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.
Agree with Hank about JG overall. I always listen to his January "Just Markets" webcast and usually a couple of others over the course of a year. The value to me is the run-through of the data he follows closely and possible conclusions drawn from t…
As a retired and somewhat conservative investor, I am also "mixing and matching to have a consistent performance over time" by using the following funds in my portfolio which M* classifies as "Low" or "Below Average" risk:
ARBIX, NVHAX, VWINX, JHQ…
Indeed, if I could go back in my investing history and pick "just one" PRBLX would likely be the one.
That's what I told a friend last week (but without the "likely") who wanted a suggestion to replace a whole bunch of tiny individual U.S. equity …
@finder: I can't imagine the returns from debt of all kinds will repeat the last decade, much less 40y, but equities are kind of in the same boat, as being historically rich.
Plus, there's a big galaxy of debt investments besides Treasuries, a lot…
Oh okay, got it. M* may get the message when some of the big boys start flipping OEFs to ETFs. Who knows, they may not have a policy at all on it, and deleting GAINX could have been a snap decision by someone way down the food chain.
The 10 year treasury yield moved up 1.73% yesterday.
Also, the intraday high hit 1.765, which punched slightly above the previous peak of 1.754 on March 18. Could be noise, or could be another round of pushing up the trading range getting going.
My take: We don't appear to be in sell off mode, instead the market is rotating. Industrials are leading when 6 months ago they we laggards.
Agreed. See VIG vs. IUSG. That fine dividend etf is surging ahead of the growth index after lagging for so …
Just wondering if it’s time to pick up some investment grade intermediates .... My guess is that it’s probably too early. But closer to 2% (10yT) I’d be willing to move a bit in.
That's where tracking trading ranges can come in handy. When the 10y y…
@Mark: Some of the straight utes with renewables have for sure been less volatile than the renewable equity etf's. I sold ICLN when it changed direction, and boy did it plummet. So rather than catch the falling knife there, I've started looking for …
Why not AY?
If you follow it, @Mark, is Atlantica's greater volatility from the Africa and South America exposure generally? Currencies?
I wonder if it could be sort of a proxy for an EM allocation.
@FD1000: "I know a bond fund that is up several % year to date + partially doing short + have a nice 3 years returns."
I wonder if it's the one I own that's up a shade over 6% ytd, with negative duration.
Right, munis have done considerably better than taxable rate-sensitive fare lately. I'm in OPTAX and two Nuveen muni cef's, plus what PTIAX has, and have noticed that MUB is doing about as well as most investment-grade open-end muni funds.
If the …
@Crash, I think it's just more credit exposure, but of roughly the same sorts of credit as PTIAX. Even in PTIAX, they've broken out into a more multisector strategy than their old simple barbell of munis and non-agency mortgages.
I've held PTIAX f…
@Crash: Thanks for the reminder. I do want to track it and get a feel for what they're doing with it.
From the fund overview, it's not all junk: it's showing 60% investment grade, with 23% in munis (taxable and tax-exempt), and the rest of the hol…
I've used QRSVX in the past, and bought some again a few months ago. Didn't really shop around very much, just saw an old favorite doing pretty well, still lower risk, and went for it.
Here's a light-hearted remark to follow Hank's. Hussman's HSGFX lost less Friday than TMSRX, and per M*'s Port Mgr, leads TMSRX on 1 week, 1 month, year-to-date, 3 month, and 1 year returns. You have to look back to 3y among the usual metrics to fin…
Yep, TMSRX sure looks good. Value, especially small cap, and some foreign did ok today in equities, but looks like just about the last bastion in debt - structured credit - may be stalling out and be on its way down.
This is the third time just rec…
@fundly: Thanks for correcting my post. Right, how did you find that percentage if it wasn't from AlphaCentric? Maybe you had better luck last year than finder did this year getting it from AC?
@finder: I bet you know this, but just in case, ROC on…
I agree that Fidelity seems to get the 1099 details right, consistently. I've never found a mistake on cost basis and ROC (non-div distrib) accounting, nor on their treatment of wash sales. They don't figure for you the state tax deductions you'd li…
From the name, it sounds like it could be, at least roughly, the credit side of PTIAX in its own package. I'll be interested to see a holdings report and hope it will be another decent option in (at least mostly in) securitized credit.
Edit: the p…
@BenWP: Thanks for the note on Matthews. I didn't realize they'd launched a broad, not-just-Asia EM fund. Wasn't familiar with the manager, but see he's been with Matthews since 2018 after leaving Oppenheimer. MEGMX looks kind of blendy, which is pr…
Mitt Romney's the one who really went after the GOP (his colleagues) yesterday. In part:
"Please! No Congressional led audit will ever convince those voters, particularly when the President will continue to claim that the election was stolen. The …
@Sven: good catch on ADANX. I'd thought all the AQRs must be in the tank.
The alt funds lesson I learned with AQR LS and MN, and earlier, Pimco Long-Short, is to buy when they're hot and be ready to get out when they stop, 'cause not very many are…
Just noticed recently that AQR Long-Short and Market Neutral, about which much was typed here several years ago while they were soaring at a time not much else was doing anything, are now negative since inception (per M* growth of $10k charts).
YTD, IVOL is up 14.6% vs. SCHP 10.6%, per the M* $10k growth chart function. The March drawdown was far less. Looks to me like the volatility/steepener addon to a 'normal' TIPS fund is pretty significant.
One angle I really don't get (and I saw a l…
Hey Matt,
One thought (just saw your post) about Baird muni fund options. There's a new one, been out only a shade over a year, BSNIX, that has done well so far, especially for being shorter duration and about 90% investment grade. It's ahead of b…
I just wish Toyota would make a reasonable, normal, small or mid hybrid, and sell it in the U.S.
They've been making one since 1997. It's called the Prius.
Thanks for the smartass comment. Of course I meant a pickup - that's the subject of the ar…
I still use the old M* ratings/risk pages, which are still updating. I'm seeing, though, a few changes in the way some of the up/down capture ratios are calculated. If you use those ratios, be sure to read the small print under the capture figures t…
There's one more tax-related benefit to munis to consider. If your income is fairly limited, tax-free income instead of taxable could keep the taxable income on the federal return low enough to put the 0% tax rate for long cap gains and qualified di…
I am looking for some punch over my MM funds with minimum risk. I am not too happy with RPHYX and RSIVX.
You might look at the other fund in the Semper stable too: SEMRX/SEMIX. Mostly mortgages, very short duration (0.4), mostly investment grade, c…
