BARRY RITHOLTZ: When you mix religion, politics and investment ...
'Politics and religion are both unavoidably emotional. That is why they tend to be bad for your investment returns'
Do your civic duty on Election Day and vote, go to church on Sundays, but always bring a cool unemotional detachment to investing on Mondays. That is a favorite theme of mine, one I hammer on in these pages all the time. It is why it is so important to separate your emotions from your investment portfolio. That was the reasoning behind a column I wrote last year questioning whether people should buy an exchange-traded fund based on biblical values. I have no problem with people wanting to feel good about their investments, but I also want them to realize what their choices potentially do to their returns.
Today, I want to see how well the Inspire Global Hope Large Cap ETF, with the ticker symbol BLES, has done in terms of returns and otherwise. First, the benchmark: Finding a suitable one isn’t easy, as the fund’s holding are made up of 50 percent U.S.-based securities, 40 percent in developed-nation foreign securities and 10 percent in emerging markets. It invests in companie...
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