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.
Most people don't pay any attention to what they invest in through their 401k or even a broker. I tried for years to get my Austinite ex hippy sister to pay attention to the multiple large cap funds in her 401k... couldn't be bothered. My son believ…
I break my bond allocation down my my best estimate of the funds duration: LT 1.5, 1.5 to 3, 3 to 5 and over 5
It must be working because the YTD returns are 0.08, 0.22, 0.76, and 2.14.
This is just the bounce back after being oversold... Hard t…
I am so sorry to hear your have been sick, but hope you feel well enough to join us here again regularly, soon. Without you, the board has lost a lot of zip and vim and vigor !
Keep your spirits up!
In addition to having no alternatives in Annuities and some 401k, some of us have worked with brokers in the past who only have access to A or C shares. I have done the math many times, and old_skeet is correct... A shares make sense if you hold th…
I know this is mostly mutual funds, but I also read a couple of stock newsletters too, esp dividend oriented ones and pick up a small position when something sounds cheap or reasonable. I missed GM last month so bit on CVS rather than add to VIG or…
@Ted
I have tried to pay much more attention recently to dividend safety and dividend growth, using ETFs like SDY and VIG, and am willing to sacrifice yield to avoid surprises.
There are several excellent websites to look at. Barron's profiled a …
I have been looking at their funds. The Tactical all Asset and the Bond fund are rather transparent as Blumenthal publishes his allocations on line weekly. He has little or no info on the long short strategy, which would probably be the hardest to i…
Non, je ne regrette rien
Just remember the ultra right wing French legionaries sang Piaf as they marched out of their barracks, after trying to take over the government in Algiers
I agree. even when I have invested in stocks later found guilty of egregious security frauds ( ie Worldcom) my position is so small compared to the lead plaintiffs I rarely get more than a couple of bucks. The fine print is always enticing, as your…
It is hard to determine the possible changes in NAV of a bond fund, but laddering does give you some hope that the results of interest rate increases will be predictable... as long as the fund is not threatened with large redemptions.
If you buyin…
Where does he get his money ? 23,000,000 shares of MORN equals $1.7 Billion
While he surely got paid more earlier now he only make $100,000 as Chairman
Of course, this does not address fund families that died long ago does it?
Anybody remember Mathers Fund? Henry van der Eb was almost 100% cash in the 1990s writing lucidly why the market was wrong. He was eventually right but by that time the fun…
There are other views that are better elucidated.
I just finished reading James Cloonan ( head of AAII) book on "Level 3 investment" where he makes the case that there has only been one ( 1929) situation where the SP500 has not recovered from a bea…
Is anyone else worried about lots of selling to lock in gains after Jan first? Regardless of what the tax rates are, not paying taxes until 4/15/18 will drive a lot of people who have significant cap gains
Most of the ideas we have about which sec…
Generating 4% yield will take some risk, although if interest rates rise as treasuries will yield 3+% and it will be easier.. but that will be due to inflation so your target may move.
You need to consider the loss of principle risk you run reachi…
The Marketwatch piece is a little late. Goodx was profiled in Barrons in October
http://www.barrons.com/articles/a-top-fund-makes-the-value-case-for-verizon-1475905159
I too looked at it then but couldn't get past the M* analysis where a quick gl…
@Alban
The only time I have used American Funds in the last 30 years is with a broker, but I understood then that they were expensive. I NEVER did any better than I would have done in an index fund.
To combat the "passive revolution" they are maki…
There is a longer article on the same subject with more ideas from September
http://www.etf.com/sections/features-and-news/using-etfs-hedge-against-rising-rates?nopaging=1
It might be hard to overcome the spread on such thinly traded ETFs. Wouldn…
All of the above illustrates the dilemma of finding a way to wring income out of a sector ( Bonds) that is so overbought. Look what has happened to Munis in the last two weeks.. an entire year's income gone.
I had a large position in FFHRX in May…
These disasters usually just drip on and on, unless senior management takes immediate responsibility ( remember this scandal has been known to CA newspapers for three years) and accepts appropriately severe personal punishment.
Stumpf did none of th…
Sold some stocks - MO and real estate before the mini fall and am increasing my ALT position. HFXIX and MBXIX and COGIX. Looked hard at MBXIX as the track record of the original hedge fund looks very solid. It was converted to an open end fund ea…
even better can you get the top bar with the column headings to "stick" when you scroll down to look at more than ten funds? Without this it is almost impossible to look at a screen which returns more than nine or ten results
almost half from just American funds and Vanguard. If you insist on cheap and "parent's rating of positive.. based on M* criteria" all you get are the behemoths. There are really two criteria people should focus on in evaluating single category f…
we have had several accounts at WFC for 5 or more years and have been relatively satisfied. The people are friendly branches convenient and if you have to use a big corporation they are better than our previous banks.
People's United lost a compu…
About 5 % of my total portfolio is in Alternative type funds
General wide ranging ideas like (MASNX), more standard Merger/Arbitrage ( MERFX) or managed futures (AMFAX ).
I have an additional 2% in GLD and 2$ in real estate
I don't know anything about Dunham but I suspect Domini markets their "social awareness"
As for Hussman, I can speak from personal experience. He called the 2008-2009 meltdown right on and had ( and continues to write) attractive and extensive disc…
I agree bonds usually protect value in bear markets and VWIAX has all of the advantages mentioned. As an acid test I look at the 2008 losses to see what happens in the "perfect storm" ... VWIAX lost about 18%. If this was the loss of your entire p…
this is like Jeremey Grantham at GMO talking about timber.. It is a great investment ( for him and GMO ) if you have $500,000 in a total net worth of $10,000,000. There are few publicly traded alternatives PCL, WOOD and the ones that exist don't w…
1) I admire anyone willing to stare these demographics in the face and tell the truth. If he really believes this, his current investment policy must require him to also believe that the threat is a long long way ( over 2 to 5 years ) in the future…
