Forbes: Corporate Pension Funding Gap To Hit Record This Year

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Ouch!

Just when you thought things were getting better, up pops another problem.

This time it's the pensions provided by the biggest U.S. companies. The level of underfunding at these plans is set to reach a record this year, according to the author of a recent report. Read more here.

Photo by Andre Taissin on Unsplash

Street Fight: How an Italian Wafer Brand Targets U.S. Moms and Millennial Foodies on a Local Level

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Unless you grew up in a household of recent immigrants you may never have heard of Loackerwafers — but Crystal Black Davis, the VP of marketing and deputy to the president at Loacker USA, would like that to soon change. Read more here.

Forbes: Why God Would Get Fired On Wall Street

By SIMON CONSTABLE

In a recently published book, Wesley Gray, founder of Alpha Architect, poses an important question:

If God is omnipotent, could he create a long-term active investment strategy fund that was so good he could never get fired?

The stunning answer is that "God would get fired," he writes. Gray's emphasis.

He then goes on to explain why this would be so, even though God-like "perfect foresight has great returns." The reason that God would lose his job is that although the exceptional vision of the future would lead to great investing results the short-term journey to huge returns often leads to massive (temporary) losses. It's the sort of thing that gets you fired. Just like the rest of the business world, Wall Street preaches long term results but so often measures performance using short term metrics.

His analysis is detailed and clear. He's also is at pains to mention he means no offense by referring to God.

Gray's story is just one of the topics covered in a new book of essays on finance edited by veteran Wall Street investor Meb Faber. Published late July, The Best Investment Writing: Selected writing from leading investors and authors includes pieces by a host of people many of whom I know, have spoken to, or have met. Read more here.

WSJ: What to Consider Before You Buy an Emerging-Markets Fund

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Investors are flocking back to emerging markets, after dumping billions of dollars of emerging-markets securities and funds late last year.

For those who are thinking of following suit by putting their money to work in emerging markets, here are some important considerations. Read more here.

WSJ: What Is Risk Parity?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

An investment strategy known as risk parity has drawn attention lately because of the lack of volatility in the stock market and what might happen when volatility reappears.

“A risk-parity portfolio tries to derive equal risk from all the asset classes it’s involved with,” says Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago. Read more here.

WSJ: Pakistan Status Grows In Indexes

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Pakistan has gotten a leg up from the indexing world and could get more attention from investors because of it.

In May, index provider MSCI Inc. decided to give Pakistan emerging-market status and added it to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. MSCI had previously classified the country as a frontier market. Read more here.

Pakistan's Flag

Photo by Abuzar Xheikh on Unsplash

U.S. News: Defense Stocks Are Booming and Won't Slow Down

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Is it time to bail on defense stocks, or is there more upside to come?

The sector, which includes giant companies such as Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT), Raytheon Co. (ticker: RTN), and United Technologies Corp. (UTX), is on an impressive run, beating the broader market index by a factor of nearly 2-to-1 over the past 24 months. Read more here.