Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
I have been questioning M* stock price for a while based on its business practices (or the lack thereof) but the faithful here have been making excuses for M* (just as they did for years for Vanguard). So, I suspect M* popularity will not be dented by the latest incident.
I’ve been forgetting who I am ever since I turned 75. Maybe I’ll take a look.
Thanks for the heads-up Yogi. I don’t post or read financial discussion boards anywhere else. Something similar happened at Amazon years ago where real names became attached to the product reviews. By going into profile settings it was possible to re-set things and revert back to the user names.
@hank, I remember that very much. I have done a few Amazon reviews. When I did one for a book by a colleague, I thought I would do it as real-me. To my horror, I found that all of my Amazon reviews then turned into real-me. I waited a month or so and reverted back to web-me (always YBB or yogibearbull that may be better known than real-me).
Whenever and wherever I can do it, I use fiction. After attempting, several years ago, to log-into Facebook from Canada, I was locked out--- presumably because I did it from Canada. Nothing else had changed. So, I created a new profile. But the Zuck's worthless, stinking, putrid bots saw and connected the dots.You're allowed only one profile.
The solution? An ENTIRELY fictional profile and account. Name = StickMerflotchky. And he lives in Beirut. I simply notified my contacts and gradually got them onboard. And the ZUCK doesn't seem to mind at all. So much for ACTUAL security. Jayzuz.
Response from M* is that it's working to fix this problem with real names vs userIDs. As M* Discussions now require login, this issue is within the M* community (private), and not public.
A problem surfaced on 12/11/24 at M* Discussions that real names started showing instead of the UserIDs. M* hasn’t been unable to fix this problem in over 9 days. Now, M* Discussions have been taken offline, hopefully to fix & then return. Investing Forums link has been removed from M* Discussions Homepage.
When you go to any M* Discussions page/link, it says “Invalid Page”, but on login, you can access your own Profile & your posts, & others’ if you have bookmarked their Profiles. https://community.morningstar.com/s/
I haven't been active in M* Discussions for several years. It was previously a good investing forum until M* started making "improvements." Tis a shame...
Sad day indeed. Hadn't checked onto the Investing Forums for awhile, but sad to see it's gone for good. It was fun poking around there every once in awhile.
I left M* Legacy tab open for a while and it had this message:
504 Gateway Timeout ERROR
The request could not be satisfied.
We can't connect to the server for this app or website at this time. There might be too much traffic or a configuration error. Try again later, or contact the app or website owner. If you provide content to customers through CloudFront, you can find steps to troubleshoot and help prevent this error by reviewing the CloudFront documentation.
Generated by cloudfront (CloudFront) HTTP3 Server Request ID: Db_eR4Ko9tprNz11KMyzEQDZV5c45H06Dek7KWEgf3Q51GP0Qs025Q==
There have been M* complaints here on MFO for such a long time now... I really don't understand why anyone still bothers with M*. What is that old saying,,, "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."
@Old_Joe, some may have subscriptions for (old) M* Legacy Portfolio and (new) M* Portfolio. So, those people may stick around at least until their subscriptions end. There is little value in cancelling and asking for refund.
Some posters have free access via fund firms.
M* Charts on Quote pages work fine - those don't need subscription. Alternatives are StockCharts, Yahoo Finance, brokerage charting, etc.
M* Discussions that generated lots of complaints were shut as of 12/20/24.
There have been M* complaints here on MFO for such a long time now... I really don't understand why anyone still bothers with M*. What is that old saying,,, "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."
If you're not needing quick, time-sensitive stuff, the legacy view offers a handy way to look at a self-made list of things in one place. The x-ray tool can be useful; although today i discovered that miraculously, M* found a way to NOT list over one-third of my bonds as "unclassifiable." I'm down to zero in that non-category. LOL.
I’m in a one-year subscription. Was advised by many here it’s free at various sites. Color me dumb. There are periods, like the past 3 or 4 weeks, when I use M* 10-25 times in a day. More than most I’d guess. I use the performance numbers in inverse manner - looking for things with potential that haven’t appreciated a lot in recent years. Then try and determine whether that’s systematic or merely related to short-term macro forces. The holdings charts are good. I don’t like a lot of lower rated bonds and find their bond representations of great help.
The one thing that comes with a subscription is the lengthy (but heavily redundant) written “Analysis”. Somewhat useful, although I’ve determined it’s too trendy. When LCORX (one instance) falls from “gold” all the way down to “neutral” inside of a year’s time, to me that reflects problems with their rating methodology and not the fund. While they occasionally rate individual stocks, coverage of CEFs is lacking.
I’m getting my $$ worth based on the number of hits. No decision whether to continue. And the technical shutdowns (often on weekends) are a big concern. When you need data, it ought to be available. As I’ve said before, the portfolio trackers available at app stores for a couple bucks a month are vastly superior to anything web-based I’ve seen. Learning the new ropes, however, can be frustrating.
PS - Before I subscribed to M* I used a Lipper site. But I began getting blocked, as the site required a subscription to worthless MarketWatch. Even took out an online subscription to Reuters News thinking free Lipper access would come along. It didn’t. If anyone has a 100% foolproof link to a free Lipper site (or an inexpensive subscription with access to such) I’d appreciate it. Might drop M* in such case.
Comments
Thanks for the heads up though.
Thanks for the heads-up Yogi. I don’t post or read financial discussion boards anywhere else. Something similar happened at Amazon years ago where real names became attached to the product reviews. By going into profile settings it was possible to re-set things and revert back to the user names.
Yes- that's a lot cheaper than therapy!
The solution? An ENTIRELY fictional profile and account. Name = Stick Merflotchky. And he lives in Beirut. I simply notified my contacts and gradually got them onboard. And the ZUCK doesn't seem to mind at all. So much for ACTUAL security. Jayzuz.
Morningstar Discussions
A problem surfaced on 12/11/24 at M* Discussions that real names started showing instead of the UserIDs. M* hasn’t been unable to fix this problem in over 9 days. Now, M* Discussions have been taken offline, hopefully to fix & then return. Investing Forums link has been removed from M* Discussions Homepage.
When you go to any M* Discussions page/link, it says “Invalid Page”, but on login, you can access your own Profile & your posts, & others’ if you have bookmarked their Profiles.
https://community.morningstar.com/s/
The day the M* Discussions died is noted as 12/20/24, about 1:00 PM Central.
It was previously a good investing forum until M* started making "improvements."
Tis a shame...
504 Gateway Timeout ERROR
The request could not be satisfied.
We can't connect to the server for this app or website at this time. There might be too much traffic or a configuration error. Try again later, or contact the app or website owner.
If you provide content to customers through CloudFront, you can find steps to troubleshoot and help prevent this error by reviewing the CloudFront documentation.
Generated by cloudfront (CloudFront) HTTP3 Server
Request ID: Db_eR4Ko9tprNz11KMyzEQDZV5c45H06Dek7KWEgf3Q51GP0Qs025Q==
The same message appeared that YBB just posted.
Voila! Legacy just worked for me. Just reappeared.
Some posters have free access via fund firms.
M* Charts on Quote pages work fine - those don't need subscription. Alternatives are StockCharts, Yahoo Finance, brokerage charting, etc.
M* Discussions that generated lots of complaints were shut as of 12/20/24.
I use portfolio xray to quickly analyze my multiple accounts at Schwab and Fidelity and combine mutual funds and stocks into one report.
Not sure if there is anything else comparable, for a modest sum. I have spent hours looking but always have to come back to M*.
The one thing that comes with a subscription is the lengthy (but heavily redundant) written “Analysis”. Somewhat useful, although I’ve determined it’s too trendy. When LCORX (one instance) falls from “gold” all the way down to “neutral” inside of a year’s time, to me that reflects problems with their rating methodology and not the fund. While they occasionally rate individual stocks, coverage of CEFs is lacking.
I’m getting my $$ worth based on the number of hits. No decision whether to continue. And the technical shutdowns (often on weekends) are a big concern. When you need data, it ought to be available. As I’ve said before, the portfolio trackers available at app stores for a couple bucks a month are vastly superior to anything web-based I’ve seen. Learning the new ropes, however, can be frustrating.
PS - Before I subscribed to M* I used a Lipper site. But I began getting blocked, as the site required a subscription to worthless MarketWatch. Even took out an online subscription to Reuters News thinking free Lipper access would come along. It didn’t. If anyone has a 100% foolproof link to a free Lipper site (or an inexpensive subscription with access to such) I’d appreciate it. Might drop M* in such case.