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.
I have Bespoke Investment Grp's page on SA bookmarked, and check it fairly frequently; otherwise, I don't spend any time there for the reasons cited. (There are other actual pros who post decent analysis there too, probably as part of the free conte…
Reply to @GregFromBoston: I knew my partial career as a writer was headed down the tubes the first time a guy called and asked me to be a "content provider" for his tourist-oriented web site, and offered "exposure" rather than actual, you know, pay.
I agree with Scott: diversified EM is my preferred way of getting a little LA exposure, although it's been the bane of SFGIX, the one diversified EM stock fund I own: Andrew Foster says in his Q2 commentary that two LA stocks were responsible for 3/…
Barry R's The Big Picture, Abnormal Returns, GMO, Bespoke Investment Group (their site, and they do regular commentary on Seeking Alpha), Calculated Risk, Invest With An Edge (for momentum scores), Guru Focus, Barron's blogs (Income Investing, Focus…
Cef's don't get to have all the fun; some etf discounts are really piling up. The biggest EM debt etf's (EMB and PCY) are at 5% discounts ... enormous price drops today, only very small drops in NAV so far, as reflected in the IIVs.
BWG, thanks for the reminder about FEO. I watched and watched it for about a year and a half looking for an entry point & then forgot about it. It's back on watch from today. Yes, does seem a little early ... don't have an opinion on when to buy…
FYI, out of curiosity, I sent Bretton an e-mail asking about progress toward availability from fund supermarkets. Steve D. replied, saying Fidelity is a no because they're not taking any more small independents, but that Vanguard is likely to offer …
I've followed BRTNX a bit ... kinda like it, but no place in the portfolio for it unless I really got to be a serious collector. Max, I guess you picked up on the family ties between Bretton and the Parnassus gang ... think I recall you're invested …
Reply to @Old_Joe: Hi OJ, don't know if this will make much difference in the case of Am Century, but you might consider adding Q3 2011 and Q2 2012 to the list of downside data points. They add some recency to the data set, including risk-asset down…
Reply to @TSP_Transfer: The oft-cited figure for the U.S. is that one family controls as much wealth as 40% of the population; not sure what total percentage that represents.
Reply to @JoeNoEskimo: On the employment situation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a lot more than the headline rate; it's the fault of the "lamestream" media, IMHO, that it's the only major data point we hear about with any regularity. Loo…
Reply to @scott: According to the Barron's blog, Merrill Lynch says EM stocks are now just above the first buy signal since 2011. Their signal is apparently based on fund flows.
Reply to @Charles: Isn't one of the Ten Commandments "Never volunteer to be treasurer of anything"? Well, unless Edmund Dantes asks you to watch his chest o' jewels ...
Yesterday I gave DoubleLine a chunk of $ I'd reclaimed from Pimco earlier, and bought a little BAB as a baby step anticipating an eventual, temporary, long-rate fall. Still have a lot of cash.
Have eyes on a couple of CEFs, but as a poster on M* m…
Looks like Invesco has a smoother ride with not as much potential upside; haven't looked at the strategies to see how different they are, but that might be worthwhile for RP-leaning investors.
Not sure about that specific fund, but the RP schtick in general is equal risk among stocks, bonds, & commodities, and when there's a lot of correlation across asset classes and the direction is more down than up, it's not going to do well. Leve…
Reply to @ron: I'd tend to agree ... it might change in the next week for all anybody knows, but very recently the best allocation would prob'ly be some equities and a bunch of cash, and if you've got bonds, to be in safer, slower-moving, unlevered …
IE, I think it depends on what else in Asia/EM you own. If you've got another foreign or EM bond fund you're happy with, maybe you don't need MAINX. If you have an EM stock fund you're happy with, you might be more diversified with MAPIX than MACSX.…
Thanks, Skeeter. Guess I need to be reminded from time to time to look at the Bespoke site; lots of great info there.
Consumer staples oversold is kind of a surprise ...
Good stuff, OJ; gracias.
The best info on employment reports, imho, is straight from the horse's mouth.
The Bur. of Labor Stats news releases have much more info in them than the average news report ... and they're concise, well organized, and fa…
Reply to @mnzdedwards: Agree with Mike. I'm considering moving some PIMIX to PDI, but I'd like to see the NAV stop falling at least briefly before I sink $ into it.
I usually have very little to no cash in investable assets, but sold roughly equal amounts of core bond, credit-risk bond, and stock to get to 20% cash this week ... then in a moment of sheer insanity, bought a little VPACX yesterday for a 'safer' p…
I was curious because I'd never heard of OBIOX so took a quick look ... it doesn't pass my quick risk test, which consists of M* risk rating (high), 2008 return (-60%), and Q3 2011 return (-24%).
Have you looked at WAIGX? I haven't researched the …
Reply to @sligo: No, I don't think it's too big ... it's 2/3 large caps, and it has a geographically large investment universe. All the new Matthews funds are coming it at really high expense ratios; I seriously doubt any of them are going to be as …
I'm planning to build up from a small position in ARLSX (long-short); overall its returns since I've owned it have fallen between stocks and bonds, and on the days when both take it in the shorts, it's been the only green anywhere in my holdings ...…
I finally found a use for a long-short fund, ARLSX in this case, on days like these last few when most stocks and most bonds are down. It's up reasonably in the last week, while all my other funds are down. I still have a core bond fund that would n…
Did sell a chunk of munis, but otherwise holding for now. Be aware that some of the big selling in FI CEFs and ETFs, at least yesterday and today, has an element of panic to it; several have lost big in price, while actually gaining in NAV. (Same wi…
In PAUIX, Arnott holds what has appeared to be a near perma-short on U.S. stocks, while investing significantly in EM stocks and bonds. That particular combo has not been a winner this year; not to say it won't be in the future.
Imho, Arnott no lon…