The Conservative Portfolio climbed 0.24% in December.
In the end, 2007 produced a lot of volatility but not much in returns. The S&P 500 was up just 5.5% for the year. Keep in mind no risk low fee money market funds returned about as much - Vanguard Prime Money Market returned 5.17% in 2007. The story was better for Dow and tech stocks. The Dow was up 8.89%, the Nasdaq was up 9.82%. Small cap stocks were the real losers, down 1.57% for the year, though this doesn't tell the story of how smaller cap value stocks underperformed, down almost 10% in 2007 (small cap growth was up 7.05%). Safer bonds were a decent place to be in 2007, with longer term government bonds returning just shy of 10% and the total bond market up about 7%.
All of our Powerfund Portfolios beat the S&P 500 for the calendar year. All of them are beating the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq since their inception on April 1, 2002, while. Our volatility has also been lower than stock indexes due to the diversification including bond fund stakes. Two of our model portfolios (Aggressive Growth and Daredevil) have doubled the S&P 500; one (Growth) came close. Keep in mind our portfolios could become more risky than the indexes, notably Daredevil.
Our solid year was due to heavy exposure to investment grade bonds, larger cap stocks, and in more aggressive portfolios, tech. We did miss the ongoing excitement in energy stocks and emerging markets. We also missed out on the ongoing crash in financial stocks by not buying sector funds that invest in this area. In fact we profited from the crash in real estate with real estate short ETFs - a very risky short term strategy - in our Daredevil portfolio.
December was bad all around - all major indexes were down including bonds. However, two of our portfolios were up for the month, and all the rest fell less than half of the S&P 500's negative 0.70% return.
Bill Gross had a fabulous year. Harbor Bond (HABDX) was up 8.72% for the year, and 0.43% for the month of December. He has been calling for a weak economy and housing bust and his move to safer longer term bonds benefited from falling interest rates and the flood of money in to safer bonds.
Bridgeway Balanced (BRBPX) was a good holding for us in 2007 and especially in December. For the month the fund was up 1.41%, for the year, up 6.59%. Keep in mind this fund is a good deal safer than the stock market as a whole. We like the strategy of option writing particularly as we feel stock market upside is limited to about 6% a year for the foreseeable future. The trick is finding funds that can do this cheaply. We're in about two of the best funds of this type (this one and Gateway GATEX) but are considering some others going forward.
Healthcare Select SPDR (XLV) had a rotten December, down 3.03%. Even with this bad month the ETF was up a solid 6.93% in 2007. We see this fund doing very well in our recessionary environment as investors flock to companies with relatively safe earnings in an economic downturn. We've already seen this trend in early 2008.
Vanguard Growth ETF bucked the market trend in December with a 0.17% return. Larger cap growth stock have been strong, but recently the Nasdaq has been hit hard so this fund is in for a rocky early 2008.
Janus Global Research (JARFX) had a good December (up 0.65%) and a great 2007, up 26.74%. We're up over 32% here and we only added the fund in late 2006. Some of this outperformance comes from the fund being global because foreign stocks have been beating U.S. stocks, but the rest is a return to larger cap growth stocks beating the market and some likely games Janus is playing trying to help their new funds build great track records. We're getting quite negative on foreign stocks and as the new fund effect will wane, may be looking to move on in 2008.
Vanguard U.S. Value (VUVLX) was fine in December (up 0.41%) but was a disappointment in 2007 with a -0.77% return. We've been negative on value and should have cut back here but we liked one of the manager's broader take on the global economy and elevated asset prices. The fund's fault certainly wasn't expenses- it charges just 0.43%. The culprit is just what you'd expect with "value" in the name, financial services firms and big banks like Citigroup. This goes to show you don't need P/E ratios of 100 to have a bubble. We wish Wall Street read our commentary on home loans and the real estate bubble over the last few years - they would have saved quite a bit of money.
The Aggressive Portfolio dipped -0.30% in December.
In the end, 2007 produced a lot of volatility but not much in returns. The S&P 500 was up just 5.5% for the year. Keep in mind no risk low fee money market funds returned about as much - Vanguard Prime Money Market returned 5.17% in 2007. The story was better for Dow and tech stocks. The Dow was up 8.89%, the Nasdaq was up 9.82%. Small cap stocks were the real losers, down 1.57% for the year, though this doesn't tell the story of how smaller cap value stocks underperformed, down almost 10% in 2007 (small cap growth was up 7.05%). Safer bonds were a decent place to be in 2007, with longer term government bonds returning just shy of 10% and the total bond market up about 7%.
All of our Powerfund Portfolios beat the S&P 500 for the calendar year. All of them are beating the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq since their inception on April 1, 2002, while. Our volatility has also been lower than stock indexes due to the diversification including bond fund stakes. Two of our model portfolios (Aggressive Growth and Daredevil) have doubled the S&P 500; one (Growth) came close. Keep in mind our portfolios could become more risky than the indexes, notably Daredevil.
Our solid year was due to heavy exposure to investment grade bonds, larger cap stocks, and in more aggressive portfolios, tech. We did miss the ongoing excitement in energy stocks and emerging markets. We also missed out on the ongoing crash in financial stocks by not buying sector funds that invest in this area. In fact we profited from the crash in real estate with real estate short ETFs - a very risky short term strategy - in our Daredevil portfolio.
December was bad all around - all major indexes were down including bonds. However, two of our portfolios were up for the month, and all the rest fell less than half of the S&P 500's negative 0.70% return.
Bridgeway Blue Chip 35 Index (BRLIX) was acceptable in 2007 but really underwhelmed us with just a 6.08% return for the year and a -0.71% return for the month. Big cap stocks led the market but this was not quite enough of a market beating return. The fund holds hot stocks like Google, but also had large stakes in some weak bank stocks.
Healthcare Select SPDR (XLV) had a rotten December, down 3.03%. Even with this bad month the ETF was up a solid 6.93% in 2007. We see this fund doing very well in our recessionary environment as investors flock to companies with relatively safe earnings in an economic downturn. We've already seen this trend in early 2008.
Bill Gross had a fabulous year. Harbor Bond (HABDX) was up 8.72% for the year, and 0.43% for the month of December. He has been calling for a weak economy and housing bust and his move to safer longer term bonds benefited from falling interest rates and the flood of money in to safer bonds.
While healthcare in general wasn't that strong in 2007, biotech stocks were red hot. SPDR Biotech (XBI) was down 2.13% in December but still delivered a 29% return in 2007 - our portfolios best holdings.
Janus Global Research (JARFX) had a good December (up 0.65%) and a great 2007, up 26.74%. We're up over 32% here and we only added the fund in late 2006. Some of this outperformance comes from the fund being global because foreign stocks have been beating U.S. stocks, but the rest is a return to larger cap growth stocks beating the market and some likely games Janus is playing trying to help their new funds build great track records. We're getting quite negative on foreign stocks and as the new fund effect will wane, may be looking to move on in 2008.
Vanguard Growth ETF bucked the market trend in December with a 0.17% return. Larger cap growth stock have been strong, but recently the Nasdaq has been hit hard so this fund is in for a rocky early 2008.
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The Conservative Portfolio climbed 0.24% in December.
In the end, 2007 produced a lot of volatility but not much in returns. The S&P 500 was up just 5.5% for the year. Keep in mind no risk low fee money market funds returned about as much - Vanguard Prime Money Market returned 5.17% in 2007. The story was better for Dow and tech stocks. The Dow was up 8.89%, the Nasdaq was up 9.82%. Small cap stocks were the real losers, down 1.57% for the year, though this doesn't tell the story of how smaller cap value stocks underperformed, down almost 10% in 2007 (small cap growth was up 7.05%). Safer bonds were a decent place to be in 2007, with longer term government bonds returning just shy of 10% and the total bond market up about 7%.
All of our Powerfund Portfolios beat the S&P 500 for the calendar year. All of them are beating the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq since their inception on April 1, 2002, while. Our volatility has also been lower than stock indexes due to the diversification including bond fund stakes. Two of our model portfolios (Aggressive Growth and Daredevil) have doubled the S&P 500; one (Growth) came close. Keep in mind our portfolios could become more risky than the indexes, notably Daredevil.
Our solid year was due to heavy exposure to investment grade bonds, larger cap stocks, and in more aggressive portfolios, tech. We did miss the ongoing excitement in energy stocks and emerging markets. We also missed out on the ongoing crash in financial stocks by not buying sector funds that invest in this area. In fact we profited from the crash in real estate with real estate short ETFs - a very risky short term strategy - in our Daredevil portfolio.
December was bad all around - all major indexes were down including bonds. However, two of our portfolios were up for the month, and all the rest fell less than half of the S&P 500's negative 0.70% return.
Bill Gross had a fabulous year. Harbor Bond (HABDX) was up 8.72% for the year, and 0.43% for the month of December. He has been calling for a weak economy and housing bust and his move to safer longer term bonds benefited from falling interest rates and the flood of money in to safer bonds.
Bridgeway Balanced (BRBPX) was a good holding for us in 2007 and especially in December. For the month the fund was up 1.41%, for the year, up 6.59%. Keep in mind this fund is a good deal safer than the stock market as a whole. We like the strategy of option writing particularly as we feel stock market upside is limited to about 6% a year for the foreseeable future. The trick is finding funds that can do this cheaply. We're in about two of the best funds of this type (this one and Gateway GATEX) but are considering some others going forward.
Healthcare Select SPDR (XLV) had a rotten December, down 3.03%. Even with this bad month the ETF was up a solid 6.93% in 2007. We see this fund doing very well in our recessionary environment as investors flock to companies with relatively safe earnings in an economic downturn. We've already seen this trend in early 2008.
Vanguard Growth ETF bucked the market trend in December with a 0.17% return. Larger cap growth stock have been strong, but recently the Nasdaq has been hit hard so this fund is in for a rocky early 2008.
Janus Global Research (JARFX) had a good December (up 0.65%) and a great 2007, up 26.74%. We're up over 32% here and we only added the fund in late 2006. Some of this outperformance comes from the fund being global because foreign stocks have been beating U.S. stocks, but the rest is a return to larger cap growth stocks beating the market and some likely games Janus is playing trying to help their new funds build great track records. We're getting quite negative on foreign stocks and as the new fund effect will wane, may be looking to move on in 2008.
Vanguard U.S. Value (VUVLX) was fine in December (up 0.41%) but was a disappointment in 2007 with a -0.77% return. We've been negative on value and should have cut back here but we liked one of the manager's broader take on the global economy and elevated asset prices. The fund's fault certainly wasn't expenses- it charges just 0.43%. The culprit is just what you'd expect with "value" in the name, financial services firms and big banks like Citigroup. This goes to show you don't need P/E ratios of 100 to have a bubble. We wish Wall Street read our commentary on home loans and the real estate bubble over the last few years - they would have saved quite a bit of money.
The Aggressive Portfolio dipped -0.30% in December.
In the end, 2007 produced a lot of volatility but not much in returns. The S&P 500 was up just 5.5% for the year. Keep in mind no risk low fee money market funds returned about as much - Vanguard Prime Money Market returned 5.17% in 2007. The story was better for Dow and tech stocks. The Dow was up 8.89%, the Nasdaq was up 9.82%. Small cap stocks were the real losers, down 1.57% for the year, though this doesn't tell the story of how smaller cap value stocks underperformed, down almost 10% in 2007 (small cap growth was up 7.05%). Safer bonds were a decent place to be in 2007, with longer term government bonds returning just shy of 10% and the total bond market up about 7%.
All of our Powerfund Portfolios beat the S&P 500 for the calendar year. All of them are beating the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq since their inception on April 1, 2002, while. Our volatility has also been lower than stock indexes due to the diversification including bond fund stakes. Two of our model portfolios (Aggressive Growth and Daredevil) have doubled the S&P 500; one (Growth) came close. Keep in mind our portfolios could become more risky than the indexes, notably Daredevil.
Our solid year was due to heavy exposure to investment grade bonds, larger cap stocks, and in more aggressive portfolios, tech. We did miss the ongoing excitement in energy stocks and emerging markets. We also missed out on the ongoing crash in financial stocks by not buying sector funds that invest in this area. In fact we profited from the crash in real estate with real estate short ETFs - a very risky short term strategy - in our Daredevil portfolio.
December was bad all around - all major indexes were down including bonds. However, two of our portfolios were up for the month, and all the rest fell less than half of the S&P 500's negative 0.70% return.
Bridgeway Blue Chip 35 Index (BRLIX) was acceptable in 2007 but really underwhelmed us with just a 6.08% return for the year and a -0.71% return for the month. Big cap stocks led the market but this was not quite enough of a market beating return. The fund holds hot stocks like Google, but also had large stakes in some weak bank stocks.
Healthcare Select SPDR (XLV) had a rotten December, down 3.03%. Even with this bad month the ETF was up a solid 6.93% in 2007. We see this fund doing very well in our recessionary environment as investors flock to companies with relatively safe earnings in an economic downturn. We've already seen this trend in early 2008.
Bill Gross had a fabulous year. Harbor Bond (HABDX) was up 8.72% for the year, and 0.43% for the month of December. He has been calling for a weak economy and housing bust and his move to safer longer term bonds benefited from falling interest rates and the flood of money in to safer bonds.
While healthcare in general wasn't that strong in 2007, biotech stocks were red hot. SPDR Biotech (XBI) was down 2.13% in December but still delivered a 29% return in 2007 - our portfolios best holdings.
Janus Global Research (JARFX) had a good December (up 0.65%) and a great 2007, up 26.74%. We're up over 32% here and we only added the fund in late 2006. Some of this outperformance comes from the fund being global because foreign stocks have been beating U.S. stocks, but the rest is a return to larger cap growth stocks beating the market and some likely games Janus is playing trying to help their new funds build great track records. We're getting quite negative on foreign stocks and as the new fund effect will wane, may be looking to move on in 2008.
Vanguard Growth ETF bucked the market trend in December with a 0.17% return. Larger cap growth stock have been strong, but recently the Nasdaq has been hit hard so this fund is in for a rocky early 2008.