Give your money to a woman

[Walt34]

Okay, this title will endear me to the ladies. Men might break out the torches and pitchforks.

Anyway, this is an interesting article about the success of female fund managers. Want better returns? Give your money to a woman - NBC News.com

Quote:

The numbers are even more eye-popping for the six years from January 2007 through June 2013. Hedge funds run by women returned 6 percent compared with a 1.1 percent loss at the HFRX Global Fund Index. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 4.2 percent during the same time.

They don't really give a reason why the difference and admittedly the time period is short so it's not definitive anyway. But an interesting thought nonetheless.

[ziggy29]

I've sometimes heard it said that on average (i.e. there certainly are exceptions), woman investors don't trade as often or as actively, being a little more prone to buying and holding for longer periods than men. If true that could explain some of the difference.

It would be interesting to see how they specifically fared during the Ursa Major of 2008-09 and how they fared in the subsequent recovery.

[NW-Bound]

Well, perhaps testosterone does hurt investing performance as unclemick keeps claiming.

While I am a vehemently heterosexual male, I am not a chest-thumping male, never interested in competitive sports, and may be considered too soft by other males. So, if that explains my investing performance so far, which I think is above average for stock pickers, I am OK with it.

[Bestwifeever]

Just don't give your money to the Beardstown ladies:

Quote:

The women had claimed that their investment club had earned an average annual return of 23.4 percent and published five folksy books that mingled recipes like five-hour stew with investment tips. But in 1998, accountants announced that the authors had miscalculated and that their club had averaged 9.1 percent annual returns, far less than the Standard & Poor's 500.

Beardstown Ladies Case Ends in Offer to Trade - NYTimes.com

[NW-Bound]

Well, I thought there were some studies to show women tend to, er, not telling the truth compared to men.

[Midpack]

I understand Jack Bogle has some daughters and grand-daughters. Best of all worlds?

[ziggy29]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bestwifeever Just don't give your money to the Beardstown ladies

Weren't they the ones that basically took (for example) a 300% total return over 15 years and called it a 20% annual return (300%/15) instead of calculating it properly as a CAGR (which would be about 9.7%)?

[NW-Bound]

I did not fully follow the Beardstown story, but the above miscalculation could be attributed to being math-challenged and not outright deceitful.

[Walt34]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziggy29 I've sometimes heard it said that on average (i.e. there certainly are exceptions), woman investors don't trade as often or as actively, being a little more prone to buying and holding for longer periods than men.

If there is a difference over long periods of time I'd think that is most likely the reason. But just an opinion of course.

[robnplunder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Well, I thought there were some studies to show women tend to, er, not telling the truth compared to men.

[Bestwifeever]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziggy29 Weren't they the ones that basically took (for example) a 300% total return over 15 years and called it a 20% annual return (300%/15) instead of calculating it properly as a CAGR (which would be about 9.7%)?

Worse. They forgot that they didn't back out the new investments. And their funds (and the claims made in their books) were not audited until they were challenged by financial writers, when the mistakes were finally found. Oops!

Not a malicious error, but still....

[Midpack]

Quote:

After a Chicago magazine report last month questioned their accuracy, the women had Price Waterhouse audit the club's books. The accounting firm found the overall average annual rate of return for the club from its inception 14 years ago through 1997 was 15.3 percent. The rate of return from 1984-93 was 9.1 percent, well below the 15 percent return of the overall stock market, with dividends reinvested, during the same period and substantially below the 23.4 percent the women originally reported. Betty Sinnock, longtime treasurer of the Beardstown Business and Professional Women's Investment Club, said Price Waterhouse attributed the mistake to a computer input error. ''The Beardstown Ladies are just really, really sorry.'' she said.

If it sounds too good to be true...

[Amethyst]

And here I thought the thread was going to be about which half of a heterosexual couple manages the household money, and how's that workin' for ya.

Amethyst

[Bestwifeever]

Since 97 percent of hedge funds are managed by men and 3 percent by women (per this site: Women in Fund Management: The Report | ncrw.org) could the relatively better returns for the latter just be a fluke?

I wonder if anyone has studied whether female monkeys are better at picking stocks than male monkeys

[haha]

Give your money to a woman? Don't most of us do that sooner or later?

[Walt34]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bestwifeever Since 97 percent of hedge funds are managed by men and 3 percent by women (per this site: Women in Fund Management: The Report | ncrw.org) could the relatively better returns for the latter just be a fluke?

I did notice that most of the sponsors of the study were women. Surely that had no effect on the outcome....

[MichaelB]

The Fed Chief is a woman. The last piece of the puzzle is in place.
.
.

The Circle is Now Complete - YouTube

[Shawn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walt34 I did notice that most of the sponsors of the study were women. Surely that had no effect on the outcome....

Women are better at everything than men, or so one might conclude from the media. Do you think NBC or another major news organization would ever publish an article that claimed men are better than women at a given activity, even if there was conclusive evidence that this was so? You are not going to see anything like, "Want better returns? Give your money to a man," even if the data suggested this to be true. Such an article would be considered offensive and people likely would be fired.

For the most part, this demonstrates the lack of credibility of the news media in general ... not due to the article itself, but due to the one-sided presentation of articles like these.

[brewer12345]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelB The Fed Chief is a woman. The last piece of the puzzle is in place. . . The Circle is Now Complete - YouTube

Ah, yes, OMWI taken to its absurdist extreme.

[brett]

There have been a number of times when I was not sure of what to do-usually it involved selling too early. DW's advice, when I asked, always proved to be spot on.