The Fed potentially winding down fiscal stimulus raises the question of whether current interest rates are sustainable. But investors have been concerned whether interest rates were too low for more than a decade. Seven years ago, in response to continued concern over the viability of investing in bonds, I made a case that rates in the US did not have to go up given the existin ...

Capital markets are known to react strongly to breaking news. Often the impact of such events does not meaningfully reach portfolios in which institutions and individuals typically invest.  So where can investors turn for real-time information on risk-targeted portfolios’ reaction to market events?  New Frontier’s family of optimized indices are designed to provide transparency ...

On April 3, 2020, New Frontier Chief Investment Officer Robert Michaud sat down with Money Life host Chuck Jaffe to discuss how New Frontier approaches optimality in a time of tremendous uncertainty in the market. You can listen to the interview in its entirety using the player above, and below is a partial transcript of Robert's responses with timestamps for reference. 1:30 P ...

On March 23, 2020, New Frontier hosted a live webinar in which Dr. Richard Michaud, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Robert Michaud, Chief Investment Officer, discussed investing in historic market volatility, as well as the recent trades of New Frontier's Standard and Tax-Sensitive Global Multi-Asset ETF investment strategies, which occurred on March 17 and March 20, ...

In the midst of periods of extreme volatility as we have recently experienced, investors may want to remember some fundamental investment axioms:  The performance of actual investor portfolios is generally not well represented by equity indices. A well-defined long-term investment program can help withstand short-term volatility. Historically, markets recover after periods ...

On Monday, stocks lost 3.5% responding to reports on the spread of the coronavirus and its impact on global economies. Markets began today by rebounding, but then reversed direction, mimicking major foreign markets. As a consequence of the likely spread of the unofficial epidemic in the global economy, the next few months will likely feature increased volatility. At this point ...

The law of gravity states that what goes up must come down. But the laws of economics say that investors generally are rewarded for staying invested. Stocks are hitting all-time highs right now, but what does that mean for investors? The phrase “all-time high” conjures up the image of a stock chart at its peak. But while “all-time high” is accurate in terms of describing the m ...

Recent market volatility after years of stable growth in US markets has shaken the faith of some investors. However, our analysis shows that historically, staying invested through volatile periods has provided superior returns when compared to selling when volatility rises and reinvesting later. Some of the greatest upside returns have happened shortly after volatility spikes, and investors who have pulled out have missed out on important opportunities for portfolio gains.

Investors often raise concerns when the stock market is near an all-time high.  I’ve discussed previously why it’s not generally a good idea to sell simply because the market attains a new high, since, if anything, historic evidence points to returns going forward from a market high being superior to average market returns.  But the rising 2017 US stock market...

Our January commentary (1/3/17) discussed some critiques of index-fund ETFs topical in the investment community.  The argument was that ETFs, because they trade like stocks, tend to encourage investors to trade actively as opposed to traditional mutual fund investing.  But it is always true that anything can be misused however otherwise beneficial.  In our view...