There is a wide variation around the index return which at the tail can be devastating.

FORBES: Playing With Active Money Managment Is A Losing Game

Figure 1 illustrates the variation in three-year relative return performance of four value and growth strategies.

FORBES: Value Stocks are in the Eye of the Beholder

The fact that there is a lot more variation than usual in the rate of return you can earn investing in different parts of the economy also backs up his case.

BBC: The UK productivity puzzle (cont'd)

Instead of chasing after retailers using the old standby of return on assets, consider a variation: Go for companies whose ROA measures will remain unscathed if and when rulemakers lower the boom on lease accounting.

FORBES: Retailers

The latest variation, described on page 72 by Carrie Coolidge, is called return-of-premium term insurance.

FORBES: Making Life Complicated

Mr Schultz, who earlier this year returned to the helm of the company he built into a global giant, deserves credit for trying to return Starbucks to its old approach to innovation, which was all about incremental product variation around a central platform.

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