changes manager(s), but you should pay closer attention to investment style, portfolio turnover, fees and performance after a change.
in Quarterly Mutual Fund Update,Mutual Funds
Gains Abound for No-Load Funds in Second Quarter
Double-digit percentage returns were realized by domestic, sector and international stock funds in the second quarter of 2021.
in Quarterly ETF Update,Exchange-Traded Funds
Big Gains Realized by ETFs Across Categories in Second Quarter
Energy provided the catalyst to drive large sector ETF returns for the second quarter of 2021. Outside of cannabis-related ETFs, the losses realized by the worst-performing ETFs this quarter were relatively small.
in First Cut Mutual Funds,Mutual Funds
Hottest Sector Mutual Funds
Looking at one-month returns for sector mutual funds gives a picture of what’s happening in the markets currently and which funds are performing better than their peers.
in First Cut ETFs,Exchange-Traded Funds
Hottest Sector ETFs
Looking at one-month returns for sector ETFs gives a short-term snapshot of what’s happening in the markets and which ETFs are performing better than their peers currently.
in Portfolio Strategies,Closed-End Funds
The Advantages and Risks of Closed-End Funds
For those seeking to earn higher yields than available from mutual funds, closed-end funds can be enticing due to their low-cost leverage and higher dividend yields.
in Portfolio Strategies,Retirement Planning
Personalizing Your Glide Path to Avoid Financial Peril
The use of observed income profiles can be efficiently incorporated into glide path designs to maximize retirement income sufficiency.
in Computerized Investing
Comparing the Six Most Popular Money Transfer Apps
There are plenty of options and a variety of platforms for making digital payments, so assessing your personal needs is important.
in Investor Professor,Mutual Funds,Exchange-Traded Funds
Online Exclusive: Mutual Funds vs. ETFs—What Makes Them Different?
These two categories of professionally managed funds differ in important ways that should be taken into consideration before settling on an investment.
Notes & Opinions
in Editor's Note,2021 Investor Conference 360
Factoring in Your Personal Style With Stocks
There is a strong argument for making use of factors from the standpoint of building wealth.
in Dispatches,Retirement Planning,IRAs
Challenging the Conventional Wisdom of Roth IRA Conversions
Recent changes to IRAs have led a professor emeritus at Santa Clara University to call for adjusting the established thinking regarding Roth IRAs.
in Dispatches,Retirement Planning
Retirement Plan Participants Kept Saving Despite Pandemic
Despite the coronavirus pandemic’s impact in 2020, most retirement plan participants did not make trades, loan use fell and only a small minority took withdrawals.
in Dispatches
Bankruptcy Protection for Inherited 401(k)s
A bankruptcy court ruled that an inherited 401(k) cannot be included in the list of assets accessible to creditors during bankruptcy.
in Dispatches
Companies Are Including ESG Measures in Compensation Incentives
Almost half (45%) of Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 index (FTSE 100) companies have some form of environmental, social and governance ESG measures within their executive pay.
The AAII Journal, a leading investment publication, provides readers with a continuing stream of insights and ideas that focus on how you can improve your investment results. Unlike many investment magazines, ours is completely unbiased, educational and contains no advertising.
AAII has published this prestigious financial journal every month for more than 40 years. Members receive it for free and have access to thousands of evergreen articles online so they can reference information and strategies for previous market situations with a few clicks of the mouse.
Our stock journal helps individual investors manage their portfolios, build sound investment strategies and navigate all types of financial conditions. Articles range from optimizing target-date fund portfolios to retirement account withdrawal strategies and analysis on robo-advisor performance.
The magazine also has recurring features our members find invaluable. Every quarter, we dissect our model stock portfolio and provide updates to its holdings and performance. This analysis helps individual investors manage small-cap value investments.
We also offer an annual tax guide in our financial magazine. This detailed investment magazine issue covers many details that individual investors need to consider when filing their taxes. It keeps readers updated on any recent changes to tax laws and provisions and provides a handy guide to tax implications of personal investments to cut through any tax filing confusion.
Another annual feature covers ETFs (exchange-traded funds) and mutual funds. This edition helps individual investors understand what to look for when investing in funds. Online, we accompany those articles with sortable tables so that members have an interactive component to their investment research. This helps individual investors plan their portfolios and invest with confidence.
Other regular features in the AAII Journal include financial planning, stock ideas and investor professor. Financial planning articles walk investors through the process and difficulties of crafting strategies for creating wealth regardless of age. They also cover difficult situations, such as estate planning, and helpful advice for getting kids and grandchildren interested in investing.
Stock ideas, as the name implies, give readers a peek at new screens and the stocks that pass them. This part of our investing magazine helps readers identify new opportunities in the markets, flagged by a mix of quantitative and qualitative analysis. Because we all, as investors, need ideas, this remains one of the most popular categories.
Investor professor helps readers invest with knowledge and confidence. It deals with contingencies, such as “What happens to your investment if a company goes bankrupt?” and gives actionable advice on what resources you should use when considering a new broker. Our readers enjoy this section because of its practicality and enduring tips.
Frequent internal contributors include president John Bajkowski; AAII Journal editor and vice president Charles Rotblut; Stock Superstars Report lead analyst Wayne A. Thorp; and Dividend Investing editor Derek Hageman. Together, these internal contributors have nearly a century of market wisdom and research, which they share with clear and concise prose to help individual investors improve their knowledge and portfolios.
The AAII Journal also includes frequent guest contributions from the financial and economic space. Articles from outside industry experts differentiate our financial magazine from others and provide additional points of view for our readers. Previous guest authors have included John C. Bogle, founder of Vanguard; Jay Clayton, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission; Charles Schwab; and Nobel laureate and Yale professor Robert Shiller.
We hope you’ll enjoy our articles and, if you’re not a member, consider joining the Association so you can get our prestigious magazine sent to your door every month.
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