As Thanksgiving came and went, Wall Street put taper concerns aside. The S&P 500 climbed another 2.8% bringing YTD total returns on the index to 29.12%, the best performance since 1997.

With debt default averted for now and the government reopened, the S&P 500 continued its winning ways in October. The broad market index rose 4.46% for the month, bringing YTD returns to 25.3%. S&P Mid Cap stocks gained 3.64%, finishing up 26.34% YTD.  S&P Small Cap stocks rose 3.54%, driving their YTD returns to 32.04%.

Since the early days of security analysis, research has emphasized the potential benefit of buying stocks at a price that is reasonable to the fundamentals. The oldest benchmark for valuation is the dividend yield. Stocks that trade at a high dividend yield are often referred to as value stocks. Stocks that trade at a low dividend yield are often referred to as growth stocks. Value and growth investing have given rise to dramatically different records of long-term performance. A large body of evidence suggests that there has been a higher long term-term return both domestically and internationally from investing in value stocks.

Professor Fama was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his groundbreaking work on asset pricing and markets. His research inspired the rising popularity for index tracking funds and provides the intellectual foundation for investment strategy at Cardiff Park Advisors.

Global stock markets posted broad gains for September closing out a profitable quarter. The MSCI All World Index returned 5.17% for September and 7.9% for the latest three months. Further, every major developed and developing market gained for the quarter except for Indonesia. Through the end of September, YTD returns for the All World index totaled 14.43%.

Five years ago, the demise of Lehman Brothers shook global financial markets. This marked the start of a dreadful six month period for investors. Returns on the S&P 500 plummeted 52%, the MSCI Int’l Developed Market Index (EAFE) gave back 53% and the MSCI Emerging Market Index lost 47%.

Financial Analyst John Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Mutual Fund Group, estimated in an upcoming paper that the total costs paid by investors in actively managed US funds is 2.25%. Those costs include portfolio turnover expenses, sales loads, operating expenses and advisory fees. Passively managed index funds, on the other hand, are now available at fees at and around five basis points for institutions and 20 basis points or less for individuals.

U.S. stocks took a step backwards over the month of August due to three sources of economic uncertainty: the potential intervention in the conflict in Syria, the plan on the part of the Federal Reserve to scale back its stimulus program, and the prospect of another congressional debt ceiling debate. Volatility spiked and the S&P 500 shed 3.1%, amounting to its worst monthly performance in over a year—pulling YTD returns down to 16.15%. Slowing new home sales, falling durable goods orders and sluggish retail compounded the turbulence. The 2.5% upward revision for second quarter U.S. growth came as bright spot amongst the other news.

B. Goodman, in a Barron's article published on August 5th and titled "Where the Smart Money is Headed", relates that DFA Funds top the list of where financial advisors are likely to put their money.Click here to read more.

One thing that surprised people about the recent $250 million sale of the Washington Post to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was the health of the Washington Post's pension plan. At a time when most pension plans are struggling, the Post has $1 billion more than it needs. That billion-dollar surplus, it turns out, can be traced back to a memo Warren Buffett, age 44 at the time, sent the Washington Post's then chairman and CEO Katharine Graham about problems developing in pension plans and suggestions for how to avoid them. In the memo Buffett, who built his fortune buying individual stocks, acknowledged the inanity of trying to outguess the stock market and the wisdom of a passive investment approach. For more on the story see http://qz.com/116075.