Monday, August 07, 2006

Clearing mail box

Ok, I am back...Went to Virginia (and West Virginia) for a bike ride. Wow, what a ride. Supposedly the hilliest Century east of the Rockies. Not sure if it is or is not, but it is hard and hilly! Over 13,400 feet of climbing with 9 named climbs. Great fun!

I will get back to seriously posting finance stuff either later tonight or tomorrow, but a few articles that were sent to me (either by email or RSS reader) I thought you might be interested in.

From the Detroit FreePress:
"Index funds simply track a market index, such as the Standard & Poor's 500. Weighting by market cap poses problems. As a stock rises in price, it becomes a larger part of the index. The index can then become larded with overpriced stocks. At the same time, it underweights undervalued stocks.

Jeremy Siegel, a finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, has proposed "fundamentally weighted indexes," which would weigh stocks by some factor other than market cap. For example, an index could be weighted by the total amount a company pays out in dividends. This would reflect the companies' earnings and financial strength"

Financial Rounds has an interesting piece on Sarbannes-Oxley and IPOs. Short version, MAYBE (and I agree with the Unknown Professor that this is HIGHLY debateable), SOX is a reason why some firms are doing IPOs internationally.

The FinancialPage
examines mutual fund fees around the world. Interesting not only because there are differences (so much for law of one price) but also where the differences occur.

No comments: