Monday: talking with David Sherman tonight, 7:00 Eastern

David_Snowball

You're, of course, welcome to drop by.

If you've got questions for him, feel free to post them and I'll raise them for you.

As ever,

David

mnzdedwards

Hi David. Thanks for hosting this event.

My question is, as someone who is 20 years away from retirement, what percentage of one's bond fund allocation should be allocated to the high yield portion of the market.

Second, on average, what percentage of the fund will be invested globally and in emerging markets?

Thanks David. I appreciate your work.
Mike_E

Vert

I'd like to know how big they plan on allowing this fund to become before closing it? The expenses seem relatively high, but they did a good job of closing RPHYX early, which mitigates high expenses in my mind.

Also, I've read that the fund buys bonds that the manager is comfortable with holding to maturity. Do they plan on normally holding their bonds to maturity?

Thanks.

AndyJ

Thanks, David, the call was very informative. I had to miss the first 15 minutes so didn't want to ask something that'd already been covered, but the Q&A period covered what I wanted to hear -- good questions, all.

David_Snowball

Thanks, Andy!

Can you tell that David finds this stuff really, really engaging? The phrase "I could talk all day about Canadian special purpose bonds" isn't hyperbole. I'll try to cover the opening in a "highlights" post in just a bit. I was writing one, Firefox restarted and I lost everything I'd written. Such is life.

David

mohan

Reply to @David_Snowball: Yes, the conference call was informative and very helpful. I'm still not sure about two things: 1) I didn't catch precisely the %securities overlap between RSIVX and RPHYX. He recited lots of numbers but I missed it; 2) I'm still not sure how they compute the target return for RSIVX on the basis of performance data to-date. Morty explained it but I didn't get it and had no opportunity to question him. David, could you shed some light on these two issues? Thanks.

MarkM

I had recommended RPHYX to every friend who wasn't being served similarly by a private account and I bet I end up doing the same with this strategy. David's work is pure alpha.

AndyJ

Reply to @David_Snowball: Yep, David is very engaged in his livelihood; that's a gift that keeps on giving, hopefully to shareholders too.

I also enjoyed the interplay between our hosts.

AndyJ

Reply to @mohan: Mohan, just quickly on the first question, I didn't write down what DS said last night about the range (yeah, there were a lot of numbers flying around at that point), but as of 10-31, the overlap was 15.6%.

mnzdedwards

David's work is pure alpha.

Perhaps the greatest compliment we can extend to David. Great work. Great conference call last night.

Mike_E

mohan

Reply to @AndyJ: Thanks, Andy, that helps. What about my second question on the projected return for RSIVX? Morty's explanation and conclusion don't conform to what I see in my own RSIVX portfolio. In contrast, the returns they quote for RPHYX perfectly match with mine.

3yards

MarkM, can you please clarify what you mean when you say that you bet you end up doing the same with this strategy.

MarkM

Reply to @David_Snowball:
Looking forward to your summary. Or did I miss it?

David_Snowball

Reply to @MarkM: Nah, just distracted by chaos on campus. We do winter mid-terms just before Christmas, so the kids are panicked. And all of the administrators seem, simultaneously, to have realized that, with regard to all of the meetings / retreats / reports / task forces that they put off until "later," it's now later.

I'll try to write up my highlights and post the mp3 link, uhhh ... later today. (Just after I finish the Christmas lights and letters of rec to grad schools that I resolved I'd do, well, later.)

David

kallerid

I was wondering/hoping if you would make the conf. call tape available earlier than next month's letter. Thanks and Happy HOlidays!