Minutes

AAII Orange County Chapter

Monthly Meeting, April 7th, 2007

Oasis Senior Center

800 Marguerite

Corona del Mar, CA 92625

Reported by: Reported by: Ed Casselman and Bob Welge

 

 

 

Title: Smart Money: Why the Worlds Most Sophisticated Investors Index Their Investment Portfolios and Why You Should Too

 

Speaker:  Timothy Bock Founder, President, Summit Portfolio Management

 

 

The presentation began with a review of active vs. passive investing and the efficient market hypothesis.  Tim followed with why you should index: capital markets are efficient; concentrated portfolios have higher risks and cost; superior returns are attributable to asset structure and picking a manager or funds based on track record doesn’t help.  He showed data that supported the point that less than 10% of the managers of funds really add value. 

 

Tim followed with a discussion of where do the returns come from with illustrations from historical performance of equity, value and small cap.  He pointed out that the average investor is decimated by poor timing referencing a 2005 Dalbar Study showing the average investor made 3.7%/yr while the S&P averaged 13.25/yr.  To improve performance he recommends a disciplined strategy of portfolio rebalancing and tax minimization using portfolio engineering based on scientific studies of capital markets for buying and selling without forecasting.  He reviewed the Dimensional Fund Advisors, passively managed mutual funds designed to capture the added returns from small and value companies available to advisors only.  He reviewed Summit Portfolio performance over the past 15 years. 

 

Tim closed with a summary of the superior performance of small value funds since 1996 and recommendations for several books to read.  www.summitportfolio.com

 

Following the conclusion of Jonathan’s presentation, Bob adjourned the meeting at 11:00 am.