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I do not own any Fidelity funds. Personally, I would suggest the fund company go on a diet (I count 360 individual offerings). Wondering if Fidelity fund experts could share your favorite long term funds?
Given the choice of Fido and/or TIAA-CREF in my 403b, I opted for Fido ten years ago. Some of the Spartan funds seemed off-limits initially, but I think they are now available. Made some money in New Markets Income and quite a bit more in FBIOX, but was surprised to receive a "Personnal and Confidential" envelope this month advising me that I had been detected violating their frequent trading rules by buying FBIOX with 1% of my total Fido investment, then selling some FBIOX that equalled 2% of my total Fido investment a month later. Admittedly, I sold 25% of my FBIOX holdings when it seemed too frothy, but it was a trivial amount of their fund and not much of my total. When I protested that it seemed irrelevant in view of the size of the fund and my total Fido holdings, I received an email largely restating the warning letter, after the initial "we appreciate your business" boilerplate. Apparently $1000 will trigger their restrictions. It appears I will be allowed to liquidate my holding in a fund while on suspension, so I won't be forced to ride a market meltdown, but my suggestion that they adjust their software to higher percentages and higher amounts before imposing their frequent trading proscriptions either fell on deaf ears or were addressed by someone too far down the food chain to engender a reasoned response, even though I mentioned that I was not an airline pilot with excess time on my hands. I don't know if a letter or email campaign will attract their notice, but I encourage anyone holding Fido to suggest that they raise their thresholds for frequent trading amounts to see if we have any impact.
strangely the morningstar link(list of fido funds worked today. Maybe my problem was the site was down briefly but its always possible I screwed up.Anyway thanks Ted and Bee
@STB65, the thing I don't like about Fidelity is that their frequent trading policy is not first in first out. So, if you have $100k long term in a fund and you have even a minimum buy at some point, the entire amount becomes locked in the 30 Day round trip policy. This is something I have tried to get them to change but with no success.
But the letter you got applies only if you have several of those roundtrips in the same fund or across multiple Fido funds, definitely not the first one. You get a warning but not a block on further buys until you reach that multiple limit.
Trading restrictions and fees on mutual funds have steered me to commission free etf offerings. No fee to buy, no fee to sell and no restrictions on trading. As always, nothing is free so read the fine print and understand the limitations.
When it comes to mutual funds that I need to trade more often than quarterly I call first and request an exception to the trading restriction. Recently, I became aware that my mutual fund company allows the privilege to exchange out of any fund and into one specific fund (usually a "cash like" fund) no restrictions. This has helped me exchange portions of a momentum position over shorter time durations without harming my future trading privileges.
Comments
Q&A With Peter Lynch:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/betting/pros/lynch.html
Here's an update (from Fidelity's website) on the regulatory changes that may impact money market funds:
money-market-funds
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You do not have permission to view this directory or page using the credentials that you supplied.
https://www.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/news-analysis/money-market-funds-statement
Regards,
Ted
https://www.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/news-analysis/money-market-funds-statement
When I protested that it seemed irrelevant in view of the size of the fund and my total Fido holdings, I received an email largely restating the warning letter, after the initial "we appreciate your business" boilerplate. Apparently $1000 will trigger their restrictions. It appears I will be allowed to liquidate my holding in a fund while on suspension, so I won't be forced to ride a market meltdown, but my suggestion that they adjust their software to higher percentages and higher amounts before imposing their frequent trading proscriptions either fell on deaf ears or were addressed by someone too far down the food chain to engender a reasoned response, even though I mentioned that I was not an airline pilot with excess time on my hands.
I don't know if a letter or email campaign will attract their notice, but I encourage anyone holding Fido to suggest that they raise their thresholds for frequent trading amounts to see if we have any impact.
But the letter you got applies only if you have several of those roundtrips in the same fund or across multiple Fido funds, definitely not the first one. You get a warning but not a block on further buys until you reach that multiple limit.
The downside to "free" etfs
The flip side to "free" etfs
Limits to Free
Some no fee etfs:
etfdb.com/type/commission-free/vanguard
https://fidelity.com/etfs/ishares
When it comes to mutual funds that I need to trade more often than quarterly I call first and request an exception to the trading restriction. Recently, I became aware that my mutual fund company allows the privilege to exchange out of any fund and into one specific fund (usually a "cash like" fund) no restrictions. This has helped me exchange portions of a momentum position over shorter time durations without harming my future trading privileges.