| | |  | Retail Security | Home » » The Ivy Portfolio: How to Invest Like the Top Endowments and Avoid Bear Markets | | | | | | | Description: | | A do-it-yourself guide to investing like the renowned Harvard and Yale endowments.The Ivy Portfolio shows step-by-step how to track and mimic the investment strategies of the highly successful Harvard and Yale endowments. Using the endowment Policy Portfolios as a guide, the authors illustrate how an investor can develop a strategic asset allocation using an ETF-based investment approach. The Ivy Portfolio also reveals a novel method for investors to reduce their risk through a tactical asset allocation strategy to protect them from bear markets. The book will also showcase a method to follow the smart money and piggyback the top hedge funds and their stock-picking abilities. With readable, straightforward advice, The Ivy Portfolio will show investors exactly how this can be accomplished—and allow them to achieve an unparalleled level of investment success in the process. With all of the uncertainty in the markets today, The Ivy Portfolio helps the reader answer the most often asked question in investing today - "What do I do"? | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Mebane T. Faber | | Paperback:
| 240 pages | | Publisher:
| Wiley | | Publication Date:
| April 05, 2011 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 1118008855 | | Product Length:
| 8.9 inches | | Product Width:
| 5.9 inches | | Product Height:
| 0.7 inches | | Product Weight:
| 0.66 pounds | | Package Length:
| 8.9 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.9 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.8 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.65 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 81 reviews |
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| Used | |
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| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 81 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
110 of 115 found the following review helpful:
 This is the best book on investing I've read in yearsMar 30, 2009
By J. B. Williams
Most investment books are disappointments because of one or more of these characteristics: inflated (would have been a good magazine or journal article, but doesn't deserve a book); obscure because information is withheld (in order to sell a newsletter, software, or service); obscure because it is poorly written; subjective (not data driven); or just plain wrong.
The Ivy Portfolio has none of those problems. "Not bad" isn't the same as good, but this book is good. It is full of ideas and useful information; the disclosure is extensive, allowing reproducible results; it is well written; it is data driven; it is right based on the historical evidence, and I think the recommendations will prove to be robust.
Under the theme of learning best practices from the most successful investors, Ivy has not one but three big ideas: do what the "super endowments" do (diversify into additional asset classes); employ systematic timing to reduce risk; follow the best investment managers. A non-professional (but responsible) investor will understand how to do these things after reading Ivy, and I believe will do much better than buy-and-hold management (or in practice, "winging it"). It won't take much time or special resources to manage an Ivy Portfolio. The companion website, www.theivyportfolio.com should be a good adjunct.
Any concerns? I suggest that more discussion about pitfalls in choosing ETFs to implement the less familiar asset classes would be good. More importantly, the underlying idea is patterned after endowments and hedge funds. The typical individual investor has a time horizon and risk profile driven by the life cycle: accumulation, transition, decumulation (systematic withdrawal to provide retirement income). Individuals benefit from investment volatility early in their savings career, yet volatility is treacherous for retirees, particularly in the early years of retirement. Endowments don't die. Addressing possible mismatches between management based on institutional models and the individual's situation would be helpful. Academics and quants might look for discussion of the statistical significance of the findings here, but I am satisfied with the case the authors make for the economic significance of their ideas.
Bottom line: a curious or thoughtful investor will find this book well worthwhile.
75 of 83 found the following review helpful:
 Improved Version of the Ivy ApproachMay 20, 2009
By C. C. Lin
An excellent book overall. It encourages investor to look beyond the general stock and bond portfolios and to consider real estate and commodity as assets classes in their portfolios. The recommended approaches are highly actionable. The methods worked well so far into 2009.
Here are lists of minor complaints:
* It assumes that investors have a good knowledge about various ETF's, which may not be the case. It does not shows the holdings in VEU (FTSE All Word ex US ETF), which contain Nestle, BP PLC, Total SA, HSBC and Novartis etc. It does not show the composition of DBC (PowerShares DB Commodity Track) which contains 34% WTI crude oil, 17% gold, 17% heating oil, 14% wheat, 13% corn and 11% aluminium.
* Some of the recommended ETF's are very thinly traded. There are better alternative vehicles. For example, it recommends EWX (SPDR S&P Emerging Markets Small Cap) for emerging market small cap. EWX is trading about 7,000 shares a day and only has $7 million of assets. A better alternative is DGS (WisdomTree Emerging Markets Small Cap Div) which is trading around 22,000 shares a day and has $52 million in assets.
* 10 month moving average is not easy for average investor to obtain. A readily available alternative is 200 day moving average. 200 trading days equate to 9 months and 1 week. The information is available on Yahoo Finance Chart.
45 of 48 found the following review helpful:
Builds on a Strong FoundationMar 30, 2009
By Shrink Rap
I have been utilizing the author's Simple Ivy Portfolio Timing Model since early 2007 in several investment accounts and have been very happy with the results during this bear market.
Don't be misled by the title. There have been a number of books written in the past few years on the subject of successful endowment fund managers and the use of alternative asset classes (most not available to the small investor). While there is a very good discussion of the Harvard and Yale Endowment Funds, the heart of this book is a well laid out step by step explanation of several methods for improving returns and managing risk that are easy to follow and implement with a discount brokerage account. While some of the information is available on the "World Beta" web site, the book is a much easier and complete way to set about using the models and strategies.
Among other useful features I appreciate in a "how to" book that this book contains is a bullet point summary at the end of each chapter.
22 of 22 found the following review helpful:
Tale of Two BooksJul 08, 2009
By Y. Draluk
Mebane Faber has published an eminently readable book with two sections, one dated and weak, one so useful as to make the first irrelevant.
The first section, which is really the discussion of University Endowment success, feels dated. We've been hearing about Harvard, Stanford and Yale suffering losses, budget cuts, and Harvard even went through a cash crunch. I feel the section doesn't sufficiently address liquidity problems and the risks of lost capital.
The second section is fantastic. It puts forward a portfolio that is mechanically trivial to replicate for an individual investor. His website has a detailed FAQ section, and he is even responsive via e-mail. The thing that struck me is that this section puts forward a model that's excellent at protecting against downside risk (which is often what makes investors leave markets at bottoms). The model is also extremely liquid, with very easy entry and exit. Its interesting that this should be called the "Ivy Portfolio" given significant drawdowns and liquidity problems within the actual "Ivys".
26 of 28 found the following review helpful:
Another Level of DiversificationAug 24, 2009
By Handlowiec
Typically investors (buy and hold) allocated a percentage to stocks, bonds, and cash. Faber takes this another level with Harvard's thinking to invest more in physical assets (housing and commodities) to give your portfolio additional diversification.
The book can be summed up as BUY when the Simple Moving Average (SMA) is over the 200 Day SMA. A simple allocation is as follows. You can build the portfolio with ETFs, Mutual Funds, ETNs (more risk), closed end funds, Royalty Trusts, or MLPs.
20% Bonds
20% Domestic Stocks
20% Foreign Stocks
20% Commodities
20% REITs
Faber first wrote about this in his white paper (download it for free, you may not buy the Ivy book) called "A Quantitative Approach to Tactical Asset Allocation". You can find it on the SSRN web site. Now that Faber wrote this book, it was of course a launch pad for a new FEE BASED Web site. That site focuses on how to follow the Hedge Funds checking out 13F filings to get their stock holdings.
You can pay Faber money for this 13F service, or get it for free at the SEC, or even better go to TickerSpy and see these top 13F portfolios all for FREE. This can be timed by using a timing model at MTR Investors Group.
The book will help investors to allocate portfolios to reduce risk, and knowing what percentage to do that is important, but it could have been done in a 5 page pamphlet. You will read the book cover to cover in a couple of hours then try to sell it on Amazon as soon as possible before the price drops. You may want to SHORT the book :-)
I gave the book at 4 Stars because it expands the horizon for asset allocation, but at the same time the returns are as good as the holdings, and market timing. One of the holdings Real estate, or REITS (real estate investment trusts) tanked, and so did Harvard's Portfolio. They returned great when that asset class returned great, but now in 09 they were down 30%. So, again, to me this is another Buy and Hold concept, but still not the "shut your eyes and all will be okay" portfolio.
See all 81 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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