Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
John and I had a nice chat over the noon hour yesterday. His general theme was "now we can get back to normal finance topics, rather than 24/7 debt crises." Mine was, "yep, but it's not going to get any easier." John does read MFO (you might be surprised by the wide variety of folks - from the WSJ, Baltimore Sun, NY Times and a slug of fund firms - who scan both the board and the fixed content) and suggested that he'd rather talk first, instead of just "borrowing" ideas.
My suggestion was to look for managers who'd help investors make it through turbulent, rapidly shifting markets. I clustered those into two groups:
risk conscious managers with experience and flexibility in their investment mandates - Seafarer (SFGIX), F P A Paramount (FPRAX), RiverPark Strategic Income (RSIVX).
risk conscious managers who have a sensible, steady investment discipline that they might actually be able to get investors to understand and buy into - Beck Mack & Oliver Partners (BMPEX), Oakseed Opportunity SEEDX), Frank Value (FRNKX), Bretton (BRTNX), Cook & Bynum (COBYX).
Afterwards, we talked about international travel and John's observation that being perceived as disrespectful was a much bigger problem than not speaking the local language. Romans, he noted, mostly spoke enough English to help you get by and enjoy the city -- unless you were wearing shorts and ball caps and galumphing around.
Reply to @Mark: Yes, I must admit, there have been places and instances where I learned the lesson the hard way. "When in Rome..." I'm thinking particularly of Asia. On the other hand, in Asia, when (for example) my food order was screwed up, the Management could not do enough for me, to make up for the mistake. They'd offer you the world, rather than to just hand you back your money. (Philippines.)
Some of the stuff you run into is just nuts. It would be nuts wherever you might run into it. Like the Postmaster in a tiny town out in the Alaskan bush who simply never checks the outdoor mailbox to empty it and to postmark and send away whatever might have been deposited there. Some other folks, who were "veterans" along with me, warned me, so we got the situation remedied. So you just have to learn, in such cases, that the Postmaster is an idiot, and you have to work around his idiocy.
I remember an awful journey back here to the States, traveling through Manila. That particular airport, by the way, is THE worst in the whole world. I know an Air Marshall who agrees with me about that. In fact, HE volunteered to say it, before I ever mentioned it. And he's half-Filipino. ....Anyhow: I had forgotten that passengers leaving the country have to pay an extortion tax. ("Exit tax.") I was actually short. Would you believe the airline's own employees helped out and covered that small expense for me? (EVA Air.) Of course, I sent them back a reimbursement with a bit of a bonus, and wrote a glowing, complimentary letter to their Management. Heck, they even put me in First Class between Manila and Taipei.
(By the way, John Chisum sent me a message. He lives very close to the epicenter of the recent quake in the Philippines, but he is fine. There will be a LONG road to recovery. The government there is weak, clueless, anemic, corrupt and impotent. Yes, I certainly know what he means!)
Comments
My suggestion was to look for managers who'd help investors make it through turbulent, rapidly shifting markets. I clustered those into two groups:
- risk conscious managers with experience and flexibility in their investment mandates - Seafarer (SFGIX), F P A Paramount (FPRAX), RiverPark Strategic Income (RSIVX).
- risk conscious managers who have a sensible, steady investment discipline that they might actually be able to get investors to understand and buy into - Beck Mack & Oliver Partners (BMPEX), Oakseed Opportunity SEEDX), Frank Value (FRNKX), Bretton (BRTNX), Cook & Bynum (COBYX).
Afterwards, we talked about international travel and John's observation that being perceived as disrespectful was a much bigger problem than not speaking the local language. Romans, he noted, mostly spoke enough English to help you get by and enjoy the city -- unless you were wearing shorts and ball caps and galumphing around.For what interest it holds,
David
Some of the stuff you run into is just nuts. It would be nuts wherever you might run into it. Like the Postmaster in a tiny town out in the Alaskan bush who simply never checks the outdoor mailbox to empty it and to postmark and send away whatever might have been deposited there. Some other folks, who were "veterans" along with me, warned me, so we got the situation remedied. So you just have to learn, in such cases, that the Postmaster is an idiot, and you have to work around his idiocy.
I remember an awful journey back here to the States, traveling through Manila. That particular airport, by the way, is THE worst in the whole world. I know an Air Marshall who agrees with me about that. In fact, HE volunteered to say it, before I ever mentioned it. And he's half-Filipino. ....Anyhow: I had forgotten that passengers leaving the country have to pay an extortion tax. ("Exit tax.") I was actually short. Would you believe the airline's own employees helped out and covered that small expense for me? (EVA Air.) Of course, I sent them back a reimbursement with a bit of a bonus, and wrote a glowing, complimentary letter to their Management. Heck, they even put me in First Class between Manila and Taipei.
(By the way, John Chisum sent me a message. He lives very close to the epicenter of the recent quake in the Philippines, but he is fine. There will be a LONG road to recovery. The government there is weak, clueless, anemic, corrupt and impotent. Yes, I certainly know what he means!)