Funds food chain & what the sharks ate first.....and this phase

catch22

Howdy,

Unfortunately, I was away from the pc from noon until now, 5pm; and could not unload any funds.
I will review tonight and anticipate selling more of our holdings tomorrow if there is not some magical financial event overnight or tomorrow.
---The fund eating sharks and the pathway to date:

Begining the first week of March found weakness in the commodity sector. We sold most of our FSAGX and all of our FFGCX holding on March 6. Other equity and bond areas kinda cruised along for about one month; which found the signs of weakness again in Europe.

Next in line during April found weakness in the EM equity sectors, which continues today. In late April and early May found weakness in EM bonds. We sold 1/2 of TEGBX and the majority of FNMIX a few days ago. The EM bond sectors have more downside today.

Obviously, during this past 4-6 weeks has found problems with many global equity sectors, and so far this week has found about a 50% larger downside in Europe versus the U.S. No to be outdone, Asia had a fun time yesterday and may have another find time coming; while most of us here are asleep.

Adding to the pile today; although not having been problematic over the past few weeks finds HYG and JNK taking the hammer today, with both just slightly better than a -1%.

A consistant and somewhat of a pattern has been taking place and continues to chew through the risk off mode and is now pushing upon the credit quality of bonds. This is not surprising in light of changes that began in early April.

Will another QE program here, or opening very big money doors in Europe cause an early summer equity rally? I sure don't know, but if such an event took place; I would suspect it would only be a game played among the big trading houses.

The only U.S. equity sectors at this point in the late afternoon that were kinda happy: utilities (flat), health care (slightly up) and consumer staples (slightly up). If the market sells down through the summer, I am not sure these areas of equity would offer any comfort.

Tomorrow, if nothing changes; will find a major shuffle of our portfolio. Surprise, surprise......the monies will likely travel to bonds of the non-HY/HI type. Wishing I was home today, to have begun the move.

Perhaps we may escape the week with less than a 1% down.

Wishing all well with the investments.

Regards,
Catch

scott

I did a little bit of buying today, including starting a position in Pimco's new Long-short fund and light additions to a couple of EM names.

MaxBialystock

Is there "blood in the streets" yet, except in Athens? This is mostly a spending year for us, rather than taking that $$$ and investing it. Our timing never seems opportune, although I did alright that way with my purchase of MAINX, just after the latest dividend was paid out. Fool's errand to try to "time" Mr. Market, anyhow. I loathe my PFE Pfizer holding, but it saved me today from a bigger daily "loss.".....PFE was up today by 1.52%. My own collected stuff was down by -0.52% Since this latest swoon began, I'm down by approx. 3.4%. I love the end of the month dividend(s). They are "saving my bacon," and when things start to RISE again, my bottom line will look that much better. Am I nuts not to sell? I actually think not. Maybe I'm either brave or foolish. Or whacked in the head.

scott

Out of curiosity, why don't you like PFE? Good dividend, relatively consistent and (in a good way) boring. I don't hold any individual health care names because so much is dependent on the approval or disapproval of this and that, and I admittedly don't have a deep understanding of the industry. However, larger names like PFE that offer a dividend seem relatively safe over the longer term.

As for the market, futures just went negative again, apparently largely due to reports of massive withdrawals from a major Spanish bank. Futures now looking a tad ugly at around 7am.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0517/spains-bankia-plunges-on-report-of-massive-withdr.html

Investor

Reply to @scott: He inherited that stock. It seems that he can't get himself to sell and buy a mutual fund that provides a broker diversified exposure.

Max likes to concentrate on a few stuff. I hope he does not get burned for that.