The Ivy Portfolio: How to Invest Like the Top Endowments and Avoid Bear Markets

I just finished "The Ivy Portfolio" and found it excellent....extremely informative and very well researched and documented. The authors peel back the cover on the Yale and Harvard Endowments, break down their track record and dissect how they invest. Then....they show you how you can construct your own "Ivy Portfolio" with ETF's. In a chapter called, "Winning by Not Losing" they show you two timing models and other ideas that can further increase your gains. Finally, they show you how you can pick stocks by following the top money managers on an ongoing basis. The book is thoroughly researched, all portfolios and timing models are historically tested and the book is filled with tables and graphs to answer any of the question you may have regarding the ideas and material. This is a scholarly work but eminently readable (two fun quotes in the book that caught my eye, "Buying asset classes for the long run is a good idea if you are a Sequoia tree, a giant tortoise, or an endowment " (attributed to Greg Morris) and "Picking stocks is very difficult. Most academic research has shown that both individuals and professionals stink at it". For me "The Ivy Portfolio" was like a novel you just couldn't put down. I believe the book is destined to become a classic!

Excellent read and history of the success of certain Ivy League investment portfolios of the schools' endowment funds. Remarkably simple strategy that seems to have worked well over the years; well illustrated with investment results over the years. I took a substantial sum of money and invested in the IVY 5 and then set up a "dummy" portfolio of the IVY 20 and found that both tracked about the same, since my investment has been made two months ago; the IVY 5 did a very small bit better, but the IVY 20, is obviously more diversified, but still within each of the Five major categories of investments. Each portfolio is up just under 3% over the past two months and all five categories have increased. For non-professional investors, note the book indicates that if you use the IVY 5 you will need to reallocate at least each year, while if you invest in the IVY 20, you will need to do so quarterly or semi-annually. I recommend this book.

After the brutal bear market of 2008, and the second such bear market of the last decade, many individual investors are searching for a methodology that can protect them from major market declines. Mebane Faber introduces a simple, yet very effective solution to this dilemma. While utilizing a moving average to produce buy and sell signals in the markets is nothing new, Mr. Faber's back testing of the combination of a technical moving average approach with more traditional asset allocation techniques has produced some startling results. I am not sure if many investors will have the discipline to stick with this kind of approach, but the results speak for themselves. Market-beating returns accompanied by lower overall volatility is a desirable combination. I am particularly impressed that Mr. Faber originally introduced this approach before the 2008 bear market. Coincidentally, his approach would have truly earned its stripes last year, since it would have moved an investor out of stocks and into cash before the worst damage occurred.I have not run the numbers, but I would venture to guess that the strategy returns may have been fairly close to the market returns were it not for 2008, when the strategy's level of out-performance was dramatic. Even so, I believe that many investors would be happy to match the market returns with significantly less volatility over time. Also, I am not sure if an ETF portfolio will be able to match Ivy endowment returns going forward, since these endowments consistently introduce leading edge strategies from some of the top minds in the investing world. Still, given the current choices for the individual investor, Mr. Faber's strategy may very well be the best opportunity to introduce many of the more esoteric allocations of Ivy endowments into the portfolios of individuals.In short, I found this book to be a very worthwhile read. It deserves consideration, given the volatility that we all face in the current and future global investment landscape.

Great insight into the world of endowment fund management and some top diversification ideas for your personal portfolios, technical in bits, but I made some key strategic moves as a result of this to ensure an optimised asset allocation process. Fascinating read and a great step for creating a well rounded portfolio. I read a finance book a week, and this is in the top 5.

This book presents a strategic approach to investing. With the aid of market timing (proven to work even during financial crisis) one learns to diversify a field of investment vehicles to achieve greater returns. The strategy keeps you out of market meltdowns and shifts you from equity assets to cash type assets to preserve capital. This book is a must read for anyone who has been struggling a portfolio that has been flat for years. Go ahead and help yourself!

Buch enthält viel nützliche Information und liest sich leicht.

It answered my basic question of how endowment funds invest and how as an individual investor I could tap their technique to design a personal investment portfolio.

This is an interesting book, which is accessible to all those interested in investing. The explanations are clear and supported by historical data from the world of Endowments. Ultimately the book is trying to highlight the importance of diversification and how that improves as you add less correlated asset classes.