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A quick check of my MF's in 3 accounts shows very little in health care stocks. Only 3 of the 15 funds have over 10% allocated to health care. How many of you have a dedicated Health fund and what are your thoughts on if it is really needed in a portfolio. I would be open to purchase of a HC fund but it would be tough to decide what to sell.
Ted, I did and is that what prompted my post. You sold your HC fund. Why? You must have thought it wasn't needed. My portfolio tends to be small over large and value over growth. Probably the reason so little HC in my funds.
Hi Art - Perhaps the reason that your funds don't hold much HC equities is because this sector is a populist political football used by both sides of the aisle. Hillary attacked pharma pricing while Trump has also made some rumbles about controlling pharma pricing, repealing ACA and wanting all USA sold drugs to be made in the USA. The resulting uncertainty has caused HC in general to now be in the value camp (I reckon) with MM's waiting for clarity about the future of Trump's health care policies.
Seems to me that this sector is a good long term holding, judging by the long term results of various HC funds. Anything is possible short term though.
@Art: I made a mistake, and violated my own rule in selling PRHSX, I will take a new position in the near future. I have always believed one should own a health care fund for long-term enhanced returns Regards, Ted
My 2 cents; I think if you play in and out of any sector, even HC, it is not worth guessing whether to or when to increase or decrease the overall percentage in your portfolio. Heck, that is what your fund manager is doing. Why second guess and counter his actions? Buying and holding a HC fund may be a different story since past results show HC funds have returned significantly more than say the S&P 500 over long periods of time. Of course, if you buy and hold a fund, that is your guess that sector will continue it's higher return over long periods versus the S&P 500. Now what percentage do you hold to make a meaningful contribution to the overall return? If you hold a HC fund at say 1% of your total portfolio and it's history suggests a 6% higher return, you have increased your overall return a whopping 0.06%. In a $100,000 portfolio you added $60 to the cause. Make the sector bet 10% and now maybe you are adding value to your overall return, though at increased volatility.
So @Art, to answer your question, I don't think a HC fund (or any sector fund) is needed and I think trying to time when to increase or decrease any sector could be a negative for returns. You certainly can make a case for buy and holding HC though. But significant increase to overall portfolio returns may end up being insignificant at best, depending on your percentage bet.
Which, to go off-tangent a little bit, is why the fund DSENX is so appealing to me. I like the funds method of investing in sectors with the most value at any specific time. Value investing just seems like a tried-and-true investment method to me. But I know I am not disciplined or knowledgeable enough to do it myself. Right now DSENX has about 11% in HC. Sounds good to me.
Equity Funds w/ HC POAGX - 29% HC VHCOX - 29% HC BCSIX - 27% HC (also 61% is in Tech)...both in the SC space. PRNHX - 17% HC SFGIX - 11% HC (5x higher than its category)
Allocation Funds w/ HC PRWCX (68% Equity) - 22% in HC VWINX (38% Equity) - 13% in HC BRUFX (45% Equity) - 19% in HC
Equity Index Funds w/ HC VFINX (S&P 500 index) - 13% HC NASDX (Nasdqx 100 Index) - 11% HC
@DavidV, I am mistaken. I looked quickly at M* and gave the benchmark value. My mistake. You are right. I have tried but I have never been able to find the exact sector make-up of the fund at a given time.
@PRESSmUP@catch22 - The M* sector table has blanks (well, dashes actually) in the fund's column. The other columns (category and benchmark) do have values.
(aside from noise, 1/4 in each of Consumer Staples, Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, and Technology, as of end of January)
Barclays (CAPE ETN) is not as forthcoming. It lists only Consumer Staples, Industrials, and Technology (as comprising 75% of the fund). It forgets to list a fourth sector.
It is curious that one of the supposed advantages of index funds is transparency, yet people are having difficulty finding out what sectors, let alone what securities, the fund holds.
Some of that is likely due to the fact that Doubleline gets equity exposure with derivatives, some of that is due to the index being proprietary, some of that is due to CAPE being an ETN that doesn't even hold anything (it's just a note that promises to pay according to the index performance).
@msf Oh, crap-ola. Thanks, msf. Twas in a rush to leave the house for a bit. Indeed, only the benchmark reference. And I should have known better looking for holding data several months ago for this fund, as I recall, not much info at the home page for this fund. Guess they want to protect the "magic sauce" recipe.
@msf, thank you very much for finding the data that you did. I don't know why my eyes didn't readily see this when I looked at their web site. I guess the next question would be, how often do they check the sector status and in turn how often do they update their portfolio. Maybe I just need to periodically check this fact sheet and keep tract of any changes myself. Thanks again for being the research expert you are.
Comments
Regards,
Ted
Seems to me that this sector is a good long term holding, judging by the long term results of various HC funds. Anything is possible short term though.
Regards,
Ted
I just posted this into PopTart's thread. It may provide a few more trinkets for thought.
http://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/comment/86459/#Comment_86459
Take care,
Catch
So @Art, to answer your question, I don't think a HC fund (or any sector fund) is needed and I think trying to time when to increase or decrease any sector could be a negative for returns. You certainly can make a case for buy and holding HC though. But significant increase to overall portfolio returns may end up being insignificant at best, depending on your percentage bet.
Which, to go off-tangent a little bit, is why the fund DSENX is so appealing to me. I like the funds method of investing in sectors with the most value at any specific time. Value investing just seems like a tried-and-true investment method to me. But I know I am not disciplined or knowledgeable enough to do it myself. Right now DSENX has about 11% in HC. Sounds good to me.
POAGX - 29% HC
VHCOX - 29% HC
BCSIX - 27% HC (also 61% is in Tech)...both in the SC space.
PRNHX - 17% HC
SFGIX - 11% HC (5x higher than its category)
Allocation Funds w/ HC
PRWCX (68% Equity) - 22% in HC
VWINX (38% Equity) - 13% in HC
BRUFX (45% Equity) - 19% in HC
Equity Index Funds w/ HC
VFINX (S&P 500 index) - 13% HC
NASDX (Nasdqx 100 Index) - 11% HC
Thank you for the summary of healthcare in various fund mixes.
Regards,
Catch
http://portfolios.morningstar.com/fund/summary?t=DSENX®ion=usa&culture=en_US
It always pays to go back to the source:
http://www.doublelinefunds.com/shiller-enhanced-cape/statistics/ or
http://www.doublelinefunds.com/wp-content/uploads/shiller-enhanced-cape-fact-sheet.pdf
(aside from noise, 1/4 in each of Consumer Staples, Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, and Technology, as of end of January)
Barclays (CAPE ETN) is not as forthcoming. It lists only Consumer Staples, Industrials, and Technology (as comprising 75% of the fund). It forgets to list a fourth sector.
http://www.etnplus.com/US/7/en/details.app?instrumentId=174066
(click on Index Sector Weightings Tab)
It is curious that one of the supposed advantages of index funds is transparency, yet people are having difficulty finding out what sectors, let alone what securities, the fund holds.
Some of that is likely due to the fact that Doubleline gets equity exposure with derivatives, some of that is due to the index being proprietary, some of that is due to CAPE being an ETN that doesn't even hold anything (it's just a note that promises to pay according to the index performance).
Oh, crap-ola.
Thanks, msf. Twas in a rush to leave the house for a bit.
Indeed, only the benchmark reference.
And I should have known better looking for holding data several months ago for this fund, as I recall, not much info at the home page for this fund.
Guess they want to protect the "magic sauce" recipe.