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.

The U.S. equity market closed out July with its best monthly gain since January and thus rebounded powerfully from its June decline. The S&P 500 rose 5% and achieved a new high thereby pushing the YTD return for the broad market index to 19.62%. Smaller companies outperformed the broad market, the S&P MidCap 400 and S&P SmallCap 600 gained 6% and 7%, respectively. Within US asset classes, small growth outperformed small value while large value outperformed large growth.

With two bad rules adopted earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission has all but invited hucksters, rip-off artists and other bad actors to prey on individual investors. The new rules are another disturbing sign that under the leadership of the new chairwoman, Mary Jo White, the S.E.C. will pursue deregulation at the expense of investor protection. Read Full Article at: New York Times

Prices of domestic and foreign stocks, bonds and other investments fell sharply towards the end of the 2nd quarter. Still, the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index posted positive results, returning 2.91% for the quarter and 13.82% for the first half. All major US asset classes, with the exception of REITs, maintained positive performance in the quarter, with the broad market returning 2.69%. Asset class returns ranged from 3.74% for small growth stocks to 2.06% for large growth stocks.

The S&P 500 Index returned 2.34% in May, its seventh straight month of gains. Year-to-date, the index has returned 15.37%, its best five-month start to a year since 1997. The market’s advance this year has come largely on supportive monetary policies from central banks around the world.

"What stocks to buy now?" When prompted with this question, Gregory Mankiw, Professor of Economics at Harvard, told his mom, "Don’t ask me!”

Despite worries that federal spending cuts and higher taxes would lead to an economic slump, the S&P 500 finished the month up 1.81%, at a new all-time closing high, bringing YTD total returns for the index to 12.74%. U.S. asset class returns ranged from 2.12% for large growth stocks to negative 0.66% for small cap growth stocks. Across the size spectrum, large caps outperformed small caps. Across the style spectrum, large cap growth did better than large cap value; however, small cap value outperformed small cap growth.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index returned 5.2% in January. The last time U.S. stocks had a better start was in 1997, when the S&P 500 climbed 6.1% and finished the year with a 31% gain. The MSCI All-Country World Index of shares in 45 nations returned 4.6%, including dividends.