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Just noticed PRAFX (Price Real Asset Fund) open to public.

hank
edited February 2012 in Fund Discussions
Hope this ain't too old or stale - PRAFX was originally created for Price's own use in their target date retirement funds and other fund-of-funds. Not sure when they opened it to the public. Has ridden the commodities and energy wave, posting + 12% YTD. No plans to buy it, but might some day. I currently have commodities exposure with Price's New Era PRENX and Oppenheimer's Commodity Total Return QRAAX. All three appear to use very different approaches to natural resource investing. The Oppenheimer fund is a strange one, keeping around 80% in cash and bonds, but attempting to track a basket of commodities prices with futures contracts and derivatives. (So, that cash & bond allocation might be misleading) FWIW

Comments

  • David_Snowball
    edited February 2012
    Hi, hank.

    Opened to the public around May, from what I can tell. Price's retirement funds routinely allocate 5% to PRAFX. I've contacted Price's p.r. folks for an explanation of the decision but they are one of the least responsive communication teams that I've dealt with. I'll poke them again.

    I should note that the same is true of the Inflation-Focused Bond Fund, which was called Short-Term Income. It balances cash and short-term bonds and served as the ballast for some of their asset allocation products.
  • hank
    edited February 2012
    Reply to @David_Snowball: Thanks David. Wild as those things can be, I would have respected them had they not opened it. Tend to stick with a handful (8-10) of their funds which I understand reasonably well. Their stable keeps growing. Looking forward to any insights you uncover in the future & do recall your mentioning this one before - I think as part of a group of than "forbidden fruits."
  • scott
    The cash/bonds are likely to some degree (or all) collateral for the futures contracts (in the Oppenheimer fund.)
  • hank
    edited February 2012
    Reply to @scott: Yep - sounds right. Fund's fairly volatile. Must be leveraging to beat the #+&** on the commodity contracts, than trying to earn a few pennies on that collateral.
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