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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.
  • Dodge and Cox
    One plausible explanation of the lagging performance of D&C for the last 10 years is the value stocks invested in their funds are out style. Not only D&C, other value-oriented mutual funds companies are also lagging, most notably Oakmark. The growth stocks such as the FANNG stocks dominate and contribute to their out-sized performance in S&P 500 relative to the value-oriented stocks. In contrast, PRWCX is a growth-oriented balanced fund and the top to holdings consist of Microsoft and Google (at one point it held Amazon). David Giroux has also done a good job picking his allocation and stocks well in this environment.
  • Wealthtrack - Weekly Investment Show - with Consuelo Mack
    March 20th guest Robert Kessler on Raising Cash and Unappreciated Treasuries:

  • Dodge and Cox

    VLAAX -13.8 and VALIX -24.2, ouch
    30-70 and 40-60 of the below would be worse than 50-50, obvs, did not compute, but better than the above:
    50-50 BND + CAPE = ~-10.5, same as BND + VOO
    50-50 BND + VOOG = -7.6
  • When Can America Reopen From Its Coronavirus Shutdown?
    Howdy folks,
    Great article [rono loves to read economists].
    While it is way too soon, getting somethings back up in safe manner is what we need to study. How can we morph our society and economy into one that is safe?
    My son is a county park manager (essential) and had to go pickup a tractor bucket from a vendor. Called first, made an appointment, drove to the back of the building and called again. They opened the door, brought the bucket out and put it on his trailer. They waived and he was gone.
    We have a local farmer that sells starts and plants in the spring. He's always been an Honor System vendor (e.g. put your money in a box and take change if you need it) but he's already come out on his fb page how he's going to be safe, comply and be open for business.
    All that said, right now we all have to stay home. Period. It's going to be an ugly few weeks folks.
    I've been talking with my brother more than we've done in years. He's Associate Dean of Medical Education at a Med School and spent 25 years running an ER Residency program. Huge problem with the lack of testing, PPE gear, ventilators, etc. We had absolutely no surge capacity anywhere in the system. None. We used to have departments and offices at all levels of gov't to deal with pandemics and all. We used to have supplies and inventory. Not any more. All that 'what if' stuff has fallen to the budget axe over many administrations and in the hospitals. Have to cut costs and it's such low hanging fruit. In addition, Just in Time Supply is pervasive in every field including health care and medicine. Oh, and he starts all of this with the fact that Trump's an idiot. He's leaning towards the middle to high side estimates. Sorry.
    BTW, wait until you start seeing layoffs in the health care industry?!? Health care is so specialized these days a LOT of people cannot 'cross over'. There's no elective surgery going on anywhere on the planet. The folks that replaced my hip a few years back will most often receive three choices - furlough with unemployment, taking vacation and sick time, volunteering to 'be reassigned'.
    and so it goes,
    peace and flatten the curve,
    rono
  • The Coronavirus Crash Reveals a Big Problem In Bond Fund Pricing
    I accessed the article by typing the article name into an incognito window. Then, I clicked on the link to the article. Then, I closed an ad asking me to subscribe. Then the article was available. Apparently Barrons isn't concerned about people occasionally accessing an article this way.
    Here are a couple more excerpts:
    The problem with the NAV being wrong for the mutual funds is that on days when the ETF’s market price trades at a discount to NAV, that means investors who bought the mutual fund essentially overpaid for its elevated NAV, while those selling received more for their sale than they should have. There is ultimately a delay, as the stale prices for the mutual fund’s bond portfolio have to adjust. Investors saw the consequences of that delay on March 13, when the Vanguard mutual fund fell 0.5% on a day when the ETF rallied 4.2%.
    In an email to Barron’s, AlphaCentric stated, “We believe the NAV of the AlphaCentric Income Opportunities fund was accurately priced each day. The price reflects the fair value of its underlying portfolio of residential mortgaged backed securities, not equities.…The AlphaCentric fund’s daily pricing was done by ICE, which is one of the largest and most respected independent pricing services.” Yet ETF experts say that such fair-valuation services employ limited data. “Only about 20% of the bond universe trades every day,” says Reggie Browne, a principal at market maker GTS with a long history developing the ETF business. “How do you go about calculating fair value for something that doesn’t trade? The ETF is priced minute by minute, not a static NAV.”
  • Dodge and Cox
    D&C have good funds but many of them are riskier and it shows at market stress such as 2008 and many times when stocks go down and 2020 is no different
    For YTD
    Allocation DODBX -23.4...PRWCX -16.2...JABAX -13.1
    Mostly US LC: DODGX -32.1....SPY -22.4
    Foreign stocks: DODFX -34.5...AFCNX -21.9
    BTW, all the funds above have better long term(1-3-5-10-15 years) risk/reward than D&C funds too.
  • When Can America Reopen From Its Coronavirus Shutdown?
    Testing will be critical. For some reason that wasn't part of the politico analysis. We're still unable to do widespread testing even now. Shortages of reagents & PPE (as well as consistent leadership at the very top) still hamper this.
    From the Atlantic regarding timeline considerations:
    https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/03/coronavirus-social-distancing-over-back-to-normal/608752/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20200330&silverid=NTkyMTU3MDQwMTE1S0
    From John Oliver:

  • M* Are Bond Funds 'Broken' as Diversifiers?
    Hi @Charles ........not picking on you, as you have placed valuable thoughts with your posts, relative to "bonds".
    Your April 3 post: "On regulation..."
    From the article:
    “I think you need more transparency where bonds are trading real time, [to aggregate] where the prices are at and find a best bid, best offer [so that] there’s a lot of increased confidence where bonds are trading, just like you have in equities,”
    >>> I continue to try to imagine how the S.E.C. or any other regulatory group can "force" the bond market (which has many various sectors, yes?) to otherwise price to an "exact" in a marketplace (for price and NAV) where it has been noted that a $10 trillion bond market doesn't have a similar amount of daily trading (sells and buys), relative to the equity market.
    Also, from the other April 3 post, "Indexes are one thing."
    Last February, there were $6T in bond funds (about $4.5T in OEFs) and I understand in March, like $250B in redemptions.
    >>> My math indicates a redemption amount of about 4.17%. Doesn't really seem so bad, eh?
    And from where did these redemptions arrive? Corp. and HY bonds? I don't have supporting data.......just my guess.
    ..... the lack of volatility providing (for some funds) false sense of security; therefore, more shocking the surprise when a crisis happens, which makes bond investors not used to drawdown, head for the door.
    ..... I see some bond funds like icebergs now.

    >>> One thing that I am sure of, and hopefully; not writing/sounding like a smart ass, is that over the years here reading questions and comments; is that most folks relative to bonds somewhat understand the difference between AAA bonds and HY/junk bonds. Everything in between is a mystery. I replied too many times in the last several weeks to express why such and such bond fund is "down". I've posted more than once bond rating standards by S&P. A question arises as to why "person X's" bond fund is reacting poorly.
    The answer is to look at the last known holdings and to discover that more than 50% of the "strategic/total or magic" bond fund is invested in BBB (edge of good junk) and lower rated bonds. Investor "x" was overly happy with the higher than normal yield, versus a plain vanilla bond fund that held higher rated bonds with lower yields. The reflection of the high yield is related to risk of the asset, yes?
    My takeaway is that the most common wording related to investing are the words, "the stock market"; with a common question being, "Are you invested in the stock market?' I've mentioned in direct conversation, "Well, yes; but also the bond markets". This always gets the question mark face expression, a "huh". Bond investing awareness is thin.
    Are Bond Funds 'Broken' as Diversifiers? No !!!, depending where the bond monies are parked.
    It is easy to say after the fact, is that not all bond area investing areas are equal and that folks will attempt to continue to educate themselves about bonds. Never before has an unlimited amount of learning been available via the internet. A lack of curiosity and wanting to know are the major limiting factors.
    The watching process begins, relative to COVID-19; and the long thread from Feb. 22, related initially back to Jan. 21. Link here, if you choose to read again.
    I've run my typing mouth enough.
    Be well.
    Catch
  • The Coronavirus Crash Reveals a Big Problem In Bond Fund Pricing
    So if there wasn't a bond bailout, more vanilla mutual fund bond funds would have started suffering severe losses due to this dislocation as well? It also seems the dislocation & mismatching occurred even between ETFs.
    Good news. Overall there isn't much difference in performance between the index type ETF & mutual funds despite all the gyrations.
    From Morningstar (I couldn't figure how to copy the page directly as there is no copy image location for the page on my browser):
    Total Ret 1-Day 1-Week 1-Month 3-Month YTD 1-Year 3-Year 5-Year 10-Year 15-Year
    VBMFX 0.02 0.49 -0.91 2.88 3.56 9.77 4.73 3.25 3.77 4.27
    BND -0.05 0.11 -1.03 2.66 3.16 9.55 4.72 3.28 3.84
    SWAGX 0.10 0.70 -0.82 2.89 3.41 9.68 4.73
    SCHZ 0.33 -0.16 -1.49 2.16 2.75 8.91 4.49 3.12
  • M* Are Bond Funds 'Broken' as Diversifiers?
    I think the simple, index, high quality bond fund like VBTLX worked fine and as expected in this black swan, after all, it's up 3.6% YTD. Even VBIIX about 50/50 Gov/Corp IG bonds worked too at 3% YTD
    Remember, Bogle believed in SP500 + US total bond index.
    The more you own stocks the more you need the above ballast indexes.
  • The futures of the indices are up
    @Sven,
    Thank you for the positive feedback. I have learned so much from readers and incorporate the best into my investing methods. I enjoy sharing the research that I am doing and am glad that others find it useful.
    Yesterday, the stock market fell 1.5%, supposedly due to an unfavorable employment report. My personal belief is the market is heavily influenced by high frequency algorithm trading in the short term. I also believe that upcoming data on the economy and COVID-19 will drive the market lower over the next few quarters. For now, I believe that it is best to be safe and wait for a better opportunity to rebalance into stocks.
    Best wishes to all during these uncertain times.
    Charles Lynn Bolin ( @lynnbolin2021 )
  • Bond mutual funds analysis act 2 !!
    I usually do lots of research but this market volatility and unpredictability are extremly high.
    3 good funds for you TGLMX,VFIIX,ANBEX
    TGLMX VS VFIIX
    1) VFIIX bonds rating are higher. Both heavily in MBS.
    2) VFIIX duration=2.3 is much lower than TGLMX duration=5.8
    3) VFIIX SD is lower and especially YTD. TGLMX peak to trough in March was over 6% while VFIIX was about 2.1%.
    4) And why YTD performance is close
    So, for the unknown wild market, VFIIX looks more of a sleep better fund.
    TGLMX VS ANBEX
    1) ANBEX invests mostly in Gov and lower % in Corp and hardly in MBS
    2) ANBEX risk/reward is better for YTD + 1-3 years and since inception 03/2016. See PV(link) since inception
    Portfolio CAGR Stdev Best Year Worst Year Max. Drawdown Sharpe Ratio Sortino Ratio
    ANBEX 4.91% 3.14% 7.84% 0.27% -2.32% 1.12 2.29
    TGLMX 3.72% 3.43% 7.27% -0.52% -3.13% 0.7 1.27
    VFIIX 2.86% 2.18% 5.83% -0.04% -1.95% 0.7 1.1
    3) For YTD (chart) ANBEX performance is better with a lower peak to trough loss too
    4) Of course, I also like ANBEX much smaller AUM and in this market also it's much higher turnover which means the managers' skill is working and they have many years of experience prior to running this fund.
  • DSENX - another one that was good until it wasn't
    When I rebalanced at the end of last year I still had a 50-55% stake in equities. This is simply one of the funds I chose to hold onto. Given its strategy -- it's a value fund -- I had no expectation it would behave like utilities, staples, infrastructure, low volatility, or health.
  • M* Are Bond Funds 'Broken' as Diversifiers?
    Some jumbled thoughts on bonds and portfolio construction:
    I swapped my pure corporate bond funds for a global bond fund about 3 years ago in my Roth account. Since the Roth can sit idle longer than my traditional 401k and therefore has longer to recover, I am comfortable taking more risk in the Roth. The Roth is more of a laboratory for me, to keep me from doing massively stupid stuff in my 401k (which is larger, and where I apply conventional strategies). That said, I retain vanilla corporate coverage (and the usual bond/stock splits) via balanced funds, which are 45% of my Roth.
    The global bond fund I hold (DODLX) in my Roth has dropped more than it's vanilla corporate cousin (DODIX) would have, and has performed worse over it's lifetime. I rebalance quarterly, and would like to think that I have gotten some portfolio gains vis-a-vis a medium duration bond fund given reasonable rebalancing and global's greater volatility. Time will tell.
    Having lived through 2008 early enough in my investment career (when during the early stages of the crashing the correlation between all assets was high), I would not have expected bonds to have done spectacular in our current situation. Indeed, they have largely performed as I would have expected. It makes sense to me that downturns and pullbacks are different than panics.
    I went into 2020 holding about 25% cash in my 401k since everything just seemed completely out of whack. I have been rebalancing into all asset classes (domestic large cap & small cap, international, domestic corporate and global bond). I will be shifting my cash hold to 18% for the foreseable future. I don't think I'll go below 10% cash matter what happens.
    Time will tell, "interesting times", etc.
  • Mortgage REIT's

    By Tom Maloney at Bloomberg
    April 3, 2020
    * Many publicly traded U.S. REITs have lost most of their value.
    * Starwood Capital and JPMorgan are among those in hunt for bargains.
    "The market for mortgage-backed securities was in free fall, with fear running rampant and banks seizing collateral.
    So Tom Barrack, the chairman of real estate investment trust Colony Capital Inc., published an 1,800-word plea for the Federal Reserve to buy bonds backed by homes, cars and other assets and for banks to halt margin calls.
    That was last Saturday. In the week since, three top investors in the sector have engaged restructuring advisers, two others sold $7 billion of debt at a discount and publicly traded mortgage REITs in the U.S. lost more than $12 billion of market value, bringing total declines this year to at least $50 billion.
    The carnage shows no signs of abating. Prominent asset managers including Blackstone Group Inc., TPG and Apollo Global Management Inc. have been sucked into the vortex wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, with their associated mortgage REITs losing more than two-thirds of their value on average so far in 2020."
    After $50 Billion of Losses, No One Comes to Save the Mortgage Market
  • Old_Skeet's Market Barometer ... Spring & Summer Reporting ... and, My Positioning
    As of market close March 27th, according to the metrics of Old_Skeet's stock market barometer, the S&P 500 Index remains extremely oversold with a reading of 175. This is on the high side of the barometer's scale. A higher barometer reading indicates there is more investment value in the Index over a lower reading. This past week, the short volume declined, a little, from an average of 60% to 55%. The VIX (which is a measure of volatility) fell and went from a reading of 54 to 45. This is good. However, due to the reporting of extremely high unprecedented unemployment clains, the the stock Index's valuation lost ground during week moving from a reading of 2541 to 2489 for a decline of 2% with a decline of 26% off it's 52 week high. No doubt sellers controlled the market this week as there was outward money flow. The three best performing sectors for the week were health care, consumer staples and energy.
    In addition, the barometer's earnings feed was reset with new numbers. Currently, S&P projects that the Index will generate TTM earnings in the mid $130.00+ range over the next two quarters and in the $150.00+ range on forward estimates. I'm thinking under current projections a good valuation number for the Index is in the range of 2400 to 2800 through summer. This is quite a spread; but, there remains a lot of uncertainty as well. Please know the Index could move above (or below) these projections.
    From a yield perspective, I'm finding that the US10YrT is now listed at 0.60% while at the beginning of the year it was listed at 1.92%. With the recent stock market swoon the S&P 500 Index is currently listed with a dividend yield of 2.39% while at the beginning of the year it was listed at 1.82%. As you can see there is a good yield advantage for the stock Index over the US Ten Year Treasury. With this yield advantage, during the month of March, I have been favoring my equity income funds over my fixed income funds. I have read where S&P is expecting some companies to reduce or even cut their dividend payments.
    Even with anticipated reduced dividend payments, I expanded my domestic equity income sleeve during the month of March from four to six funds and rasied my allocation to equities from 40% to 45%. In addition, I did a little buying around the edges in equities in other parts of my portfolio. Since, I now have a near full allocation to equities I've now started to buy during April on the fixed income side by adding to FLAAX and FRINX. In addition, as my portfolio generates income I plan to keep buying on the fixed income side during the month and perhaps on into May. A few funds I plan to add to (and position cost average these positions) are BLADX and JGIAX.
    My three best performing funds for the week were all found on the income side of my portfolio. They were GIFAX +2.47% ... JGIAX +1.02% ... and, BLADX +0.95%.
    Thanks for stopping by and reading.
    Take care ... be safe ... and, I wish all ... "Good Investing."
    Old_Skeet
  • FUND reopenings
    I'm Master Artisan trader. I cycle in / out of their funds. I cylced out a little early in 2019 and didn't enjoy gains, and then was happy in February. However I started adding a bit and the floor simply fell our from under their funds.
    So I'm waiting to cycle back in. The point. Don't fall in love with funds / fund manager. In bull market KNOW which companies funds will do well and go along for the ride. Don't be greedy and don't try to get "market returns".
    Just the way I do things. Probably does not fit into either "trading" or "investing" definition.
    The one mistake was I bought APFDX and was forced to plonk down $2500. That's hurting.
  • The Coronavirus Crash Reveals a Big Problem In Bond Fund Pricing
    "The ETF industry just threw the mutual fund industry under the bus."
    “How do you go about calculating fair value for something that doesn’t trade? The ETF is priced minute by minute, not a static NAV.”
    https://www.barrons.com/articles/coronavirus-crash-bond-fund-pricing-problem-51585848504?mod=hp_LATEST
  • Oil crash poses severe test for OPEC+ after Moscow, Riyadh miscalculate
    Can someone please explain to me how oil goes up 14.5% and my FSENX drops almost 2%? How the heck am I diversifying my risk away ??? Might as well sell, take tax loss and buy USO.