Bill Byrnes
Bill Byrnes is co-founder of MUTUALdecision, a website providing mutual fund data, and the author of the MUTUALdecision Blog. He's been an investment banker with Alex. Brown & Sons and a Finance Professor at Georgetown University. He's been CEO, chairman and served on the board of directors of several public and private companies. He holds MBA and JD degrees and is a Chartered Financial Analyst with over 30 years experience in the investment industry.
Articles by this Author
Sector Funds: More Than Meets The Eye
- By Bill Byrnes
- Published 04/25/2008
- Mutual Funds
- Unrated
Sector funds have their place in your portfolio, not as core holdings, but as a diversified way of making targeted investments in selected niches.
Dont Let Your Investments Control You
- By Bill Byrnes
- Published 04/25/2008
- Mutual Funds
- Unrated
The key to building a strong investment portfolio is to set your goals and diversify but not have so many investments you cant follow and to avoid investments which are too small to be meaningful.
AI: Alpha and Index Funds
- By Bill Byrnes
- Published 04/25/2008
- Financial Planning
- Unrated
Alpha and index fund investing makes a great deal of sense. You know what to expect in terms of risk and return when you invest in an index fund. Having a portion of your portfolio in index funds leaves you free to concentrate your investment time and energy (think alpha waves) on those investments which can make a difference.
Gut Check Time-How To Invest and Not Lose Sleep
- By Bill Byrnes
- Published 04/25/2008
- Financial Planning
- Unrated
Investing is not an emotional decision, it takes hard work and discipline, but if you worry too much about an investment, it isn't right for you.
Speculate For Growth, Not For Income
- By Bill Byrnes
- Published 04/25/2008
- Financial Planning
- Unrated
Funds that invest in bank loans, junk bonds, and other low-rated or unrated debt instruments, or employ leverage to enhance their returns are too risky for the average investor.
Breaking Down the Financial Breakdown
- By Bill Byrnes
- Published 04/24/2008
- Financial Planning
- Unrated
The housing market was headed for a correction regardless of the events taking place in the subprime market. New home starts were running at twice the historical average during 2003-2006.
Yielding to Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
- By Bill Byrnes
- Published 04/24/2008
- Financial Planning
- Unrated
Income is hard to come by these days. Treasuries are yielding less than 5%. Have you considered Real Estate mutual funds? Many have current yields in the 5-8% range (primarily REIT-Real Estate Investment Trust-funds).
Portfolio Turnover: Should You Care?
- By Bill Byrnes
- Published 04/24/2008
- Mutual Funds
- Unrated
Many mutual fund screening tools have portfolio turnover as one of their filters and you can usually find a fund's turnover (expressed as a percentage) on the fund's snapshot page or by doing a little digging on the fund's website.
Leverage Land Mines
- By Bill Byrnes
- Published 04/24/2008
- Financial Planning
- Unrated
Simply put, leverage magnifies your gain or loss and, since you're borrowing money which must be repaid, you can lose more than your entire investment (the investment and the loan amount).
Too Much Income Can Be Hazardous to Your Financial Health
- By Bill Byrnes
- Published 04/24/2008
- Unrated
A discussion on investing in stocks and bonds.