Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
In the past year, the Dow has gone from 44368 (Feb 12, 2025) to 49452 - up 11%.
In the same time, the Nikkei has gone from 38963 to 57639 - up 48%.
Yes, the markets are about politics:
* But Japan's market story is primarily about politics.
Japan …
The only OEF share class is Institutional.
Institutional Class Shares are available only to institutional investors and certain broker dealers and financial institutions that have entered into appropriate arrangements with the Fund. These arrangemen…
Unfortunately, as @sma3's letters from last year make clear, this is nothing new. Though initial actions were directed more internationally, the anti-vaccine chickens are coming home to roost.
The Trump administration intends to terminate the Unite…
The mind reels at the ways one can parse this headline. Does an engineer have an affair in test runs by trying out a couple of trysts? If they work out does the engineer put the affair into production? Otherwise does the engineer terminate the …
Schroeders manages 36% of two Vanguard funds: VWILX and VINEX.
https://workplace.vanguard.com/tools/investment/active-portfolio-managers.html#
It cobrands a number of Hartford mutual funds and ETFs (i.e. Hartford Schroders Funds):
https://www.schro…
MFO often doesn't display images unless their URL ends in something like jpg, jpeg, png. Here's a shorter link to yogi's graph (still doesn't display, so you'll have to click on it):
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAuDpHqWAAAatSw?format=jpg
The grap…
At first glance, the M* list of best balanced funds (link from equalizer's post) appears to give each fund's cheapest not oldest share class. This may be why the list includes several less familiar tickers.
For example:
TRAIX (Dec 2015) rather th…
at least we can get the lies to agree.
Which in itself is something rather impressive, especially as the lies accumulate. As Sir Walter Scott observed:
Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive.
Without reading too carefully (e.g. is the latest monthly figure "raw" while the annual figure "revised"?), two details come to mind:
- The current monthly job figure is for January 2026 while the downwardly revised annual figure was for 2025.
-…
Thanks for the clarification.
According to the fund's annual statement (Oct 2025), the fund held three Egyptian bonds. The largest (in term of value) was the one you gave, with a coupon of 24.458%. The highest coupon bond (much smaller total …
So that's the plan for shoring up Social Security! How could I have been so blind as to have missed this?
From the CDC: The reasons people may seek medical care in another country include:
Unavailable or unapproved procedures: To get a procedure o…
I'm waiting to learn how I can transfer my IRAs to DraftKings. Hopefully in time for the next Super Bowl. :)
Self directed IRAs might get you there. I haven't thought this through, only observing how one might compound risk upon risk upon risk. …
A difficulty in seeking funds with similar strategies is that one can take different views on what "similar" means.
"Similar" may include multiple paths (different portfolio types) but managed with a related philosophy if they lead to similar re…
Had Mr. "Art of the Deal" been willing to honor a deal reached 2017 we would not be here now:
NYTimes: Trump’s Yanked Support for Hudson Tunnel Angers Those Who Saw a Done Deal, March 3, 2018.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/03/nyregion/trump-schum…
I must be missing something. "AI" (I use the term loosely as it can cover almost anything automated) has been used in insurance, including selling insurance, for years.
"[A large language model AI program] removes traditional friction points in in…
For a broader picture on the history of sports betting or betting in general, here's Bill Maher's take in New Rules.
"ESPN is just OTB now. It's literally partnered with DraftKings."
Just to be clear, he's talking about New York Penn Station, not NJ Penn Station.
Somehow it would seem fitting for that abomination of a train station to be named after a failed developer. The original Penn Station was a masterpiece.
https:…
Here's a corrected link (the URL shown was correct but the embedded link wasn't) as well as the before and after screenshots:
https://www.independentvanguardadviser.com/weekly-brief-when-safe-havens-shake-and-indexes-concentrate/
Evening:
Next mo…
I opened a Schwab Investing bank account last month w/o problems -- did it entirely electronically.
Checking or savings? Checking can be opened electronically but there doesn't seem to be a way to open a savings account online. Also, a checking a…
Oh, darn -- now they have less $$$ to put into customer service.
I've shared back here for some time, I'm gladly paying the extra $0.00135 per $10k (etc.) elsewhere per quarter to get decent customer service. Which is a shame, since Vanguard has s…
Sorry, I've got my head in too many statements and tax forms right now (friends and family as well as my own). Totally missed what I should have seen as an obvious parody.
I'm not quite clear on what you mean by an ETF "like this". If you mean a fund that screens not on what a company does but what it says (even if it does the opposite), then I agree that AFAIK there aren't other funds like this.
If you mean funds …
The fund has already been around since Oct 10, 2022. While the investment adviser is changing from Tidal Investments LLC to Yorkville America Equities LLC, the main task of the investment adviser is to select and oversee the day-to-day subadviser. …
This is just a reorganization of the God Bless America etf, Y'ALL. It's being moved from Tidal Trust I to Truth Social Funds trust. (One can guess whose fingers are all over the latter, but I'm not researching it.)
The fund's investment policy se…
This is similar to what you find in prospectuses. They have a table of 1/5/10 year returns with and w/o loads, but all other data - calendar year returns, financials - exclude loads.
The impact of a load diminishes, or doesn't, over time dependin…
... or the WSJ expects to expire in a decade,
... or they are predicting the end of the financial world order as we know (knew?) it.
It's not always about you :-)
Some EE bonds reach maturity after 17 or 20 years. They reach final maturity after 30 years. Only then are they automatically redeemed. Yes, it's confusing and much of what's written, even on the Treasury site, doesn't get it quite right.
Not…
Almost correct. At maturity (or final maturity for EE bonds), the Treasury redeems savings bonds whether you sell them or not.
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/help/treasurydirect-help/faq/#id-redeeming-savings-bonds-172649
G7 countries are now at debt/GDP ratios that put future economic growth at risk. Rosy pictures are less rosy now. Infrastructure, health care, aging populations, all cost money that the G7 can no longer afford. And these countries are increasing …
"M* reports that the fund's no-load share class gained 14.2% annualized during his tenure (through 01/26/2026)."
Not that it matters with such a spectacular record, but that figure doesn't take into account the 3% sales charge that was in effect at…
"Pending sales actually dropped an outsized 9% in December from November, according to the National Association of Realtors, so the numbers were already low. Given the high rate of cancellations, closed sales in January and February are likely to be…
Some of that overweighting comes with the territory. Global Wellesley is a large cap value fund on the equity side.
Since M* doesn't classify allocation funds with respect to value vs. growth, one can look instead at global large cap value funds …
Last semester I audited a course in political environmental theory. The professor directed students to a site that simulated different approaches to global warming that came with costs and benefits. The idea was to find a combination of solutions…
That's certainly a plus.
It's always interesting to find the quirks in brokerage fund offerings. While PRWCX appears to be available at Merrill, the subject of this thread, PRCFX curiously is not. Likewise, DODLX is not available at Merrill tho…
NTF at Merrill, fwiw
FPFRX would be NTF at Merrill if it were open there. Merrill shows it as closed for me in both taxable and IRA accounts.
The lower expense ratio share class FPACX is open and requires only a $1500 min (as opposed to $2500 at …
FPACX - $49.95 TF [at Fidelity], 1.06% er
You could look into buying FPFRX (NTF) and asking Fidelity to convert the shares (no fee) to FPACX. I've had some luck doing something similar with a couple of other funds. But then the cheaper shares h…
Curious that while M* uses TRAIX rather than PRWCX, it uses TRPBX instead of TPPAX.
It gets even weirder with Vanguard funds. M* lists VBINX which cannot be purchased by agents, brokers, or DIY investors. When Vanguard lowered the mins on the Adm…
FWIW, there seems to be little rhyme or reason for the share class selections made. M* says only that it picked the share class of a fund with the highest "medal" rating. But in the case of a tie, it sometimes gave the least expensive, most exclu…
