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Adirondack Small Cap

Anybody have any thoughts on Adirondack Small Cap (ADKSX)? Would appreciate any input.

Comments

  • edited May 2014
    The ER is a little too high, but otherwise, what's not to like? I cannot help but to let you see one of my own small-cap funds: MSCFX. I'm pleased with it. Lower ER. (The other small-cap fund we own is NAESX, an Index fund from Vanguard. It's in wife's 403b.)......
    As far as annual pay-out, ADKSX wins, hands-down, for 2013. It paid a LOT more than MSCFX and NAESX in '13. But I don't think that can be sustained, year after year. PRSVX is a TRP offering with quite low ER for an actively managed fund. But I think its performance is sub-par. And all of the ones I've just mentioned are listed by Morningstar as small-BLEND. But ADKSX is categorized as small-VALUE. And ADKSX does not have big bets in its top 5 holdings--- less than 10% of holdings are there..... You just introduced me to a fund I did not know about, before. Thanks.
  • I understand the ER argument, but so far Adirondack has proven to justify charging an above average ER. Any opinions on the firm's differentiated approach? Uses both top-down and bottom-up work... Look for attractively valued sectors and attractively valued companies in these sectors.

    MSCFX does look like another attractive option in the small cap space, but not as value oriented as I'd like.
  • Your question is a fine one. I'm not qualified to go there: "differentiated approach...."
  • Found this recent filing which may be of some interest about the fund:

    http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1311981/000116204414000552/adiron497ad201405.pdf

  • It does look like an interesting fund. It has done as well as HUSIX (since HUSIX's founding) but with less volatility. How do we make a suggestion to David to profile a fund?
  • Yes, it would be interesting to find out what is under the hood for this fund. From the outside, it looks like a slightly lagging index hugger in many years without any evident downside protection but short periods of opportunistic buying under certain conditions (in 2009 and 2013) providing most of the alpha.

    Not a bad strategy but without knowing the strategy, it would be difficult to judge whether it will be able to repeat that in the future and whether the strategy will likely scale with AUM (much easier to move the needle opportunistically with lower AUM). If not, it may turn out to be a disappointing index hugger going forward.
  • Thanks for the input. I definitely find the fund intriguing and would like to do some more research... A profile by David would be great!

    I agree that the AUM is a potential concern given that the strategy does have significant micro cap exposure (if AUM does increase, will the fund still be able to access these companies?).
  • edited May 2014
    I did find a summary sheet:

    http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1311981/000116204414000519/adiron497ad201405.pdf

    which was filed prior to the other link I posted above.

    I am posting a link below to all of the Adirondack filings (hopefully, it works). Look for the recent 497AD (I think most are PDFs) and 497 filings for additional information.

    http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?CIK=0001311981&action=getcompany
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