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 have a small % of GLD as an inflation and currency hedge. I am not sure it is worth it. I do not have physical gold, as coins seem to expensive, and I can't imagine how I would be able to get my fractional bar out of some vault in NYC if the world…
I am close to retirement so my first objective is not to loose much money, given how overvalued most of everything is.
I try to group bond funds by duration, relying on M* stats ( although they are somewhat dated and unreliable)
In order of increa…
this is strange because I use chrome for M* without any of the above problems. I can't say I like the new "look" especially the apparent lack of charting for stocks, but the portfolio seems to still work.
I heard Firefox was becoming more insecure …
Facebook is largely to blame in my opinion. there have always been fringe news outlets with extreme views, but until FB those devotees largely kept to themselves.
My uncle was a deep racist, but other than a few comments about black people he rare…
need more details on your objectives. Parking some money to prevent losses? Do you need the income? How much?
Most people expect a bond fund to provide ballast and sorta go up when the market goes down. Or at least not loose a full year's income.
…
PFIUX was up and since Jan 1 has done better than PONDX. A little hard to tell why although PFIUX was heavily involved in currency positions so that may be why as dollar fell, but dollar has been up recently.
VUSFX and some other low duration low …
I do not think political diatribes have any place here. I get enough of this junk from my relatives. Instead, perhaps we could back up our "opinion" with some facts for a much needed sense of reality.
Surely the relative proportion of payday loan…
I would rather be stupid than poorer. No one ( other than my fellow MFOers) else needs to know i am stupid but if I can't retire or put my kids thru college, I will be worse than stupid.
Sure, go ahead and jump in with both feet. I am sure Ray wi…
How many funds do you have? are they standard vanilla ones or will you be interested in small funds not run by major companies?
I dont use Scottrade but left TDAmeritrade as I thought their customer service was spotty.
Fidelity is a good compro…
I looked at alternatives ( L/S, Merger, futures, even market neutral) a year or so ago, because I thought stocks and bonds were overpriced even then and cash paid so little. I came to the same conclusion about L/S funds as David but BPLSX was close…
These funds do serve a purpose but as always you have to be right twice when to get in and when to get out. Most people are not right that many times in a row.
In a taxable account with large gains, selling half of your equity position even before…
It should be obvious that the authors of this bill are only interested in paying back their campaign donors. In fact, a NY Rep admitted as much. That is why it favors capital over income, ultra rich people over the middle class corporations over ind…
Our CC info was stolen somehow long ago, so I set up an alert on all our CC so i get an email every time they are used for transactions greater than $0.01... Some days i get two or three emails a day. Big deal. 99% of the time I recognize them May…
I have never understood why people object to paying a relatively modest fee every year for Quicken. While the updates are usually not necessary, and there are many things I wish Quicken would add or do better, it takes money to run a company and $1…
I agree but I do not think that is the general opinion of most people and financial advisers and certainly not what is in most advertisements for mutual funds. M* ratings are usually the only featured information piece of any fund ad. Most people …
@carew388 "Two ntf alternatives to GABCX are MERFX ARBFX."
I looked at all three, having owned MERFX for a long time. GABCX is not avaliable for new accounts at either Fido, Schwab or Vanguard ( I can't stand Mario anyway so I would have to hold my…
Like the proverbial stopped clock, Hussman will eventually be right twice. But who can afford to wait? He has great ideas, wonderful discussions of what is wrong with the market, but he has been wrong for decades. I had a money there but when he …
thanks for the link. i bought some LIT a few months ago, and WSKY a year ago..
Both have done well... I guess they play on the same theme... Get drunk without worring about that pesky DWI?
I am not sure why I even open up M* articles like this... Most of these funds are not really unique.
Why does M* even mention funds with a minimum of $10,000,000? Granted a few people may have access in a 401k but then they will have looked for in…
not sure why this will beat VWINX, but the thing that makes me very nervous about all these bond heavy hybrids is their long term stellar record is based on the great Bond Bull market.
Paying 4 to 6% in the past, bonds truly functioned as ballas…
I am going with WSKY... It is up 20 % this year... Sin wins...
FANZ supposedly includes health care stocks... I wonder if that reflects a play on CTE in the NFL or NHL... I doubt it
i would clarify your desired equity allocation. Vwinx is about 40% VTMFX is 60% both great long term records.
You can march down the equity percentages at Vanguard and not go wrong long term. It is a bit debatable if their management adds much t…
While it seems intuitive that lower oil prices would be good for the economy, it also indicates lower demand, confirming the undercurrent that no way are we looking at 3% GDP growth. While the Saudi/Russian attempt to raise prices has been largely …
He is also famous for moving to Singapore (with his third wife) saying America is through.
If he hadn't run Quantum with Soros (from 1970 to 1980
1) he would still be poor 2) he wouldn't be able to afford three wives or move to Singapore 4) he w…
Unfortunately, the WSJ is a shadow of it's former pre-Murdock self, and now hardly worth the money. Barron's far preferable.
I rarely get much from "free" investment advice, anyway. Anyone who has a portfolio greater than $50,000 should be willin…
If you mean a fund that allocates among different sectors or asset classes using etfs rather than stocks or bonds there are a few ETFs like that. I am thinking of Cambria ( an ETF they run is GAA) and CMGwealth.com.
The latter has a very informat…
Mind game...
Everyone moves into all index funds, presumably spread out over the whole market. Funds that hold all of the components of an index would skyrocket with their valuations dependent only on how much money was allocated to that index. Bu…
It all depends on your gastric acidity and if you need the money. Excluding the Great depression, if you believe James Clooney of AAII regardless of the downturn if you can hang on for four years and not sell you will be OK.
While I cannot really c…
I have used Schwab for three decades and have been pretty well satisfied. I also use Fido and Vanguard.
I think their customer service is better than Vanguard, at least there are fewer restrictions on accounts at Schwab so less maneuvering. Fido i…
I have had fraudulent charges on a card that I only use rarely, occur the next day after I used the card at a wine store. There was no other source for the fraud than an employee at the store.
When I called the card company they couldn't care less…
@BobC
I agree. Not only is this a black box, but it is a lack box that is not even in a traditional alternative category or trying to beat a traditional type index. The Upside seems pretty positive but it also generally looses more than the SP500 …
I bought BPTRX for my daughter years ago as I liked his other funds ( way before the asset bloat there) and thought she had a 50 + year horizon. The crazy leverage he uses helped drive the fund to one of my best investments but I wouldn't recommen…
I thought we only discussed investment ideas here... Try this
WSKY
http://www.etf.com/sections/daily-etf-watch/etf-watch-whiskey-fund-launches
If Quarter Cask is to peaty try Dalmore... If you have had great investment success thus far go for the…
Although I must say some of the worst ones are really really imaginative in their vituperation of Obama and the democrats. I wonder if most of those folks have a life offline
