Dimensional Funds

  Anybody who knows me knows about my belief in the power of markets. This perspective is grounded in my belief in human ingenuity: our inherent drive to solve problems, to rise to the occasion in the face of uncertainty, to be helpful to one another, and in doing so, to make each other’s lives…

By Karen Umland, CFA Senior Investment Director and Vice President, Dimensional Fund Advisors. In the first half of 2025, developed markets outside the US returned 19.0%, outperforming the US and emerging markets.1 But that outcome masks the wide range of returns across individual countries, from Spain’s 43.0% to Denmark at −5.5%. This kind of dispersion isn’t unusual—it’s a…

By Kaitlin Hendrix, CFA Asset Allocation Research Director and Vice President, Dimensional Fund Advisors. KEY TAKEAWAYS • Market-cap weights for securities, industries, and countries provide an instantaneous, continuously updated snapshot of diversification. • By breaking the link with market prices, gross domestic product (GDP) weighting may lead to sizeable and unwelcome over- or underweights. • Dimensional…

Asset class index funds are often considered a way to get passive exposure to a market segment. But indices are just representations of the market, composed according to the rules determined by the index. This is particularly evident in the US small cap stock space, where overlap statistics indicate substantial differences in holdings. For example,…

By Karen Umland, CFA, Dimensional Senior Investment Director and Vice President   Since mid-June, news around the world has focused on the conflict between Israel and Iran. As with any major geopolitical event, investors face uncertainty about the impact these events might have on global economies and financial markets. Taking a broad perspective, investing for the…

Whether you’re a recent college graduate thinking about starting a business or an experienced entrepreneur taking on your next venture, you undoubtedly feel like you’re confronting a world filled with uncertainty. After all, the future is highly unpredictable. When I launched Dimensional Fund Advisors with some partners in 1981, people didn’t use the term “startup,”…

One of my favorite parts of high school biology was dissecting animals.1 It certainly wasn’t for everyone, but I found it illuminating to learn more about how organisms function. While I’ll save fun facts about snake anatomy for another day,2 breaking down the anatomy of inflation-protected bonds versus their nominal (non-inflation-protected) counterparts may be useful for investors…

By Kristi Higgins, Dimensional Investment Strategist and Vice President   For investors seeking positive future returns, Bitcoin offers little reliable reason to expect them. But could it make sense for investors seeking a store of value? My three-year-old likes to put Goldfish crackers in his pocket to “save them for later.” He is often disappointed later when he…

Not since the release of the third Austin Powers movie have I heard so much talk about gold. Stellar recent returns account for some of that—gold was up 25% year-to-date as of April 30. But another reason is the belief among some market participants that gold represents a safe haven, an asset to stabilize the…

The big news recently was Moody’s downgrading the US sovereign debt rating from AAA to AA. They are the last of the “big three” credit rating agencies to lower the US rating, following Fitch in 2023 and S&P more than a decade ago. As with the Fitch example, credit default swap (CDS) spreads for the US barely…

    The proportion of stocks versus bonds in your portfolio can have a big impact on its largest, smallest, and average calendar-year returns. View PDF Disclosures The information in this material is intended for the recipient’s background information and use only. It is provided in good faith and without any warranty or representation as…