I could and have been for the last 50 years. The distributions from my investments more than meet my needs.

Howdy folks,
@Derf is right about proper posting. I am guilty as charged. As for 15 years? Hell, I don't know. I've been posting here as long as this board has existed because it sort of evolved out of at least two previous boards devoted to mutual fund investing [the debt we all owe to Roy and Salil is enormous]. Salil and his predecessor evolved out of the UseNetNews group - Mutualfundinvesting. Oh, and for the history buffs, the newsgroup was unmoderated and could get very nasty with trolls and flame wars. That was before the world wide web (WWW) was invented and the internet was pretty wild west.
and all y'all have some great holidays and wear the damn mask,
rono

@hank : Okay I'll pick up the flag. 15 years ? My how time flys !

I'll play the Grinch ! Why wasn't this posted in OT?

I vote … Coal for @Derf / Gold for @rono
Similar to a blocking foul being called in BB, if the defender was already in position when the ball carrier arrived at that spot, there’s no foul. Rono’s been posting this Merry XMas video for the enjoyment of MFO readers (and earlier FA readers) in the investing section for at least 15 years. He already had position.
So, in this case … No foul
(PS - Just a reminder everyone that the December Commentary is posted at the top of the board.)

VHCOX is a Primecap SubAdvised fund and I have been a fan of the Primecap funds for a long time. It was a top performing Mid/Large Cap offering 2012-16 but the last 4 years have not been kind. Slumps and out of style for the current cycle are nothing new and all investments go through this naturally. What's making me question the product is the Style Drift over the past 5-7 years and has that helped/hurt the product. It was a Growth fund, focused on mid caps, and naturally evolved into a large cap fund. Now, it's a large blend as per M*. Primecap has Aggressive Growth and Core offrings but as far as I know, this was a ' clone' (not the correct terminology) of the Aggressive product.
Also, they are heavily allocated to Tech and Health so you would think they'd at least catch some of that momentum. I think their tech exposre was higher than the current 28%...Anyone else own this fund and have similar questions?

BaluBalu
Being curious was the main adventure of my post. Having observed "alternative" funds over the years has not caused me to need/want to travel that path, as our mix has provided. The chart allows for an observation for whomever to reflect for their own needs as to portfolio construction.
You stated:

Your comments: "My expectation for MFO members is that alternative funds are not necessarily a bright spot for money over the years."
If you meant the above for the future, please share your thoughts on why.
"AND if one doesn't hold at least 10% of a portfolio in an alternative fund, any gain or loss is noise; and of little benefit to the portfolio."
I am deducing from your statement that you do not expect JHQAX's historic 10% per year (not compounded) return (somewhat lower return, pre-Covid) to continue. But do you expect it to perform worse than a good HY fund, say, ARTFX? I am not one to quibble about predictions about the future but it would be helpful to know your thoughts.

I, as with you, are not able to offer any forward/future prediction about how any fund will perform in a given market; from effects of the market and/or management skills and decisions. So, I don't have a clue as to JHQAX and its future ability to sail a smooth path for the next 1, 3 or 5 years; and be able to provide a positive ballast for a portfolio. Many here have discovered, over the years; that there are times when the big money houses and the economic educated and enlightened one's have been off course with their observations into the near term and future.
A tangent:
As with my prior chart, I was curious about matching other investments with JHQAX to discover return relationships. The below numbers are real world from a 529 educational account started 15 years ago, and for the heck of it; compared to JHQAX. The two initial holdings in the 529 have not been changed, being 50/50. The two funds are: VITPX and VBMPX. NOTE: A mandatory requirement of this 529 is that the 50/50 (equity/bond) balance is reset every September. So, neither holding has outrun the other, percentage wise; over the years.
The return numbers are annualized where appropriate, with the 529 numbers being a combination of the two holdings returns.

YTD 1YR 3YR 5YR 10YR 15 YR
529 +10.9 +12.8 +14.3 +10.7 +9.7 +7.4
JHQAX +12.9 +13.8 +13.3 +10.2 (partial year)

The above is not an attempt to provide anything more meaningful than a simple portfolio may provide, regardless of ones choices over the long term. A two fund portfolio being QQQ and AGG would provide, IMHO.
We've (household) attempted, over many years; to maintain a low number of investment vehicles. As with every investor, we all have our choices; based upon whatever moves us in a particular direction to hopefully provide the most benefit to a portfolio. We are fortuitous that our career paths were directed towards technology and healthcare; which helped us focus our investments based upon our understanding and insight of these areas.
Our equity holdings today are directed towards technology and healthcare.
Bonds? Don't have a clue at this moment, as the large support of high rates is now missing, which is where the "running" room used to be to have advantage of falling rates and obtain the profits from pricing; versus the prior 40 years.
I wandered a bit........, eh?
Remain curious,
Catch

We (wife and I) have been with TRP for over twenty years and regularly use the brokerage.
I agree it is not as accomplished as some other offerings, but you do get used to the quirks. On the "Tools" menu you can search for funds which have NTF, and combine that with a choice of sectors, minimum investment requirement, expense ratio, fund family, and so on. From that list of results you can sort by past performance, volatility, income characteristics, and so forth.
I have noticed in the last twelve months there are a lot more funds which used to have a $35 transaction fee but are now free to trade. And some funds which were previously unavailable are now on offer. Nine times out of ten I have been able to acquire the specific fund I wanted.
Whenever I have had a question I have always used the messaging facility. I have never had to make a phone call. All my questions have been answered in a timely and professional manner.
We won't be changing brokerages because we have most of our money tied up in TRP funds themselves.

Even worse, I deactivated another account that I had previously linked the "Schwab Bank Investor C".
Still CC-501 error with "Schwab & Co" and as with the other account I can link it to "Investor -C" but the account is not listed in the "link to existing account" drop down.
Why do I think Quicken has done nothing to fix this in a week?
I can't imagine anyone signing up for renewal ( mine is due in February) unless this is fixed quickly.
Just think, being a loyal Quicken customer for almost 30 years get me what???
A big fat ZERO!!

Unfortunately, I just tried to re activate my deactivated account to link to "Schwab & Co" and I got the cc 501 error again. I do not sync my accounts to Quicken on the web so cannot "reset" my cloud account
Nothing has changed in over a week.

Today is the merger day, December 10. Tax-loss sellers have only today to do any tax-loss harvesting for PCI, PKO.
PDI is trading flat in the morning, https://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=PDI&p=D&b=5&g=0&id=p90672583672

Tax basis in PCI & PKO is carried over to new PDI received in the merger. Any loss in new PDI can be triggered at anytime, subject to wash sale rule.

@balubalu, high SKEW means that puts are now expensive relative to calls.
https://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=$SKEW&p=D&b=5&g=0&id=p72279051405

Today is the merger day, December 10. Tax-loss sellers have only today to do any tax-loss harvesting for PCI, PKO.
PDI is trading flat in the morning, https://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=PDI&p=D&b=5&g=0&id=p90672583672

Despite the current drawdown, which has seemed inevitable for some time, her 7-year risk and return numbers remain remarkable, as shown in table below:

Upon my search of MFO site, I am surprised to learn only four posters (incl @carew388 & MikeM2) indicated owning this fund. I would have thought it would have a wider ownership among MFO posters.

I own it. Happy.

I also own JHQAX for quite a while now, about 15% of portfolio. The fund has an excellent risk/reward profile since its inception in 2014. What's not to like for a conservative and retired investor, especially at a time when equity valuations are stretched? So far, so good.
Fred

@catch22, Thanks for the chart. I was not sure, with the chart, if you were agreeing with my statement that until the beginning of Covid, it performed more or less similar to a good High Yield bond fund or you wanted me to see some other aspect I had not mentioned. Please spell it out. Interestingly, pre March / April 2020, JHQAX was pretty anchored to ARTFX but after that date interest rates have only gone up and JHQAX accelerated higher from ARTFX - may be that just proved JHQAX's worth as a good replacement for (HY) bond funds, which per MikeM was part of the i(e)nquiry in this forum earlier this year.
Your comments: "My expectation for MFO members is that alternative funds are not necessarily a bright spot for money over the years."
If you meant the above for the future, please share your thoughts on why.
"AND if one doesn't hold at least 10% of a portfolio in an alternative fund, any gain or loss is noise; and of little benefit to the portfolio."
I am deducing from your statement that you do not expect JHQAX's historic 10% per year (not compounded) return (somewhat lower return, pre-Covid) to continue. But do you expect it to perform worse than a good HY fund, say, ARTFX? I am not one to quibble about predictions about the future but it would be helpful to know your thoughts. I am going to divert some of my bond (low volatility) sleeve to this fund. I do not own any dedicated investment grade fixed income.
I am not a big fan of alternative funds in general because a lot of them are idiosyncratic and potentially have a large range of outcomes. I experimented with a few of them over the years and never felt I understood their behavior. The last one I owned was an AQR fund - some 15% of my portfolio - I can not say I understood that fund at anytime of my ownership. JHQAX is very simple and its relative outcomes are reasonably predictable - or let us say, I understand it as well as any equity or bond fund I currently own. For the relative low volatility it is expected to have, I owning >10% of portfolio in JHQAX is not a problem.

Actual Returns
Average Annual Returns
Description 1 Month 3 Month 6 Month 1 Year 3 Yrs 5 Yrs 10 Yrs Inception
12/2013
SEC Pre-Liquidation2 -7.51% -5.47% -1.81% +7.51% +7.30% +8.51% -- +7.11%
SEC Post-Liquidation -4.42% -3.21% -1.01% +4.59% +5.76% +6.83% -- +5.81%
Tax Cost Ratio -- -- -- 0.22% 0.35% 0.32% -- --
Tax Cost Ratio represents the percentage-point reduction in returns that results from Federal income taxes (before shares in the fund are sold, and assuming the highest Federal tax bracket).
1Numbers are adjusted for possible sales charges, and assume reinvestment of dividends and capital gains over each time period.
2Pre-liquidation (before sale of shares): includes taxes on fund's distributions of dividends and capital gains. Figures based on highest Federal income tax bracket. State and local taxes are not
Taxing issues with JHQAX from Schwab
I also hold a small toe hold, add me to the list.

I've owned the fund since March. There was a lot of talk about alternative funds at the start of 2021. The discussion in part was what might take the place of bond funds moving forward. That is where I first heard of it. Also mentioned at the time was that it was about to close, so after some research and comparison to other alternative funds and ETF's mentioned I dove into JHQAX. Options trading has been interesting and doing well for a while now. It was also different to anything else I owned. I don't have the time or experience to play options myself so this fund seemed perfect for addition to my alternative sleeve in my self managed portfolio (along with TMSRX and CTFAX). The fund has been a great buy since purchase.
I hold it in my tax deferred IRA so I know nothing about the tax ramifications.
What do I expect from it? I expect it to out-perform bonds, high yield or otherwise, with just slightly more risk. It has averaged about 13+% per year over the last 3 years but I don't expect it to duplicate that return in the next 3-5 years. I expect volatility to be low. In the past 3 years the funds STD has been ~7% compared to SPY at ~18%. Going forward, 60-70% of the S&P 500 return with 1/2 the down side in a bear market would be good I think.
FWIW, so far I really like the fund.

msf is the one who has explained this weirdness the best:
https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/composition/258620822
As one who has had quite a bit of money in both CAPE and DSEEX I was curious (a little) about the OP and then the followup about utter failure yada yada, but now thinking I were better not to have queried, as it all seems uninformed.