December 2012 Market Recap

Invitation to access our website 

We have been reworking our website over the past several months and have added a signficant amount of content that may be of interest to you including updated mutual fund and ETF commentaries as well as many of our archived reports which you have been receiving on a monthly basis.

We invite you to set up your own username and password and see all that our site has to offer. There is no additional cost to you for this access as it is already included in your subscription cost.

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2013 – A look ahead

Now that the holiday decorations have been put away for another year and my first New Year’s resolution has been broken, it’s time to look ahead at the investment environment for 2013. Not surprisingly, we expect that 2013 will look an awful lot like 2012 with headline risk being the main drivers of market volatility and return.

While much of the fiscal cliff has been averted in the U.S., there are still questions surrounding the robustness of their economic recovery. In Europe, the debt crisis is still a long way from being fixed, and the region remains mired in a crippling recession. Signs of life are showing in the emerging markets, but much of it will be dependent on China and how quickly they can turn things around.

Let’s take a look at some of the major asset classes and break down their prospects for 2013.

Read more…

December Fund Ranking Report

Each month, we analyze more than 1200 mutual funds, pooled funds, and hedge funds putting them through our proprietary quantitative valuation model. We then prepare our Monthly Fund Ranking Report which rates and ranks each of the funds in our universe.

You can download our December 31, 2012 Investment Fund Ranking Report here.

December Socially Responsible Investing Report 

With environmental and human rights concerns becoming more important to people, interest in the Socially Responsible Investing segment has never been stronger. In an effort to help keep investors and advisors informed on the SRI funds available, we have created our monthly Socially Responsible Investing Fund Report, which will be published on a monthly basis.

You can download the December 31, 2012 Socially Responsible Investing Report here.

December WRAP Funds Report 

Fund of Fund or WRAP funds have consistently led the mutual funds sales stats in the past few years. Investor and advisor interest in the products are at an all time high, given the unprecedented levels of market volatility and uncertainty that is prevalent in the markets today. To help you zero in on the best WRAP funds available, we have created our new Monthly WRAP Funds Report that will be published on a monthly basis. If there is a WRAP fund that you would like to see added to this report, please contact us and we will add it for our next edition.

You can download the December 31, 2012 WRAP Fund Report here

December Portfolio Review 

The portfolios were again positive, but slightly underperforming their respective benchmarks. The fixed income funds were relative outperformers, while our equity funds, particularly the Renaissance Global Health Care Fund were laggards. Despite this recent underperformance, the risk reward metrics for the portfolios remain within expected ranges.

You can download our detailed Portfolio Review here.