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.
Bloomberg's Authers and Matt Levine have very good pieces about what went wrong, but they require a subscription ( which I pay as their articles are very good)
In summary, the tech industry in a low interest rate world had gobs of money, which they…
Lots of chatter on web that Biden budget playing to populism while other initiatives (vetoing DC crime resolution, may incarcerate migrant families at border again) indicate he is pivoting to center away from far left "defund the police" and border…
I have found a number of free sites that occasionally come up with something really worth reading. This is about SVB. The insiders were bailing out months ago. The chief risk officer resigned in late 2021 sold all her stock and was not replaced ( al…
Got through paywall, but article, to me , demonstrates that WSJ is a shadow of it's formal self. Little discussion of why IVOL and Kinetics funds have not worked and why PFIX has (although it is down YTD and today).
PFIX and IVOL demonstrate again …
I have used QUSIX and QUSOX since David wrote a nice article about it in 2015. It has beaten the index overall, although it is more volatile and is in about the top 1/3 of int small cap value funds per M*
MFO classifies it as "Int Small cap core" …
I agree there are serious issues with many emerging market countries. A lot of them are stuck with authoritarian corruption that does not improve the investment climate.
China, given it's size and recent aggressiveness will probably have a greate…
Aside from "practical " considerations, ie how much of a hit would I really take, there are the moral ones.
While many people eschew using "moral values" in investments, as everyone has different ethical values, there is a case to make that many …
One of the reasons they are upping the rhetoric is the moves by Biden Administration to crack down on leaking trade secrets, semi conductors, and attempts to "deChinaize" supply chain. The rhetoric provides a distraction and they probably hope they…
I think it is hard to believe that Xi will follow international banking and Finance standards and regulations after seeing what Putin has done to all of above and to accepted moral standards without much adverse consequences. The fact that Russia h…
I know most people will not be able to get past paywall but here is Bloomberg article about missing banker
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-06/missing-banker-reignites-fears-of-xi-in-china-s-tech-startups-venture-capital?srnd=premium…
I looked at my EM funds RNWIX was 27 % China. That plus it relative performance put it on the chopping block.
It is hard to screen for % China in most fund screeners, including MFO. M* premium screener lumps China into "other", although with a sp…
Wilson noted the gap between reported earnings and cash flow is the widest in 25 years, driven by excess inventory and capitalized costs that have yet to be reflected.
Be careful is right.
Remember what happened to poor Jerry Kosinski
His suicide note read: "I am going to put myself to sleep now for a bit longer than usual. Call it Eternity."[
I think that the drive for no till farming, the start up mentioned that claims to eliminate nitrogen fertilizer, and "precision planting " are driven by drought conditions, falling water tables and the need to reduce nitrogen runoff and be more ecol…
@ Crash
Sorry to hear about your sciatica. It sound permanent? PT is relatively ineffective for bad disc disease if the pressure on the nerve root cannot be relived. Typical ordinary sciatic gets better as the extruded disc material dries out and…
Bloomberg's John Authers had a very good discussion of SI yesterday. It is behind a paywall, but the bottom line as I sorta understand it is that in addition to this FHLB loan, the bank had large portfolio of Bonds a lot of which were on the books a…
I used to take everything there as useful and worth using, but as I have gotten more experienced, I now use it mainly for confirmation and only occasionally for new ideas.
Other than our good buddy here, Lewis, I find a lot of the columnists much …
I don't think we were listed as beneficiaries, just as her heirs. We could have each taken one bond but the bank might have insisted the proceeds go to each of us in thirds. My sisters tend to not like anything financial and there were other issues…
Interesting he thinks energy is expensive although most oil stocks are trading at PE etc well below the SP500 and energy still makes up a tiny % of SP500
I am on Mark's side. I am still a paper addict, but think it is wise not to have to through out 14 full newspapers (NYT and WaPo) a week in addition to three or four slick magazines.
Reading online is not the same to me as on paper.
A large part …
@Old_Joe
Good thing you get it at all. I can't get Barron's delivered and it has to be mailed, so it arrives Tuesday or Wednesday
I get the Economist online, but it is not the same as paper ( nor is any newspaper)
On the other hand it takes me h…
The hypocrisy of "freedom loving, little government" conservatives using state governments to force companies to do their bidding is jaw dropping. DeSantis and Disney is the worst example, but the "ban-ESG" movement has bigger financial implicati…
@msf
The bonds were still in my Mom's name. We thought about changing that while she was still alive, but it would have required us all to go to bank and do the same thing and she didn't have the stamina for it at 99.
I don't remember if we could …
My sisters and I cashed three matured paper bonds my recently deceased Mom bought years ago.
It required the three of us to sit in a bank officer's office for over a two hours signing, notarizing etc. We eventually got the money ( took several mon…
@LewisBraham
I agree, at least in theory that commoditized product producers are probably more easily rewarded for such abuses if they improve the bottom line. But for companies with brand vale and pricing power to be different requires that their…
@Observant1
Thanks for link to Professor Snowball's article on China. There he says small cap funds, are less likely to be in China
One small cap value fund, not strictly EM, that has done well over the years ( That David profiled in 2015) is QUS…
Among other "perpetual bulls" ( it seems) on EM is GMO
For a very long time they have believed Emerging markets will outperform almost everything else, but I think this is almost all based on valuation.
There are a lot of moving parts to try to un…
Seafarer's take on the Chinese Property Bond market.
Not good
https://www.seafarerfunds.com/commentary/the-transparency-problem-in-chinas-credit-markets/
It seems difficult to even screen for emerging market funds that don't have Chinese exposur…
Does becoming a billionaire require you to support actions that if not criminal, are morally repugnant?
Sure seems like that in many cases. Slave labor, child labor, locking employees into the factory, union busting, fighting minimal train safety …
Seeking Alpha has several explanations of the options strategies they use. It is pretty complicated compared to funds that use simpler covered call option strategies, like JHQAX or GATEX for example. I just started digging into JEPI and do not yet …
BTW Blackstone's CEO and 20% Owner, Steven Schwarzman, took home $1.27 BILLION last year, although the stock dropped 40%.
"Behind every great fortune there lies a great crime"
He also was the third largest individual donor to GOP "election denie…
