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.
Reply to @BobC: totally agree, BobC. This is one of the asset classes, together with high yield, micro caps and a few more, when the active management is more effective.
Reply to @bee: The short answer is that this manager will not and should not 'navigate' interest rate risk of the porfolio. Longer missive: the premise of the "Permanent" asset allocation is to have at least one asset class that performs well in a…
Reply to @MikeM: agree... and FWIW, my wire to fund Roth @ Fidelity this year, a different account i admit, but inside the multi-year existing relationship, was frozen for 5 business days before i could place any trades. Each house, including broke…
and more from the desk today:
*Today’s VIX settlement of 14.55 is the lowest settle since June 2007 (13.01). In fact, VIX March dropped 7% from last night’s close into the settlement print, with SPX unchanged and dropped 34% over the 24 trading da…
I've been watching Nuveen's offerings, NBB and NBD. They are similar to investment grade bonds in their profile, and the supply is limited (the program has been terminated last year). If the discount widens anymore, i'll be buying in my tax-deferr…
VF, please don't buy this instrument until you understand what it is. It seems indeed very tempting as volatility is bound to go up from here, but as usually, we don't know when exactly this happens. Since this thing invests in futures, which are …
Reply to @catch22: a few bits from our desk:
• Mr. Bernanke not-withstanding, Fed Funds are pricing in almost a 100% chance of a rate increase by year end 2013, almost a year ahead of FOMC guidance. Expectations now call for 25 bps by the end of ‘0…
comment from the equity desk:
• The “Correctionists” are having their day as today is the first day of de-risking day all year. Evidence of this (besides the obvious) materializes as:
o The hedge fund long index underperforming the market by 60 bps…
@hank. When Warren Buffet or anyone else talks about interest rate risk in reference to 'bonds', they most of the time mean 'US treasurys'. 35% of catch's exposure is high yield - which has a very strong correlation to equities and is called 'cred…
it's under 'unsettled cash' in the account view. Any account history will show you the actuals. i personally like the new view, except they lost the cost basis of the most labor intensive holding i had (div reinvested in taxable account). they pr…
Reply to @BobC: i didn't read it as "keep duration low". I read it as "add concervative income producing investments to your barclays agg". i think he refers to credit, mortgages, utilities -- and whatever else produces income.
on my watch list as well, but no go with a 10% premium. in terms of the place in one's portfolio: i have my buckets, such as equities (all sorts of caps, domestic, foreign, emerging -- includes preferreds and reits); core fixed income (including mu…
Reply to @catch22: tips are usually medium to long term -- there are no TIPs issued that would qualify as cash. cash by definition is something before 12 mo maturity... gov't bills usually that currently yield about nothing.
Reply to @scooter: yes, equities are natural protection against inflation. this is not my personal opinion of course, this is an industry truism and there is research behind it. you could think that as raw materials and labor are getting more expen…
hi scooter. if you want to look at the inflation portfolio, look under the hood of some Target Date Income funds. BlackRock, JPMorgan and some others create income category for those approaching retirement, so the main goal is income of course, bu…
i have been watching and buying GIM for the last couple of years every time there is a sell off and premium is under 3% (once even at a discout!). this happens at the time of market panic and general sell off of risk assets when all prices drop mor…
Reply to @00BY: it is normal. they always leave with a 'non-compete' clause which is usually effective for a year. Gundlach's exit was an exception, but he didn't mind to go to courts.
@By -- it's almost exclusively about pay. if you're a star, and your name is enough to attract assets, why would you want to share the management fee with others when you can have your own shop. Really. Very. Simple. Answer.
Reply to @Investor: as mentioned before, i have done the same at the end of December. As the Murphy law would have it, YTD MACSX is handily outperforming MAPIX -- probably for the first time in their combined history. -:)
to your last point, hank... many more than 3 "broke the buck" in 2008, but those owned by banks or any other deep pocketed (and not so deep pocketed) parents, received capital infusions to keep their NAV @$1.00.
Reply to @Investor: not quite... the standard practice to have a prospectus and everything like a real fund -- mutual fund often. and manage internally until you have a track record -- usually 3 year number is what consultants and erisa managers ar…
the market indeed stopped jumping at any fresh headline out of Europe. the good and healthy development is that correlations, which were at record high, fell most on record -- i am reading 30%. this means that stock pickers, who got clobbered last…
@kevindow -- the inception date of the fund has nothing to do with the fact when one could purchase the fund. many funds start with the firm's seed capital and first build a performance record before opening to the outside investors. of course, so…
Reply to @Gandalf: he should be fine with this choice. I would only killed total stock market, since it is redundant to large, mid and small caps -- and split those 10% among other these categories. basically 80% stocks vs 20% bonds is fine at his…
i would think it would be bought back by the entity taking the company private... like a tender offer at certain price and will stay at that price until it goes public again or there are secondary transactions in the market at different price (like …
Hi Mark, I just did an annual trading in my daughter's 529 account -- also, 6 years to college. I use Nebraska plan because of the fund choices and because my own state provides nothing in terms of current tax benefits. Nebraska has Vanguard choic…
