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 @Kenster1_GlobalValue: "the famous BusinessWeek cover story from August, 1979, which confidently trumpeted "The Death of Equities." Different times and a lot has changed with the markets. Not denying that the dislike of equities could be vi…
Reply to @MaxBialystock: LTCM = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-Term_Capital_Management
One of LTCM's former head traders is now the head of the CIO for JPM.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/jpm-retires-ina-drew-appoints-chairman-treasury-borrowing…
My concern with Canadian banks is if the high housing prices up North go, well, South.
As for Elizabeth Warren, I agree with her, she means well, but I have about zero confidence in her ability to change things. It's sort of like a librarian agains…
Reply to @Maurice: It's not that there's not enough gold in the world, but it's a matter of "at what price." I don't think a "gold standard" is a solution necessarily (although it's not a question of supply - what's money supply divided by the amoun…
Out of curiosity, why don't you like PFE? Good dividend, relatively consistent and (in a good way) boring. I don't hold any individual health care names because so much is dependent on the approval or disapproval of this and that, and I admittedly d…
Reply to @hank: The other loyal Dimon fan on there the other day was former White House Chief of Staff (and former JPMer) Bill Daley, who couldn't have more wonderful things to say about Dimon. Langone had a few good things to say (some of which wer…
Reply to @kevindow: There's a general dislike towards equities by much of the retail population, it seems, which now includes rich people (according to a poll CNBC was discussing yesterday), who are buying diamonds and other things - hard assets (ht…
Reply to @Accipiter: "In Time" was really quite good and probably one of the better movies I've seen in the last couple of years. "Gattaca" also a great movie from the same director.
Reply to @Gandalf: Thank you both. I really don't want to get too political because that never leads anywhere on this board, but I just continue to find remarkable the belief that either side in Washington is looking out for the majority when much …
Reply to @Kenster1_GlobalValue: I'll be happy to not really mind what Berkshire is doing, as while Buffett has an outstanding history, he's turned into the definition of crony and one has to question whether a number of Berkshire's companies have be…
I am increasing holdings in Asia a bit, but otherwise not doing much. I don't see positives if Obama is elected or Romney is selected, although I can envision an environment where the market may like Romney being elected more. As for the 1%, both po…
Reply to @kevindow: Looking at the Pimco fund, the prospectus offers an interesting note: "A privately offered fund managed by the Fund’s portfolio manager is
expected to be reorganized into the Fund as of the date the Fund
commences operations (i.e…
Reply to @JoeNoEskimo: Yeah, I don't agree with Marketfield on some macro themes, but I remain impressed by its flexibility and nimbleness, as well as performance (it's done quite well this year for a long/short fund, but how it's then managed to do…
Me thinks some of the pension funds have all manner of things to worry about. I'm sure these funds hold huge stakes in JPM, because it's Jamie Dimon we're talking about here, right? lol. As I've said previously, it's remarkable to me how quickly man…
So, we'll go, "Oh my, this is outrageous, what should we do?!?" We'll think up some ineffective regulations (but forget to actually, you know, regulate), then banks will threaten and say everything is going to be armageddon squared if anything is do…
What's interesting is how well a number of the consumer names have done and how not well the commodity plays have done. Commodity plays overall haven't done well, but I think the situation with YPF made that situation worse (see farmland play Adecoa…
It's a relatively new fund, although apparently it is a conversion of an existing hedge fund, which is a little curious - what was the reasoning behind that? I'm not seeing David's profile of this particular Riverpark fund, but while this company …
Buying a little on some long-term holdings today or tomorrow probably, but otherwise not doing much. Some ETFs, some funds, and an array of individual holdings (primarily foreign, some US.)
I fully believe that you are doing what is right for you and I fully agree that those in/near retirement age should be conservative. I have a lot of concerns about a move to treasuries that does not seem sustainable and could reverse in a rocky mann…
Socgen takes other side. Oddly, getting a lot of attention on CNBC which has mentioned this several times.
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2012/05/14/nokia-socgen-cuts-to-sell-following-the-motorola-path/
"We believe that to date most att…
Reply to @catch22: Well, I think if things turn South very considerably here after all of the trillions of dollars that have been pumped into the economy in the last three years, the social/societal implications are likely not real good, as well. If…
I think the funny thing are CD rates - I have to get a 5 year CD to get over 1%? A lot of the CDs aren't even worth the effort of actually going and getting.
I agree with Hank absolutely in theory regarding treasuries, but I think you have a popula…
Reply to @AndyJ: It's not necessarily trade in treasuries for div-paying stocks - I don't think the answer is necessarily black or white, simple or obvious. I think in the scramble for yield, there are a lot of people who bought into MLPs (for examp…
Reply to @AndyJ: No, I definitely didn't think you were saying stocks weren't worth owning. I think my main issue in terms of fixed income is with treasuries - you may be getting inflows from other countries and from people really desperate for yiel…
I owned fund for 6 months after it came out, and while I firmly understood it was a conservative fund that was not going to be a big mover, I sold it after it moved less than an EM bond fund - it just didn't do anything. I haven't looked at the fund…
Reply to @PopTart: I think it's not surprising from the standpoint of Asian growth - I definitely think the EM consumer is a specific theme that plays out quite well (with some bumps along the road) over the next 3-5 years, and you're seeing rising …
A few follow-ups;
"NPD's report showed a 32 percent decline in total U.S. sales of videogame hardware and software in April, after similar declines throughout the first quarter.
Games software sales were down 42 percent last month, the report said…
I think as markets become increasingly faster and computer-driven, fundamental analysis has become less valuable. If someone's time horizon on owning a stock is days or minutes, what good is a long-term view of a company's business?
Luck is an ele…
Reply to @kevindow: Yeah, I certainly agree with what you're saying. I do have confidence in Foster, but hopefully he will display successful movement towards a broader EM portfolio over the next year. I will say that opening an EM fund and not havi…
Reply to @AndyJ: Do I think stocks are more attractive than some bonds at this point? Yeah, although that's a generalization. But on the flip side of that, people have to be allowed to make their own choices.
I do think that a lot of the near-cons…
As I guessed would be the case, there were apparently a number of hedge funds on the other side of JP Morgan's trade:
http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2012-05-11/bluecrest-blue-mountain-profit-jp-morgan-losses
Reply to @Old_Joe: From Bloomberg a month ago: "The shifting role of the CIO group at JPMorgan, which reported record firmwide profit for 2011, underscores how blurry the line can be between “proprietary trading” and hedging, and it highlights the c…
Reply to @Kenster1_GlobalValue: I would be mildly interested in the Brazil financials ETF and some other things of that nature if they came down far enough.
I own a resort property fund that's heavily in Greece. lol. Maybe I'll buy more of that a…
Reply to @Maurice: "That's why people like Buffett avoid them." And Sequoia offered the same discussion on CNBC last year, and there are others. And I agree with them, to some degree.
I definitely understand deep value investing - Whitman, Mutual …
Reply to @Kenster1_GlobalValue: "Yes Scott as you pointed out - Andrew Foster knew that the heavy Asia exposure would come up and he addressed that question. So in current form it has a similar exposure to MACSX with a bit of exposure outside of Asi…
Reply to @BobC: The Virtus fund is going to get complaints (load fund, etc), but I think it's actually an interesting, unique take on EM that has done pretty well. It's worth consideration. I have not been pleased with Pimco's new EM stock and bala…
Reply to @kevindow: The fund's Asia allocation is addressed here: http://www.seafarerfunds.com/ask-seafarer/#what-about-the-funds-geographical-exposure
