The Ivy Portfolio: How to Invest Like the Top Endowments and Avoid Bear Markets,   ISBN:9780470284896

Customer Rating: 

I've followed Mebane's blog for a while now, and he never fails to present new ways of looking at things. The book fills out many of the thoughts that he has been exploring there for years, in a way that can be immediately implemented. The endowment model of asset allocation is useful, but the hidden gem in this book is for those without an effective sell discipline and would like to avoid another 2008. The book is on my top 10 favorite investment books list.

Customer Rating: 

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!

Customer Rating: 

After being contacted directly by the author, I have revised and elaborated my review.

Having read this book personally (it sits on my bookshelf), I found it informative but not particularly useful. It is virtually impossible for any average investor (net worth less than $1 million) to replicate the Endowment's investment portfolio.

Even if you could replicate their portfolios, which you can't, 2008-2009 demonstrated that the superior returns (which could have been exaggerated due to significant holdings with no liquid market) came with significant risk.

In fairness to Faber and his book, I have a personal bias against "strategies" that will somehow get you better returns with less risk. While a select few people have outperformed the markets, there is no scientific way to identify these people or strategies in advance.

Customer Rating: 

Mebane Faber does an excellent job ... which will probably be appreciated most by the investor that has come to
realize that they don't know it all ... and that the market is vastly more subtle, complex (and unforgiving) than they once thought.
After you have read Cramer, Bogle, Siegel ... and many other books ... both good and bad ... and made a lot of mistakes... then pick up this book to help you understand a better way of investing. The title of the book refers to the two major university endowments (Harvard/Yale) and how they have been managed to produce superior returns. That part is interesting ... and supplies the underlying support for the second half of the book which should enable an individual investor to develop their own investment strategies to keep them in rising markets and out of bear markets. If you are running your own money and have come to realize that you probably won't find the next Microsoft in 1985 ... then this book is the one you should read.
Jim Horner MA USA

Customer Rating: 

After 2008, anyone with serious money in the market needs a SELL discipline. This Book is the answer, if you are not satisfied with "losing less" when the market goes south.

With the advent of the ETF, technical analysis has become easy to manage. This book has all the data you could ask for, to have an approach that will increase returns some, and reduce volatility dramatically.

You can use the broad based ETFs referred to in the last chapter. Or, to add Alpha, use Dorsey Wright. This has worked great for me: 20% asset class strategy (per Ivy). W/ in each asset class, follow Dorsey, and go to cash when Ivy tells you to do so (just out of bonds right now).

An easy read, and money well spent.

JY