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BLNDX On Fire This Year

edited July 18 in Fund Discussions
David profiled the fund in January: Standpoint Multi-Asset Fund (BLNDX / REMIX).

BLNDX Flows and Return Data Last 3 Years

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Comments

  • edited July 19
    BLNDX is advertised as an "all weather" fund.

    Yes, the fund may finally be "on fire this year", but looking at your chart, it seems to have exhibited a relatively flat total return performance for most of the previous 2 years, i.e., from approx. April 2022 to January 2024.

    I was also somewhat surprised that BLNDX lost approx. 2% in the last 2 days.

    As a retired and conservative investor, I am looking for a little more consistency.
  • BLNDX / REMIX name has "Multi-Asset". I checked that those include stock ETFs, long-short derivatives and cash-equivalents to support derivative positions - and that it!

    This isn't what a typical multi-asset fund has - stocks, bonds and alternatives (that may include some derivatives).

    It has certainly done well. The fund inception was 12/2019 and the AUM is $1 billion. Right out of the gate, it managed the pandemic well, and then avoided the 2022 selloff. That is handling 2 tough events well in its short life. But posters should be cautious with funds with unusual strategies - the hot hands may cool or Lady Luck could look the other way.

    Here is @David_Snowball's feature on it in January 2024 MFO,
    https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/2024/01/standpoint-multi-asset-fund-blndx-remix/
  • edited July 19
    My experimental money has room (fewer experiments running at the moment). I am usually a good test for lady luck.

    July issue of Monthly Commentary has two good articles on International investing / funds: one each by Devesh and David. Check it out.

    Edit: Longs be ware! I have a buy order in for BLNDX.
  • It's been a very good fund for me. I bought in 2021-2022. It had a mediocre 2023, but over it's history, it has delivered as well or better than PRWCX and FBALX, 2 balanced/alternative funds I also own. It's doing better than these 2 funds YTD and, in fact, since inception it has blown these 2 away.

    Thanks for the warning @BaluBalu, but I intend to stay a "long" :)
  • edited July 19
    +1.

    Interestingly, I too put it in my portfolio tracking under Allocation.

    I do think YBB's caution to watch after buying this (unlike with PRWCX and FBALX) is good. The fund is expected to do well in a trending market and vice a versa.
  • BLNDX / REMIX name has "Multi-Asset". I checked that those include stock ETFs, long-short derivatives and cash-equivalents to support derivative positions - and that it!

    This isn't what a typical multi-asset fund has - stocks, bonds and alternatives (that may include some derivatives).

    It has certainly done well. The fund inception was 12/2019 and the AUM is $1 billion. Right out of the gate, it managed the pandemic well, and then avoided the 2022 selloff. That is handling 2 tough events well in its short life. But posters should be cautious with funds with unusual strategies - the hot hands may cool or Lady Luck could look the other way.

    Here is @David_Snowball's feature on it in January 2024 MFO,
    https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/2024/01/standpoint-multi-asset-fund-blndx-remix/

    Here is a link to the current portfolio which is updated monthly - https://funddocs.filepoint.com/standpoint/?file=Standpoint-Portfolio-Holdings.pdf
  • Sorry, but for an average investor like me, it would have been more helpful if they also showed the percentage of the portfolio that's in each sector.
  • @fred495 Good morning fred . Look at semi annual report. It's a little dated, but you may find for what your looking for.
  • Thanks, Derf, much appreciated.
  • Tough to argue against the results...fund manager very articulate in explaining his process...but like Kudlow once said...quant based funds all work great until they don't.

    Trend reversals frighten me. Fund obviously worships price points...who knows looking backwards ten years out, might be a real winner.

    Kind of almost onboard because who could argue that fundamentals mean anything anymore?

  • edited July 20
    BLNDX certainly doing well this year especially compared to BIVIX (a former hot hands fund that has slipped substantially recently but still has blown out the lights on 3Y performance compared to BLNDX).

    I'm hoping QLEIX and CPIEX which are also on fire do not slip as sharp as BIVIX.
  • Is not QLEIX a pure long short fund, unlike BLNDX?
  • Portfoliovisualizer classifies them both as LS Equity but yes I agree with you that BLNDX is more of LS Futures vs. QLEIX which is LS Equity
  • edited July 24

    Comparison of Funds Mentioned by stayCalm - 3 Year

    image


    Comparison of Funds Mentioned by stayCalm - YTD

    image
  • I think I prefer the QLEIX chart to the others, but chart analysis is somewhat subjective.
  • edited July 24
    QLEIX is on fire and I have a large position in it but watching it carefully for signs of hot hands deterioration like BIVIX.

    On BIVIX, I scaled down quite a bit starting 2024. Made some decent coin but as with all things in hindsight, should have scaled down more aggressively. Personally I belive that BIVIX will come back strong if SPY in general starts deteriorating because that is the market(flat or down) where the manager shines vs. a "all boats rising" market.

    I have a small position in BIVIX to allow me to scale up and eliminate the risk of being locked out due to a fund close.

    I'm generally targeting LS/market neutral funds at this time or funds with inbuilt protection -- I posted in another thread my recent buys including CPIEX and SPD. I also own QMNIX and QRPIX both of which are doing well.
  • edited July 24
    Here's my portfolio, all commentary welcome! Some of the positions are due to 401k limitations.

    QLEIX, CEDIX, QMNIX, NICHX, CELFX, CCLFX, QRPIX, IMPCX, GENIX, MRFOX, XPEBX, CPIEX, DODGX, DFALX, CPEFX, FPADX, TRAIX, CORFX, CBARX, FTIHX, JAAA, BIVIX, SPD, KRE, SIL, T, INDA.

    **With the usual disclaimer: Buyer beware**


  • stayCalm said:

    Here's my portfolio, all commentary welcome! Some of the positions are due to 401k limitations.

    QLEIX, CEDIX, QMNIX, NICHX, CELFX, CCLFX, QRPIX, IMPCX, GENIX, MRFOX, XPEBX, CPIEX, DODGX, DFALX, CPEFX, FPADX, TRAIX, CORFX, CBARX, FTIHX, JAAA, BIVIX, SPD, KRE, SIL, T, INDA.

    **With the usual disclaimer: Buyer beware**


    Do you mind listing what %age of your portfolio is each fund? If you can easily list, also provide what %age up or down each fund price is today.
  • edited July 24
    Hey Balu,

    % allocation per position is a level of detail I'm not comfortable sharing. In broad strokes, here are some allocation metrics.

    Alts: 46% Includes Real Estate, Long Short, Market Neutral, Private Debt

    Equity: 33% Includes US, International, Private Equity and SMA

    Bonds: 21% Includes MMF and short term Treasuries

    As for up/down today here's a few of each but what is the purpose of this question? Is it because today was a huge down day? Below numbers come from my Empower dashboard, I haven't cross checked against brokerage account for accuracy

    Notable Ups Today
    - T: 5.22%
    - BiVIX: 1.91%
    - QMNIX: 0.10%

    Notable Downs Today
    - SPD: 2.16%
    - KRE: 1.83%
    - GENIX: 1.66%

    Overall across entire portfolio down 0.11% today but this number is somewhat meaningless because not all positions in my portfolio are marked daily.
  • edited July 24
    @staycalm,

    Thanks.

    Your allocation info is what I was looking for to see how large an Alt allocation you have. I thought it might be easy for you to just copy and paste from your portfolio tracker and so I made a broader request.

    The purpose of the price movement request is to see how each of your Alts did today. I have a sense for how general equity and fixed income have performed today.

    I do not think I ever got to more than 15% in Alts. Of the many I tried, I had success with only one (QMNIX) because it trended for some time. I thought it was too much work and gave up on them for years. Instead I was happy just to dial up or down equity allocation and to go out on the credit spectrum - seemed less work for me. I got into QLEIX earlier this year and very recently into BLNDX - both meaningless size positions for me - I think my mental block is I need to be able to explain the price movement of what I own (the "too much work" comes from this mental friction).

    Do you include tactical allocation funds like MRFOX in equity or Alts?
  • edited July 24
    MRFOX is classified as Equity by Empower.

    I don't have any fixed allocation targets that I am trying to hit but fwiw, I do use PV to assess every few months if the projected returns of my portfolio will be better than a 60/40 like say VWELX or VBINX. Because imo if one can't beat these then what is the point of active portfolio management.

    Very broadly I have three themes in my portfolio -- cash flow, diversification(beyond stocks and bonds) and risk adjusted returns. Accordingly I pay close attention to and pick/cut positions on the basis of Yield %, Sortino Ratio and Correlation to SP500.

    Overall I'm not looking to blow the lights out but a (reasonably) steady return. I'll take the "steady" annual 8-10% over a range of -20% to 20%. So when I am using PV to fine tune the portfolio I'm also looking to manage to the Max DD.
  • fred495 said:

    Sorry, but for an average investor like me, it would have been more helpful if they also showed the percentage of the portfolio that's in each sector.

    doubt this is more recent than its sources (har, to be tautological), but it is granular, fwiw

    assuming you can even access it

    https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/composition/90470L584
  • stayCalm said:

    QLEIX is on fire and I have a large position in it but watching it carefully for signs of hot hands deterioration like BIVIX.

    On BIVIX, I scaled down quite a bit starting 2024. Made some decent coin but as with all things in hindsight, should have scaled down more aggressively. Personally I belive that BIVIX will come back strong if SPY in general starts deteriorating because that is the market(flat or down) where the manager shines vs. a "all boats rising" market.

    I dont think you have fairly characterized BIVIX. This fund does well in basically all environments outsides ones where fundamentals are thrown out the window and speculation/momentum takes over. One cant produce the record it has with only performing when things are flat to down.
  • edited July 25
    Fair enough. In the manager's own words(in June 2024 letter) BIVIX strategy does not work well when growth and momentum are strong and value is weak. That is what I was attempting to convey in my prior post -- "all boats rising"

    Also colorfully expressed by W Buffett -- when the tide goes down, that's when you find out who's been swimming naked.
  • edited July 25
    @Staycalm, I have not heard about Empower before you mentioned. Checked it out on Wikipedia. Can you do a quick promo of Empower for us ( e.g., why and how you use it)? Thanks.
  • edited July 25
    Empower is the former Personal Capital. I use their free wealth tracker dashboard, not any of their paid FA services. I tried to do the same with Fidelity's Full View but did not find it convenient or useful.

    Empower is convenient because it can automatically pull(like Yodlee) and aggregate from various accounts -- brokerages, banks, credit cards, etc. to give you a complete picture of net worth and allocations. It has other useful tools like Retirement Planner, Cash Flow, etc..

    Below link has a visual on Investment Checkup feature
    https://www.empower.com/personal-investors/investment-checkup

    Reddit
    https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalCapital/

    I primarily use Empower for the Allocation view and as a quick check on how much of a particular asset I am holding in aggregate across brokerages vs. having to login to Fidelity, Schwab and HSA to manually figure it out.
  • edited July 25
    On the topic, Empower dashboard has definitely deteriorated from a stability perspective after Personal Capital was sold to Empower.

    I poked around with a few competitors in order to move on but unfortunately had to return back to Empower because it is still the best imo. It is an outstanding tool for free, I would happily pay a reasonable annual subscription fee for a better product.

    How do folks here track financial footprint, net worth and allocations? For me personally, pulling everything into a spreadsheet will not work.
  • I've used eMoneyAdvisor in the past through a FA but I'm no longer with that FA and eMA isn't offered retail. eMA is the closest probably to Empower but the learning curve is steep and it isn't as user friendly as Empower.
  • Thank you, @StayCalm. I started with M* portfolio tracking and I manually update my changes. Does Empower allow manual tracking? I am a bit hesitant to give one service provider access to all my financial accounts for them to pull info into one place. I wish someone who tried both M* and Empower would comment which one is better for portfolio tracking. M* does suffer from the occasional end of day stale prices (updates).
  • edited July 25
    I used M* many years back so my info (and memory) is likely dated. M* does not hold a candle to Empower. You don't need to connect any of your accounts to Empower, it can be 100% manual. I agree with the data breach risk of Empower.

    Empower is a superior product to have a full picture of your net worth and allocation at your finger tips.
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