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 think interest rates will be lower in 2 to 3 years, so I would buy either 3 to 5 year treasuries or solid corporates that are non-callable
Does anyone else have different ideas about how far out to go on the yield curve?
Any body tempted by "ma…
@BenWP
Schwab ( and probably TD) "banks" are weird. They may be banks but I have had lots of trouble moving money between Schwab and other brokerages using their banks. moving money to and from a bank doesn't seem to be a problem.
B+M banks seem …
I was very leery of VWINX and other "allocation" funds. Everyone knew the stock market was close to peak PE, but when interest rates were so low last year, the protection bonds offered in the past disappeared, especially as VWINX duration is still …
There are several other alternatives that have been trading for a while with higher volumes
https://www.fool.com/investing/stock-market/market-sectors/consumer-discretionary/automotive-stocks/electric-vehicle-etfs/
BATT focuses on batteries for EV…
I echo all of the above statements. Michael Price ran the first mutual fund I bought (Mutual Shares) in 1989. I hung on to it and Mutual Discovery until David Winter left. The capital gains were a problem, but not unlike other long term positions…
Chart from ETF.com shows even short term treasury ETFs have lost money, as their short term bills have declined in price as interest rates go up.
https://www.etf.com/sections/features-and-news/best-bang-your-buck-isnt-short-t-bills
Floating treas…
I am surprised the market is not down more, but I think that has to do with earnings only just now starting to drop. A lot of this may be due to the strong job market ( with millions of people still not wanting to work because of covid, disability …
@LewisBraham
Unfortunately this is not the ugliest and most dangerous "completely false" tale being pushed out there, but it reinforces the others. ie the "Deep State" has control of the Government and is consciously trying to destroy traditional…
STOR was in the news a while back about all sorts of management issues when they fired the ex-CEO and co-founder from his position as executive chairman without giving a reason. That is probably why Buffet bailed, as did I.
Anybody tried the M* Investor portfolio manger recently?
They apparently ignore all but one of your current watch lists when asking if you want to transition from "legacy". The watch list they offer me I deleted sic months ago, but there it is. No…
I tried Fridson for a year or two recently. It is relatively cheap ( $200 ? a year) but the suggested portfolios are only changed once a year, and even the "lowest risk" one lost up to 20% with recent interest rate hikes.
The newsletter "follows" …
just looked at new issue auctions for Treasuries at Fidelity. the official schedule shows many bills 4 week, 8 week, 26 week etc for Tuesday, but the FIDO trading platform only shows 5 Bills earliest maturing Dec 2022.
Can you access the full auc…
I didn't have any trouble switching my wife's IRA from mutual funds to the VBS a year or so ago. I also just moved one account out to Schwab, all online, without any issue.
After moving the account, however, I can no longer log in to get tax docum…
I am reminded of my sister's son in law in Texas who objects paying taxes for AMYTHING!
What about road maintenance? "I have a 4 wheel drive Tundra and can go off road"
what about education? " My kids go to private schools. Why should I pay for …
Every fund/ETF company is jumping on the "Climate Change " bandwagon, but I think there is a good case to make for active management here, as the technology is rapidly changing and sophisticated engineers and mangers can add a lot of value by knowin…
I have a small $ amount in the Rockefeller Climate Solutions Fund, which they set up from their LLP that has been running for several years. The Rockefeller foundation and family office have dumped XOM etc and are trying to make up for John D's cre…
I just got a new truck with Sirius XM for three months. Then they send me an offer for an additional two months free if I sign up for a subscription
Subscription costs $75 for three months! I like classic rock and roll 60's, classical music and o…
Bloomberg has two columnists with close to opposing views. I am pretty sure you need to subscribe to read these but
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-07-14/how-many-months-until-the-fed-brings-inflation-nearing-double-digits-to-a-pea…
@davidmorman
thanks for link to Yahoo re PFIX. I am not well versed enough in options and swaps to know why PFIX volatility is higher than the interest rate volatility, although I suspect it has to do with the time frame Bassman is aiming at ( ie …
I am fairly certain if you pay 100% of your 2021 total on time, there will be no penalty regardless of your 2022 income.
If you take RMDs, you can pay all of your estimates taxes at the end of the year and have it count for entire year without pen…
I have mentioned this before, but it is worth looking at PFIX for inflation protection. Harvey Bassman at "Convexity Maven" has designed this ETF with swaps on treasury futures to tract inflation. He has a great web site with lots of data and tabl…
Sorry I meant BDC. Most BDCs ( ie MAIN) are down 10% or more anticipating bankruptcy of some of their companies with a big recession.
Not sure again how much Marks is really involved.
Marks primary role in the past was managing OAK or Oaktree Capital Management LLC.
He sold it to Brookfield Asset Management which is publicly traded BAM but has Billions of dollars in other assets, mostly real estate and infrastructure.
OCSL lis…
While I a not sure I believe them, Schwab chat claims with fed reserve raising rates, next months payout will be close to 1.19%. The "waivers' apply to individual investors also he says. The $1.61 was on6/15 same day fed hiked rates
I saw the same data.
One of my smaller accounts received $1.61 on 6/15 on a SWVXX balance of $3217
Annualizing it and not accounting for compounding that is $19.32 a year
19.32/3217 is 0.6%
Will email them.
I just looked at take home after taxes ( Mass tax is 5%)
At Schwab Short term treasuries look the best with 3 mo 1.47 vs Schwab MM 1.11
Their muni MM at my tax rate is 0.64% pretty pathetic!
I guess the spread at 3mos implies that rates will be …
I wonder if M* will still provide Quicken portfolio Instant Xray ( not quite as comprehensive as the one online at M* but quick and easy).
I just use Quicken on my laptop, so I don't know Quicken App will also track investments
Hopefully M* will …
Some interesting ideas from one of my advisors
20% declines not caused by electronic trading (1987) or Pandemic ( 2020)
1970 down 35% Recovered 20 months later
1973 down 48% rec 2114 days later !!!
1982 down 26% rec 68 days
2001 down 4…
Thanks for suggestions. Will look at them but would like one I can run on Windows PC too.
Here is the "we don't care if you have been a customer for three decades" response from M*
Dear ******
Thank you for writing to Morningstar. We certainly ap…
I find Calum Thomas's Chartstorm useful for overall market trends. Basic version is free.
This week he makes the important point ( as have others) that despite the rapid decline in SP500 etc, and the historically fast drop in the P/E to 15 or so ( …
I am glad others have found Lance Roberts. I find his daily emails very interesting and useful.
A number of people are predicting a short term bear market rally, to sucker everyone back in and then a huge crash.
The thing that stands out to me is …
@Ben @msf
I am glad to hear that converting my current watch lists to portfolios and then migrating them to "Investor" is apparently easy.
However this does not resolve the lack of an "import " function in Investor. As I mentioned above, I import …
There are a lot of people posting negative comments on M* discussion boards, especially about the lack of importing, for good reason. I would add my two cents worth but their system won't let me sign in, although I can log in to see my portfolios wi…
This may be the final nail in M* coffin for me. Thanks for screwing up a totally functional system and then increasing the price!
I have paid them money for lots of thing (remember the old tissue paper thin mutual fund reports?) since probably 19…
As a theory, managed futures sound wonderful, but I like many others have been disappointed. I bought AHLPX after extensive research helped me decide it had the best and least volatile track record. I held it for about six months in 2021 when it bas…
