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Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
  • Vanguard Problems
    It was @msf who helped point me towards Fidelity when I could no longer put up with TRP’s horrible service. From the VG stories, I feel very fortunate to have landed where I did. Great service. Great website. However, a brokerage account is a new experience for me. Right now I’ve got 1 “Good Faith” violation and one “Free Ride” violation still active. (They drop off after a year.) Justly deserved. But trying hard to learn all the “Do”s and “Don’t”s. If you get enough of these violations they curb your ability to trade (with unsettled funds). I hear Schwab is also a pleasure to deal with as @MikeM has stated in the past.
    PS - TRP’s final “goodby” to me was to bounce their first 3 transfer checks. So I was in trouble at Fido right from day 1.
    :)
  • Bloomberg Wall Street Week
    +1. @hank. Yet, I seem to see some degree of improvement.
    Let us hope. :)
  • Small-caps at all?
    Thanks to everyone for your posts and for your suggestions above. Greatly appreciate it. I spent the weekend analyzing a number of funds and Virtus KAR Small Cap core seems to have the best risk reward stats in the small cap space. It's a Great Owl and also honor roll fund. To me the things that appeal are that it had a MaxDD of 18.3% back in March of 2020 and this year through end of June of that MaxDD was 15.7%. That compares quite favorably to other funds in the space and gives it a low risk rating on Morningstar. Also Beta is only .82. Combine that with top % decile performance in the past 1, 3, 5, 10, and 15 years. I also like the fact that the fund manager has conviction behind his picks with a concentrated fund. At any rate, I plan to purchase the fund. Thanks again for contributing. If anyone else has been following this particular fund, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
  • Single Bond/Treasury ETFs
    I purchased 13-week T-Bills (which recently matured) at Vanguard.
    I was informed that when T-Bills mature the proceeds would automatically go to my settlement fund.
    In a subsequent conversation, a Vanguard rep mentioned no other options were available.
    I didn't specifically ask about auto-rolling the proceeds.
  • Bloomberg Wall Street Week
    +1. @hank. Yet, I seem to see some degree of improvement.
  • Vanguard Problems
    @Derf,
    I was unable to purchase Treasuries in May via Vanguard's website using Firefox.
    More info here.
    My guess is that Vanguard has optimized their website for Chromium-based browsers.
    Firefox uses the Quantum browser engine and is not based on Chromium.
  • Vanguard Problems
    @Observant1 : Thanks for that info. After downsizing the page I was able to purchase a CD. @Sven Now I know what the problem I was having at VG. Plus the view of the page had changed , so I'm hoping VG is truly trying to update & make it "very" easy to use their site. Also I use Firefox.
    Later , Derf
  • Small-caps at all?
    Small-caps are too volatile for me

    Be careful out there @Crash. Many of the individual stocks, MLPs and sector ETFs I notice you posting lately are at least and often more volatile with greater max drawdowns than say a standard small cap index fund like VB or NAESX. It's a risk reward tradeoff I guess, but individual stocks could be a rough ride (I say from experience :) )
    I appreciate your words. I do post some names that I know I'll never own, just because I'm not independently wealthy. This seems like not a terrible moment to share my current holdings. Some held forever, some new.
    BHB has been good to me ever since my initial purchase. It's still less than 4% of total. And ET, too. A bit more than 3% of total. .....After RGR got hammered following the earnings disappointment, I bailed on it. That money went to PSTL. (Only 1+% of total, so far.)
    TRAMX is virtually back to "even-steven" for me, since I bought it in the Spring. I added to it. Then it fell. Now, it's rising again. TRP Africa-Middle East.
    PRWCX is the biggest chunk. If we're lucky, it may even finish the year in the black.
    PRISX is still underwater. TRP Financials.
    PRNEX= still in the red for me, too. The published figures might be positive, YTD. But my timing has been dreadful, as always. TRP Energy.
    BRUFX is wife's IRA. Balanced, mostly equities. Not doing badly, rising with everything else, lately.
    PRFDX. bought just recently at a good moment. Positive returns, already. TRP Equity Income.
    TUHYX. TRP junk bonds. I'm making money with it, now. Bought chunks at deep discounts. (11% of total portfolio.)
    Like the Texaco Tiger used to say: "Happy Motoring!"
  • Single Bond/Treasury ETFs
    If you have gotten used to single-stock ETFs, get ready for single-bond/Treasury ETFs. I suppose they make rolls easy although many brokerages (Fido, Schwab, etc) have auto-rolls for Treasuries. There may be other minor trading advantages for small ERs. Keep in mind that major brokerages already have commission-free trading for Treasuries.
    https://www.barrons.com/articles/single-treasury-bond-etf-51660337288?refsec=etfs&mod=topics_etfs
  • Current New Issue CDs
    I believe that the credit union is required to publish a blended APY, combining 4% for 4 months and 1.65% (the current rate for the remainder) for the final 12 months.
    See Reg DD Appendix A. This is a stepped rate CD. Section B talks about blending rates, and Section C talks about using the current rate (1.65%) if the rate is variable.
    https://www.consumerfinance.gov/rules-policy/regulations/1030/a/#1B-1
    The credit union is advertising this as 4% APY without disclosing the blended rate. This may be violating Reg DD. Haven't researched but suspect it should not be necessary to read the fine print (though one should) if the institution is stating APY as required by law.
    I hope they get fu**ed on this.
  • Current New Issue CDs
    I believe that the credit union is required to publish a blended APY, combining 4% for 4 months and 1.65% (the current rate for the remainder) for the final 12 months.
    See Reg DD Appendix A. This is a stepped rate CD. Section B talks about blending rates, and Section C talks about using the current rate (1.65%) if the rate is variable.
    https://www.consumerfinance.gov/rules-policy/regulations/1030/a/#1B-1
    The credit union is advertising this as 4% APY without disclosing the blended rate. This may be violating Reg DD. Haven't researched but suspect it should not be necessary to read the fine print (though one should) if the institution is stating APY as required by law.
  • Vanguard Problems
    the threatened penalty for keeping VG mutual fund account is $20/yr/fund holding. [...]
    [...] people also got notices to switch to electronic statements to avoid $20 annual fee. [...] the previous threshold to avoid that fee was $50K in household assets, but it was suddenly bumped up to cool $1 million.
    In both instances (legacy mutual fund platform, brokerage platform), Vanguard was and is charging annual maintenance fees. In both instances the amount of the maintenance fees is not changing. In both instances Vanguard was and is providing ways to have those fees waived.
    Vanguard is making two changes. One is to increase the threshold balance for waiving fees from $10K to Flagship status ($1M), for both legacy and brokerage platforms. (There is a different $50K threshold for SIMPLE IRAs and solo 401(k)s that is not changing.)
    The other change is that Vanguard is eliminating electronic delivery as a way to wave fees on the legacy platform. Vanguard is retaining this waiver on its brokerage platform. The practical effect of this if you are counting upon using electronic delivery to have fees waved is to nudge you onto the brokerage platform. This has no impact on Flagship customers as they will continue to have maintenance fees waived.
    Apparently (I have not received communication from Vanguard), the new fee schedule for existing accounts goes into effect on Sept. 30th.
    Old fee schedule
    New fee schedule
    (Links "borrowed" from Bogleheads thread.)
  • Vanguard Problems
    Speaking of malfunctioning websites, has anyone viewed Vanguard funds on its website using Firefox?
    It appears there are issues ¹ as a result of recent Vanguard "improvements."
    1) No margin on left side of page.
    2) Headers (Overview, Performance & fees, Portfolio composition, etc.) are not listed on top.
    They occupy most of the page which makes it extremely difficult to view the corresponding data.
    ¹ Chrome and Edge work fine.
  • Small-caps at all?
    Small cap space rotates quickly between growth and value styles, similar to those of the larger caps. Now value funds are in favor. I prefer active managed smaller cap funds since there are many more opportunities in stock picking. We have small cap index fund choice in our 401(k) but we choose not to use them.
    For now the only small cap fund we invested in is T. Rowe Price Mid-cap value, TRMCX. The long time manager, David Wallack, retired in mid-2021, and replaced with two new associates. Wallack’s investment process remains intact as the fund out-performed the respective mid-cap value index especially during the drawdown in May 2022. The other small cap value fund, QRSVX, we had earlier is okay too, but the lack of a deep bench was a concern whereas T. Rowe Price is in a better position. We are keeping a small allocation, 2-3%, per our risk tolerance at this time.
  • Current New Issue CDs

    That 4% is a teaser rate that only lasts for the first 4 months of the term. Thereafter, the rate drops to the higher of either 2% or their normal 12 month CD rate (currently 1.65%).
  • Bloomberg Wall Street Week
    Listened to Summers again. He’s afflicted by the “ahh” syndrome which detracts from his speech delivery. These are known as verbal pauses. A good speech coach could correct that with some training. His delivery is also very slow. Such defects are perhaps irrelevant when he’s sitting in on a meeting with other college professors. Not so good on TV. For a sharp contrast listen to host David Weston whose delivery is virtually free of verbal pauses.
    None of this is to suggest speaking ability affects one’s financial acuity. It does not. But listening to LS for 15 minutes ought to provide a lot more information and insight than it seems to. In a sense, delivery does affect the end result.