November Commentary is live! Hi, guys.
And thanks!
I think the Standpoint Multi Asset fund is worth a look. That combination of "bonds priced to return zero, stocks priced to return zero, both susceptible to a sharp correction" has me wondering about options that generate some combination of safe, simple and sensible.
Too, you might enjoy Robert Gardiner's October letter. He covers a range of issues, comes across as smart and principled, and is pretty honest about his firm's struggles to attract talent beyond that white/male/Utah base. I appreciate both his efforts and his openness about them. (Also hints about a growth correction and China risks.)
Voted today. For myself, among others. When we got to the polls, no one was standing for election to the board of trustees for the local community college. That seemed sad, so I wrote myself in. Chip (allegedly) did so too. It's the nature of these things that if I'd talked to 10 people about it in advance, I might well have won in a landslide.
Take great care,
David
Vanguard Customer Service reserving the right to reject orders exceeding ...You were given imprecise information. Fidelity, like most fund sponsors, puts in boilerplate allowing them to reject any
purchase, including a purchase via an exchange if they feel it would disrupt the fund. But not sell orders. If they did, the funds would no longer be classified as OEFs.
An open-end fund is required by law to redeem its securities on demand
https://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/2015/33-9922.pdfBased on the
purchase dollar limit you were given for FCNTX, and the limit that I actually hit on a very new and very small Fidelity fund, it looks like Fidelity sets its fund limits at 0.
1% of AUM. (M* shows FCNTX as having $
139.5B, or roughly
1,000x the purchase limit.)
Regarding redemption in-kind, Fidelity (or any fund company) would distribute securities owned by the fund. Obviously if the fund were to sell some securities just to purchase other ones to hand you, it might as well hand you the cash since that would be no more disruptive.
...
According to the latest
semiannual statement, Fidelity Contra redeemed 293,065 FCNKX shares in kind, worth $5,07
1.454. It does happen.
'Imprecise', well, sort of. It does appear to be an online issue and an editing problem, said the editor. (No one has said anything at any point about purchases.)
Today's trade-block message says
(009073) The order you have entered exceeds the dollar amount that may be traded in the mutual fund as specified in the prospectus. Please review your order or call a Fidelity representative at 1-800-544-6666.So I used chat to talk w a rep who researched and then reported
Purchases, exchanges, or redemption cannot exceed $500,000 per day. Anything over that requires a call in request which will even need approval from someone higher up than me.to which I said 'So the text does not exactly mean what it says; I suggest a change to yada-yada "greater than $500k cannot be accomplished online but require human approval ..." and he said he would so note that and escalate it. We'll see. I cited the SEC footnote.
Plus I sent email just to get something more official in writing.
With housing factored in, inflation’s running at 10% - Randall Forsyth in Barron's
With housing factored in, inflation’s running at 10% - Randall Forsyth in Barron's Our state (MI) sets spirit prices for some weird reason. Retailers can charge more if want - but rarely do. Overall, Scotch hasn’t moved much over past several years. One of the better values is Dewars 12-Year at $30 - a noticeable cut above their popular White Label. JW Black, a favorite of mine, runs $40 - occasionally $2 less. Aberfeldy (single malt) at $40 is the best buy going IMHO.
Services seem to be where the prices have risen the most. Noticed big jump picking up a few shirts I had laundered recently. As I remarked on another thread, there’s a 2-3 week wait in our area for car / truck repair. A $335 bill for replacing a front wheel bearing on my pickup nearly knocked me over. But when I checked online, the price was right in the ballpark.
November Commentary is live! @lynnbrolin2021:
In November's Commentary said:
Taxes will have to be paid on this portfolio as required minimum distributions take effect so I want to be more conservative in this portfolio, and more aggressive in a Roth IRA.
I believe
@davidmoran linked this portfolio planning tool that does a pretty good job of allowing the inputs (your numbers) to be iterated for optimization...tax optimization being one output. Might be helpful.
link here:
https://i-orp.com/Plans/extended.htmlYou mentioned utilizing a Roth conversion strategy.
I like to remind myself that the best time to execute Roth conversions might be during times of market pull backs. During times of market pull backs equities are temporarily undervalued, especially aggressive equities. So don't hesitate to convert TIRA shares (especially those that are conservatively positioned) as a result of a down market since you may actually have the opportunity to buy more Roth shares while markets have pulled back.
This makes Roth conversions not only a great option when your income is low from a tax perspective, but also a great option when markets are under performing from a valuation perspective.
Needham Small Cap Growth Thanks for mentioning; I hadn't looked in a while. How about NEAIX? You'd have to be convinced about tech, though!
NEAIX is more growthy and multi-cap (it’s about evenly split between large, mid, and small caps) than I’m looking for. Has a higher max drawdown and lower upside/downside ratio.
MSSMX and NESGX are the two Fido NTF SCG funds that always end up being my final two funds to select from after screening that cat.
NESGX is more expensive, less volatile and similar TRs over standard interim periods, and a very worthy candidate in this cat.
The institutional class, NESIX, has a lower ER than MSSMX and Schwab only requires a minimum investment of $2500/$
1000 with a TF. (Fido, unfortunately, has a $
100K minimum.)
Needham Small Cap Growth MSSMX and NESGX are the two Fido NTF SCG funds that always end up being my final two funds to select from after screening that cat.
I owned MSSMX for part of its 2020/2021 heyday move. It started to crash in 1Q/2021 and I sold it well UP, and before too much damage was done, moving proceeds to ITOT. It continued to go DOWN and then sideways. I have recently re-opened a position in it but only 1/2 the value I previously held in it. VERY volatile fund but very rewarding LT. Expecting a BIG pop to the upside in the coming months.
NESGX is more expensive, less volatile and similar TRs over standard interim periods, and a very worthy candidate in this cat.
Data Aggregators
Women May Be Better Investors Than Men "The source of women’s superior returns is the way they trade. Or, rather, how they don’t.
Female Fidelity customers bought and sold half as much as male customers.
Vanguard saw similar patterns over the same decade-long period when examining workplace retirement accounts that it manages; at least 50 percent more men traded in them than women did every year during that time."Link
With housing factored in, inflation’s running at 10% - Randall Forsyth in Barron's computers are largely cheaper in many senses compared w the last time I needed to upgrade ... what is your timeframe?
wine and spirits, some
many TVs, depending on when you are comparing (1y ago ? for everything)
some housing, in less "desirable" locations (a tautology w RE)
many paid services, lawnwork etc., has gone up, but it is not as though of those guys are getting rich, so do we begrudge them this new labor economy?
REMIX - Standpoint Multi-Asset Fund (November Commentary) Thanks, David, for pointing out REMIX / BLNDX in the NOVEMBER Commentary. I used to have it on my watchlist, but apparently it had fallen off. Held up real nice in March 2020 (MAX DD of -9.3%).
Managed futures (50% of the fund) are usually a bit of a black hole in my mind, but at least "The positions can be in stocks and fixed income, as well as currencies and commodities."
If REMIX can provide annual returns somewhat similar to FMSDX, but with better downside protection, then it could be a find.
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/2021/11/standpoint-multi-asset-fund-forcing-me-to-reconsider/
Needham Small Cap Growth
With housing factored in, inflation’s running at 10% - Randall Forsyth in Barron's 10 percent, ya. that's rich. I'd feel lucky here if it were only that much.
Rondure Global Advisors 3rd qtr. 2021 letter
2021 capital gains distribution estimates (mutual funds and ETFs) Oops - Parnassus is NOT yet showing end of year on all funds
I called them last Thursday and they told me the distros would be "soon" ... which makes sense since they tend to pay in mid-to-late November (
18/
19-ish this year I think they said).
Far Out Last year the SEC temporarily suspended trading of Zoom Technologies (ZOOM) partly because investors were confusing it with Zoom Video (ZM). Zoom Technologies also had not publicly disclosed any financial information since 2015.
Far Out From Saturday’s
WSJ - Meta Who? :)
“A Canadian company’s stock surged recently. Investors apparently confused it for the rebranded Facebook. Shares of Meta Materials Inc., a material-science company with the ticker symbol MMAT, rose 8% over the past two days. While Meta Materials appears to have little relation to Facebook Inc., it soon will have a similar corporate name.”https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/meta-shares-surge-no-not-facebooks-meta-11635516376
What speculation? The greater fool awaits...... wanna buy a bundle of 101 bored ape NFTs? Up to 24 million last time I looked.
Updated MFO Ratings: March ... MTD Thru 25 April We're live with several new features in MultiSeach: Decadal Returns, Ratings, and Display Periods; After Tax Returns and Ratings; and Adjustable Column Widths.
All described
here. I also hope to have an expanded piece in the November commentary.
