Howdy,
A thank you to all who post the links, start and participate in the many fine commentaries woven into the message threads.
For those who don't know; I ramble away about this and that, at least once each week.
The perspectives and investments are based, not upon a formal economic studies background; but from the "School of Hard Knocks & Studies", in which, we are still enrolled. NOTE: This portfolio is designed for retirement, capital preservation and to stay ahead of inflation creep. This is not a buy and hold portfolio, and is subject to change on any given day; based upon perceptions of market directions. All assets in this portfolio are in tax-sheltered accounts; and any fund distributions are reinvested in the funds. Gains or losses are computed from actual account values.
While looking around....."WHAT-ever!" If this house had a $100 bill for every time we have had this phrase over this past few years; especially from the "tweens and teens". But, as to real situations with investing; "whatever" does apply relative to one's basket of investments, still relative to the risk/reward, needs and wants of the investor.
Your investment dollars enter at point A, bottom center, out of view; choose your tracks; and exit at point B, top center, for travel into the land of happy returns.
Now that you have finished that task, don't forget to continue to do this; in case your travel package wasn't totally what you expected; and you may then be prepared to choose other tracks.
Now, that was easy, eh?; ya, right!
The Millionaire Next Door, 1996 A book we always give as an extra wedding present. Investment book lists have been placed, here at MFO, previously; but if one can not properly control their spending and budget habits, there may be little money to invest and not much need for investment books. Some of the data and numbers used in the book will be out of date; but not the main thrust, "spending and debt habits, may eat one alive". Ages old bad habits, continuing to cause problems for many today.
As to sector rotations below (Fidelity funds); for the past week: (Note: any given fund in any of these sectors will have varying degrees of performance based upon where the manager(s) choose to be invested and will not directly reflect upon your particular fund holdings from other vendors.) Sidenote: The average weekly return of 200 combined Fidelity retail funds across all sectors (week avg = +.41%, YTD +2.2%).
--- U.S. equity - .4% through + 1.0%, week avg. = + .4% YTD = + 3.4%
--- Int'l equity - 1.7% through + 1.9%, week avg. = + .5% YTD = + 1.9%
--- Select eq. sectors - .6% through + 2.8%, week avg. = + .6% YTD = + 3.7%
--- U.S./Int'l bonds - .3% through + 1.0%, week avg. = +24 .67% YTD = - .22%
--- HY bonds - .8% through + .8%, week avg. = + .20% YTD = + .66%
A Decent Overview, M* 1 Month through 5 Year, Multiple Indexes
You may consider our portfolio to be quite boring, but you may be assured that it moves and bends each and every day; from forces beyond our control.
I have added a few blips related to our portfolio and market observations at the below SELLs/BUYs and Portfolio Thoughts.
SELLs/BUYs THIS PAST WEEK: = NONE
Portfolio Thoughts: Our holdings had a + .53 % move this past week. EM bonds continue to be weak from early Dec., 2012, averaging -2% since then. The past week found some recovery in the IG bond area; TIPs, gov't. and corporate issues; although most of these areas remain negative for the year. High yield bonds continue to find strength; as well as multisector and specialty (steroid) bond funds. As to our equity entrance watch; well, new 5 year and 52 week highs are everywhere. Watch is what we will do for now; at least for pure equity funds adventures. We'll either miss a continued equity run for months to come; or find a better entry point within the next 2 month period. We can't imagine some of the big players not taking some profits, if; equities hit a 10% return point in the next several weeks. The algo machines will be counting, watching and waiting for the signal.
We'll continue to watch; and do have plans, at this time, to add some equity this year, 2013. Our current short list, not in any order, of equity fund watches include: PAUDX, PAAIX, MAPIX, MACSX, SFGIX, GPGIX, FMIJX, FTIEX, FBALX, FTEMX, FEDDX, FIREX, FJPNX, FSVLX, FSDIX, FPURX, FLPSX, FGHNX, PMZDX as well as some other Pimco funds, as PSTDX, etc.
Still plodding along, and we will retain the below write from previous weeks; as what we are watching, still applies.
--- commodity pricing, especially the energy and base materials areas; copper and related.
--- the $US broad basket value, and in particular against the Euro and Aussie dollar (EU zone and China/Asia uncertainties).
--- price directions of U.S. treasury's, German bunds, U.K. gilts, Japanese bonds; and continued monitoring of Spanish/Italian bond pricing/yield.
--- what we are watching to help understand the money flows: SHY, IEF, TLT, TIPZ, STPZ, LTPZ, LQD, EMB, HYG, IWM, IYT & VWO; all of which offer insights reflected from the big traders as to the quality/risk, or lack of quality/risk; in various equity/bond sectors.
The Funds Boat is at anchor, riding in the small waves, watching the weather and behind the breakwater barrier. To the high praise of MFO and the members, it is very difficult to find a topic to note here that has not been placed into the discussion boards. Excellence, as usual.
I have retained the following links for those who may choose to do their own holdings comparison against the fund types noted.
The first two links to Bloomberg are for their list of balanced/flexible funds; although I don't always agree with the placement of fund styles in their categories.
Bloomberg Balanced
Bloomberg Flexible
These next two links are for conservative and moderate fund leaders YTD, per MSN.
Conservative Allocation
Moderate Allocation
A reflection upon the links above. We attempt to establish a "benchmark" for our portfolio to help us "see" how our funds are performing. Aside from viewing many funds within the balanced/flexible funds rankings (the above links), a quick and dirty group of 5 funds (below) we watch for psuedo benchmarking are the following:
***Note: these week/YTD's per M*
VWINX .... + .21% week, YTD = + 1.08%
PRPFX .... - .33% week, YTD = + .86%
SIRRX ..... + .08% week, YTD = + .38%
TRRFX .... + .33% week, YTD = + 1.32%
VTENX ... + .08% week, YTD = + 1.24%
Such are the numerous battles with investments attempting to capture a decent return and minimize the risk.
We live and invest in interesting times, eh? Hey, I probably forgot something; and hopefully the words make some sense. Comments and questions always welcomed.
Good fortune to you, yours and the investments.
Take care,
Catch
---Below is what M* x-ray has attempted to sort for our portfolio, as of Nov. 1, 2012 ---
From what I find, M* has a difficult time sorting out the holdings with bond funds.
U.S./Foreign Stocks 2.9%
Bonds 92.9% ***
Other 4.2%
Not Classified 0.00%
Avg yield = 3.99%
Avg expense = .57%
***about 18% of the bond total are high yield category (equity related cousins)
---This % listing is kinda generic, by fund "name"; which doesn't always imply the holdings, eh?
-Investment grade bond funds 27.2%
-Diversified bond funds 22.4%
-HY/HI bond funds 14.5%
-Total bond funds 32.4%
-Foreign EM/debt bond funds .6%
-U.S./Int'l equity/speciality funds 2.9%
This is our current list: (NOTE: I have added a speciality grouping below for a few of fund types)
---High Yield/High Income Bond funds
FAGIX Fid Capital & Income
SPHIX Fid High Income
FHIIX.LW Fed High Income
DIHYX TransAmerica HY
---Total Bond funds
FTBFX Fid Total
PTTRX Pimco Total
---Investment Grade Bonds
ACITX Amer. Cent. TIPS Bond
DGCIX Delaware Corp. Bd
FBNDX Fid Invest Grade
FINPX Fidelity TIPS Bond
OPBYX Oppenheimer Core Bond
---Global/Diversified Bonds
FSICX Fid Strategic Income
FNMIX Fid New Markets
DPFFX Delaware Diversified
LSBDX Loomis Sayles
PONDX Pimco Income fund (steroid version)
PLDDX Pimco Low Duration (domestic/foreign)
---Speciality Funds (sectors or mixed allocation)
FRIFX Fidelity Real Estate Income (bond/equity mix)
---Equity-Domestic/Foreign
FSHOX Fidelity Select Construction & Housing
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