A lawsuit brought against 401(k) plan giant Fidelity by its own employees underscores—yet again—the importance of minimizing investment costs.

 In our view, the primary role of bonds is to provide safety and capital preservation when they are needed most—during the inevitable periods of stock market distress.  Despite legitimate and growing concern over our country’s financial condition, recent examples continue to illustrate the role U.S. Treasuries play as the ballast of a well-diversified portfolio.

Buy low, sell high.  At least, that’s the theory.  While the U.S. stock market has climbed 15% in 2012, investors have collectively withdrawn $60 billion from stock mutual funds.  Just more evidence of undisciplined investor behavior.

While the conventional wisdom suggests a “don’t just sit there, do something” approach to investing, nothing could be further from the truth.   New data from USA TODAY and online portfolio tracker SigFig show investors who actively trade their portfolios do far worse than those with a buy-and-hold approach.  The takeaway?  Don’t just do something, sit there.

Q: How do exchange rates impact international stock returns?

Contrary to one market pundit’s prediction that 2011 would be an “easy year for stock pickers,” last year turned out to be pretty tough for active managers. Fully 84% of U.S. stock funds failed to keep pace with their index benchmarks. After factoring in taxes, however, results were even worse.