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What’s “Other”?

edited January 11 in Other Investing
This has probably been addressed before. Every analytics tool is different. I use Fidelity’s. It’s showing:

- 18% Domestic Stock

- 16% Foreign Stock

- 14% Other

The rest is about evenly split between bonds and short term investments (cash). I get that part. But not sure what all goes into “other.”

I’ll guess here …

- precious metals

- hard infrastructure (ie toll roads)

- real estate holdings (but not real estate investment companies)

What I’m wondering is if things that don’t easily fit any category also end up here? Things like convertible bonds, preferred stocks, certain types of derivatives? And how about mines owned by a gold producer? Or oil rigs owned by an oil company? Would a hotel chain also own real estate that counts towards “other”? Gets confusing.

Anybody understand better than I do?

Comments

  • edited January 11
    In my accounts at Fidelity the individual preferred stocks I own fall into the 'other' category. I'm not sure if that would be the case if I held an ETF (eg, PFF) or CEF made up of preferred's.
  • I believe "other" would include shorts and currency plays, too.
  • According to the Morningstar definition of "other":

    "Other"

    "The proportion of the fund invested in other securities such as property or other financial instruments"

    When I use to do a lot of bond oef investing, and you broke down the funds holdings, "other" often linked back to Derivatives.

  • When "other" becomes a bigger part of the funds make up I look for "another" fund.
  • edited January 12
    When "other" becomes a bigger part of the funds make up I look for "another" fund. :)

    @bee - I like a lot of “other” as long as I understand what it is.


    A good chunk is in LPXAX (Limited Term Preferred Stock + Income). So Mark seems to have hit the nail on the head. As noted elsewhere, on Friday I bought a modest piece in a real estate CEF. That may be what pushed “other” to such an eye -catching level. CEF’s play a lot of games. This one uses leverage. Maybe that leverage + derivatives is moving the “other” reading in hard to comprehend ways. Have long held GLFOX (global infrastructure) which probably contributes to “other”.

    There seem to be times when I can pull-up the breakdown by fund at Fidelity and times when I can’t get it to work. Your responses suggest I need to keep trying.

    Thanks guys for helping me make sense of it all.

    I think my earlier question about oil companies is a worthwhile consideration when you consider the underground assets owned, plus port facilities, perhaps pipelines and in some cases tankers. That’s a lot of infrastructure.

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