JoeBailey3

"It is much more profitable to sell advice than to take it."  - B.C. Forbes      I was recently talking to a potential client and it was evident he was having a difficult time choosing whether to hire me or another investment adviser. It made me think about the fact that most people have no idea how to choose a good investment adviser. In fact if you know enough to choose a good investment adviser you probably know enough to manage your own investments and therefore have no need of an investment adviser. Since I am an investment adviser I cannot offer any objective advice on how to select one (the title of this blog is meant to be humorous), but I can, and will, offer my completely one-sided, self-serving opinion. Whether you agree or disagree will be mostly a function of your pre-existing beliefs, and if you can prove me wrong, or right, with well reasoned and researched arguments you probably do not need me or this guide. If, however, you like this post and are looking

     In my last post I discussed the potential for international diversification to reduce volatility. As we saw, the data is inconclusive at best and over recent years international diversification has actually increased the worst kind of volatility. In this post we'll analyze the potential for international diversification to increase returns.      It is worth noting that the UN recognizes 195 sovereign countries BlackRock has 267 non-US iShares ETFs, with the ability to invest specifically in 42 individual countries. If you want to index Poland or Argentina iShares will do it for you -- expense ratios are in the 50-60 basis points range. We can be fairly certain that in any given year the US will not provide better returns than every one of those 42 countries. So "diversifying" with the right country will always provide better returns. However, investors have no reliable way to pick the right country. For the purposes of this article, when I refer to international i