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The usual suspects: Cash, high quality bonds, and bearish funds like BEARX and HSGFX usually hold up much better during equity sell-offs. Those last two should be looking at 3-5% gains over the past 3-4 weeks. But that's just a guess. Haven't bothered to check. Gold has also held up well in recent weeks, rebounding from near $1200 to around $1240 today (but is still off big-time for the year). I'll note, FWIW, that Price's RPGAX which dabbles in hedge funds has held up better than some other balanced funds - but has still declined.
I'm curious however as to the purpose of the question. To me it's very much an academic question in the sense that someone might include small portions of these funds for balance within a long-term oriented portfolio, but none (with the possible exception of RPGAX) look that attractive as core holdings. Just MHO. Thanks for the question.
I'm not sure whether the question is asking about relative preservation or absolute preservation of capital. I agree with hank that the latter is not especially interesting - I'd go further and add that there is nothing magical about the number 0.000%.
That said, another sparkling usual suspect is GLD (or QGLDX or ...)
I'd be interesting in knowing what funds did significantly better than their peers in any category (and do any of those funds show halfway decent figures in up markets?).
I was not specific enough with my question. I was looking for stock funds which didn't take the plunge, not bond funds. My rationale for being in managed equity funds rather than index products is a hope to be able to beat the index approach on both up and down periods, and I wanted to see if any funds managed to outperform the indexes on the down side.
@catch22: "Course, some of these may travel the other direction before the year is finished" You are correct, 2014 will be another year for equities, not bonds.
>> My rationale for being in managed equity funds rather than index products is a hope to be able to beat the index approach on both up and down periods, and I wanted to see if any funds managed to outperform the indexes on the down side.
Right. Well, good luck with that, and yes, your original hed is misleading. Still not sure exactly what your question is. But since your aims are the same as those of many of us, I looked back one year at my domestic fund holdings, and also one month, and found nothing that bested SPY (say) for both periods.
If otoh you are interested in coming close to something like SPY on the upside and beat it in declines, then sure, YAFFX, YACKX, PRBLX, TWEIX, and SEQUX, to name a quick few, all have done notably better the last few weeks. And all except TWEIX beat SPY over longer terms, I think. 'All' meaning that's three funds, if you bundle the Yackts, and I did not check details of SEQUX history because I do not own, but everyone else thinks it's the top. FCNTX, GABEX, AMANX, FLPSX and other do not make the double cut. GLRBX and other top-tier balanced funds also outperform SPY downside, by their nature.
So maybe you need to do some rethinking of your goals or criteria?
My better stock funds, 1 week returns as of Oct 15
ICMAX: -1.11% RYSEX: -1.82% WAFMX: -1.51%
Interestingly, they did better than my allocation funds FPACX: -2.92% OAKBX: -3.45% SGENX: -3.33% GLRBX: -1.84% (this is actually in my daughter's portfolio)
Low volatility-focused funds are fairly good at preservation in a downturn, although they typically won't win much of anything in an upmarket. For one month, which pretty much captures the downturn since Sept. 18:
Those returns basically go with the territory, as there's quite a bit of overlap between low volatility and defensive (utilities and consumer staples, for example).
Fyi, Vanguard has a new global 'minimum volatility' open-end fund, VMVFX, which ranks in the top 1% of world stock funds for the downturn (1 month) and top 5% year-to-date.
Of course it's a new fund, and your mileage may vary -
Kaspa -- RYSEX just added a co-manager. Wonder what that will mean for the fund going forward. You're paying for Dreifus, but you're likely about to get a Royce-a-roo bait and switch. I say this as an RYSEX shareholder and victim of past Royce nonsense (like benchmarking a fund that holds something like 30% international stocks against the Russell 2000 index).
Just sayin'.
But yeah, I like Dreifus, and the way he was before Royce went all Legg Mason.
No real surprises for me either. I have a total of 20 funds, some vanilla U.S., some sectors some international or global. My sector funds such as FBTIX, FRUAX, PHSZX lost less than 2% this last week and were also my best ytd plus VPCCX. Of my etfs, sector etfs also did best such as VNQ, PJP both over 15% ytd with 1 week losses contained to -3% or less. I really don't want all my funds and etfs to work the same, I have some of them to limit downside and do well in down markets, the others will do best in strong markets. The stocks I have are all over the board, but 75% of my equity portion of portfolio is etfs and funds.
MSCFX M&P small-cap is actually UP for the week as of 16 October, according to M*. (+1.78%)............Vanguard small-cap index fund just about broke even (NAESX) at -0.29%.
Kaspa -- RYSEX just added a co-manager. Wonder what that will mean for the fund going forward. You're paying for Dreifus, but you're likely about to get a Royce-a-roo bait and switch. I say this as an RYSEX shareholder and victim of past Royce nonsense (like benchmarking a fund that holds something like 30% international stocks against the Russell 2000 index).
But yeah, I like Dreifus, and the way he was before Royce went all Legg Mason.
Thanks. I had stopped adding to RYSEX long time back, but have generally been satisfied with its steady performance. Will keep an eye due to the manager addition you mentioned.
Comments
I'm curious however as to the purpose of the question. To me it's very much an academic question in the sense that someone might include small portions of these funds for balance within a long-term oriented portfolio, but none (with the possible exception of RPGAX) look that attractive as core holdings. Just MHO. Thanks for the question.
Here's a link to some top performers - one month. Enjoy
http://www.barchart.com/funds/1month.php
That said, another sparkling usual suspect is GLD (or QGLDX or ...)
I'd be interesting in knowing what funds did significantly better than their peers in any category (and do any of those funds show halfway decent figures in up markets?).
You may edit your subject line and text to direct your question as noted.
Right. Well, good luck with that, and yes, your original hed is misleading. Still not sure exactly what your question is. But since your aims are the same as those of many of us, I looked back one year at my domestic fund holdings, and also one month, and found nothing that bested SPY (say) for both periods.
If otoh you are interested in coming close to something like SPY on the upside and beat it in declines, then sure, YAFFX, YACKX, PRBLX, TWEIX, and SEQUX, to name a quick few, all have done notably better the last few weeks. And all except TWEIX beat SPY over longer terms, I think. 'All' meaning that's three funds, if you bundle the Yackts, and I did not check details of SEQUX history because I do not own, but everyone else thinks it's the top. FCNTX, GABEX, AMANX, FLPSX and other do not make the double cut. GLRBX and other top-tier balanced funds also outperform SPY downside, by their nature.
So maybe you need to do some rethinking of your goals or criteria?
ICMAX: -1.11%
RYSEX: -1.82%
WAFMX: -1.51%
Interestingly, they did better than my allocation funds
FPACX: -2.92%
OAKBX: -3.45%
SGENX: -3.33%
GLRBX: -1.84% (this is actually in my daughter's portfolio)
WAFMX: +4.8%
RHYPX: +1.8%
RSIVX: +4.2%
GASFX: +10.7%
LSBRX: +4.2%
AMHIX: +13.2%
ACMVX: +4.5%
PRBLX: +2.9%
Figures are from yesterday, for the most part.
Those are some of mine that are doing OK, and yes, I have another whole bunch that aren't.
VFIAX (Vanguard's S&P 500 index): -6.0
SPLV: -1.7
USMV: -2.5
Those returns basically go with the territory, as there's quite a bit of overlap between low volatility and defensive (utilities and consumer staples, for example).
Fyi, Vanguard has a new global 'minimum volatility' open-end fund, VMVFX, which ranks in the top 1% of world stock funds for the downturn (1 month) and top 5% year-to-date.
Of course it's a new fund, and your mileage may vary -
However long term VNQ and generally REIT funds underperform SPY.
You noted: ", 2014 will be another year for equities, not bonds."
I hope you are corrrect about the equity area; as that will help the other 50%.
You are much more prescient than I in these matters. I'm sure we'll both be satisfied with our risk adjusted investments.
Lastly, I now recall your note from a few weeks ago regarding a +25% for SPY this year; if my recall is correct. My fingers are crossed for the best.
Hey, take care.
Catch
Just sayin'.
But yeah, I like Dreifus, and the way he was before Royce went all Legg Mason.