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I should slightly adjust what Buffett said because I went and watched the video and it appears he didn't go as far as saying he had no bonds, he said bonds are unattractive and he would rather bet on stocks.
money.cnn.com/investing/about-fear-greed-tool/index.html
Here's a link to how they calculate the CNN Fear & Greed Index along with a few small interesting tidbits. In Sept 2008 (6 months before the market bottomed) the Fear & Greed Index w…
Hmmm, I think this was the author's "vision" for what a goodbye letter would have looked like if BG had written one or if it had been made public. I was trying to figure out whether the author was making fun of Gross or defending him. Maybe both.
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Thanks @AndyJ, its good to know about WisdomTree and your comments about Matthews made me go back and look. MAPIX has a bit less than 8% of its portfolio as of June 30 in USD denominated investments. That doesn't seem to be any of its Japanese hol…
I think with a lot of downside recently the market needed some good news and this was it. The S&P held support the last few days and if today stays strong there will at least be a little breathing room. I still have money to invest so I'm not …
@bee, I think you're exactly right! Easy monetary policy in Japan and a weaker currency will help stocks there just like it has sent stocks on a great ride for the last 5+ years in the U.S. I don't buy the idea that the U.S. is at risk of sliding …
Maybe its just me but using a mutual funds to bet on currencies seems like an inefficient approach. There are enough ETFs available to buy or to sell currencies if someone wants and although I didn't check all of the funds referenced in the article…
The interesting question is how far he's going to need to go and how long it will take. The Euro is down almost 10% from its high in May and that helps (a little). But he has a difficult job ahead of him when he can't effectively monetize a single…
@JohnChisum, are you looking at the weakness in Asia as a short-term problem that creates a buying opportunity or a problem that could hang around for a longer time and cause bigger problems for the markets there?
Thank you David, Charles and all those who contributed to another enjoyable read. One question related to your comment that "Speaking of insight into hedge funds, subscribers joining his The Idea Farm after 31 December will pay a much elevated $499…
Similar to @Gary, I have no investments with PIMCO. If I did, my concern would mostly be about all the distraction. Of course not everyone is answering questions about BG, but considering the media coverage it wouldn't be surprising if a lot of fu…
@rjb112, I clicked on Mark Hulbert's name as the author of the Marketwatch article and another copy of the article came up, with a graph at the beginning. At the end of that article was a comment button, which when clicked brings up lots of comment…
So I guess October is going to be fun! I was surprised how many sarcastic and negative comments there were about Hulbert. I guess after so many years he's gathered his fair share of haters.
I'm a big fan of the concentrated go-anywhere fund as well and I also prefer low AUM so there's no problem with flexibility. As has been said, though, I think its a bigger bet on the manager than in more diversified funds, and I like that because t…
I'm buying half of my normal position today in FSNGX and ICENX. If they drop more, maybe another 10% I'll most likely make each a full position.
@john, I'm also close to adding gold. I have an order in to buy GDX, which is a gold miner's ETF, a…
I agree its a great idea but in some way it must be restricted. If, for instance, person A could sell some portion of his/her shares in a closed fund (let's assume its the minimum investment amount) to person B, then except for a hard closed fund, …
E*TRADE provides a warning about any kind of fee I've encountered although I think in some cases I've received the warning even for sales that won't incur a fee because I've held them long enough. To my pleasant surprise, they also warn me if I'm s…
@Maurice, that's really nice! I normally use M* to keep track of the performance of my portfolio but its great if your broker does that for you.
The only advantage I see with M* is that I can divide up my investments into portfolios of my choosi…
This is good news but somehow I feel a little suspicious. The writer couldn't even get where they are located right. I assume he took the mailing address from their website, which I'm pretty sure is the mailing address of the unrelated company tha…
I believe, although I couldn't find the details again of what I've read, that two of the most hawkish members of the Fed, Fisher and Plosser, will rotate off as voters next year. This should make the Fed more dovish on balance. At the same time, Y…
I'm looking to buy/add to MEASX and IWIRX but I'm hoping for a good pullback that seems like it may have started.
I'm also looking for a bottom in gold and oil/gas as I'd be happy to buy gold miners and and energy etf/mutual fund.
I sold a porti…
WOW!!! @Maurice, I haven't seen a comment about Brown & Co forever!! I was a very happy customer as well but stuck with E*TRADE after the buyout. I've actually been very happy and feel like I've received great service. There have been a few …
@Ted, that's fantastic!!!! I thought there was already a roller coaster called Batman that I had been on years (maybe even decades) ago at Six Flags outside of Chicago, but this is totally different and far better! I haven't been to Texas for a fe…
Or you could buy a UK focused ETF except that it doesn't seem the FTSE has suffered much from the Scottish uncertainty. In general I think the market and the currency know Scotland won't vote to split and its priced in. If the Scots do vote to spl…
They don't really need to leak. There are enough Fed people out speaking, and with a wide variety of views, that if she wants to test market reaction to anything she has plenty of opportunity. I also think data is so instantly and widely available…
blogs.wsj.com/frontiers/2014/09/12/regulator-ramps-up-warning-to-retail-investors-over-frontier-funds/
Here's a WSJ link with a bit more information and even a partial answer to the question about why now. I'm not sure I agree with the statement t…
Long term treasuries broke support this morning so in addition to fears about whether the Fed will adjust its language after next week's meeting to suggest higher rates might be coming sooner than previously expected, the technical situation likely …
I feel like there's a pretty good amount of worry and that seems encouraging. There are enough talking heads predicting the market could plummet to keep a large amount of money on the sidelines. I can't remember the numbers or find the reference, …
Hopefully WAFMX isn't one of those funds they consider dangerous from a structural perspective. Aside from the basic risk of investing in these markets, the fund seems reasonably well diversified across various countries and while mostly focused on…
@Ted, thanks, it's a reasonable choice and one I've added to my analysis. I'm not much of an indexer in most cases but this might be a reasonable exception. It worries me a little to read that IJH is 96% correlated with the S&P 500 and 98% cor…
Fantastic and informative article, thanks @JohnChisum!!! I have an investment in MAPIX, I know there are quite a few people here who like Matthews, and I'm becoming a bigger fan every day.
Maybe I shouldn't admit it but I have a subscription and he tracks the recommended exposure to gold as well as stocks and bonds amongst newsletters that provide timing advice. In total he tracks more than 500 newsletter portfolios, some of which pr…
Thanks for the help @PRESSmUP and @BobC!!
The previous posts were spirited as always and its clear there are a variety of opinions. VASVX was on my list as well but I was turned off a little by the AUM and the large-cap growth exposure as well, …
Putin has been playing the passive aggressive for months and I'd find it surprising if this time is any different. He sent his military into Ukraine and got the Europeans' and US' undies in a twist, and now he's playing the peace-maker card again. …
