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What caused the rating drop of VLAAX for one year ?
For Value Line Asset Allocation Fund, Inc.: Ranked by Morningstar in the 92 nd percentile for one-year (666 funds), 11 th percentile for three-year (641 funds), 12 th percentile for five-year (574 funds) and 7 th percentile for 10-year (412 funds) periods ended March 31, 2021. Four-star rating for 3-year (641 funds) and 5-year (574 funds) periods en
You will have to read between the lines ,sorry. Stay Kool, Derf
I would recommend reading each quarterly fund commentary from their website going back 1-1.5 years. I remember one of those commentary briefly discusses reducing their risk.
When a fund's performance suddenly takes a nosedive or soars into the stratosphere, there are a few things I check before even delving into the fund's details: - Is the performance naturally volatile, bouncing from top quintile to bottom? Not here. - Has the fund recently switched categories? Not here. - Does the fund typically invest in a portion of the market that has done well long term, but has recently seen its fortunes change?
Yes. Of the 50%-70% equity allocation funds, fourteen distinct funds, including VLAAX focus on large cap growth funds. Of these fourteen funds, aside from the notable exception of Puritan (FPURX, FPKFX), these funds have pretty much all done miserably YTD, generally in the bottom quintile, despite over half being 4-5* funds.
Puritan sits on the blend/growth border so would tend to be less severely hurt by the rotation from growth to value.
How did the Fund’s overall asset allocation shift from beginning to end of the semi-annual period? At the end of September 2020, the Fund had a weighting of approximately 56% in stocks, 36% in fixed income securities and 8% in cash equivalents. This compared to the allocation at the end of March 2020 of approximately 62% in stocks, 31% in fixed income securities and 7% in cash equivalents. After the U.S. equity market rebounded sharply from its first quarter 2020 lows, we positioned the Fund more defensively by increasing its allocation to fixed income in recognition of the heightened uncertainties faced by the market. Thanks Derf
Comments
- Is the performance naturally volatile, bouncing from top quintile to bottom? Not here.
- Has the fund recently switched categories? Not here.
- Does the fund typically invest in a portion of the market that has done well long term, but has recently seen its fortunes change?
Yes. Of the 50%-70% equity allocation funds, fourteen distinct funds, including VLAAX focus on large cap growth funds. Of these fourteen funds, aside from the notable exception of Puritan (FPURX, FPKFX), these funds have pretty much all done miserably YTD, generally in the bottom quintile, despite over half being 4-5* funds.
Puritan sits on the blend/growth border so would tend to be less severely hurt by the rotation from growth to value.
How did the Fund’s overall asset allocation shift from beginning to end of the semi-annual period?
At the end of September 2020, the Fund had a weighting of approximately 56% in stocks, 36% in fixed income securities and
8% in cash equivalents. This compared to the allocation at the end of March 2020 of approximately 62% in stocks, 31% in fixed
income securities and 7% in cash equivalents. After the U.S. equity market rebounded sharply from its first quarter 2020 lows,
we positioned the Fund more defensively by increasing its allocation to fixed income in recognition of the heightened
uncertainties faced by the market.
Thanks Derf
As of 3/31/21 LC held by VLAAX 46.2 % VS category average of 26.8 .
Thanks, Derf
https://vlfunds.com/documents/VLAAX_QA-4Q2020.pdf