I recently read a study by Wei Dai, a PhD with Dimensional Fund Advisors. The study discussed how diversification (read: the number of securities within a portfolio) impacts the reliability of returns. The key takeaway from her paper was this – broad diversification, combined with long-term investing (5-10 years) can improve the reliability of investment outcomes.

A strategy that is not well diversified may exclude from its holdings the companies that ultimately generate investment premiums. In other words, the odds are stacked against portfolios with fewer names. Wei shows that a well diversified strategy would have at least 200 names while over 75% of U.S. based mutual funds have less than that number. The strategies we employ seek to capture identifiable alpha through broad diversification with well-over 10,000 securities in only a handful of individual funds.

If you are interested in a copy of the paper from Dimensional Fund Advisors, please click here to reach out to a member of our team.

In this New York Times piece from Laura Vanderkam (who provided a stellar endorsement of Odds On), she audits her time to find out how busy she really is. It’s reminiscent of our own Rick Hill, who studied his calendar to find out how much of his life he earned back by adopting an evidence-based investment approach. How much was it? 6 weeks per year. As Laura says “A life is lived in hours. What we do with our lives will be a function of how we spend those hours, and we get only so many.” For the results of Laura’s study, click here.

Odds On is popping up in all kinds of places since it’s April 12^th launch. Here are just a few highlights:

1. 800ceoread Business Bestseller

This influential business book site put out their bestseller list for the month of April and Odds On makes it to #11.

2. #1 Bestseller on Tadas Viskanta’s Abnormal Returns Book list for April and featured on the influential blog: Click Here

Tadas is esteemed among the highly technical investing crowd and his blog includes in its readership some the most respected thinkers and leaders of our industry.

3. YNAB (“You Need a Budget”) Podcast #221: Click Here

Jesse Mecham’s budgeting software ‘YNAB’ is well known among budgeting gurus and has an extremely devoted following.

4. Beyond 50 Radio Show: Click Here

Daniel Davis has hosted the Beyond 50 radio show for over 10 years and boasts syndication on over 150 podcast networks.

5. Robin Powell blog interview: Click Here

Robin is a communications expert and is leading the evidence-based investing movement in the United Kingdom. His regularly published videos are helping get the story out around the globe.

And if you haven’t posted your review of Odds On on Amazon.com, or if you haven’t yet read the book, visit Amazon here.