Our Funds Boat, week + .87%, YTD + .87%, It is settled.....finally

catch22

Howdy,

Again, a thank you to all who post the links and also start and participate in the many fine commentaries woven into the message threads.
For those who don't know; I ramble away about this and that, at least once each week.

NOTE: For those who visit MFO, this portfolio is designed for retirement, capital preservation and to stay ahead of inflation creep; if and when it returns. This is not a buy and hold portfolio, and is subject to change on any given day; based upon perceptions of market directions. All assets in this portfolio are in tax-sheltered accounts; and any fund distributions are reinvested in the funds. Gains or losses are computed from actual account values.

While looking around.....It is settled.....MFO is a most grand internet station in life for individual investors; and I will add, professionals could learn and thing or three here, too. There were several topical areas in the threads last week, receiving lively postings. At least one critical subject area of investing was settled, once and for all time: the buy and hold scenario vs market/trend timing over long time frames and which performs best.....okay, I wrote a small lie, eh? The discussion, none the less; is worthy for all to consider for their own purpose. Historical and societal aspects were also discussed; and my main take away on this is how all of us are affected by the who, what, when and where of our lives to this date. We all have modifiers of events in our lives that become part of who we are today; and may affect our investment behaviors; although our DNA's are almost pure mirrors of one another, a few small variables here and there, keep all of us different. Be it further settled, that the overwhelming conclusion is that; Homo sapiens are a most complex creature. Our house is glad and pleased that you are here.

I have noted a few things below, in the Buy/Sell/Portfolio section.

I have retained the following links for those who may choose to do their own holdings comparison against the fund types noted.

This 1st link to Bloomberg is for their list of balanced funds; although I don't always agree with the placement of fund styles in their categories.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/data?Sector=888&pid=invest_mutualfunds&ListBy=YTD&Term=1

These next two links are for conservative and moderate fund leaders YTD, per MSN.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/partsub/funds/topfundresults.asp?Symbol=$HF&Category=CA

http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/partsub/funds/topfundresults.asp?Category=MA&Type=&symbol=$HF


Such are the numerous battles with investments attempting to capture a decent return and minimize the risk.

We live and invest in interesting times, eh?

Hey, I probably forgot something; and hopefully the words make some sense.

Comments and questions always welcomed.

Good fortune to you, yours and the investments.

Take care,

Catch

SELLs/BUYs THIS PAST WEEK:
NONE

A reflection upon the links above; we attempt to establish a "benchmark" for our portfolio to help us "see" how our funds are performing. Aside from viewing many funds within the balanced/flexible funds rankings (the above links), a quick and dirty group of 4 funds we watch for benchmarking are the following:
***Note: these YTD's per M*

VWINX ....YTD = + .13%
PRPFX ....YTD = + 1.2%
SIRRX .....YTD = + .13%
HSTRX ....YTD = + .16%

None of these 4 are twins to our holdings, but we do watch these as a type of rough guage.

Portfolio Thoughts:

Our holdings had a +.87 % move this past week. Well, we may give the markets another week or two; but as the markets don't really care much about calendar dates and what year it may be, one finds many circumstances to be in place today as they were two weeks ago, as expected. Our house, for 2012 investments; is attempting to discover evidence that this year will not be unlike 2011, with the exception of a post election period. All evidence you may be able to provide to the contrary is greatly appreciated. This leads to the next thought of a small rework of our holdings with selling the majority of our positions in LSBDX and TEGBX. Selling is not the hardest part for this house, but what to do with the new monies. For 2012, if equities do "ok", LSBDX may have a so-so return, based upon what one witnessed for 2011. Not quite sure about TEGBX, but this fund reacted similar to LSBDX in 2011. So, let the studies begin and watch the first few weeks of this new year.

The immediate below % of holdings are only determined by a "fund" name, NO M* profile this week

CASH = 0%
Mixed bond funds = 91.9%
Equity funds = 8.1%

-Investment grade bond funds 26.8%
-Diversified bond funds 19.8%
-HY/HI bond funds 23.2%
-Total bond funds 17.8%
-Foreign EM/debt bond funds 4.3%
-U.S./Int'l equity/speciality funds 8.1%


This is our current list: (NOTE: I have added a speciality grouping below for a few of fund types)

---High Yield/High Income Bond funds

FAGIX Fid Capital & Income
SPHIX Fid High Income
FHIIX Fed High Income
DIHYX TransAmerica HY

---Total Bond funds

FTBFX Fid Total
PTTRX Pimco Total

---Investment Grade Bonds

APOIX Amer. Cent. TIPS Bond
DGCIX Delaware Corp. Bd
FBNDX Fid Invest Grade
FINPX Fidelity TIPS Bond
OPBYX Oppenheimer Core Bond

---Global/Diversified Bonds

FSICX Fid Strategic Income
FNMIX Fid New Markets
DPFFX Delaware Diversified
TEGBX Templeton Global (load waived)
LSBDX Loomis Sayles

---Speciality Funds (sectors or mixed allocation)

FCVSX Fidelity Convertible Securities (bond/equity mix)
FRIFX Fidelity Real Estate Income (bond/equity mix)
FFGCX Fidelity Global Commodity
FDLSX Fidelity Select Leisure
FSAGX Fidelity Select Precious Metals
RNCOX RiverNorth Core Opportunity (bond/equity)

---Equity-Domestic/Foreign

FDVLX Fidelity Value
FSLVX Fidelity Lg. Cap Value
FLPSX Fidelity Low Price Stock
MACSX Matthews Asia Growth-Income

hank

Nice words of "closure" Catch. Good to hear we've laid that one to rest.