A post on our Discussion Board recently called attention to two Closed End Funds: Barings Corporate Investors (MCI) and Barings Participation Investors (MPV).
MFO Premium Introduces Price-Based Metrics
By Charles Boccadoro
Category Archives: Charles
MFO Premium Introduces Quarterly Metrics
By Charles Boccadoro
Our friends and long-time MFO Premium subscribers at S & F Investment Advisors of Encino, CA asked recently if we could replicate metrics based on Lipper’s Global Data Feed that Barron’s stopped publishing; namely, Lipper Mutual Fund Investment Performance Averages – Specialized Quarterly Summary Report.
MFO Premium Introduces ETF Benchmarks
By Charles Boccadoro
Our colleague Devesh Shah encouraged the incorporation of ETF Benchmarks into MFO Premium. Traditional benchmarks cannot be purchased. Similarly, category averages, which are the basis for much of the ratings on MFO Premium, also cannot be purchased. Establishing an ETF “benchmark,” Devesh argues, makes for a more relevant and practical comparison.
Furthermore, the Continue reading →
Morningstar Celebrates 40th Year – MICUS Chicago 2024
By Charles Boccadoro
Morningstar held its annual investment conference [Morningstar Investment Conference US (MICUS) 2024] last week in Chicago, on 26 and 27 June. It employed a new venue and conference schedule: The Navy Pier and a chock-full, two-day agenda. The 292-foot-wide Pier, which opened originally in 1916, and was “built by the city for the people, is the largest in the world, projecting east 3,040 feet into Lake Michigan. It remains the longest public pier in the world today.”
The occasion also Continue reading →
MFO Premium Mid-Year Review 2024
By Charles Boccadoro
On Wednesday, 10 July, at 11 a.m. Pacific (2 p.m. Eastern), we will be conducting our mid-year webinar to review funds and MFO Premium. If you can make it, please join us by registering here.
We will use MultiSearch Pre-Set screens and other custom criteria to review fund performance in 2024. MultiSeach is the site’s Continue reading →
December Brings S&P 500 To All-Time High
By Charles Boccadoro
All fund risk and return metrics, ratings, and analytics were uploaded to MFO Premium Saturday, 30 December, reflecting performance through year-end. We used Refinitiv’s Friday data drop, which was last business day of year, to get an early peek at 2023 calendar year performance.
December is the second full year of The Great Normalization (TGN) market cycle. It also marks the 15th month of this market’s bull run and brings the Continue reading →
@MFOPremium Channel Demos Enhanced Chart Tool, Plus Fund Flows Preview
By Charles Boccadoro
We rolled-out our interactive Total Return Chart Tool last year, as described in Introducing MFO Charts. Recently, we integrated several new features, including enhanced styling, eliminated display restriction (previously based on youngest fund), and added a legend placement option. Here’s a Continue reading →
Strong June Propels New Bull Market
By Charles Boccadoro
Despite pervasive skepticism based on: Russian invasion. China US tension. Inflation. Rising rates. Bank collapses. Default fears. The S&P 500 has been climbing generally for 9 months. Axios describes this year’s market as “climbing a wall of worry.”
A strong June of 6.6% return propelled the index to 26% over its October low, which qualifies the advance as a new bull market. Continue reading →
Attendance Required – MICUS Chicago 2023
By Charles Boccadoro
Morningstar held its annual investment conference [Morningstar Investment Conference US (MICUS) 2023] this past week beginning 24 April in Chicago, where tulip gardens bloomed on the city’s walkways.  Continue reading →
New Payment Portal for MFO Premium
By Charles Boccadoro
This past week we upgraded our payment portal on MFO Premium from PayPal Standard to PayPal Commerce Platform. We’re hopeful the new portal will make subscribing and resubscribing easier and safer.
We introduced MFO’s Rating System nearly 10 years ago, which included metrics that we found difficult to obtain at the time, like Continue reading →
MFO Premium Webinar, 2022 Year End Review
By Charles Boccadoro
On Friday, 6 January, we will be conducting our year-end webinar to review funds and MFO Premium. If you can make it, please join us by registering here. There will be just one session this year: 9 a.m. Pacific (noon Eastern).
We will use MultiSearch Pre-Set screens and other custom criteria to review fund performance in 2022. MultiSeach is the site’s main tool, enabling searches with numerous screening criteria. We will also demo some of the many features across the site.
MFO Premium includes the Continue reading →
Worst Year Ever
By Charles Boccadoro
All fund risk and return metrics, ratings, and analytics were uploaded to MFO Premium today, 31 October, Halloween 2022. We used Lipper’s Friday data drop to get an early peek … and today markets seemed tame enough, so numbers should be pretty close to month’s end.
October was a decent one for equity funds, especially value. The Dow was up an extraordinary 14%. But still Continue reading →
Happy Preferencing!
By Charles Boccadoro
All fund risk and return metrics, ratings, and analytics were uploaded to MFO Premium Sunday, 31 July, reflecting performance through July 2022.
When we run the monthly update that close to the last business day, we will normally re-run the ratings the following Saturday to pick up any late reporting funds. This past month that version was uploaded Sunday, 7 August. We also uploaded Continue reading →
The 100 Club?
By Charles Boccadoro
In our April 2021 commentary, David highlighted: “The Total Stock Market Index is up 62% in the past 12 months. 291 funds (and uncounted ETFs) have 12-month returns in excess of 100% …” By the end of the bull run in December, that number had grown to 730 mutual funds and 1102, including ETFs. The S&P 500 ended up 90%.
If we examine just US & Global Equity funds and ETFs but exclude trading (e.g., leveraged) and sector funds, The 100 Club tallied 705 or more than a quarter of the 3000 products available in the US. Continue reading →
MFO Premium 2022 Mid-Year Review
By Charles Boccadoro
The next MFO Premium webinar will occur Tuesday, July 12th.
Our premium search tool site helps individual investors and financial advisers 1) sort through the vast number of funds available today based on criteria important to them, 2) maintain candidate lists of promising funds to conduct further due diligence on, and 3) monitor risk and return performance of their current portfolios. Continue reading →
The Great Normalization
By Charles Boccadoro
Numerous bear sightings occurred these past several weeks, but with June’s awful performance, the new bear is clear and present. Intra-month, the S&P 500 closed down more than 20% from its previous peak and at month’s end, it closed down level at 20%, similar to the CV-19 bear of March 2020. In June alone it dropped more than 8%. This retraction marks the seventh bear market since 1968 (or tenth since 1926), as depicted in the chart below.
It remains quite astounding what a 3% rise in the 10-year T-Note has done to equity and bond markets over the past 6 months. Some good news? 10-year CDs are now yielding close to 4%. Continue reading →
Easy Access Analysis
By Charles Boccadoro
Our MFO Premium search tool site now makes it quick and easy to run several analytics that previously required accessing through the main MultiSearch tool. Users can click on the Analyze link in the navigation bar atop any page, including Home, to run Chart, Compare, Correlate, Rolling Averages, Trend & Momentum, and Ferguson.
On first run, users will be prompted to enter up to 12 tickers. Once run, those same tickers can be used to run any other analysis tool or modify accordingly. This feature gets us one step closer to enhanced mobility, enabling focused fund analysis via your cell phone.
Here is screenshot of quick-access, pull-down analysis menu …
A Return To Normalcy: MICUS Chicago 2022
By Charles Boccadoro
Morningstar held its annual investment conference [Morningstar Investment Conference US (MICUS) 2022] in Chicago during the beautiful month of May, beginning on the month’s 16th day.
And with it came the return of …
- The expansive venue of Chicago’s McCormick Place … “the largest and most flexible use convention center in North America.”
- In-person attendees of 1500, plus another 500 virtual participants.
- In-person appearances of top money managers, like T. Rowe Price’s David Giroux and AQR’s Cliff Asness.
- The massive keynote luncheon, which included large round tables with white table clothes and an army of waiters in black vests.
- Dozens of mutual fund house kiosks with sharply dressed staffers answering questions and handing out promotional material and trinkets.
- Roof-top social gatherings at venues like the Chicago Athletic Club, with lots of smiles and chatter.
- The traditional press dinner where Morningstar executives and analysts give generous amounts of time answering questions and providing industry perspectives.
Not a Great Time for Bond Fund Investors … But There’s Hope
By Charles Boccadoro
A quick sampling of recent headlines …
- Morningstar author Sandy Ward: “Bond Investors Facing Worst Losses in Years. With inflation still running hot, bond prices are sliding as the market looks for faster Fed rate hikes.”
- Bloomberg reporter Ye Xie: “… an unparalleled bond rout wiped 13% off a Bloomberg global index of government debt since its peak in January 2021 as the central banks unwound their pandemic-era stimulus.”
- Wall Street Journal reporter Sam Goldfarb: “Bond Market Suffers Worst Quarter in Decades. Rout has robbed investors of traditional haven as stocks and many other markets swing sharply.”
Introducing MFO Charts
By Charles Boccadoro
We’ve just gone live with Interactive Charts on our premium site. The capability is a long time in coming and addresses an ongoing complaint (aaah … request) from David that the site should offer more than table-based screening tools, more specifically DataTables based. It does now.
The new charting tool provides Continue reading →
