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glrbx and berix

edited September 2012 in Fund Discussions
im not happy with the performance of both funds, i would appreciate any opinions on selling them, and what to replace them with in either a conservative balanced for or moderate allocation fund, also any opinions as to why to hold them. thank you in advance.

Comments

  • edited September 2012
    I don't follow either of those funds, so won't offer an opinion on them directly, but I'd point out as possible alternatives the new breed of multi-asset, yield-oriented ETFs, of which I've picked IYLD for a moderately significant investment with a thought to a semi-core position after I've owned and watched it for a while.

    INKM and GYLD are in the same general category, and I believe there are others as well that I haven't researched. They fall under conservative, moderate, or world allocation under the M* scheme; there are definite differences among them in active or passive management, degree of risk, stakes in foreign and high-yield securities, etc. to be aware of, but are at least worth the time to take a look at, imho.
  • edited September 2012
    GLRBX is a really conservative fund. I think it's a matter of the label of something like "conservative allocation", but there's a fair amount of variation under that label. GLRBX comes in at the low-end (in terms of being one of the least volatile, most conservative) of that label. It only lost 5.5% in 2008. I think it's performing really about as one might expect from it - if you would like more risk, that's certainly a reason to find something else. However, again, I think the fund is performing as expected - it's not going to hit home runs in good years, but it'll do better than the majority in bad years.

    The Berwyn fund looks to be having a bit of an off year, but has performed pretty superbly otherwise. Whether or not you want to replace that is your call, but I think one can't always be replacing funds going through a rough patch whether due to the asset class being temporarily out of favor or management having an off year.

    Beyond everything else, my question would be what kind of portfolio do you envision? What would be your risk tolerance? GLRBX may feel too conservative now, but you might not be displeased with it if things head South again. You have to have a sense of the fund and its at least mid-term place in your portfolio. Additionally, it becomes what is the next idea - jumping from a fund that has had an off year into a fund that has had a tremendous year ("performance chasing") can certainly result in some degree of off timing and isn't recommended.

    The question becomes what kind of fund are you looking for.
  • edited September 2012
    GLRBX is your conservative allocation fund and definitely behaving like a really conservative allocation fund. You might be a bit displeased YTD performance but when markets have turned south this fund has worked as expected. In fact it has performed very consistently over the years.

    It really depends on what role you want it to have in your portfolio and what risk level you are willing to accept. Higher return often comes at increased risk. Are you going to be able to stay the course when risk happens? This one basically prevents making you big mistakes on those times.
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