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I don't know if this is correct forum, but has anyone heard of Astor Management and thier long/short balanced program. It is a managed account program that invests in ETF's. Our stock broker recommended it as a good investment in this economy and suggested I go to their website, but i am afraid It is hard for me to evaluate.
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I don't know them. But
Astor Asset Management named No. 4 Top ETF Manager for 2008
It all depends on if you believe one can timing the market enough of times and has good success rate or not. And given their current success rate, what is the chance they can continue, since it usually has heavy expense ratio. And you probably will have some cost when move money in and out with them.
Jya-NingJya-Ning -
broker claims no cost to get in or out and 1 and a half percent a year in fees. Of course he is giving me only the pros, I am trying to find an unbiased article aobut this type of fund.Comment
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Sorry, I only study investment because I have to invest for my own family, so can not tell you the pro and cons regarding this specific management firm. You maybe able to find some investment group at your local (like Library), and try to study.
I look at their site a little, kind of get confused. (recently, I kind of get that quiet frequently
). In one chart, they have fix income count for 50% of their profolio, in the other, they have equity market count for 50% of their profolio, and since this will behavior very differently and should compare with different index, so can not tell if they can do what they say they can do.
They only have con when they can not maintain their current pace, or when they loss on predict what happen in the market. When that happen, most brokerge company will not recommend them. The problem is, you can not see what they will do in the future. At this moment, it does not happen.
If you read the forbe's link, they basically use the ETF that follow the market index, couple with some sector, then they use very agressive Short/bully ETF as 20% of their profolio. With 2x or 3x it means unless you close out every day, if you hold them in the long run, they just double or triple your noise, it will not change too much in your return against if you just hold the underline index. In the end, you probably will get a little bit the same as regular underline index.
In theory, if you can forcast the market will go down 20%, or in a manganitue like that, you can do that and make a fortune, and there are people make a fortune out of it. Although it becomes harder when the assets become larger and larger. In reality, when you gain, you need to pay tax, so the more frequently one has to play, the more likely in the end, the house (government) will won it all. And each time when they make a trade, their broker will charge on the spread plus the commision. But if their prediction is actual, you will not feel too much on it.
1/2 is on top of the underline ETF charges. But since they probably buy and sell most of them, so you probably will not feel the impact.
They do not show the detail, you need to ask them to send you, you can look for 12-b fee, if there is one, your broker will get commision, if there is none, your broker will get none.
JMHO, people invest for different reasons, to get rich depends on other is usually not very dependable. People get rich because they can themselves. But you can accumlate enough resource and live within your means using the professional manager.
One probably need to know what one plan to do with the money that put into each type of the investment. You may try to safe guard it for next year's trip, you may try to keep it for unforseen problem, you may try to use it to against inflation, you may try to use that for fix income.
For a simple person like me, it becomes much easier if I just identify one purpose of what I want to achieve using that set of money. It makes me sleep more easier. Although if some investment become particular good, you may use it on other goals, but generally, that will not be my intention when I start preparing that.
Jya-ningJya-NingComment
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thanks, don't follow everything, but very helpful.Comment
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You might want to read, "The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio" by William J. Bernstein. He addresses managed funds in this book and one quote, "Your broker is not your friend". Some are good, others can be like timeshare sales folks.Comment
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We have had lousy brokers, but we have had this one long enough to have seen substantial growth. I think he is trying to balance our portfolio and find something decent. Nothing much available in municipal bonds at a decent rate, but we can't keep sitting with our money in checking and money market accounts. We are only talking investing about 4 to 5 % of our portfolio in this fund and the funds are on hand, don't need to sell.
Just ordered the book from the library, thanks.Comment
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