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.
In general I like the primecap funds; we've owned POAGX - Primecap Odyssey Aggressive Growth since 7/2013. It has underperformed for the last few years, but we're continuing to hold it. (By 'underperform' I mean it has still made money, just not as …
I'm sorry some of you have had poor experiences with Vanguard. Our experiences have been exactly the opposite. We have had accounts with Vanguard for 30+ years and have received excellent support. I don't want newbies reading this thread to think Va…
This fund appears to be over concentrated in pharmaceuticals and energy; not diversified at all. When benchmarked against the S&P500 (may not be the most appropriate benchmark for this portfolio) it has underperformed steadily for the last 12 y…
Postscript: Thanks for all the valuable comments. I decided to start reinvesting the MAPTX proceeds into VWILX (Vanguard International Growth Admiral), in monthly chunks, until we're up to where we were in MAPTX.
The first choice, and most obvious …
Not to malign BRUFX, but I think you own the better fund with PRWCX. I calculate 1,3,5,7,10 year returns as of last friday to be all higher for PRWCX than BRUFX, and with less volatility.
I don't own it, but if I did I would certainly continue to hold it. The long-term outperformance (versus a broad-based market index such as VFIAX) has been excellent. I do own the similar PRIMECAP Odyssey Aggressive Growth (POAGX) and continue to …
I received the following from a Morningstar support person, and it fixed the problem:
Please be advised to Clear the Browsing history, Cache and Cookies from your Browser.
By doing so, you will be able to use the Website and the Tools properly agai…
I think it is a browser issue. It works on Microsoft's 'Edge' browser, but on Chrome several sections are not displayed (sustainability, carbon metrics, holdings).
We have been Vanguard customers since at least 1985. We have the majority of our investments at Vanguard. I have had a large number of widely varying types of transactions and interactions with Vanguard employees. The vast majority have been overwhe…
I read through the article on this website, and I can't recommend it. There are a few good bits of wisdom, but a lot of inaccuracies. Catch22 pointed out a few of them. It seems to be promoting crowdsourced real-estate investing, particularly for "…
Tough to find a managed balanced fund better than VBINX. I think your best bet would be Wellington VWELX. Or, if you prefer a heavier allocation to bonds, there's the excellent Wellesley VWINX. Both have very low expense ratios.
I don't own this fund, but I disagree with your analysis. According to M* 93% of the bonds this fund owns are BBB or better, so it's not junk. It did drop last week, but is still up 0.5% ytd, which is better than the vanguard total bond market inde…
Sorry you're having problems. My experiences with Vanguard have been uniformly positive. The website works well for me. Phone support is very professional.
Don't know if it's related, but I've noticed a lot of August month-end distributions are not being shown on the fund pages. Some data glitch. I've alerted them to it, and they've been working on it for several weeks but so far no fix.
If you're young, willing to stay in a fund for a long time despite volatility, and can sleep well at night after a potential significant decline, you could add Capital Opportunity. If it were me, I'd be happy with POGRX, and just sit tight. If you o…
I calculate a tax efficiency number for funds, which for Fidelity Contrafund is 53.6%. Meaning it retains 53.6% of its gain in its share price (as opposed to being paid out as taxable distributions). That's pretty good for an equity fund. Your typi…
While it is well ahead of the S&P500 index this year, it is only slightly ahead of the more appropriate (for this fund) midcap index. And it significantly underperformed both indices in 2013, 2014, and 2015. Doesn't look like a good fund to me.
Yes. Other places you can find historical distributions: bigcharts.marketwatch.com/historical (enter ticker and click on 'interactive chart'), stockcharts.com (turn on 'events' overlay), finance.google.com, and if you're lucky the fund's website its…
That's a good gold fund, but if you want something that more accurately tracks the price of an ounce of gold, try: QGLDX - Gold Bullion Strategy, IAU - iShares Gold Trust, GLD - SPDR Gold Shares, PHYS - Sprott Physical Gold Trust, or SGOL - Physical…
A few you should look at:
Matthews Pacific Tiger, Artisan Intl Value, Capital World Growth&Income (American funds), Polaris Global Value, Vanguard Intl Growth, Artisan Global Equity, Artisan Global Value
I have been investing in Matthews Pacific…
While LEXCX is a very good fund, and it shows that excellent investing can be done with low expenses and very low turnover with plenty of patience, I think the picture is not quite as rosy as the blurb above hints at. While it has beaten its benchm…
I have been a Vanguard customer for many years now, and have rarely had any problem with any transaction I wanted to do, or phone rep I was interacting with. Sorry you have had so much trouble; I do not think it is representative of Vanguard, howev…
Several years ago I explored the seven-twelve method by constructing a big spreadsheet comparing an investment of $1M in a balanced fund (VBINX) vs. the same $1M invested in various mutual funds (mostly index funds when I could find them) according …
