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also noticed holding called 'filtration'. could this be a holding in private european 'filtration group'? looks like an appealing subsector, and also unusual as a non-american holding.
The loan market has grown substantially over the past 20 years to $1.6 trillion in size, now exceeding the high yield bond market in total par outstanding. Concurrent with the growth of the market has been a gradual shift lower in credit quality, when measured using rating agencies as a proxy. Since 2005, the median issuer net leverage in the loan market has increased more than in the high yield bond market. As a result, while the high yield market has “high-graded” in recent years, the average quality in the loan market has shifted from previously a BB oriented market to a segment that is more single-B focused.
A little while back I posted a commentary from OSTIX noting the same phenomena. At the time they weren't feeling the need to get into bank loans.
Since bank loans are still around 27% of the income sleeve at PRWCX, I hope they are as judicious as the folks at Artisan Partners claim to be.
thx for link. yes, i feel giroux's team has earned trust not only on dynamic allocation, but on selection within an asset class. (latter being artisan's point)
wish fees were a bit lower, but i need to pay for talent in largecap GARP, as i could never select\hold myself. am trying to get some experience playing with such in downcap owner/operator space, where there is no overlap here and w/primecap. its fun, but queasy-going for core value investor aware of base rates on growth forecasts.
Every now and then I get the urge to downsize my PRWCX position for one reason or other but have yet to pull the trigger. However I may finally start that in Dec as I keep repositioning that portfolio to have more international and income tiltings.
A little voice in my head (which can be wrong) keeps thinking that Giroux will retire from the fund sometime soon. I mean he's been on it for nearly 20 years now....
Why would anyone invest with TROW nowadays? This company is not what it used to be in prior decades. Their lineup of funds have lagged. And, PRWCX will not be what it has been in the past. It is hard for the firm to attract top talent. Just buy a super low fee S&P500 index and some BRK.B. Keep your costs low.
Look at the last five years performance for PRWCX. It has underperformed both VWELX and VBINX. High fees and TROW’s inability to attract and retain talent in their research analysts division has led to underperforming funds. This trend will continue worsening.
Portfolio Visualizer gives similar results when looking at returns from Sept 2020 - Aug 2025.
That’s interesting. Appreciate your comment. I used Chart Fund on M*; Growth including Dividends; 5 year period. For some reason it provided me with different results and I’m not sure why. Definitely wasn’t knowingly providing false information.
Just watching PRWCX from a distance, Giroux seems to be in defensive mode. Expecting better buying opportunities ahead. +10.20% over the past year ain’t nothing to sneeze at. Not leading the pack either. His 3-5 year time horizon is probably a lot shorter than for many funds. I appreciate that @msf is so proficient at catching / correcting errors. Tremendous asset to MFO. He’ll probably correct something I said here.
My generic “ … not leading the pack” isn’t substantiated. Not sure what I’d compare PRWCX to. I’m running slightly ahead of PRWCX’s 10.28% YTD, which highly unusual. I generally lag. And in The Observer’s September issue @David_Snowball reports: ”My Indolent Portfolio, at just 50% stocks, has returned a lovely 11.25% so far this year, which strikes me as entirely excellent for a low-drama, low ulcer strategy.”
Re “From a distance” - I track PRWCX daily. Recently it fell more in a day than any of the 12-15 other assorted funds I track. I guessed then that he had some rate sensitive bonds, because rates had spiked that day. Knowing the history and philosophy of PRWCX I doubt the fund has much, if anything, in gold and the p/c miners. That would lower its performance compared to the crowd. But I might be wrong.
Portfolio Visualizer gives similar results when looking at returns from Sept 2020 - Aug 2025.
That’s interesting. Appreciate your comment. I used Chart Fund on M*; Growth including Dividends; 5 year period. For some reason it provided me with different results and I’m not sure why. Definitely wasn’t knowingly providing false information.
Looks like you did something wrong. As has been noted, M*$10k growth chart shows PRWCX +74% and the other two almost 10 and 20 points behind. (Assuming I am doing it right.)
Thank you @bee for the link to David’s “Investing Without An Ulcer” piece. (Your 2nd link) Nice.
Omeprazole is a common ulcer medication. Not on that. But am currently using 2% injections of SPDN, DOG, TAIL and SJB. (Hurts just a little.) Hold them until the market nonsense abates - probably a long while. Maybe not in our lifetimes.
“It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.” ― Mark Twain
Here’s what I know for sure….I would never pay a fee to have someone else manage my money. So all actively managed funds would be out for me. Since before PRWCX inception, we’ve owned Berkshire Hathaway stock and a S&P500 index fund. Have continued buying more of those securities for over four decades. That’s worked out pretty well. No fees to any fund manager. David Giroux has never owned Berkshire Hathaway because he thinks the stock is overpriced.
Comments
I haven't read your link yet, but I will. I always like to read about why it's different this time.
Since bank loans are still around 27% of the income sleeve at PRWCX, I hope they are as judicious as the folks at Artisan Partners claim to be.
thx for link.
yes, i feel giroux's team has earned trust not only on dynamic allocation, but on selection within an asset class. (latter being artisan's point)
wish fees were a bit lower, but i need to pay for talent in largecap GARP, as i could never select\hold myself.
am trying to get some experience playing with such in downcap owner/operator space, where there is no overlap here and w/primecap.
its fun, but queasy-going for core value investor aware of base rates on growth forecasts.
prwcx ~10% bank loans
prcfx unlisted !
A little voice in my head (which can be wrong) keeps thinking that Giroux will retire from the fund sometime soon. I mean he's been on it for nearly 20 years now....
???
PRWCX 5 year performance (through 9/26/25): 11.65% (annualized)
VWELX 5 year performance (through 9/26/25): 10.52%
VBINX 5 year performance (through 9/26/25): 9.25%
Portfolio Visualizer gives similar results when looking at returns from Sept 2020 - Aug 2025.
where do you think AI learned expounding nonsense with supreme false confidence?
from us organics!
I appreciate that and wasn't suggesting otherwise. Just that the numbers looked weird. Thanks for the response.
― Mark Twain
Is that a challenge?
I suppose sometimes I nitpick, but I usually just respond to things that, as I wrote, seem "weird".
Re “From a distance” - I track PRWCX daily. Recently it fell more in a day than any of the 12-15 other assorted funds I track. I guessed then that he had some rate sensitive bonds, because rates had spiked that day. Knowing the history and philosophy of PRWCX I doubt the fund has much, if anything, in gold and the p/c miners. That would lower its performance compared to the crowd. But I might be wrong.
Link to image:
https://app.screencast.com/OaRqGlzwseQcb?conversation=qNo8KtYT1R4jNcS9JH9QhR
Found the link:
https://mutualfundobserver.com/2023/05/investing-without-an-ulcer/
Omeprazole is a common ulcer medication. Not on that. But am currently using 2% injections of SPDN, DOG, TAIL and SJB. (Hurts just a little.) Hold them until the market nonsense abates - probably a long while. Maybe not in our lifetimes.
I hold a small position in TRAIX with the hope of scaling up if this fund starts firing again. Giroux has a great long term track record.
https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/fund-performance?s=y&sl=4VSTgvOMP3SRfjVH0g4UM5