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i owned fairx for many years. berkowitz is a proven entity. fairx is now too large. faafx is the now the 'old' faafx. all of my fairx has moved to faafx.
I may come back to Fairx some day but I decided to sell this month. I did it with a lot apprehension as Berkowitz has been very good to me. I did not go into Faafx because basically I think Fairholme Investments has to much on their plate and not diversified enough for my stage of life. I hope I am wrong and if I am I will return to Fairholme.
hi burt: no one knows the future. also no one can time the market perfectly, not you, not me and not berkowitz. my experience is that people like berkowitz go against current sentiment, which sometimes makes them wrong or early to the party. my experience is that if you sell something like faafx when it under-performs in the short run, you will have sold too late. also, if you wait to see how well he performs and then go in, you will have left many $'s on the table.
I agree about timing the market and I do not time. I tend to upgrade to a more reasonable choice for my personal needs. Berkowitz is brilliant and so is Bill Miller. There comes a time when you have to exercise judgment and not blind faith. I don't mind leaving a few dollars on the table but not under the table. Burt S.
I'll say Berkowitz is rather brilliant (although his ego is a bit much - see the discussion of "mere mortals" and understanding AIG recently and that ridiculous article thanking the government), but I wouldn't say the same about Miller. It's a bit remarkable that people are throwing $25K at FAAFX w/o any solid information.
I don't quite understand your comment since my fund movements are very carefully considered and it takes me days to make decisions to sell and also what to buy. Sometimes exhaustive research goes into the process.
Maurice ,just to correct the dialogue. I never switched to Fairholme allocation. I just checked out of Fairholme completely and reallocated the money into other funds.
I think that when someone invests in FAAFX they are investing in Bruce B's investing future. And the track record would seem to favor that future. Bill Miller maybe had the wind at his back during his great 15 year run and added just a bit of Alpha to beat the S&P 500 during that streak.
Much has been written about how Bruce analyzes opportunities and brings in consultants as needed to build a case for go/no go investments. If he is studying the financials of companies it only makes sense that he would discover income type opportunities as well as on the equity side.
I certainly would not have invested on my own in some of the things that he has but that's when a deep dive in a company can pay off.
I plan on investing in the Allocation fund FAAFX some time this summer. I hope to be able to eliminate a few other funds by going this route and also like the prospects of investing in Bruce Berkowitz's investing future.
I guess I read the original poster's comment as "...hey, I've just moved all my money out of FAIRX into Fairholme focused credit...what did I just buy...?".
I don't have near enough $$ to open FAAFX unless i consolidate my Roth IRA's into one and roll it over into that fund. I'm not going to do that (I own FAIRX in a taxable). I am however looking very seriously at opening a Roth IRA with GOODX ($2,500 initial). A new fund by BB's old partners. I read an awful lot of good things from those guys back when I started in FAIRX in 2005.
I'm a relative newcomer to FAIRX (Nov '10). I think it's probably too early to "panic" regarding the fund's YTD underperformance, but the recent leadership changes/departures have been unsettling and I will certainly be more alert to posted commentaries. I hope those that have been with Mr. Berkowitz for a long time will share their thoughts and suggestions as to positioning....
Just noticed your interest in the GOODX fund. Based on the commentaries I read in David Snowball's posts, I would certainly not jump on this one. I don't think these guys have ever managed a mutual fund before. Why should we believe these guys will be anything but average - or less? Just because they were analyists for Berkowitz doesn't make them fund 'managers'. I think putting money onto this fund would be a pretty big leap of faith.
RE: Fairholme My philosophy is not to remain with a fund that shows stress. I would rather sell and come back another day. In case you are worried about the fund closing then keep $2500 in it just in case it closes. My motto is " rain rain go away I will come again at another day". Time is too precious when you need the compounding effect of your money . For the time being there may be better choices.
Fairx is about 9% of my portfolio, it's down about 5 or 6% off it's high late last year. Deduct the 5% or so it should be up YTD and That is about a 1% hit to my Ytd on a portfolio basis. I'm getting a little tired of the performance but if Financials have a good spell this fund will come back huge.
Comments
Burt S.
Berkowitz is brilliant and so is Bill Miller. There comes a time when you have to exercise judgment and not blind faith.
I don't mind leaving a few dollars on the table but not under the table.
Burt S.
Burt S.
Burt S.
Burt S.
and reallocated the money into other funds.
Burt S.
Much has been written about how Bruce analyzes opportunities and brings in consultants as needed to build a case for go/no go investments. If he is studying the financials of companies it only makes sense that he would discover income type opportunities as well as on the equity side.
I certainly would not have invested on my own in some of the things that he has but that's when a deep dive in a company can pay off.
I plan on investing in the Allocation fund FAAFX some time this summer. I hope to be able to eliminate a few other funds by going this route and also like the prospects of investing in Bruce Berkowitz's investing future.
My philosophy is not to remain with a fund that shows stress. I would rather sell and come back another day. In case you are worried about the fund closing then keep $2500 in it just in case it closes. My motto is " rain rain go away I will come again at another day".
Time is too precious when you need the compounding effect of your money . For the time being there may be better choices.
Burt S.
Deduct the 5% or so it should be up YTD and That is about a 1% hit to my Ytd on a portfolio basis. I'm getting a little tired of the performance but if Financials have a good spell this fund will come back huge.