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You missed our discussion last evening. It was the August effect. Be interesting to see today’s action considering how non agency RMBS PCI is getting hit today. PCI was the early tell last October before IOFIX had its worst daily hit ever. Albeit the backdrop then is the total opposite of now - rising rates vs falling rates.
Edit. My knowledge of CEFs such as PCI is about nil. I assume it’s recent decline is simply a squeezing out of its premium?
Yes, I did miss the discussion. Will look up. Before I posted, I searched for IOFIX and saw nothing new ... me just getting old. And yes again, let's hope history does repeat in this case! Good to see your name again Junkster. Hope all is well. c
Junkster: Re PCI, I believe the drop has to do with the news from Argentina. The PCI portfolio included Argentine debt. I'd be surprised if the action in PCI the past few days is a 'tell' about action in IOFIX.
You missed our discussion last evening. It was the August effect. Be interesting to see today’s action considering how non agency RMBS PCI is getting hit today. PCI was the early tell last October before IOFIX had its worst daily hit ever. Albeit the backdrop then is the total opposite of now - rising rates vs falling rates.
Edit. My knowledge of CEFs such as PCI is about nil. I assume it’s recent decline is simply a squeezing out of its premium?
@Charles and @Junkster . thanks very much for posting on IOFIX. I always value your thoughts on this fund. I saw big move up and wondered why when the overall bond market sold off a bit on Tuesday. Just curious if you would be adding to this fund or establishing a new position with the moves we're seeing in bonds. any thoughts are appreciated.
@Charles has held this through thick and thin and that is the best way to play IOFIX - buy and hold. Anyone who hasn’t established a position it’s best to buy after a down day. Down days often occur a couple days before the second to last trading day of the month. Then again, if one hasn’t already had a position why now after its stellar returns since inception. I have been as high as 100% of my liquid net worth at various times the past couple years. As I detailed made the mistake of going from 89% to 55% recently and after today’s close back up to 67%. Will add more when I see a weak day or two. IOFIX seems correlated to absolutely nothing and why I call it the mystery fund. YTD everyone seems to be a bond genius and set for double digit annual returns in all sorts of bond categories so be wary of becoming a Johnny Come Lately.
@junkster thanks for feedback. yes that's why I ask the question. With the incredible run in bonds YTD it feels like I'm late to the party in buying IOFIX which is what I think you are also saying too. I am a buy and hold guy... so this would be a long term hold but perhaps I should continue to wait for the bond market to sell off some.
Thanks MikeW and Junkster. Steady as she goes. I do think very highly of Tom Miner, the fund's principal. He's supported well by rest of staff at Garrison Point. I see the AUM has grown to $3B. (So much for closing soon.) I hope to visit them again in November and update the profile. I will be attending Litman Gregory's update on Alt Master's fund at that time. Will reach out to folks at Zeo as well. All three SF based. My bad has been a long delayed profile on Alambic ... an interesting small family of funds. Just been consumed with the Premium site, which I must say has never been better, especially now that we've transitioned to a new user portal and the WordPress framework ... and, I've become less of a hack in php, javascript, jQuery, ajax, json, html, etc. Just added some additional data to MultiSearch results table recommended by Sam Lee. Working now on risk and return at the rolled-up portfolio level ... that too long delayed. Also hope to create a "tight channel" screening criteria inspired by Junkster. At some point, will get back to profiling. (I can hear David sighing now.) Actually, I've struggled a bit with the role of reporting on funds (or strategies). Some strategies just require a long time to be validated, including the stock market itself. So, while we report on "good" funds and show 1, 3, 5 year performance ... that may simply not be enough time to judge, which I know is counter to Fund Alarm. (Oops, I can see David shaking his head!) Some rambling from Orcas this good August morning. c
@MikeW. I've been pretty much all-in with IOFIX, so nothing more to add really. (Hmmm ... unless I use margin.) As such, I watch it pretty closely ... and the folks at Garrison politely answer my inquires when the fund dips (eg., "Charles, the 5 penny move yesterday was just the dividend ... !"). My only other fund is ZEOIX, another steady-eddy. Gone are my days in funds like FAAFX, which I once called my "Great Pumpkin" fund. It's actually been having a decent year.
@Charles sounds like you're working on some cool new tools for MFO Premium. Being able to evaluate risk and return at the portfolio level would be incredibly valuable. Can't wait to see that. What is "tight channel" screening? Thanks very much for sharing where you are on IOFIX and ZEOIX. I enjoyed reading your analysis on IOFIX from last year.
Thanks MikeW. It's a Junkster term. The idea would be to screen for funds over say the past 3, 6, 10, or 12 months that have: 1) no drawdown, 2) low volatility, 3) high dividend, and 4) positive excess return. Something like that. IOFIX behaves that way. So does PIMIX. Most of the time. c
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Edit. My knowledge of CEFs such as PCI is about nil. I assume it’s recent decline is simply a squeezing out of its premium?
Re PCI, I believe the drop has to do with the news from Argentina. The PCI portfolio included Argentine debt. I'd be surprised if the action in PCI the past few days is a 'tell' about action in IOFIX.