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.
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Jim0445
For the Institutional class of the Harbor Focused International fund mentioned in the September issue, isn't the symbol HNFSX instead of the HNSFX you mentioned? Thank you for your excellent work.
Doesn't this article ("Retirement Planning..." by Larry Siegel) scream that anyone with access to a TIAA qualified account should put all or at least most of his or her fixed income allocation in the TIAA (guaranteed) Traditional Retirement account?…
Summary: Here's a way to gain entree into the Institutional Class of Sterling funds:
Sterling Capital Special Situations Fund Institutional (BOPIX) is one of the "A Decile" funds listed in the Trapezoid study in the November issue of MFO; it also s…
David, Thanks again for posting the analysis done by Trapezoid. How are you able to discover all these pearls of wisdom? Thanks for sharing your stuff with us. I'm going to run all of my Amazon purchases through the MFO site effective immediately.
Thanks, David. As always, lots of good stuff! Question about Trapezoid: Is "Class Prob." the most important "score?" How's Walzer's performance history/record?
This author may be veering off the road to sound retirement portfolio construction. Despite low interest rates, bonds still provide a ballast to stocks. Of course, anyone with access to TIAA Guaranteed Traditional (now paying 4% with floor of 3%) ha…
msf: All ACA metal plans (i.e. except catastrophic) offered on an exchange are tax credit eligible. These are plans for everyone.
When I checked last year for the adult son of a friend of mine, we learned that his taxable income was too low to qual…
What you're experiencing is widespread of course. Why wouldn't premiums increase if underwriting standards are relaxed or eliminated (e.g., for preexisting conditions) and for keeping "kids" on their parents' policies until the "kid" is 26. The plai…
I've called both the TDA Mutual fund trading desk as well as G.P. toll-free # (the G.P. transfer agent) and they each pointed the finger at the other, saying their hands were tied. I just called G.P.'s toll-free number and drew her a picture of the …
I tried unsuccessfully to place small purchase orders for each of the funds, ggsox and gisox. Neither order went through; systems shows that both funds are closed to new investors and I am now waiting to hear after the broker's mutual fund trading d…
Goldberg didn't say what he meant by getting excited:
Here's what happened to the four outstanding Grandeur Peak funds yesterday (8/24/15):
GPRO 11.81 -0.57 (-4.60%) -
GPGOX 3.01 -0.14 (-4.44%) -
GPIOX 2.93 -0.14 (-4.56%) -
GPEOX…
Where (i.e., which page) does the Quarterly Report state that the Global Microcap fund will be offered to existing shareholders first?
And I thought it was interesting seeing their chart showing what percentage of each of the existing funds is devo…
The Bank Secrecy law was originally signed into law by President Nixon in 1970 and enhanced by the Patriot Act signed by President Bush - with the best of intentions, I'm sure. I'm surprised that the bank didn't recognize the problem and alert th…
Would the answer be the same if you changed the word "corporation" to a sole-proprietorship? I ask this because the majority of corporations are small businesses and often are owned by one person, making the corporation merely an extension of the pe…
As a long-time Vanguard owner/customer, I would like to see them offer this kind of service with the option of paying a flat dollar amount instead of a percentage fee. I've never understood the fairness of advisers' charging ten times as much to sug…
bumine, Are you sure the funds you mentioned hedge for foreign currency risk? I just checked one and this is what M* says about VEURX's exposure to foreign currency risk: Like most of its peers, the fund exposes investors to foreign currency ris…
Thanks, rjb112. My 401k has a brokerage link option that allows me only to use open-ended mutual funds, not ETFs. (I noted that McCulley recommended the ETF HEDJ.)
I'd like to hear some suggestions of open-ended mutual funds that invest in European stocks and/or real estate and hedge in dollar terms. Thanks in advance.
In a typical 401k plan that was the subject of the article, there is no sales person or rep to hang. It's pretty much up to the participant to choose. But imo, the author (Chana Schoenberger) is mistaken about TD fund performance. According to M*, t…
The first time I ever heard Bob Brinker was around 15 years ago when he was recommending I Bonds with a coupon rate of 3% plus inflation. I knew that anybody recommending I Bonds and low-cost no-load funds had to be okay in my book. He's always emph…
This is confusing to me because Class A shares of any mutual fund normally carry a sales charge. It would have been clear if they had said the N shares would convert to a Class A, Load Waived share class. But maybe the real story is, "With a negativ…
I'll have to listen to him again. I'm sure I can listen on the internet somewhere.
You can listen to the archives on ksfo.com
Choose Sunday from 1-4 pm. There is a 7 day archive of all the ksfo.com radio programs. He did talk about bonds today. …
This fund might need to be closed and liquidated and put out of its misery. It's rare to see M* rate a fund's Returns as "Below Average" and Risks as "Above average." Al Gore would say, "What should be high is low, and what should be low is high." U…
Despite the changes that management might make in the portfolio, many investors could benefit from professional asset allocation and daily automatic rebalancing. I especially like Vanguard TDFs with their annual expense ratios of only 16 basis point…
Another thing that would concern me is the lack of call protection; specifically, the company can call in all or any portion of this preferred stock at $25.00 starting in 2016:
'
"Ally may redeem all or any portion of the outstanding shares of Serie…
The Board of Directors should not only close this one, they should also liquidate it. I see no reason for this sub-par fund to exist. All compensation to management and directors should be clawed back for the last ten years and added to net asset va…
I've heard that Clements will have a "Sunday WSJ" column beginning tomorrow. Will this be in the online version of WSJ - or what? I admire and respect both of these individuals and appreciate the reminder. Wonder if they shared more wisdom in the "…
I don't want to be out-of-line, but I'd ask you to consider your objectives. The terms "investment" and "minimal holding periods" just don't go together. The short-term trading penalties are in place to discourage short-term trading and are generall…
I've owned Marketfield since before the Mainstay takeover so I now have the I shares. And I apologize if this question is off-topic, but can you please explain the appeal of this fund? I've been disappointed with both the performance and the high ex…
Reply to @msf:
There's been more light shed on TIAA -Traditional in this discussion than I've seen in total at M*. Thank you, msf. I still have more to learn about this and I'll look forward to reading more here at mfo.
Reply to @msf:
But those withdrawal restrictions suggest not putting all of ones eggs in a single basket. Just as I might suggest an immediate annuity to provide only a base level of cash rather than everything one would possibly need, I would also…
Reply to @msf:
The rate itself fluctuates, and will rise as interest rates rise generally. This may be the most secure, best paying GIC or stable value investment around, and is great for one's cash/fixed income portion of one's portfolio.
msf,
Than…
Reply to @Ted: VTENX isn't available to me but a similar T-C 2010 Institutional Life Cycle fund TCTIX is. The long bond duration bothers me a little because I think interest rates and the bond market will eventually normalize.
