Most of the time when I talk to people about the investment industry I get the distinct sense that they would rather talk about almost anything else. While there are certainly many potential causes for such an understated response, I also don’t get the sense that an overwhelming degree of satisfaction is usually one of them. Rather, there seems to be a persistent state of frustration lurking under the surface that occasionally reveals itself in comments like, “I’d like to be able to get more confident with my investing”, and, “Do you ever get to talk to the person managing the money?”To the extent that lurking frustration exists, it is not for lack of investment expertise. Not only are there thousands upon thousands of investment professionals, but there are also terrific credential programs like the CFA and the CFP, a substantial and diverse active management industry that has a business model predicated on developing proprietary insights, and research that suggests it works. For example, the study “Best Ideas” [Cohen, Polk, and Silli, 2010] shows that the typical active money manager actually does outperform with his/her best ideas (the problem is that most portfolios also contain a lot of other ideas which aren’t nearly as good).So why do investors continue to be frustrated when all of this expertise is available? The answer, in a word, is friction.Sources of frictionJust like the progress of any vehicle is slowed down by the friction created by its contact with the road, so too is the efficient transfer of investment expertise constrained by a variety of structural sources of “friction” in the industry.One important source of investment friction is the tendency of many firms to focus more on the business of investment management than on the profession of investing. Because the universe of significant investment opportunities is limited in a competitive environment, managers must settle for progressively less attractive alternatives as a fund grows larger — and this dilutes performance. The conflict of interest between an investment manager’s desire to grow assets (and therefore business profits) and an investor’s desire for a smaller fund focused exclusively on best ideas is one way in which investment expertise often fails to benefit clients.A second source of friction is essentially a corollary of the first: Many firms fail to focus on the types of activities that are closely associated with generating superior investment returns. For example, many firms persist in charging high fees for investment services despite widespread evidence that high fees detract from returns. Many run portfolios that look very similar to their benchmarks rather than concentrating on best ideas (i.e., high active share). Many react (and overreact) to short-term results for which there is very little information content (i.e., low signal to noise ratio). Each of these types of activities is a well-known structural impediment to good investment performance and each is the result of a choice, a tradeoff, made by an organization’s leaders. While it is unfortunate such impediments exist, they are absolutely avoidable.A third source of friction is over-specialization. When an environment remains stable for a long period of time the most successful entities are those that focus on a very narrow area of expertise. Examples include narrowly defined functional silos such as industry-specific analyst coverage and very narrowly defined investment mandates. In such an environment, flexible business approaches and policies to insure against large losses represent unnecessary opportunity costs. In a more tumultuous environment, however, the costs of focusing too narrowly can be debilitating and sometimes even deadly. It’s fine to pack only swim suits and t-shirts for the beach as long as the weather stays nice. If it gets cold and rainy, you’ll wish you had better choices.What you can doWhile various sources of friction often prevent investors from deriving as much benefit as they might from the industry, the good news is that they also provide a clear target for improvement. If you want things to run more smoothly and efficiently, just reduce or eliminate the sources of friction. For investment firms this is simply a matter of making policy choices — of choosing to focus, on the margin, more on the exercise of investing than on the business of investment management. For investors, this is just a matter of identifying the firms that are not only willing to accept, but to actually encourage, making the tradeoffs that benefit investment results.Another way for investors to derive more benefit from the investment services industry is to find better user interfaces. Steve Jobs revolutionized the computer industry by developing a graphical user interface (GUI) that made it much easier for normal people to interact with computers. The same needs to be done with investment firms. While a great deal of investment expertise does exist, only a small subset of that resides with organizations that have cultures truly oriented to helping people. Without such a culture, the path of least resistance is for that expertise to first benefit investment firms and their employees.The investment services industry is interesting as a case study because it defies so many well established norms in other industries. Exceptionally few businesses in a competitive environment can afford to persist with processes and behaviors that impede performance and client satisfaction. If you went to a nice restaurant and ordered an expensive meal and the waiter came out and just threw it down in front of you without explanation and walked away, you would probably be miffed and might consider never coming back. Oddly, the same behavior happens with investment firms all the time — except in these cases investors tend to resign themselves to accepting such treatment. You can do better, but you will almost certainly need to look for new approaches that avoid old, and predictable, sources of friction.

Commercial printing is printing undertaken on a large scale. For large scale printing you need commercial printing machines. Commercial printing is one of the largest branches of the printing industry. Commercial printing machines find its application mainly in the publication of books, magazines, newspapers and outdoor advertising. Commercial printing machines are very useful in situations where bulk printing is to be finished in a specified time. Most commercial printing machines give better quality print than the residential printing machines. Commercial printing is also important when the user wants the copies to be folded, stapled, embossed or stamped. Commercial printing usually costs more than ordinary printing, but they produce better copies than the others.Commercial printing machines require certain additional facilities for functions such as lithography, photo printing and full color printing. Commercial lithographic printing is the process of printing artwork on a smooth surface. The lithography process usually requires an entire print block to come in contact with the sheet of paper. This paper gets the desired image with the help of a chemical process. Since the print used in the lithographic process is flat, it is also known as the planographic print process. There are many industries having lithographic printing of letterheads, labels and other high demand stationary items. Commercial lithographic printing process is the ideal method for printing text and illustrations. It can be used in general commercial printing, quick printing and printing of business forms and legal documents.Commercial photo printing machines are used to produce bright and high quality photos. Printing machines that are manufactured for home use are not suitable for producing quality pictures. Even residential printing machines with color printing facilities do not match with the finish and elegance of a commercial printing machine. The cost of commercial photo printing machine ranges from $1,500 to $2,500. The size of commercial printing machine is bigger than the home printers.

Finding good mutual funds starts with finding good mutual funds companies (families) and some families are friendlier to average investors than others. They offer good investments to folks who simply aren’t sure where to invest money. People get confused by all the sales rhetoric, so here we simplify where to invest with the companies that are investor friendly.I started following (and selling) this stuff in 1972 as a stock broker, trying to get a handle on where to invest other people’s money… trying to pick only good investments for those who trusted me. Once I learned that funds were the answer to what 90% of people needed, the question became: how do I find good mutual funds? I am writing this in 2014 as a retired financial planner, and would like to share something I’ve learned over the years, so hold your breath.Your idea of what good investments or good mutual funds are might differ from the ideas a sales rep might have, especially if that person makes money from commissions and other fees. Breathe easy. A financial planner who works for commissions can tell you where to invest and can sell you good mutual funds. The problem is that he or she can’t tell you where to invest in the investor friendly companies… and make a living doing it.A $20,000 investment in a stock fund could cost you $1000 upfront, $400 a year for expenses, and another $300 a year for additional fees if you invest through a planner. Or, it could cost you a total of $200 a year or less if you invest directly with a major investor- friendly NO-LOAD company.Truly good mutual funds companies keep investor costs low. They are financially strong; and offer a broad selection of investments with good performance records. Good service is provided at no cost. Enter “no load funds” into a search engine to find them. Names like Vanguard, Fidelity and T Rowe Price will appear. They all offer average investors good investments at low cost. All three of the above meet our qualifications – and the first two are the largest companies in the business.Good mutual funds are not expensive, and you do not get what you pay for when you pay for high charges and fees. In fact, these extra costs drain money from your account and work against you. The net result is a lower return on investment. I don’t call that investor friendly. When there’s a high cost if investing, that’s not where to invest your money.Now, once you’ve opened an account with one of the friendly companies you could be facing a list of more than 100 choices to choose from. Now the question of where to invest gets more specific. How do you find good mutual funds to invest in? The general categories are stock (equity), bond, money market, and balanced funds (the latter being a combination of the other three). What you need to understand is that even good mutual funds in the stock category might lose money in 2014 and/or 2015. If the stock market falls, these funds in general will not be good investments. Also, if interest rates climb, bond funds will not be good investments. More than anything else, the markets determine whether or not investors make or lose money. On the other hand, good mutual funds tend to outperform the rest over the long term.With today’s record low interest rates money market funds don’t look like good investments because they pay almost nothing in interest. But, that’s where to invest money you want to keep safe. If rates go up, money market rates will follow. Balanced funds will be losers if stocks and/or bonds take a big hit. Don’t get depressed. Invest in 2014 and 2015 with your eyes open.Going into the year 2014, stock funds were very good investments for five years straight; and bonds funds were good mutual funds to invest in for over 30 years. In 2014 and beyond things could get rough. Focus on strategy more than picking good investments in each fund category. Have some cash in a money market fund awaiting future opportunities when the dust settles. Spread your money across all four fund categories, because no one really knows where to invest in times of uncertainty.As 2014 and 2015 unfold, remember that both stocks and bonds have their up and downs. Over the long term, funds have been good investments for tens of millions of people through good times and bad. Keep in mind that good mutual funds come from good mutual funds companies… and that’s where to invest your money.