I got back into APA today. Fingers-crossed we're near bottom.
A lot of energy looks cheap.
A see SHLD had yet another bad day...
http://seekingalpha.com/article/2729985-photos-empty-shelves-at-sears-and-kmart-as-vendors-get-squeezed

SHLD as we know it - I think - will probably not last another year (and maybe that's even being generous.) SHLD is no Berkshire, SHLD is Eddie Lampert's master class on how financial engineering can be ruinous.
Added to BPY after the Qatar Investment Authority (Qatar's sovereign wealth fund) effectively bought 9% of it.

I got back into APA today. Fingers-crossed we're near bottom.
A lot of energy looks cheap.
A see SHLD had yet another bad day...
http://seekingalpha.com/article/2729985-photos-empty-shelves-at-sears-and-kmart-as-vendors-get-squeezed

okay, got it. i still would like to see MFO allow user-input start dates for comparisons. most of the stats do me no good when one find is three years old and the next is 15 years old.

FYI:
Regards,
Ted
Bloomberg Slant: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-12-04/u-s-index-futures-little-changed-with-s-p-500-dow-at-records.html
WSJ Slant: http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-stock-futures-edge-higher-1417699313
MarketWatch Slant: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sp-500-dow-end-lower-retreating-from-records-2014-12-04/print
Reuters Slant: http://www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USKCN0JI1AM20141204
WSJ Markets At A Glance: http://markets.wsj.com/us
Sector Tracker: http://www.sectorspdr.com/sectorspdr/tools/sector-tracker

http://www.kiplinger.com/article/investing/T041-C007-S001-steve-goldberg-6-best-stock-funds-for-2015.html
As usual, Steve Goldberg has released his fund picks for the coming year. Last year's picks with 1-year performance are as follows:
FPACX (+9.37) HIINX +(0.60) PRBLX (+17.78) VDIGX (+15.48) VEIEX (+3.82)
If you bought those funds in January, you would not have done as well.

Re: risk metrics, it's possible that you are only getting 5 years worth because that's all M* offers unless you have a premium membership. Just a hunch.

@linter
A quick check indicates birth at 11-1-2004.
The chart is for return compares, versus a risk profile as you noted.
You may move either or both ends of the "day" slider to change the date range.
Compare chart

i just went to run a risk profile comparing POAGX to PHRSX and, well, come to find out that according to the profile, POAGX is only five years old and thus the metrics that are spit out can't easily be used to compare the two funds. see: http://www.mutualfundobserver.com/fund-ratings/?symbol=poagx+prhsx&submit=Submit. and yet if i go to morningstar, i see that POAGX's chart started in 2005. what am i missing here?
also: it sure would be nice to be able to set a customized starting date for risk-profile comparisons. that way, if one fund is very old and another fund is just sort-of old, you could set the date to just sort-of old and the resulting stats would be directly comparable. the way it is now is sometimes, it seems to me, less than useful. what do you think?

There is still about $550 million in his Total Return fund. That's down from $2.7 billion in 2011. But it is hard to believe any shareholder would still be in the fund. Similar for the so-called Growth fund, which has actually a 10-year NEGATIVE return, but still has more than $900 million in it (down from $6.2 billion in 2010). Folks have crabbed (rightly so) about MFLDX this year, but at least that fund's long-term record is respectable. Hussman's funds are simply terrible in almost every way imaginable. Can you imagine the marketing tool..."We will only charge you 1% to give you an average return of -2% over 10 years."

It seems M*'s problems go back some years so your wait might be a long one. While they do have a very comprehensive data page, the fact that they cannot update a simple NAV is very frustrating as you know.
The day before I was watching AAPL and had their current day chart up. The live quote displayed on top was way different than the price on the chart. We are talking 30-35 cents or so. I ended up using another service. I am not a paid subscriber to M*.

@linter
Looking at Standard Deviations/Sharpe Ratios over the past 1-, 3- and 5-year periods, PRHSX (14.28/2.21, 13.78/2.39, 15.31/1.78) clearly beats POAGX (15.15/1.15, 14.51/1.71, 17.42/1.31). So I think that either a 10%/5% mix of PRHSX/POAGX, or even a 15%/Foothold mix makes sense to me. In the long run, I am confident that Americans are more willing to shell out money for HC/Biotech (PRHSX) than a mix of HC and tech (POAGX).
Kevin

Hi Guys,
Indeed "Best" is a relative and elusive term. It depends.
It depends on the comparison standard; in this instance a simplistic 60/40 equity/bond mix with only 2 holdings. More importantly, it depends on the selected timeframe.
I did a quick analysis using Portfolio Visualizer for three other starting times: 1985, 1990, and 2000, each ending in December 31, 2013.
The referenced. "Best" portfolio did deliver superior returns for the 1985 and 2000 starting periods. However, the simple 2 holding portfolio generated a better outcome for the 1990 starting time. Study timeframe always matters.
Also, the simple portfolio produced its outcomes with slightly less volatility (standard deviation) for all periods examined. The "Best" portfolio achieved its enhanced rewards with more risk at the margin. Nothing new here.
Best Wishes.

FYI:
Regards,
Ted
MarketWatch Slant: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sp-500-dow-close-at-records-2014-12-03/print
Bloomberg Slant: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-12-03/u-s-stock-index-futures-are-little-changed-before-adp-report.html
Reuters Slant: http://www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USKCN0JG14T20141203
WSJ Slant: http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-stock-futures-little-changed-1417612427
Markets At A Glance: http://markets.wsj.com/us
Sector Tracker: http://www.sectorspdr.com/sectorspdr/tools/sector-tracker

I own a small position
Morgan Stanley Inst Frontier Em Mkts A MFMPX Load waived widely available.
As of 9/30/2014
Africa/Middle East 58.19% Bench Mk 10.01 Catgy Ave 8.94
http://portfolios.morningstar.com/fund/summary?t=MFMPX&region=usa&culture=en-US
Book review in today's W S J Copyrighted Material
Bookshelf
Third World Problems
Africa has never been a poor place. For ages it has been the source of fabulous wealth for others, yet seldom for its own peoples.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/book-review-the-fortunes-of-africa-by-martin-meredith-1417562898
Old_Joe said...
Not in my lifetime, I expect, but how long can all of the good stuff go the few on the top without serious repercussion, especially since a large number of the folks on the bottom will be well armed....
Oh those rock bands,some of them were a little ahead of their time..
Rawwww

TRAMX has not had a good very recent streak. I was fortunate in a backhanded way, so I did not get in right away, in '07, when it first opened. The new(er) Fund Manager seems to know what to do.
Past 5 years: +10.7% (Reuters.)

Good stuff. Thanks Ted.
I think one reason my Roth has outdistanced my Traditional IRA over the past 5-6 years is that I leave it alone and seldom, if ever, "tinker" with it. I don't know if that strategy works under all market conditions, but it has worked since early '09.
One lesson from Hussman may be that the harder we work to get something "right", the more apt we are to get it wrong. I guess you could say this guy has "written the book" on screwing-up. So sad for all those investors who sent him their money over the years,

There was the article not that long ago that said that Fidelity found that some of the customers who performed best were the accounts that had not been touched for so long they were deemed forgotten.
http://www.businessinsider.com/forgetful-investors-performed-best-2014-9

Yikes! No thanks! Some years back, T Rowe Price started an African fund. Sounded interesting, lots of interesting sales literature, Price has conservative reputation, what could go wrong? So I invested. Lost more than 50% in the blink of an eye, until I was unable to sleep at night and couldn't digest my breakfast. Sold it and took the 50%+ loss. Too risky for me. [Please don't tell me the fund has gone up 10,000% since I sold, I can't stand the pain.]

Good stuff. Thanks Ted.
I think one reason my Roth has outdistanced my Traditional IRA over the past 5-6 years is that I leave it alone and seldom, if ever, "tinker" with it. I don't know if that strategy works under all market conditions, but it has worked since early '09.
One lesson from Hussman may be that the harder we work to get something "right", the more apt we are to get it wrong. I guess you could say this guy has "written the book" on screwing-up. So sad for all those investors who sent him their money over the years,

In reference to Ted's blurb on auto sales.
Alan Mulally may have demonstrated impeccable timing here. Get out before the all aluminum (read: expensive to build, buy, repair & insure) pickup debuts as gas slides below $2.50. One report has it under $2 in some areas of the U.S.
BTW: Chev recently reported brisk sales of the non-alum Silverado.

Nice post msf. It looks like neither the Vanguard 500 Index fund VFIAX nor the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund VTSAX have had any capital gains distributions in the past 10 years
Source: https://advisors.vanguard.com/VGApp/iip/site/advisor/investments/price?fundId=0540#state=30
And the tax cost ratio and tax adjusted returns for VTI (Vanguard Total Stock Market Index ETF) and VTSAX (Admiral shares, Total Stock Market Index Fund) were just about identical over 1, 3, 5 and 10 years, per Morningstar.