Hi Guys,
Do you remember Mel Brooks’ “It’s good to be King” repeated line in his 1981 movie “History of the World, Part 1”? It collected a huge following that persists today. One could only wish that mutual fund managers displayed that same level of persistence.
I was reminded of that quip today when I read several articles in the WSJ. In the May 7 issue, the monthly mutual fund analysis report contains several articles that might serve your investment purposes.
I have provided a Link to this monthly section as follows:
http://online.wsj.com/public/page/news-personal-investing-finance.htmlEnjoy.
After preparing this submittal, I recognized that MFO researcher Ted had already posted Links to several of the articles that I found informative. Ted is tough competition, both in timeliness and depth of searching. Ted is definitely the King in this domain. Sorry for the repetition embedded in my posting.
The articles that I label as particularly useful are the ones titled “How to Play the Bond Market Now” and “How the Big Picture Affects Stock Picks”. I fully appreciate that veteran mutual fund participants most likely understand all the elements presented in the referenced summary articles, but these “how to” reviews serve as confirmatory reinforcements for the veterans, and also provide new insights for neophyte fund investors.
The article that prompted my recall of the Mel Brooks’ line was “The One Percent in the Funds World: A Small Elite Pockets Most New Cash” by Karen Damato.
Basically, Damato documents “the rich get richer” theme. That part of the article doesn’t surprise anyone. One somewhat surprising factoid is the emergence of Michael Cuggino’s Permanent Portfolio as a money collector in the past decade. That fund and its conservative wealth protection strategy didn’t attract any meaningful attention for over two prior decades before it began to soar in popularity.
That fund concept was formulated by Harry Browne years ago and remained a minor league player in the pantheon of the mutual fund universe. Browne explains the fundamental ideas behind the concept in his book titled “Fail-Safe Investing: Lifelong Financial Security in 30 Minutes”. The book is available in paperback and is an easy read. Too bad Harry Browne passed away a few years ago. I miss his easy, informative, and honest presentation style.
You might want to visit a website maintained to honor Browne and his many accomplishments. Here is the Link to that site:
http://www.harrybrowne.org/ The Permanent Portfolio only gained momentum under Cuggino’s stewardship. The question is: Has the fund prospered because of Cuggino’s market acumen or is it more correlated to the current global investment climate? I suspect the latter. What do you think?
A second somewhat expected finding is that Vanguard’s market share has increased over the last several years. Costs have always mattered. Costs matter greatly when the informed investing population is faced with global uncertainty and with projected near-term returns that are muted when compared to historical norms.
Please visit this month’s WSJ fund analysis section. I’m sure you can learn something from the array of articles in the current edition.
Best Regards.
Comments
Is there that much stewardship, given the fund's structure and strategy? I don't imagine there's THAT much of a decision-making process, and yet Cuggino is on CNBC all the time. (and he was just after I wrote this, oddly enough.)
I find the actively managed risk parity strategy - which has already caused much debate, although there are a few on this board who I don't believe like any alternative strategy - more compelling than Permanent Portfolio at this time.
There's been debates - I think - about Cuggino in the past. Something about his primary focus being some other investment vehicle, I think? Can't remember.