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.
No mention in the Barron's blog post of the fact that PCI is changing its name and investment mandate at the end of the month, which is probably an important point for anyone considering putting new $ into it.
I'll never understand these posts/arti…
With DSENX I have entrusted significant partial moneys w Gundlach, but man, this makes me think he is kind of a dope sometimes. Gold, seriously, ever?
David, the way to think about JG, in my humble opinion, is that he's about as good as they come in…
Just fyi, JG said the chart for gold looked like a bottom in January, during the Just Markets web cast; this isn't a new "call." (I'm not making a claim that everything that comes out of his mouth is gospel.)
PPSAX is a conservative option in an oef; don't know about LW availability at Vanguard. PGX is another decent choice in an etf.
Ditto, though, Bob's comment about premium pricing on preferreds (say that ten times). If I were interested enough to b…
I wasn't aware that Puerto Rico had become a part of California. When did they move? :)
San Francisco must have annexed PR for more affordable housing ...
Non-profit organizations typically have solid limits on board tenure written into bylaws. It's clearly recognized that fairly frequent, but overlapping, board turnover is healthy and necessary for an organization to stay vital and not stagnate. Ther…
Hi Crash, looks like PRSNX has turned out to be a worthy fund.
Just charted it, DLFNX, and GBOAX (the last global oef I owned), and they have almost identical 3y returns, with DLFNX taking the steadier path to the result.
MMHAX and PYMDX look less risky than NHMAX because they are of shorter duration (8.6 and 7.0 years vs. 10.1 years).
PYMDX is also somewhat higher up the credit quality chain, according to the literature and from the percentages by rating I got fro…
NHMAX also has a 4% front load!
Many A shares are available load-waived at various brokerages like Fidelity. Tack on a dot and LW to the ticker at M* to see (for example, NHMAX.LW); many times the LW version is a star better in the star ratings. I o…
Seems like the most useful comparison would be with the point of maximum curve flattening in 2007, not with a basically random point in time well after the curve started steepening.
A year and a half later, is this any less true? http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/01/16/investing-international-funds/21825245/
Leave it to J. Wag. to nail it: "In any event, you need two factors for an international fund to beat the U.S. Fir…
I gave up on OAKIX and sold it a few months ago due to its underperformance. I put that money into ARTGX ....
Looks like ARTGX is back to its winning ways. I was beginning to wonder there for a while.
Also, things have gotten to the point, IMO, where it is difficult to accurately take a measure of CEF valuations in the fixed income categories ...
Heezsafe, I don't think there's ever been, or ever will be, an exact way to pin down CEF valuations. …
Glad you brought up bank loans, Junkster. I've been selling cef shares pretty aggressively the past 2-3 weeks, and will take a close look at loan funds as a possible (probably temporary) home for some of the pile of cash the selling generated.
Edit…
If YTD is what matters, RSIVX still sucks compared to other multisector funds (eighth decile) and other "Low Limited" style box/short junk funds (ASHAX and MDHAX, for example - both of which are commonly available load-waived).
For most time perio…
Nonetheless, many of the TBTF banksters went into farmland in a big way in the mid-00s and bought up what they could (and, of course, "financialized/securitized" it), so I'd hesitate investing in anything publicly-traded because I'd be concerned I'…
ARTYX, Lewis Kaufman's fund since he left Thornburg, has done pretty well so far at his new charge. He's basically matched SFGIX since inception, a little less than a year ago, w/ 67% EM stocks (right now, at least, according to M*).
The link was missing in the text, but the one in the right column under "MFO Updates" worked from the beginning. That's how I found the writeups a day or two after the current issue was posted.
If VZ and T seem attractive, another option is a telecom etf. Those two stocks make up almost half the cap-weighted index - 22% each in VOX, the Vanguard fund, with lesser amounts of several other t'com stocks to spread the risk. (Quoted yields at M…
even a blind squirrel occasionally finds acorn
How true! He needs to focus in managing his funds now that the Total Return fund is lagging his peers including the benchmark.
DBLTX and its real peers - intermediate-term (IT) mortgage funds *** (e.…
I set a mental stop loss right above where I bought them and let the market tell me when to sell them. To me its not how much you make, its how much you don't lose.
Hi shipwrecked, just curious here what sort of "right above" percent where you bough…
Anyone know what the new Fidelity card charges for foreign transactions? Can't find that mentioned in the Fidelity info/advertisement for it, so I'd guess it's not insignificant, or they would be advertising it.
I owned two of their int'l funds at different times, years ago, EXWAX and EXITX. Preferred the latter although M* always talked up EXWAX and never even did a report on EXITX. They were decent performers until around 2011, and they haven't done much …
Some big winners at this house ytd are BLV (long gov & IG corp bonds, up 9%), JENSX (a lower volatility, "quality" stock fund), up 7.7%, and a small pack of muni bond cef's (up 6-10%, not steadily up anymore, but still strong).
The ride's been…
Annaly didn't move a lot, but Gundlach started recommending it months ago and it's already had a very nice run. Not saying those last two points are necessarily related 1:1 ...
JPC is up almost 3% at the Monday open, 325k shares traded, more than average daily volume in the first 15 minutes. Bill the G. must still have some influence!
@AndyJ: these are in no way substitutes for munis. Their 8%+ distribution yield is taxed as ordinary income. Junkster and I just took this muni thread to the side a bit, sorry.
Not at all, FA - I completely understand all that. The point was tha…
BGH, which suffered mightily due to its energy exposure is on the rebound, so is HNW for example and more single asset thingies such as JRO/JQC/JSD/VTA/VVR, etc.
Good cef ideas; thanks, FA. Haven't made many adjustments lately, still putting along w…
Good stuff, but imho, the videos have gotten a little repetitive. Nowadays I'm finding the portfolio reviews more informative; most of the newer material he covers in the videos seems to be also in the reviews, and it doesn't take 15 minutes to read…
Ralph, you do understand, don't you, that M*'s star ratings are purely quantitative, based on return and risk within the M* category, and have nothing whatsoever to do with a recommendation for or against a fund?
Hey, thanks openice and heezsafe, good info. I hope the fund does mirror the separate account strategy. It might fit pretty well w/ a position in GLFOX. --- Best, AJ
Hi expat, true enough, but then to get an equivalent figure for Gundlach, we'd need to add in all the other mortgage-related investments in the strategies he runs, e.g., his other open-end & closed-end funds, the etf, his share of RNDLX and oth…
Interesting that JG's old mostly-mortgage, total return fund TGLMX has basically kept up with DoubleLine TR on return and risk, and has much lower a.u.m. I'd be tempted to put new money into the TCW fund.
