Hillary Clinton is a more conservative investor than Donald Trump

Thomson Reuters

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton listens to steelworkers during a campaign event in Ashland

Hillary Clinton is a more conservative investor than Donald Trump (Bloomberg)

Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee for president, is more conservative than her Republican counterpart, Donald Trump, when it comes to investing. Her top holding has been the low-cost Vanguard 500 Index Fund, while Trump's "biggest bet" has been on the Obsidian hedge fund run by BlackRock, reports Charles Stein.

According to Stein, the Vanguard fund has outperformed BlackRock's hedge fund over one, three, and five years. However, Obsidian outperformed over 10 years.

"Hillary is playing the straight and narrow," Daniel Wiener, chief executive officer of Adviser Investments, which oversees $3.4 billion, told Bloomberg. "Trump believes he is smarter than anyone else, so he is going to make choices."

Advisors are starting to get interested in EMs again (FA Magazine)

The recent findings from the quarterly EM Investor Sentiment Survey found that 44% of advisors expect to increase their emerging-market allocation over the next 12 months, compared to 33% in the fourth quarter of 2015, reports Christopher Robbins.

"There's a greater awareness of the importance of emerging markets," Marc Zeitoun, Emerging Global Advisors chief product and marketing officer, said. "The valuations of emerging markets equities are more compelling now than they have been over the last four years, and now the 23 emerging-market economies all have more effective monetary and fiscal policy levers to use to engender growth within their own economies."

The obstacles to going independent may actually be huge motivators (Financial Planning)

In this turbulent brokerage industry, many advisors worry about going independent, concerned about financial uncertainty, operational risk, and client uncertainty.

However, Scott Collins argues that all of these "obstacles" can actually be viewed as "motivators in pursuing success." For example, industry research firm Cerulli Associates found that advisors who "moved to the RIA channel typically see 91% of their targeted assets transfer with them."

Mark Mobius isn't gearing up for a China hard landing (Franklin Templeton)

Investors are keeping a close watch on China as GDP keeps slowing compared to previous years and the country grapples with its transition from an investment-based to a consumption-driven economy.

Ultimately, however, "we believe fears about a banking or economic collapse in China are overblown and that there is still a lot of room for infrastructure growth to catch up to global and regional peers," argues Mark Mobius.

"We still see a lot of potential investment opportunities across different segments of China's market and believe the currently low valuations of Chinese stocks could reward patient investors over the long term."

Foothill Securities is in "serious discussions" to be acquired by a larger firm (InvestmentNews)

"Foothill Securities Inc., an adviser-owned independent broker-dealer with 220 registered reps under its roof, is in 'serious discussions' to be acquired by a larger firm," reports Bruce Kelly. "Four firms currently in discussion with Foothill include: LPL Financial, Cambridge Investment Research Inc., Securities America Inc. and SagePoint Financial Inc."