From: James Rogers (jamesr@best.com)
Date: Thu May 22 1997 - 14:30:29 MDT
At 09:33 AM 5/22/97 -0700, Max More wrote:
>At 02:25 PM 5/21/97 -0400, Perry wrote:
>>
>>2) You don't even have to think much to make money in the markets:
>> passive investments like buying into an S&P 500 following mutual
>> fund do bring their investors excellent returns.
>
>I read an article (in Fortune, I think) that warned investors to be careful
>with index funds based on the Dow or the S&P 500. The writer noted that
>these stocks may be overvalued because index investing has become so
>incredibly popular that these stocks just keep getting pushed up. The
>writer suggested broader index funds, such as those based on the Wilshire
>5000. I'd be very interested to hear comments on this.
Index funds will only remain a good choice for the next couple years and
for the really long term. Broader funds, especially ones that represent
international markets, would be better choices for the medium-term. For
mutual funds, I prefer ones that do not track a particular index, but you
have to shop more carefully to get good results.
>Warren Buffett's approach makes a lot of sense to me. It's too bad that he
>doesn't know much about high tech and so won't invest in that area. My one
>and only investment so far (Coca Cola) was inspired by Buffett, though I
>think I should have gone with Microsoft, as I almost did but it's price was
>relatively high at the time. I'm happy so far though: I bought my few
>shares of stock a month ago. It's up 13%, so I can boast -- for now! -- of
>an annualized return of 156%.
Not to burst your bubble, but after trading costs, you pretty much tracked
the market indices for the same period. Also, diversification is important
to reliable growth and lowering risk.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com
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