I'm not a coffee drinker, but Starbucks is - I think - successful in large part due to the leadership of Howard Schultz, who I do think is one of the great CEOs (and I liked his books.)
Chipotle had huge growth, but a weaker-than-expected forecast. I don't get Chipotle (and I look at a number of Yelp reviews for locations and they don't get great reviews), but the growth they're having continues to roll on - it just becomes do you want to buy it at nearly a 50 p/e.
What they're doing in terms of introducing new concepts (something McDonalds should have done ages ago instead of resting on the fact that it's McD's) is smart. I wouldn't invest in it (I have to really care about something/have an interest to invest, among other things), but I think they're doing the right things. McDonald's would have been smart not to have sold its stake in Chipotle years ago.
I think what's more troubling that no one really talks about is how obliterated a number of the restaurant IPOs that people hoped were the next Chipotle got. Noodles and Co probably the biggest example:
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=NDLS+Interactive#{"range":"max","scale":"linear"}

It's breathtaking how quickly traders jump on any 'oversold'-like opportunity. That article was published today, apparently written a few days ago (it's a little stale on the HY spread peak, which happened last Wednesday per the FRED calculation). While the spread's still in decent 4+ territory, the data FRED uses says it's 58 basis points off the peak already, at 4.50% as of yesterday.
Best, AJ
P.S. #1: The article referred to a different source for the spread.
P.S. #2: Put the FRED chart at 1 year to be able to see the very recent movement in the spread clearly.

Other than Carl Icahn who is bearish and betting against junk corporates, I have never in my investing/trading lifetime seen so much bullishness regarding the junk bond market. I can fully understand this bullishness. Still, it makes me very wary from a sentiment and contrarian point of view. As for junk munis, I am now 50% in cash and will probably be 65% cash at the close. And I fully expect to be scampering right back in sooner than later. But until price stabilizes and begins rising again........

Moving over to Janus opens another can of worms as Janus has had their issues with ethics and SEC investigations.

I don't see this as opening another can of worms. PIMCO made its own deals with Canary (for $25M) to allow Canary rapid trading while barring "regular" investors from doing that.
That resulted in a $50M settlement between PIMCO and the SEC.
Here's the SEC's notice of distribution of settlement money to shareholders (in 2011!).
Best description of what PIMCO was doing I found in a quick search is in a WSJ article (as usual, follow this google link, click on first story: Scandal Tags Pimco Funds Run by William Gross
And there were other misdeeds - Stephen Treadway (the former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of many of PIMCO's funds) personally settled with the SEC for failing to disclose a conflict of interest in setting up shelf space deals for funds handled by PIMCO's distributor.
When using broad brushstrokes (PIMCO "has had their issues with ethics and SEC investigations"), a lot of families get tarnished. Details on Janus, like details on PIMCO, show that there were multiple subsidiaries and fund groups in each family, and only some of them were involved.
(Though in PIMCO's case, while the bond funds weren't directly involved in the market timing, some were used to park the trading money - including Gross' funds - Total Return and Low Duration.)

Under symbol QVAL...
here's opening price action on SA:

I enjoyed Dr. Gray's talk at recent Morningstar conference, summarized in October commentary.
The fund employs a Benjamin Graham based value philosophy.
Implemented in systematic quantitative fashion.
Actively managed.
No index.
80% US stocks, typically.
50 stock portfolio, typically.
er = 0.79%.
An international version is pending.
Fact sheet and investment philosophy found on ValueShares by Alpha Architect's web site.
And also described conceptually in good book by same name: Quantitative Value.

Yep,
I usually try to keep about 35% of my equities in small & mid caps. Currently, I am now at about 25% combined based upon my most recent Instant Xray analysis. Seems some of my hybrid funds have reduced their allocation to them. I have considered doing some buying in the small/mid area since thier vauations have pull back. Ytd my small/mid cap sleeve has had positive returns at 1.7%. My best performer is PMDAX which is up 4.4% ytd.
Old_Skeet

Howdy @Roy and @JohnChisum
The noted distribution of shareholders:
Our client base is now comprised of:
• Institutional Advisors/Consultants 43%
• Institutions 19%
• Retail Advisors 17%
• Individuals/Retail Shareholders 13.5%
• Family Offices 7.5%
Our house holds non-Fidelity funds through our brokerage accounts at Fido, which includes GPROX.
There are others at MFO who have similar holdings via brokerage accounts.
Wondering where these accounts fit into the above list complied by Grandeur? Are we in the Individuals/Retail Shareholders category?
I'm also in agreement that most retail/individual investors are not aware of Grandeur.
Take care,
Catch

Hi rjb112, Blitzer, John Chisum, V/F and others,
Thanks again for your comments.
If you were to look back through the historical postings here and at fund alarm you will find that in the past I go heavy in equities around fall and usually start to lighten up during the first quarter and on into and through the second quarter as we move from winter into and through spring. I am never all out of the markets as my allocation range for equities allows for a low range at 40% and a high at 70%. A neutral allocation in equities would be somewhere around 55%. I am currently about 5% heavy from neutral since equities are currently selling pretty close to fair value but we are now moving into the season where I have trended to go heavy equity. The recent pullback came at a time that I believe will add good value to my traditional seasonal move.
Generally, when equities are oversold I’ll carry a greater allocation to them and when they have become overbought I’ll reduce my allocation in them. In addition, I follow a seasonal investment strategy and tend to overweight them based upon the calendar (STS) around fall and then let my capital gain distribution pay to cash thus automatically reducing my equity allocation (an automatic rebalance of sorts). Should I need to reduce equities farther I do it in steps as the market advances (selling into the advance) until my desired allocation is reached and/or my cash allocation has reached its upper range. Naturally, if things move against me, in a big way, I'll reduce my equity allocation in a defensive move down towards its low range.
I call this a walking allocation because my asset allocation resets from time-to-time based upon market valuation, the calendar, and other considerations I feel that should influence its weighting.
I hope this provides some insight as to how Old_Skeet governs as it does allow for some flexability based upon certain variables. However, since I am totally never out of the market I consider myself a long term investor that employees some special strategies form time-to-time.

I think strategy like sts will work if we repeat a 15 year market like from 1998. So will a simp,e strategy around 10 month MA. Wonder why sts uses DJIA.

FYI: Midcap stock mutual funds, like their small-cap cousins, have lagged large-cap funds and the S&P 500 this year, but midcaps remain close behind small caps' stellar performance in the past 15 years.
Look what a $10,000 investment on Sept. 30, 1999, would do in each. Investors holding the average midcap stock fund would have $36,323 as of Oct. 20 this year, according to Morningstar data. That's a bit behind small-cap funds, which would have $39,299.
Regards,
Ted
http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=MTg1ODMzNjI=
Enlarged Graphic: http://news.investors.com/photopopup.aspx?path=WEBlv1022.gif&docId=722910&xmpSource=&width=1000&height=1152&caption=&id=722911

Hi Catch22 ...
I used the decline in the Index's price line to add value and to enter into the spiff in time for the anticipated fall stock market rally. .....I made a guess as to how much these anticipated distributions would amount to and chose to position in while I felt prices in October would be more favorable than what they might be towards yearend; and, I fronted the money to make the purchases. I'll let the forthcoming anticipated capital gain distributions restore my cash allocation within my portfolio. Kind of clever ... Don't you think?
In short, I felt prices would be more favorable in October than they might be in November, December, January, February and March ... and, I chose to go ahead and position in to hopefully catching the anticipated fall stock market rally that usually starts sometime towards the end of October and usually runs through the first quarter of the following year on and into its second quarter.
Old_Skeet

Old_Skeet, I'm very glad this worked out well for you. You realize this was a market timing decision. What made you so confident that prices would be more favorable now versus what you mentioned above, November thru March? For example, at this time in October, 2007, I don't believe that decision would have worked out well. Nor the year after, in October 2008. And you know there have been some nasty Octobers in the market, such as 1987 and maybe others, where this same decision would not have been good.
Seems the market could just as easily have continued downward, due to unknowns such as Ebola, fears of deflation in Europe, issues in Japan, Hong Kong, fears of slowing in China, all that is happening globally from Ukraine to the middle east......to unemployment, less than robust recovery, you know the whole story......
Anyway, a market timing decision. Looks like you got it right, but I haven't seen evidence that many can time the stock market well.
I agree with what you said about forward earnings, forward P/E ratios looking reasonable. Have you seen the forward P/E on the Dow? Seems to me that buying the etf DIA is a reasonable choice. 30 quality stocks with an aggregate P/E less than 15. Of course, the bears like Hussman say that earnings have peaked, so the P/E is not accurate, because the "E" will be reverting to the mean. No, I'm not in Hussman's funds.

I am surprised that using Gartman as a contrarian indicator seems to keep working. At some point, there must be a reversion to the mean! :-)

I actually like frequent CNBC contributor Dennis Gartman less than I do Cramer.
Gartman's two calls for stocks to move lower over the past few weeks have been the moment the markets reversed.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-21/why-stocks-are-soaring
Charted:
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2014/10/20141021_gart.jpg

Last week one of our own here said short the heck out of the airlines among others shorts. They have more than soared since. Just goes to show what happens when you invest or trade based on the headlines (Ebola) Not ragging on this perennial pessimist as I am certainly not exempt from making bonehead calls too.

I am surprised that using Gartman as a contrarian indicator seems to keep working. At some point, there must be a reversion to the mean! :-)

I actually like frequent CNBC contributor Dennis Gartman less than I do Cramer.
Gartman's two calls for stocks to move lower over the past few weeks have been the moment the markets reversed.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-21/why-stocks-are-soaring
Charted:
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2014/10/20141021_gart.jpg

I actually like frequent CNBC contributor Dennis Gartman less than I do Cramer.
Gartman's two calls for stocks to move lower over the past few weeks have been the moment the markets reversed.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-21/why-stocks-are-soaring
Charted:
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2014/10/20141021_gart.jpg

Financial TV?
All useless I agree. At times, however, it may drown-out other noises like traffic going by, planes flying over, kids shouting and trash collectors. I get a laugh out of Cramer in the morning - same as I do out of Stewart and Cobert in the evening. But would never listen to any of them for investment advice.
For serious down-time: (1) subscribe to any number of wonderful domestic/international magazines, newspapers or blogs at Amazon, (2) get yourself a set of good bluetooth headphones ($200+) also at Amazon. (3) Load favorite music and reading content onto any number of great tablet devices (I like the Fire HD). ENJOY!
---
What's available to read using the free Kindle App?
You name it. The International NYT is $15 a month and gets delivered around 8PM EST - so you get that day's news. the regular NYT is about $20, but has a Sunday edition which the other does not.
Barron's and WSJ - but too pricy for my taste.
The New Yorker every Monday if you want some culture.
The SF Chronicle at $6 a month is a steal and publishes 7 days a week
Humor? Subscribe to The Onion.
The Smithsonian publishes two magazines. I subscribe to the one on Aviation which is excellent. Their other publication deals more with archeology and geography.

Ivy Funds
https://www.ivyfunds.com/sites/default/files/Ivy_Fund_2014_Capital_Gain_Distribution_Estimates.pdf
Waddell & Reed Funds
http://www.waddell.com/NetCommon/MutualFunds/pdf/cap_gain_estimates_wra.pdf
AllianceBernstein Funds
https://www.alliancebernstein.com/abcom/Segment_Homepages/Investments/US/Resources/Content/PDFs/tax_center/2014EstCapGainsDist.pdf?uuid=e7f088cc-554b-11e4-9444-95c2d42715d2
Oppenheimer Funds
https://www.oppenheimerfunds.com/doc/2014_Capital_Gains_Estimates_and_Distribution_Calendar.pdf

Sears stock price has recovered a bit, as has FAIRX.

In a separate announcement that sent Sears shares soaring 23 percent, the Chicago-based retailer said it will raise as much as $625 million through an offering of 8 percent senior notes and warrants, easing worries about the retailer’s balance sheet.

I wonder if 8% is enough to compensate investors who buy these senior notes for the risk that they are taking. Or is this the new normal in today's low interest rate environment?
Sears news from the NY Post

Meh. 8% is not all that appealing, when there's any number of pfd's for healthier companies yielding 6-7% and offering lower risk. CHS pfd's yielding 6.75-7% and those barely budged that much in 2008.

Hi Catch22 ...
Thanks for your question.
I reference the below link for certain P/E Ratio details on the S&P 500 Index.
http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3021-peyield.html?mod=wsj_mdc_additional_ustocks
Notice the continued positive outlook for forward earnings ... this, to me, is a fundmanetal and not a technical. It was the large part of my thinking process to increase equity positions within my portfolio.
I used the decline in the Index's price line to add value and to enter into the spiff in time for the anticipated fall stock market rally. In Novemeber and December many of my mutual funds will be making large capital gain distributions and some of them as high as eight percent, or more. I made a guess as to how much these anticipated distributions would amount to and chose to position in while I felt prices in October would be more favorable than what they might be towards yearend; and, I fronted the money to make the purchases. I'll let the forthcoming anticipated capital gain distributions restore my cash allocation within my portfolio. Kind of clever ... Don't you think?
In short, I felt prices would be more favorable in October than they might be in November, December, January, February and March ... and, I chose to go ahead and position in to hopefully catching the anticipated fall stock market rally that usually starts sometime towards the end of October and usually runs through the first quarter of the following year on and into its second quarter.
In addition, as an investor, I'll will remian invested within my portfolio's asset allocation ranges. These ranges follow: Cash Area (5% to 25%) ... Income Area (20% to 40%) ... Growth & Income Area (30% to 50%) ... and, the Growth Area (10% to 20%). With this, my allocation to equities can range for a low of about 40% to a high of about 70% and my allocation to debt securities, which include cash, can range form a low of 30% to a high of 60% within my portfolio. All asset areas can not be at their low, or high, percentage mark at the same time.
Old_Skeet

Howdy @Old_Skeet
You noted: " I ventured into this special spiff based more on market fundamentals rather than its technical’s."
Will you please 'splain to me what you view as fundamentals versus technical's in your above statement.
For me, when one notes moving monies based upon something like the SP500 pricing; one is using technical aspects to determine a price value for either under or over sold. No?
I suppose it may be said that I use fundamental analysis in respect to a broad view of what I perceive is moving or not moving a particular seqment of a market.
Thank you for your input and time.
Catch

I thought I'd update the board on the special investment position (spiff) I made in what turned out to be a downdraft in the S&P 500 Index as it did pull back about ten per cent from its recent high of about 2020 to a recent low in the 1820 range. As I write, the Index is selling for about 1920 and my spiff is now in the money. Should the Index reach 2100 as forecast by some for its yearend close then this will result in better than a ten percent return for this spiff. If for some reason this turns on me I'll be collecting a good yield and time is on my side for this spiff to work as I am an investor rather than a trader although I have, at times, sold off some of my spiffs once they have reached a targeted goal or to rebalance my portfolio.
Although some may say I averaged down in opening this spiff I don't look at this in that light. I view it as I will have, in the end, invested market derived money back into certain investments that were selling at discounted prices at the time they were purchased. I ventured into this special spiff based more on market fundamentals rather than its technical’s. Investors govern more by market fundamentals over market technical’s but may use technical’s to aid in positioning their new entries while traders seem to govern more by price line action and technical’s to enter and exit positions.
Please don't take this as an Old_Skeet vs. Junkster debate but it is intended, by me, to expand and to better explain the difference of the two very different styles. No doubt, Junkster has had good success ... but, so have I as a long term investor. I truly believe we can learn form each other by exploring each others success and failures and studying the thinking in making these ventures. For me, it is indeed good to have Junkster post his thinking. And, although I have had success thus far this year he was right on spot with his call on muni high yield. Indeed, he has trounced another trader that I follow, to see what he is doing and thinking, and that is the Moose.
Thanks Junkster for the continued posting of your thinking. It is much appreciated.
I wish all ... "Good Investing."
Old_Skeet