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Have Stock Market Bears Gone Extinct Because Of QE ?
Hussman is still proclaiming collapse is just around the corner, but he is one of the very few remaining. Unfortunately for those who put faith in him, they would have fared better in almost any other kind of fund. Natural resources and precious metals mining stocks are about the only thing that did worse than his Strategic Growth's negative 4% average the last 5 years. Surely he will be right sometime, but pity the shareholders who hang on that long. If they had just put their dollars in rather boring Templeton Global Bond they would have averaged 10% over those five years. SPDR Gold averaged 14%. Even PIMCO Total Return shareholders netted an average of 8%. And if they did no more than put cash in a bank account, they would have been ahead. This is a perfect example of why true diversification can be a prudent option for most investors.
Hmm ... A bigger bubble is not necessarily a better bubble. However, Hussman is remenecient of the fella frozen in panic in the backyard, gazing out into space for the next killer asteroid ... It's out there somewhere ....
Bob C has pointed out other alternatives a cautious investor might take without sending his money to Hussman. After a small, but long-running, investment in HSGFX, I reached the same conclusion a year or so ago.
I think people buy his fund to protect against some cataclysmic market event. Psychologists say most of us fear loss of money more than we value its growth. So, the fund plays into this natural human tendency.
If that's your mantra, than a better approach might be holding some combination of cash, equities, U.S. Treasuries, precious metals, foreign currencies and real-estate. (Gosh - sounds alot like PRPFX.)
Comments
Bob C has pointed out other alternatives a cautious investor might take without sending his money to Hussman. After a small, but long-running, investment in HSGFX, I reached the same conclusion a year or so ago.
I think people buy his fund to protect against some cataclysmic market event. Psychologists say most of us fear loss of money more than we value its growth. So, the fund plays into this natural human tendency.
If that's your mantra, than a better approach might be holding some combination of cash, equities, U.S. Treasuries, precious metals, foreign currencies and real-estate. (Gosh - sounds alot like PRPFX.)