Congratulations David & Charles

MJG

Hi David, Hi Charles

Congratulations on your excellent July Commentary release. Simply put, it is outstanding.

It is obviously the end product of a lot of hard work, careful analyses, and exceptional interpretations. Your commitment to the MFO site and its membership is commendable. I am pleased that you are also the worthy recipients of well-earned off-site praise.

Your unbiased research on topics like timing mechanisms and long-short funds will benefit all MFO participants, especially me. Thank you.

As a reminder to all members, the July issue is now available at:

http://www.mutualfundobserver.com/2013/06/july-1-2013/

I encourage you all to spend some time digesting this information dense presentation.

Best Regards.

Charles

Thanks MJG! Much appreciated.

I too very much enjoyed David's commentary this month. Once again, rich with content. The man moves with ninja-like speed, always keeps it fun, and remains kind even in criticism.

Hmm. How does he do it?

I used to think "Chip" was mere mortal assistant, but starting to suspect this may be a cryptonym for Constant High Intensity Publication unit.

Until this month's commentary, I honestly could not get my head around long-short categorization. From now on, I will be examining such funds through David's ABS filter (alpha, beta, or structural).

I started laughing at the literate monkey picture! Crack me up. I think I will adopt it for my avatar.

Versus Capital Multi-Manager Real Estate Income Fund...The fund’s retail, F-class shares carry an annual expense of 3.30% and a 2.00% redemption fee on shares held less than one year.

And I thought 5.75% load was bad.

Sad to read about Fidelity's decline or implication of decline. But sadder still to see investors hand over millions, correction billions, in high ER fees for gargantuan funds of mediocre strategies.

I signed up for the RiverNorth/OakTree call. These calls are always insightful.

RiverPark Structural Alpha (RSAFX) sounds intriguing. Ditto for David Sherman's upcoming RiverPark Strategic Income Fund. Yes, investors can gloat deservingly over just closed RiverPark Short Term High Yield (RPHYX)...nice performance graph...but try not to rub it in too hard to those of us suffering from recent fixed income declines, or as Hank puts it "Federal Open Mouth Committee" disease.

Honest healthy skepticism of Forward Income Builder (IAIAX). If the PMs don't believe enough in the fund to invest in it, how can we?

Mr. Smead is interesting. But 1.4% on assets of $363 million for his namesake Value Fund (SMVLX) does seem too high on a buy-and-hold forever fund. Stiff alternatives here with Berkshire Hathaway for zero fee, and as David points-out, ING Corp Leaders Trust Ser B (LEXCX) for 0.52 ER - an MFO Great Owl 20 year fund.

Dustbin was especially fun this month.

Stephen Leeb wrote The Coming Economic Collapse (2008). The economy didn’t, his fund did. Leeb Focus Fund (LCMFX) closed at the end of June, having parlayed Mr. Leeb’s insights into returns that trailed 98% of its peers since launch.

I love this business.

JohnChisum

I also want to extend my appreciation for the commentaries each month. This month's commentary also answered and verified some of my questions regarding long-short funds. I have been researching these myself and while the concept was clear, the returns were not so clear. High fee structures were a turnoff too. Delving into the specifics of these funds and how they really work has led me to believe they are not for my portfolio.

In my short time here at MFO, I have enjoyed a civil and thoughtful discussion with many of you. Again, thank you.

scott

I'll agree with the thoughts on the commentaries, which have gotten better and better (and continue to get even more detailed.)

As for the Versus Real Estate fund, a slightly similar alternative in some regards (some exposure to private real estate, although increasing over time) would be Brookfield Property Partners (BPY), a real estate MLP. It's currently heavily stakes in public companies (such as holding Brookfield's stake in General Growth properties) but will eventually steer towards a greater focus on Brookfield's private RE funds and direct private investment. The company is currently made up of 79% public assets, 13% direct and 8% private real estate funds. The stated long-term goal is 20% public, 25% private real estate funds and 55% direct. It does generate a K-1 as all MLPs do. This is the last spin-off from parent company Brookfield Asset Management (see also Brookfield Infrastructure Partners.)

Brookfield Property (BPY) definitely presents risks and will be volatile, but just noting that it is another way to gain *some* (the company's plan to increase over time) exposure to private RE, in this case with a very large parent company.

I don't think the Versus or Vertical funds are of interest to me, but I do like to see that retail investors are starting to be offered what I call a "bridge" product - not quite a hedge fund, not quite a mutual fund - with access to asset classes not traditionally available to retail investors. It'll be interesting - I think - to see how they do and if these interval funds will increase in number.

I'm very eager to hear the Oaktree/RN call, especially given the presence of Howard Marks (I own Oaktree.)