My friend Josh Brown (The Reformed Broker) just published an interesting piece, Confessions of an Institutional Investor. Here’s a taste.
“I’ve seen complexity fail over multiple investment cycles in these types of portfolios, but as Keynes told us, ‘Worldly wisdom teaches that it is better for the reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally.’ Somehow simplicity has become the exception while complexity is now the rule.
“I believe that meeting long-term spending needs for institutional portfolios and controlling risk can be accomplished through simplicity. That’s not to say that it’s easy, just less complex. A complicated portfolio relies on the hope of being smarter than your investing peers and the markets while taking on added risks. We all know hope is not an investment strategy.”
Josh concludes by asking, “What do you think?” I’m glad he asked. What I think is linked below.
Above the Market 
The days of investing it all and letting it ride… yes thats over, and every time the music stops in a different sector it re-ends while leaving investors looking befuddled. But I’d also argue most investors can afford some of the aforementioned risk… aka gamble a reasonable amount in illiquids (10% a year) be it startup, dot.com, a small business, or complex ridiculous. I think investing should adopt the term “in moderation”.