THE AAII JOURNAL JUNE 2025 ISSUE
COVER ARTICLE
Are You Fully Covered? Not If Your Portfolio Is Wearing Buffer ETFs and Mutual Funds
These nontraditional equity funds use options contracts to offer downside protection, but potential gains are limited.
Features
in Portfolio Strategies,Exchange-Traded Funds,Retired Investor
Revisiting the Use of ETFs to Construct an S&P 500 Portfolio
Comparing the performance of an equally weighted sector portfolio against an S&P 500 index fund over a 20-year period.
in AAII How-To,Beginning Investor,Investing Basics
Time on Your Side: How Compounding Grows Small Amounts Into Big Wealth
By understanding how compounding works, starting early, reinvesting earnings and staying consistent, you set yourself up for success.
in PRISM Wealth-Building Process,Retirement Planning
A One-Page Wealth-Building Plan for Semiretirement
Key considerations for planning a period of part-time work before full retirement.
in Investor Professor,Market Actions,Risk
What Market Volatility Really Is and How to Navigate It
Volatility refers to the magnitude of movement instead of a single direction; AAII founder James Cloonan encouraged investors to focus on “real risk.”
in AAII Sentiment Investing,Economic and Market Analysis,Behavioral Finance
The Put-Call Ratio: Viewing Market Sentiment Through Options Activity
During periods of fear or euphoria, the CBOE equity put-call ratio can inform your judgment by showing where sentiment may have gone too far.
in AI-Powered Investing,Computerized Investing,Stock Strategies
AI for Stock Screening: Simplify and Accelerate the Discovery Process
With LLMs, creating stock screens tailored to precise investment theses becomes far easier, faster and more intuitive.
in First Cut Stocks,Earnings
Momentum Stocks With Positive Earnings Surprises
When the markets are volatile and the economic environment is shifting, it can be illuminating to observe companies that are surpassing expectations and rewarding investors with above-average price strength.
in AAII Stock Ideas,Stock Strategies
The Platinum 30: A Curated Selection From AAII’s Model Portfolios
A few stocks grading highly on the criteria used in each of our eight model stock portfolios present a diversified sample.
Notes & Opinions
in Editor's Note
Buffer Funds Promise Simplicity but Deliver Complexity
In its never-ending desire to create products that can be sold to investors, Wall Street has created buffer funds.
in AAII Community,AI-Powered Investing
Technological Disruption: Are You Prepared for the Next Big Change in Investing?
With technology reshaping investing, the real question is not whether you should use artificial intelligence and robo tools but how to use them wisely.
in Local Chapters
Collaborations Help AII Cleveland Chapter Excel
Recently, the AAII Cleveland Chapter utilized a collaborative approach to share the tasks of forming and managing an engaging new subgroup.
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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