So far, people who started as Bogle's personal assistants have eventually landed at the top.
At 55 and only 6 years at the top, did Tim Buckley quit or was pushed out? He may have perfected the race to the bottom ER at the expense of everything else and possibly damaging the Vanguard brand. If Vanguard wants to move forward in advisory business again (it ditched its old advisory business for the robo-advisors/PAS), it had to change the horse. We may have to wait for juicy details of the drama.
MY IRAs remain at Vanguard, but other accounts are elsewhere.

AAII Sentiment Survey, 3/13/24
BULLISH remained the top sentiment (45.9%; above average) & bearish remained the bottom sentiment (21.9%, low); neutral remained the middle sentiment (32.2%, above average); Bull-Bear Spread was +24.0% (high). Investor concerns: Elections, budget, inflation, economy, the Fed, dollar, Russia-Ukraine (107+ weeks), Israel-Hamas (22+ weeks), geopolitical. For the Survey week (Th-Wed), stocks were up, bonds down, oil up, gold up, dollar down. The 2nd shoe (CREs) fell on regional banks (KRE) without much damage beyond NYCB. #AAII #Sentiment #Markets
https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/post/1388/thread

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/225322/000119312524066591/d782193d497.htm
497 1 d782193d497.htm FIDELITY GLOBAL HIGH INCOME FUND
Supplement to the
Fidelity® Global High Income Fund
June 29, 2023
Prospectus
Reorganization. The Board of Trustees of Fidelity Summer Street Trust has unanimously approved an Agreement and Plan of Reorganization (“Agreement”) between Fidelity® Global High Income Fund and Fidelity® High Income Fund.
Each fund seeks a high level of current income. Growth of capital may also be considered.
As a result of the proposed Reorganization, shareholders of each class of Fidelity® Global High Income Fund would receive shares of the corresponding class of Fidelity® High Income Fund.
The Agreement provides for the transfer of all of the assets of Fidelity® Global High Income Fund in exchange for corresponding shares of Fidelity® High Income Fund equal in value to the net assets of Fidelity® Global High Income Fund and the assumption by Fidelity® High Income Fund of all of the liabilities of Fidelity® Global High Income Fund. After the exchange, Fidelity® Global High Income Fund will distribute the Fidelity® High Income Fund shares to its shareholders pro rata, in liquidation of Fidelity® Global High Income Fund. As a result, shareholders of Fidelity® Global High Income Fund will become shareholders of Fidelity® High Income Fund (these transactions are collectively referred to as the “Reorganization”).
Shareholders of Fidelity® Global High Income Fund will receive a combined information statement and prospectus containing more information with respect to the Reorganization, and a summary of the Board’s considerations in approving the Agreement.
The Reorganization, which does not require shareholder approval, is expected to take place on or about September 13, 2024. The Reorganization is expected to be a tax-free transaction. This means that neither Fidelity® Global High Income Fund nor its shareholders will recognize any gain or loss as a direct result of the Reorganization.
Effective the close of business on March 22, 2024, new positions in Fidelity® Global High Income Fund (the fund) may no longer be opened. Shareholders of the fund on that date may continue to add to their fund positions existing on that date. Investors who did not own shares of the fund on March 22, 2024, generally will not be allowed to buy shares of the fund except that new fund positions may be opened: 1) by participants in most group employer
retirement plans (and their successor plans) if a qualifying fund is already established as an investment option under the plans (or under another plan sponsored by the same employer), 2) by participants in a 401(a) plan covered by a master record keeping services agreement between Fidelity and a national federation of employers that included a qualifying fund as a core investment option, 3) for accounts managed on a discretionary basis by certain registered investment advisers that have discretionary assets of at least $500 million invested in mutual funds and already included the fund in their discretionary account program, 4) by a mutual fund or a qualified tuition program for which Fidelity serves as investment manager, 5) by a portfolio manager of the fund, 6) by a fee deferral plan offered to trustees of certain Fidelity® funds, if the fund is an investment option under the plan, and 7) by qualified intermediaries to facilitate in-kind redemption activity when deemed by the Adviser to be in the best interests of the fund, and 8) by certain asset pools associated with an organization that already offers a qualifying fund as an investment option in its retirement plan(s). These restrictions generally will apply to investments made directly with Fidelity and investments made through intermediaries. Investors may be required to demonstrate eligibility to buy shares of the fund before an investment is accepted.
Effective after the close of business on May 20, 2024, new positions in the fund may no longer be opened. Existing shareholders may continue to hold their shares and purchase additional shares through the reinvestment of dividend and capital gain distributions until the fund’s liquidation.
In connection with the Reorganization, an information statement/prospectus that will be included in a registration statement on Form N-14 will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. After the registration statement is filed with the SEC, it may be amended or withdrawn and the information statement/prospectus will not be distributed to shareholders of Fidelity® Global High Income Fund unless and until the registration statement becomes effective. Shareholders should read the information statement/prospectus, which contains important information about the Reorganization, when it becomes available. For a free copy of the information statement/prospectus, please contact Fidelity at 1-800-544-8544. The information statement/prospectus will also be available on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website (www.sec.gov).
For more detailed information, please contact Fidelity at 1-800-544-8544...

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/744822/000119312524066633/d797845d497.htm
497 1 d797845d497.htm FIDELITY INVESTMENT TRUST
Supplement to the
Fidelity’s Targeted International Equity Funds®
December 30, 2023
Prospectus
Proposed Reorganization. The Board of Trustees of Fidelity Investment Trust has unanimously approved an Agreement and Plan of Reorganization (“Agreement”) between Fidelity® Latin America Fund and Fidelity® Emerging Markets Fund pursuant to which Fidelity® Latin America Fund would be reorganized on a tax-free basis with and into Fidelity® Emerging Markets Fund.
As a result of the proposed Reorganization, shareholders of each class of Fidelity® Latin America Fund would receive shares of the corresponding class of Fidelity® Emerging Markets Fund.
The Agreement provides for the transfer of all of the assets of Fidelity® Latin America Fund in exchange for corresponding shares of Fidelity® Emerging Markets Fund equal in value to the net assets of Fidelity® Latin America Fund and the assumption by Fidelity® Emerging Markets Fund of all of the liabilities of Fidelity® Latin America Fund. After the exchange, Fidelity® Latin America Fund will distribute the Fidelity® Emerging Markets Fund shares to its shareholders pro rata, in liquidation of Fidelity® Latin America Fund. As a result, shareholders of Fidelity® Latin America Fund will become shareholders of Fidelity® Emerging Markets Fund (these transactions are collectively referred to as the “Reorganization”).
A Special Meeting (the “Meeting”) of the Shareholders of Fidelity® Latin America Fund is expected to be held during the third quarter of 2024 and approval of the Agreement will be voted on at that time. A combined proxy statement and prospectus containing more information with respect to the Reorganization will be provided to shareholders of record of Fidelity® Latin America Fund in advance of the meeting.
If the Agreement is approved at the Meeting and certain conditions required by the Agreement are satisfied, the Reorganization is expected to take place on or about September 13, 2024. If shareholder approval of the Agreement is delayed due to failure to meet a quorum or otherwise (an “Adjournment”), the Reorganization will become effective, if approved, as soon as practicable thereafter.
In connection with seeking shareholder approval of the Agreement, effective the close of business on March 22, 2024, new positions in Fidelity® Latin America Fund (the fund) may no longer be opened. Shareholders of the fund on that date may continue to add to their fund positions existing on that date. Investors who did not own shares of the fund on March 22, 2024, generally will not be allowed to buy shares of the fund except that new fund positions may be opened: 1) by participants in most group employer retirement plans (and their successor plans) if a qualifying fund is already established as an investment option under the plans (or under another plan sponsored by the same employer), 2) by participants in a 401(a) plan covered by a master record keeping services agreement between Fidelity and a national federation of employers that included a qualifying fund as a core investment option, 3) for accounts managed on a discretionary basis by certain registered investment advisers that have discretionary assets of at least $500 million invested in mutual funds and already included the fund in their discretionary account program, 4) by a mutual fund or a qualified tuition program for which Fidelity serves as investment manager, 5) by a portfolio manager of the fund, 6) by a fee deferral plan offered to trustees of certain Fidelity® funds, if the fund is an investment option under the plan, and 7) by qualified intermediaries to facilitate in-kind redemption activity when deemed by the Adviser to be in the best interests of the fund, and 8) by certain asset pools associated with an organization that already offers a qualifying fund as an investment option in its retirement plan(s). These restrictions generally will apply to investments made directly with Fidelity and investments made through intermediaries. Investors may be required to demonstrate eligibility to buy shares of the fund before an investment is accepted.
If shareholder approval of the Agreement cannot be achieved, the Board of Trustees has approved a plan of liquidation for Fidelity® Latin America Fund. Prior to such liquidation the fund’s assets will be managed to provide for sufficient liquidity to meet redemptions prior to liquidation. In this event, effective after the close of business on
July 16, 2024 (or such later date as may be required in connection with an Adjournment), the fund will no longer permit new positions in the fund to be opened. Existing shareholders will be permitted to continue to hold their shares and purchase additional shares through the reinvestment of dividend and capital gain distributions until the fund’s liquidation on or about September 13, 2024 or as soon as practicable thereafter in the event of an Adjournment...

@BaluBalu, I am now at around 70% equity in the IRA after living at 75% for years. The main change has been switching cash to bonds. I haven't noticed any major change since last October. I suppose some part of it must have to do with increased returns on cash and floating rate funds since last summer,
I added JAAA to my bond watch list. But I doubt I'll get into anything to do with CLO's.

BTW, you can also create a ladder of US Treasuries extending out 10-20 years that now yields well over 4%. Treasuries are call-protected, and you can easily sell them if you need cash sooner than maturity dates. Treasury income is exempt from state and local taxes, further boosting yields if held in taxable accounts. They also are available as floating rate notes and TIPS.
None of the many bond funds (including intermediate and multisector) that I track have returns exceeding 4% over the past 5 and 10 years, and very few over 15 years.
Furthermore, 4% is often cited as a sustainable annual withdrawal rate for a retirement portfolio. So, you can now achieve that rate with Treasuries for at least the bond portion of a portfolio, presumably using stocks to account for inflation.

@MikeM - You seem to be missing the point about CDs. I don’t recall anyone advocating investing all of your money in CDs, or even a substantial portion. The great thing about CDs right now are the relatively high yields with predictable, stable returns. I have highly rated bond funds that have lost money over the past 3 years, with pitiful returns over the past 5, 10 years.
Now that I am approaching the age for required minimum distributions, it’s nice to know that I can put a portion of my portfolio in an investment with a guaranteed return. Using a ladder, I can create a guaranteed income stream up to 5 years or longer. My CD ladders are yielding 5% plus. Who knows what bond funds will return over the next 1, 3, 5 years? Nobody. BTW, I still own bond funds, and their returns still suck despite the dead-cat bounce in late 2023.

Great post that IMO should be required reading for all of the CD detractors on this forum.
We have maintained a CD ladder for ~15 years. But when CD rates crossed over our % hurdle in 2022, we SOLD all of our remaining dedicated bond funds that weren't SOLD when the great bond crash occurred.
We did NOT reduce our stock exposure, we only reduced our bond exposure which currently (and happily!) sits at its lowest point since retiring in 2012. (Our only bond exposure is via PRWCX and FBALX. Period.) We effectively replaced our bond sleeve with a larger CD ladder sleeve and are enjoying every minute of it.
It's really all about a couple of pretty simple questions:
What does an investor (NOT a trader) expect as LT, annual TRs on bond OEFs?
If your answer to that question is ~4%-5% or lower, then why in the freaking world would you NOT instead have invested those monies in a fixed rate, Call Protected, FDIC'd CD that GUARANTEES that same or better rate? (Aside: If it's higher than that, please pass me what you're smokin'!)
FWIW, ridding ourselves of the nuisances of owning bond funds and managing a bond portfolio allowed us SO much more time to concentrate on our stock portfolio and take on MORE RISK given the elimination of bond fund related risk. And since that transition our stock portfolio performance has significantly improved.

@MikeM - You seem to be missing the point about CDs. I don’t recall anyone advocating investing all of your money in CDs, or even a substantial portion. The great thing about CDs right now are the relatively high yields with predictable, stable returns. I have highly rated bond funds that have lost money over the past 3 years, with pitiful returns over the past 5, 10 years.
Now that I am approaching the age for required minimum distributions, it’s nice to know that I can put a portion of my portfolio in an investment with a guaranteed return. Using a ladder, I can create a guaranteed income stream up to 5 years or longer. My CD ladders are yielding 5% plus. Who knows what bond funds will return over the next 1, 3, 5 years? Nobody. BTW, I still own bond funds, and their returns still suck despite the dead-cat bounce in late 2023.

Fund industry trade association ICI also has features on this "100th Anniversary Year" for mutual funds/OEFs.
https://www.ici.org/news-release/24-news-mf100
https://twitter.com/ICI/status/1752367498039566341
https://twitter.com/ICI/status/1765746727003320432
More
MITTX https://twitter.com/DividendGrowth/status/1752526427042238817
Keep in mind that CEFs are older and go back to 1850s. They were complex then, as they are now. OEFs developed in response to CEFs. Then in 1990s, ETFs developed as a further improvement. CEFs didn't sit still and came up with things like Interval-Funds (like Roach Motels, easy to get in, but hard to get out), new term-structure CEFs with definite 12.0-13.5 life.

Sold ETRN for a 15% gain in 45 days on news EQT is buying them back.
It's been trending higher in recent days and I didn't get the huge pop I was expecting on the news, but I primarily bought it for a 'trade' on the possibility of a sale. (I was hoping it would've been bought by WMB, which I also own.)
On the upside I could use the gains to offset some losses anyway, so it's still a win-win for me, just not a WIN-win. :)

I am surprised no material change from Friday closing price. currently trading at $11.30 while the implied acquisition price is $12.5 (of course, it is an all equity transaction).
You may be right in bailing as today the price is lower than yesterday when I thought may be there will be delayed positive reaction.
I have a poor sell discipline and so took your cue and sold at $11.30.
(I had some distractions and did not follow through after the initial buy. But Thanks for bringing this to my attention and I count all positive trades.)

I'll second what @sma3 said -- I hate dealing with Vanguard. I have actively invested elsewhere because I don't want to deal with their nonsense. Their argument is that "they're saving shareholders money...". Honestly you can add that extra .0015 points to the ER and actually give me the service I need and mail me a statement once in a while.
Separate point -- they use sampling in their indexing, which I'm sure could set us up for a index bubble (but I should think through that statement a bit more before....the explosion of index funds does seem worrying, however).

Sold ETRN for a 15% gain in 45 days on news EQT is buying them back.
It's been trending higher in recent days and I didn't get the huge pop I was expecting on the news, but I primarily bought it for a 'trade' on the possibility of a sale. (I was hoping it would've been bought by WMB, which I also own.)
On the upside I could use the gains to offset some losses anyway, so it's still a win-win for me, just not a WIN-win. :)

I have heard why not EM....this time for about 15 years, and usually diversification is mentioned too .
In the last 15 years, it has been one of the easiest time to make money since the easiest most common category, US LC, has been at the top, but that didn't stop the background noice for Value, SC, international, utilities, gold, the market is overvalued.
It's amazing how much effort investors making to be in the wrong categories year after year.

Adding to Pressup's comment: The adulation for CDs is turning into lost opportunity cost in hindsight. Not the once in a lifetime proclaimed by some. Take a MFO favorite RSIVX bond fund for example: up +9.3% the past year. 3.4% in the past 3 months. Even the very conservative RPHYX (discussed as a cash alternative) is up 5.7% 1y and 1.6% 3mo.

@MikeM, seems to me that depends on how comfortable you are with where you want to be. Some folks might feel the need to accumulate more. Some folks might be fine with where they are. Everyone has their own mode of travel.
Everyone should check their arithmetic periodically.

Adding to Pressup's comment: The adulation for CDs is turning into lost opportunity cost in hindsight. Not the once in a lifetime proclaimed by some. Take a MFO favorite RSIVX bond fund for example: up +9.3% the past year. 3.4% in the past 3 months. Even the very conservative RPHYX (discussed as a cash alternative) is up 5.7% 1y and 1.6% 3mo.

From today's Wall Street Journal:

One of crypto's erstwhile doubters is helping to take bitcoin mainstream. Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, called bitcoin "in index of money laundering" back in 2017 ... today he says he is a big believer in bitcoin. His firm managers the fastest-growing bitcoin fund and has forged partnerships with some of the largest players in the digital-assets industry. (Vicky Ge Huang, "BlackRock Does U-Turn on Bitcoin," 3/11/2024)

John Stark, a former SEC enforcement chief, cuts to the chase:

The irony is transparent and glaring in that it's supposed to be decentralized, yet what is more decentralized than a Wall Street behemoth who is taking fees from every single possible angle and peddling something that nobody understands.

(N.B. he might be speaking ironically when he asks "what is more decentralized than BlackRock" or the article might contain a typo, which the intent is the bitter but non-ironic "which is more centralized than BlackRock?")
BlackRock's ETF gathered $10 billion in assets faster than any other OEF or ETF ever.
- - - - -
On the flipside, remember the days of “climate-proofing portfolios is a key consideration for all asset owners” and "climate risk is investing risk" (2020)?
Yeah, about that: BlackRock is liquidating sustainability funds, withdrawing from the Climate Action coalition, banning the use of the term "ESG" ... and is "the top institutional investor in fossil fuels, holding about $133 billion in shares and bonds of the top oil and gas companies, and at least $85 billion in coal" ("BlackRock's climate actions are so milquetoast they're making no one happy," QZ.com, 12/8/2022).
Which is, at base, the argument for government action. Even the largest corporations live in deathly fear of missing out on $1.50 in potential profits. The lazy defense of which is to cite Milton Friedman's 50-year-old declaration that the only legit purpose of a corporation is to maximize profits, the so-called "shareholder theory." Rather a number of people (paywall, sorry) have since noted that Friedman's political preference isn't actually law, much less eternal law. (Google "Milton Friedman was wrong" if you want the potpourri.) Likewise, there is no legal obligations (i.e., fiduciary requirement) to maximize profits. Corporate decisions are driven by executive compensation (the average compensation package for the CEO of an S&P 500 company is about $15 million/year, up 1500% since I graduated Pitt in 1978) which is tied to corporate profits.

There is already a thread for MOVEit breach. This thread is on Infosys/McCamish outage that has been resolved at TIAA.
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/comment/168579/#Comment_168579

Thanks. Do we have NLR holders in the house? I sold a while ago PCE 5% lower but one can play for bump in price when first Div is declared. Now own SWX.

Additionally, Yardeni see a broadening of the market beyond the large tech. He recommends S&P 1500 (so to include the smaller caps). Likely there is “no landing” this year since US economy is moving along well and low employment.
Yardeni is the most bullish comparing to the most that I come across.