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The January edition of the Mutual Fund Observer has been posted
In my publisher’s letter, an update on the most popular article in MFO’s history, unfashionable reasons to be cheered by the human condition and hopeful for its prospects, and thanks.
A celebration of the Honor Roll funds with the least downside risk over the decade just past. The Honor Roll is comprised of funds which have bested 80% or more of their peers in the past year, three years and first years. As a mirror image of December’s list of funds ripe for pruning (Three Alarm funds with high volatility), we find one valuable lesson and six remarkable funds.
A celebration of Ted.
The greatest concern expressed about our December story on high risk – low return funds was that the funds were too small to affect most investors so this month we offer the list of the largest Three Alarm funds - $200 billion worth of them - along with their 10 year records.
Charles shares his work at the Litman-Gregory Investment Forum to update our coverage of three distinguished, California-based funds: AlphaCentric Income Opportunities (IOFIX, a remarkable, unconventional fixed income fund), Zeo Short Duration Income (ZEOIX, whose assignment to Morningstar’s “high yield” group remains profoundly misleading about the fund and its success) and Litman Gregory Masters Alternative Strategies Fund (MASFX, consistently one of the best multi-alternative funds in existence).
Lynn Bolin offers the first of a multi-part series which covers both rules-based investing (that is, the use of systems to eliminate emotion and impulse) and the rules for being a successful investor. He posits six rules and, this month, starts with Rule No. 1: Get a plan.
A Launch Alert for between one and five new funds in a collaboration between Harbor Funds and Robeco. The “conservative equities” series will provide low-volatility-plus portfolios, based on strategies already available to European investors. The Launch Alert is nominally centered on Harbor Robeco U.S. Conservative Equities but actually offers a first glimpse at the whole series of new funds.
A Launch Alert for Frontier Caravan Emerging Markets Fund (FCESX / FCEMX), which marks the return of Cliff Quisenberry, who led Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Emerging Markets Fund (EITEX) before leaving the realm of public funds for a while. N.B. go read the bio at Mr. Quisenberry's LinkedIn profile. Apparently the performance discussion there shares info that perhaps shouldn't be public. I expect it will be gone tomorrow.
An Elevator Talk with Michael Carne, whose Westwood Flexible Income Fund (WFLEX) is the latest manifestation of a decade old, quite successful multi-asset income strategy that moves across the capital structure of high quality corporations in pursuit of the best and safest stream of income.
Charles also updates folks on new features at MFO Premium – including data across ten decades - and announces a free and open webinar on January 15 for folks interested in (a) the system or (b) maximizing the usefulness of the system to their decision-making.
