Just a fund I track for reference. But I thought Hussman had the fund positioned to move opposite stocks. Surely he wouldn’t be long equities in this “overbought” market? So HSGFX should have risen today. Best guess would be he’s got some gold or miners in there. The metal had a rough day.
FYI: The fund celebrated its first positive year in about a decade in 2018. This year it was down 4% prior to today.
I don’t hate the fund. I just think it’s an interesting specimen to study - hopefully makes us all better investors.
Comments
Symbol Last Price Change
URBN 30.20 -0.93 -2.99% USD 4:00PM EST
CRI 95.33 -4.33 -4.34% USD 4:02PM EST
GCO 46.49 -1.78 -3.69% USD 4:02PM EST
Hussman protests if others suggest he’s shorting the markets. Says he doesn’t sell stocks short. Yet, somehow, through his use of put / call options, he typically positions HSGFX to be short the major averages (rise when the market falls and fall when it rises). That short-like positioning is what allowed the fund to do well in 2018 while the overall market tanked. It’s also the reason the fund has lagged badly over the past decade.
Best of luck with this one.
FWIW - Here’s the funds I track regularily (none of which I currently own). Provides a nice cross section of how different types of funds performed on any given day.
VFINX. -.39%
TRBCX -.71%
DSENX -.14%
HSGFX -.77%
KCMTX -.44%
OAKBX -.44%
PRAFX +.09%
TRRIX -.07%
From the above list, HSGFX performed worst today. The closest to it was Price’s Blue Chip fund TRBCX which fell .71%. Commodity heavy PRAFX actually bucked the trend and gained slightly. In addition, of the dozen that I own (not shown) only one performed worse than HSGFX - that being a gold fund.
As I've said many times here, none (ok, maybe 99%) of these funds do not beat a plain vanilla balanced fund for return over a market cycle. I just can't understand the allure unless one thinks they are adept to trading in and out through the cycle. But here is where I have to throw in the phrase, "to each their own".
But really... Why are we fretting over a 1-day performance figure?
Regards,
Ted
Personally I find fretting about whether the market is “overbought” or “oversold” somewhat trivial. But I understand that some find it of interest.
Regards,
Ted
When you’re done denigrating me, you can get back to work over in the boneyard!
Separate discussion strings are not to be promoted.
How about you serving up some new topics big guy? Haven’t put one of your own up yet this year. Throw a few up and we’ll take some shots at em.
So basically HSGFX became a "Bear fund", and after giving him plenty time to fix his problem I sold, because I thought I have as much probability of hedging my bets by just investing part of my portfolio in a short fund instead.
Regarding why I haven't been much active these days, I'm trying to sorta determine my priorities. I find working in the IT sector with nincompoops totally humiliating, and after all these years after having long recognized I made bad career choice I am too old for a change. Suffering through it I realized is causing me a lot of stress and causing me to lose my sense of humor. So my inactivity on MFO has as much to do with the fact total time I spend at computer outside work has reduced by 90%. I switched to Macs from PCs making sure I don't "work from home" anymore. I have one princess in college and another who will be in a couple of years. Just trying to spend more time with the family, something I never really did before given my wife is 1000 times worse than me when it comes to bringing work home.
However, I promise one day I will surprise you with a fund