FMIJX: magical numbers from Morningstar?

Ben

According to Morningstar's total return chart for FMIJX, as of 12/31/2019 the fund's 2019 total return was minus 9.46 and the Year to Date return was 17.07. How is this possible? Yesterday was December 31st. Today is Jan 1st, a holiday. How could a fund’s return rise by 26.53% literally overnight? Either there has been an error in the numbers or I am missing something. I have sent a message to Morningstar asking the same question.

msf

Either the columns were briefly mislabeled or you misread them. They currently show a 2018 return of minus 9.46% and a YTD (as of 12/31/2019) of 17.07%.

As of 12/31/19, the year was 2019, so the YTD return was the return for 2019.

According to the FMIJX prospectus, the 2018 return was minus 9.46%.
According to FMI's Current Performance page, the 2019 return was 17.07%.

catch22

Agree with msf.
From my looking about at M*, most mutual funds retain 2019 and prior year numbers properly as of Jan. 1. ETF's returns have already rotated numbers (apparently at midnight) and show 0% for YTD (being 2020 reference).

TheShadow

Agree with both msf and catch22,

2018 (9.46%) YTD
2019 17.07% YTD*

* (YTD Fund as of Dec 31, 2019)
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Ben

Thanks all. As sometimes happens I was "missing something". Happy New Year.

dpfaber

This may be related: I noticed that the "2018 Return" column on one of my M* custom views auto-magically rolled over to "2019 Return" this morning, Jan 1. (I use 2018 returns for a quick comparison of how funds fared during a recent down year.)

Ben

"Auto-magically". I like that.

Gary1952

I don't think they have updated the database for bonds. My Portfolio Manager still shows 2019 TRs for my bond funds.