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Ralph, you do understand, don't you, that M*'s star ratings are purely quantitative, based on return and risk within the M* category, and have nothing whatsoever to do with a recommendation for or against a fund?
Right, the change simply reflects the fact that the average high-yield bond fund made 2.5% in the first quarter while RPHYX made 1%. As it turns out, this fund has virtually nothing in common with the average high-yield fund (the correlation between the two is 0.09), so its star ratings - high or low - are perpetually misleading.
As David wrote, here you have an ultrashort bond fund thrown in with typically long duration funds because that's the only collection of taxable junk bonds. RPHYX has to be included somewhere, else it's in a collection with no other funds which makes for a useless collection.
American Century Calif. High Yield Muni (BCHYX) is an example of the flip side (mixing grades rather than maturities) - a junk bond fund thown in with typically investment grade funds because that's the only collection of long California-specific muni funds.
If what attracts one to a fund is something unique, then one has to live with the fact that the fund is incomparable, literally.
@MFO Members: Once again I ask the question when was RPHYX downgraded from four to three stars, and where on M* Website does it indicate the downgrade. I checked both January and February downgrades, nothing about RPHYX Regards, Ted
Ted, you often link to US News and World Report rankings. Do you know the dates of their data? They still show a 4 star M* rating for RPHYX, while the current rating at M* is 3 stars.
So that should give you a small window for the downgrade.
Note: RPHIX was (according to USNews) and remains (according to M*) a four star fund.
You can get a sense of how close the call is when you visit Morningstar. The retail share class (RPHYX) now appears as three stars on its Morningstar profile page which the institutional share class (RPHIX) remains at four.
------ M* PORTFOLIO ALERT = RPHYX & FPACX Portfolio Name: all 04/05/2016 FPACX: FPA Crescent The Morningstar Star Rating for this fund has changed from 4 stars to 5 stars. For details, click here RPHYX: RiverPark Short Term High Yield Retail The Morningstar Star Rating for this fund has changed from 4 stars to 3 stars. For details, click here
Comments
Regards,
Ted
David
American Century Calif. High Yield Muni (BCHYX) is an example of the flip side (mixing grades rather than maturities) - a junk bond fund thown in with typically investment grade funds because that's the only collection of long California-specific muni funds.
If what attracts one to a fund is something unique, then one has to live with the fact that the fund is incomparable, literally.
Regards,
Ted
Star ratings: purely data based, and change automatically.
Medalist ratings: assigned by Morningstar, and can be upgraded/downgraded.
So that should give you a small window for the downgrade.
Note: RPHIX was (according to USNews) and remains (according to M*) a four star fund.
You can get a sense of how close the call is when you visit Morningstar. The retail share class (RPHYX) now appears as three stars on its Morningstar profile page which the institutional share class (RPHIX) remains at four.
David
Derf
Regards,
Ted
Portfolio Name: all
04/05/2016
FPACX: FPA Crescent
The Morningstar Star Rating for this fund has changed from 4 stars to 5 stars. For details, click here
RPHYX: RiverPark Short Term High Yield Retail
The Morningstar Star Rating for this fund has changed from 4 stars to 3 stars. For details, click here