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.
Reply to @Maurice: Maurice, I take it you're not a fan of the email marketing service "Constant Contact" either. The name alone sends me into a frenzy of repeated whacking at the delete key.
I don't know if you've noticed this or find it strange if you have, David, but the Fund Reveal page linked in the ARTGX update doesn't support your analysis; in fact, it's dead opposite your analysis.
FR says it's "not a well managed fund" and exh…
I've had FCG on the radar for only a few days, but it looks like traders are already well onto it as a value opportunity. It's gained 9% in the past week, and price and intraday indicative value are down about 3% in early trading today.
Reply to @hank: Sure, bonds come in different flavors, some more correlated, some less, depending on the environment. But there's usually a bond class that will help hedge stock risk, and well-run, actively managed, diversified bond funds never real…
Reply to @fundalarm: That's the thing with etf's: there are so many of them, and it takes a lot of effort to drill down and see what they're each doing.
Reply to @hank: Hank, your bond example brings up the main reason I've usually avoided explicit shorting or market neutral approaches in the past: why do it at all when you can own negatively correlated assets in bonds that provide a hedge against s…
Reply to @WallStreetRanter: Points well taken. I had a notion that the only time Hsgfx had done anything for investors was 02 & 03, but looking now at the year by year returns on the M* performance pages, JH didn't really underperform outrageous…
Reply to @fundalarm: I agree that's a good choice, but on the point about etf's not working when there's stress in the market, I have to toss in another data point. In '08: DEM -34.58%; ODMAX -48.03%. DEM's lesser loss in '08 had a good bit to do wi…
Just another view here: many of the indexes used by etf's are custom-built and fundamentally weighted, which research by Arnott & Co. among others has shown to earn a premium over traditional cap-weighted indexes. The best EM etf's combine funda…
For WallStreetRanter, I'm just curious, not critical, because I have no pooch in this search, what in particular you observe about HSGFX that makes you think the future may be better than the past.
TIA - AJ
I'm a little late to the thread with this thought, but I've started looking at two new low-volatility EM etf's: PowerShares' EELV and iShares EEMV. Of the two, at first glance I like EEMV a little better because it has rules in place to keep sector …
A couple of W'Tree's etf's are actively managed, ELD being one, and PCY, the etf Kenster linked to, has a volume of 593,000 plus. So, not all etf's in the space are passive or low-volume. That said, good active OEF managers are certainly more flexib…
Reply to @Investor: Hi investor, a rule of thumb I've seen referenced several places is a minimum of $100 mm assets, 50,000-share average volume to be on the safe side. So yes, I agree 18k is small volume - but I was a little surprised that the bid-…
WisdomTree also has a new U.S.-$ EM corporate bond etf like the iShares etf in that headline - EMCB. It's just under $60mm in assets with a volume of ~ 18,000 and a bid-ask of 0.12%.
EM bond etf's are popping up like edelweiss in the high meadows …
Reply to @Skeeter: There have been tons of complaints at M* about misclassification in X-Ray. From the level of dissatisfaction expressed there, I'd be really cautious about X-Ray results, for anyone who decides to use it at all.
The second half of the interview was played on the 13th. Here's the transcript:
http://wealthtrack.com/transcript_04-13-2012.php
It's more investment related, as opposed to the more macro content of the first half.
Here are Andrew's answers to three questions about the portfolio, including the Vietnam ETF:
http://www.seafarerfunds.com/ask-seafarer/
I think it's pretty impressive that he anticipates questions about the portfolio and sort of preemptively answe…
I'd want to ask Dan F. whether he thought the same thing in early '04, before the last rate rise, and what he thought when after a few years, rates came right back down again.
Reply to @CathyG: Or consider that all bonds are not the same. Most of the super-scare talk tends to extapolate from long-term Treasuries to the entire bond market, which is really misleading. Multi-sector (strategic) bond funds are a pretty good pl…
Reply to @Investor: I took a look at FMIJX a while back and decided it looks great, but not different enough from ARTKX to be very attractive for this house's portfolio. It has roughly the same mix of geography (significant U.S., loads of UK/W. Euro…
It's kinda interesting to see the difference in returns between the etf and the oef for the first month; I'm curious to see if it persists in the next few months. (Sure, not definitive for a short period, but interesting nonetheless.)
The etf (TRXT…
Reply to @MikeM: Mike, the way I've heard SS, pensions, annuities and any work income addressed in one bucket method is that they're a prequel you have to figure in before you structure the pots of $: quick and dirty, it's to come up with an annual …
Reply to @tgeno: If you dig into it, the bucket thing as applied specifically for retirement is primarily for people who use their savings or income from same for living expenses, which doesn't really apply if there's pension etc. income adequate to…
Christine Benz, one of the bright spots at M*, writes frequently about the bucket approach. As income circumstances are looking likely to change at our house in the fairly near future, I recently tracked down several of her pieces, and it really ope…
Catch, Grandma always said not to go out naked in a northern "spring." (Maybe she meant it was okay in the summer by the swimming hole?)
I saw a line somewhere, sorry no attribution remains in the memory cells, that there might even be hedgies and …
Not yet, though it's high on the watchlist. (I'd need to sell another fund, and I haven't made a decision on that yet.) I've never owned Fairx.
A couple of months ago I put up a post here asking the same questions, and got all but zilch for replies.
M* just in the last couple of weeks has botched the "load" figure on the quote pages for funds that have early redemption fees: many? most? all? funds with erf's have those shown as loads on the quote pages for the funds.
M* motto: proudly botchin…
I guess we'll have to see what the Pttrx portfolio looks like as of 3-30, but as of the end of Feb., he wasn't practicing what he's preaching now: his gov't bond holdings were of the long-ish variety (37% of market value, 44% duration-weighted).
H…
DBLEX/DLENX is a conservative (maybe the most conservative) EM bond fund; Pimco has a stable of five foreign and global bond funds, and one multisector that goes pretty heavily into foreign (PDIIX); Templeton's got the cef's GIM, global bond, and TE…
Rono, since your b-i-l is conservative in the investment schtick, if he wants a one-fund solution, I'd prob'ly pick the most conservative of the Price one-funders: Personal Strat Conservative or Retirement Income. Price has pretty substantial alloca…
Reply to @prinx: Prinx, my question and ibartman's answer were about a very specific return-risk plot tool; neither of us suggested in any way that it was the only tool an investor ever needs to use.
M* is screwing up again. They're showing early redemption fees for a lot of no-load funds as loads on the quote page. I noticed a discussion thread on that issue at M* earlier today. This is apparently a new error that's just shown its face in the l…
Hank,
That's what happened in the last Fed-initiated rate rise, mid-04 to mid-06; the phenomenon is called "bear flattening," i.e., the yield curve flattens from rates rising at the shorter end. Vanguard had a good paper on it that was published on…
Reply to @Old_Joe: OJ, I take it you remember the "How about a nice Hawaiian Punch (bam!)" commercials, which for accuracy would now need to feature a guy swinging his fist underwater.
Reply to @David_Snowball: Imho, Vanguard is the go-to brokerage for Pimco I-funds (Pauix, Pttrx, Pimix, Pdiix, etc.): $25k minimum in taxable or IRA, with a transaction fee, which is $20 if you have $50k or more with Vanguard in total, or $35 if les…
