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You mentioned PTIAX. I'll keep it concise: you get a mildly rate sensitive holding, with some protection against an equity downturn, with 5%+ yield. I've not run across anything else like it, though the strategy isn't at all complicated or genius-le…
Per msf's post in the other thread on the program, I think what he heard was the weakest comment in the whole program. The interviewee was fumbling trying to explain.
I wasn't shilling for these particular guys, but pointing out that no matter who …
Good interview, as almost always is the case, basically about corporates, munis, and the above-par pricing of so many FI products these days.
Consuelo is so good -- picking a variety of topics and guests, making an interview into a conversation, g…
Andy, wouldn't you like to have lunch with her and CapeCod?
Ha! I think I'd prefer to be a fly on the wall - any closer, I could get buried by the fur flying ...
Lets look at the one comment she made on fixed income investments:
A Goldman analysis of 10-year government bonds around the world shows ...
... that AJC knows very little about the breadth and depth of the fixed income market, if the only reference…
Hi Ben, I've got an equity-light portfolio that's slightly overweight Asia vs. the MSCI ACWI, with MAVRX and MEASX as most of the Asia punch; MEASX is really loaded with consumer names, which makes the overall Asia component pretty consumer heavy.
…
@davidmoran, AGC, the author of the piece you linked, doesn't reveal a lot anymore since he got his advisory business going. This guy is one of the better SA contributors on CEFs.
I agree with Mark that the M* CEF discussion board is a great resou…
Go figure - Venezuela's stock market (which is apparently an infintesimal part of Latin American equity overall) has been on a tear, with all-time highs this month.
The debt of VZ's national oil company, PDVSA, used to be fairly widely held among E…
Time reported this on Wednesday:
"Ladbrokes, one of the largest betting sites in the world, announced today that it has tweaked the odds that Trump leaves office early via impeachment or resignation to 4/5, or 55 percent."
Make of it what ye wil…
What Fidelity and apparently other brokerages report is cost basis as in that used for figuring capital gains, for tax purposes. The distributions are taxed themselves, separately, as income or cap gains as appropriate, so the "re"investment of them…
Hi Crash - remember the star ratings are entirely quantitative, within whatever category M* places the fund - no opinion involved. Plus, after a go-go run in credit FI generally, it may not be a negative to be a star down; could mean it's positioned…
Mona: PTRMX vs. VWIUX?
Hi, I wasn't recommending PT's muni, just using it as an example. Vanguard's funds are fine; I might look at the longer term funds, VWLTX and VWAHX, as possibilities if mimicking PTIAX is the objective or a little more yield …
What muni fund(s) come to your mind that would fairly closely resemble the credit quality and duration of the 21% tax-exempt munis in PTIAX? OPTAX? PHMIX?
Mona
Hey Mona, just saw this. Short answer: a longer duration investment grade muni fund, not…
Main moves in the port at this house lately have been in cutting back CEFs. I'm all Pimco taxable FI in that department; those funds have been in the sweet spot for quite a while, but some of the premia (and z-scores) are getting close to the ozone …
Regarding PTIAX, you're right Mike...about 36% in muni's.
PRESS,
Unless I am reading the bar chart incorrectly, 24.7% are tax-exempt.
Here's the 3/31 fact sheet: The difference in the two muni figures you all are quoting is the stake in taxable mu…
ECRI's leading indicators, which turned up in mid-2016, stalled out and reversed course in the first quarter - so the Q1 GDP result is not too surprising. See "Featured ECRI Composite Indexes," right column, here.
... Yahoo also has dividend adjusted NAV numbers (again, at least they used to).
"Used to" is the operative phrase. In the big redesign, they somehow forgot how to subtract distributions from the closing price to calculate adjusted price. Every secu…
Hi Tony, I'll have to check out the last two indicators you mentioned - not familiar with them. I've kept it pretty simple on my end, just trying to avoid larger than the "normal" drawdowns in my fairly conservative retirement portfolio and picking …
Easier and maybe more profitable to just stay invested.
Kind of a to-each-his-own thing. Doesn't mean you're not still invested, maybe just not fully invested in equities, and a simple strategy can make quite a difference in a big drawdown.
@Old_Skeet, there are so many options for technicals, it makes the head swim. I pretty much limit myself to the default free chart on StockCharts/SharpChart, with RSI, simple MAs, and MACD, and all the time options. I've found the weekly chart works…
A seasonality strategy I came across recently (sorry, no link) is to SELL when MACD goes negative (or other momentum stat threshold of your choice) on or after April 20, and BUY when MACD goes positive on or after October 16.
I've done something s…
Looks like this may not be a fund that's widely available on decent terms for the average diy investor anyway: PXSGX is institutional, $100k minimum, and PSGAX, the A shares, aren't load waived at Fidelity - possibly elsewhere tho.
@VintageFreak, not sure if you're thinking of MAVRX as an EM fund, but it's more of a Pacific fund, only ~ 20% EM, mostly China. It's seriously overweight S. Korea. MEASX is my fave Matthews fund, but it did a moonshot earlier and is coming back dow…
Over the past few weeks:
Bought back into GLFOX after a long absence (low vol, great record, kind of a unique take on infrastructure, mostly foreign, doing well with the rotation into utes);
Adding slowly to MAVRX, Asia value equity; sold MINDX …
Matt, PYMDX/PHMIX and MMHAX are the two I normally have money in, going in and out, partially, in steps, based on T rate trajectory and trading ranges. They're both up 4%+ ytd.
Fyi, MMD is a top-performing muni cef run by the same managers as MMHAX…
I looked into the process & holdings once a while back, and found everything I wanted to know in the fund literature, so I'd suggest starting there. Don't recall many details now - but I do remember one of the tenets was to tread lightly if at a…
Agree with Lewis ... the line of reasoning in the article (from Ted's copy & paste) appears to confuse having a marketplace/exchange for finance and capital formation in general vs. the bizarre and corrupted form of a marketplace that exists tod…
The note at the bottom of the article says he's included the times the S&P 5c has dropped 19% -- slightly extending the usual definition of -20%. (It didn't seem quite as bearish at the time, compared to the ~ 50% losses in the previous two.)
Go, ZAGS!
I just wish the Ducks had made it an All-Northwest final. They sure had their chances.
Looks like this might be Mark Few's best team; they're loaded, amazing depth.
I dunno why anyone would pay to get into a front-loaded fund, particularly a bond fund... (???)
Hi Crash, an advantage of investing through a brokerage is getting ostensibly load funds without the load - load waived A shares are very often available…