JR Snell Capital Management, LLC

The latest market meltdown has gotten folks asking me about our performance as compared to the stock market (again). But I’ve always thought a little differently about comparing our management of client accounts against various indices. (The industry calls this “benchmarking”.)

I find it interesting that investors would want to compare whole portfolio returns to the stock market. It’s funny how consumers of financial products maintain this decision bias by wanting to compare all returns “against the market” to decide if they’re getting good advice or not.

I don’t think investors are necessarily to blame for this bias… I think our industry might have brainwashed people to think this way. After being subjected to the stream of advertisements on TV and in magazines comparing “this fund” and “that fund” against the market, what can we expect investors to do when looking for intelligent ways to discern between copius financial choices?

To get market returns… or a reasonable comparison between what you’re doing versus what the market has done, you have to accept “market risk”. Yet, what I know from innumerable conversations with real people who have real concerns, investors do not want to accept “market risk” for the entirety of their investments.

I think a better “benchmark” to judge portfolio performance would be to compare your performance to what you set out to do. I call this “Personal Benchmarking”. Once you’ve released your portfolio from the chains of relative performance and embraced the concept of absolute performance (Personal Benchmarking) all investment decisions become significantly easier to make and to manage.

If you’ve planned that you’ll need a certain average annual rate of return to make your retirement work, what relevance is the stock market to you personally? It’s one of the hardest concepts to get your head around… but it’s worth it when you do… kind of Zen-like if you will.

So, we try to use the stock market as simply a tool to help us to reach your objectives. To do this, we have to first define your objectives, then we have to have the courage to “walk away” from the market when necessary and to exploit it when possible. (Hint: Get this report.)

If you REALLY think about doing things this way, you are naturally going to under perform when the market is “hot” and “risky”… and you’re going to outperform (sometimes significantly) when the market craters. But then again, who cares? The goal isn’t to “beat the market”, the goal is to continue on a track to meet your personal objectives?

I’ve gotten a fair number of questions about this Roth IRA conversion that’s going to be available to all IRA owners next year.

The basics are that you will be able to convert all of your regular IRA-type accounts over to Roth IRAs during 2010, regardless of your income level. The million dollar questions is, “Is it a good idea?” … and I can’t provide an answer to that question.

So, what good am I? Well, I brought it up didn’t I? Ok… actually, I’m willing to be the “go-fer” between my clients and their accountants… but they and their accountants have the ultimate say  whether it’s a right thing to consider… that’s what good I am.

Just to get the ball rolling, I stole an article that’s got way too much detail about the whole issue… It might be confusing to us mere mortals, but your accountant will probably be interested in it. So, read – copy – print the attached article and then pass it on to your accountant.

Even I am a little surprised at this one… Here’s the quote, clipped straight out of a MarketWatch article:

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Let me paraphrase my favorite part….

“You can look at all the great fundamentals in the world, but if there’s not a demand for the stock, it really doesn’t matter. I learned that point blank in the last few months.”

OK, two points… First, if the only financial thing you’ve ever done is to have a garage sale, then you know that if there’s no demand for something, it ain’t going to sell… no matter how lifelike Elvis looks on velvet.

Second, if you get all the way to chief investment officer before you figure this “no demand” thing out… and only in the last few months?? Well, I don’t even know how to explain how “squishy” that makes me feel.

Click to buy

If you’re gonna be out here on the links, ya gotta know & ya gotta show who’s got your assets covered. What you need (in my humble opinion) is Official JRSCM Bling.

My official golf-style, collared t-shirt is a comfortable, lightweight way to play 18 holes and beat the heat. Actually, it’s so damned comfortable you could probably even play 36 if you wanted.

Even though the shirt’s got stylish (aka cheesy) wood-tone buttons, I wear mine all the time for two reasons: 1.) The material is thicker than most golf shirts, it’s all cotton and it kind of feels like a t-shirt and 2.) It has my name on it, so it matches my socks and underwear.

It’s going to set you back about $16.99 + shipping. I’m not sure it’s a “great” deal, but it is at cost! My logic here is that having an army of little bipedal bulletin boards out on the links should be a good thing, right?

Naturally, if you’re sportin’ my bling, try to behave yourself. This includes choosing to use the course-provided restrooms at the turn instead of your typical free-lancing in the OB off the 12th fairway. You know who you are.

Lately, plenty of folks have been learning the lesson that maybe the stock market’s not for wimps or a place to take a “flyer”. For that, we’ve got Vegas.

Sooooo, if you wanna be in stocks, then first things first: Figure out if you’re serious, and if you are then get yourself educated about what you’re doing. Most people wouldn’t ever dream of sitting down at a high-stakes poker game without knowing the rules. But they would risk tens or hundreds of thousands in the stock market without knowing the rules?

Shame on the pedestrian, everyman, buy and hold garbage that’s been spewed for years by stockbrokerage houses in an attempt to convince “you” that investing in anything is fun and easy. Their agenda is that they need your money and then they need to keep it in the market to continue to collect their fees to stay in business long enough to speculate on foolish investments to the degree necessary to put themselves out of business.

If the big brokers can’t keep from losing their asses, how do they expect that we should listen to what they say? Things to think about. We’ve really pulled back the curtain on the Wizard this year, haven’t we?