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.
Here in CT where the wisdom of electrical generation falls heavily on natural gas, yet, NU (Northeast Utilities) is in a tight spot.
Wall Street has blessed the stockholders of NU with significant profits while rate payers deal with management dec…
Not sure what it cost these days is to operate a mutual fund, but I suspect collecting the ER on this fund whose AUM was $1M and then for the fund to have a bad year is a sure recipe for the mutual fund trash heap.
One of the few mutual funds that…
Article include the following comment from Mr Snowball regarding Michael Hasenstab's investment style:
“He’s not thinking like the rest of these people, and that’s the prerequisite of success,” says David Snowball, a communications professor at Aug…
One Man’s Opinon: US Markets Historically Have Performed Better With A Democratic President And A Republican Congress
"US equities will only get stronger from here and the strongest six months is yet to come, said Sam Stovall, Chief Equity Strateg…
@MFO Members: Warren Buffett's latest purchase. The insurer's only new money purchase during the period was 450,000 shares of Express Scripts (ESRX) for an estimated cost of around $32 million
Thanks Ted...he also added to, reduced and sold some …
I also have my wife to consider. That leans me more to taking SS at FRA.
Your wife (depending on her age compared to yours) can collect early on your SS (spousal benefit) if you "file and suspend" SS for yourself. She is entitles to half of what you…
Sounds like JC's portfolio is not very diversified. Using FINVIZ as a stock screening tool I played around with the stock performance setting in the "technical" tab.
Of 6951 stocks listed (I'm assuming JC and I are looking at similar markets):
120…
I maintain FAIRX as one of my largest holdings.
This fund is not for the faint of heart.
It swings for the fences and quite often circles the bases. There are, what feel like, long stretches of strikeout seasons as well. To buy this fund during th…
Sorry I suggest something much more valuable than deductions, that 99% of the tax payers are aware of...
To @TB: I wanted to list the credits available to taxpayers.
Familiarize yourself with these line items and if you qualify you will adjust yo…
My most over looked tax "credit", much better than a deduction was investment tax credits for over 62 yos , not in front me but check it out Form 8880, worth $1000's to seniors....
Credits are far more valuable than deductions, but the point of the…
FISV (Fiserv Inc) seems to have a fairly tight (for a tech stock) rising 3 and 5 year chart. FIS (Fidelity National Information Systems) and JKHY (Jack Henry Associates) chart nicely as well.
Another term that might be important to apply to this discussion (depending on whether the owner wants to maintain holdings that, if purchased after the rollover, might incur high minimums, loads or might even be closed to new investors) is the term…
One thing that is lost in the rollover would be the loan provisions 401k and 403b plans have.
"Loans from 401(k) plans. Some 401(k) plans permit participants to borrow from the plan. The plan document must specify if loans are permitted. A loan fr…
@rono & @mark:
I have been Long/Short CT&FL for the last few years...I short FL in the summer and CT in the winter. Dividends are:
- I never lose my tan,
-open toed shoes and
-fresh produce.
It's an apples and oranges kind of portfolio.…
From a different angle...
Here's a country "exposure tool" that identifies countries specific stock companies that are listed as equity holdings within an etf.
etf-country-exposure-tool/
@jerry & @catch22,
Texas and North Dakota comes to mind with their energy boom. I'll take a stab at this...create a state specific etf that is a combination of state munis and equities.
An etf that provides tax efficient income from state mun…
When a fund has a high "initial minmum" is an investor required to maintain that minmum forever? I have often wonder if an investor could meet the initial minimum and than after the "minimum holding period" lower their balance to a more appropriate…
This also is a fascinating presentation of our universe using factors of 10...starting on a 1 Meter blanket in a park in Chicago.
Pretty cool place we all call home using the power of ten.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0
Short Side of Long has a PM post worth a read:
expect-bounce-precious-metals/
Bounce has been in play today...checking to see if the cat is alive and clawing.
After reading a few of Lamberts shareholder letters and his desire to focus on more of an online membership run business, not solely a retail box model, I am reminded of a more successful membership run company, Costco.
Sears could learn a lot fro…
Taking this a bit further out on the limb of phyiscal possession of metals and minerals. It seems we undervalue the importance of mining companies and the resources they own.
It seems to me that mining companies (that own establish reserves of meta…
From linked article:
"The rub with Sears remains that the retail operations are difficult for the average investor to separate from the valuation of the assets that go far beyond the real estate holdings. Investor after investor proclaims the compa…
A Japan fund not mentioned in this article is HJPSX which though it has a very high ER has performed very well. Here is HJPSX compared against the article's chart references
DFJSX and SPY:
Bee, THOPX is ~ 90% investment grade (mostly BBB) and OSTIX is more than 90% non-investment grade; I don't think you can call those similar holdings. Making a choice between them involves a portfolio allocation decision.
Your correct with respect to…
How about Thompson Bond?
Take a look at OSTIX...similar holdings...shorter duration...better results:
They both seem to be Short Term High Yield funds, yet M* doesn't categorizes them that way. THOPX is a 5* fund in the ST Bond category and OSTIX is…
Just me, but if I were printing money (FED, ECB, BOJ, ...Ted?) I might toss some of my QE upon the Metals and the Miners while everyone else is filling up on cheap gas.
Very interesting chart! Yes I would have thunk lot of miners would be international. Or could it be they sucked up the place and the index gradually dropped them? That would explain things too no?
I follow your logic, but when I look at M*'s Region …
@VintageFreak,
A correlation that seems to have changed recently is the performance of EM funds verses PM funds. Prior to 2011, there seems to be a fairly high correlation between Emerging Market and PM equity funds. Not sure what changed since 201…
@msf "It's effectively a Roth conversion (an HSA is much like a Roth), but without paying taxes on the conversion."
That was my thought as well, but now you have me thinking.
Presently I recieve only a pension income (which is not considered earne…
equities introduce other risks as they correlate with other equities more than with the underlying commodity.
Great point..."equity premium" feels more like "equity discount" on the downside.
VGPMX testing its 2008 low at today's close.
Article presents a half truth with this quote:
"The mining stocks benefit from leverage to the metal. As a result, a 2% allocation to precious-metals equities equates to a roughly 5% allocation to bull…
What really is distressing is that MFO will not recognize WWWFX as a mutual fund symbol.
Just unlucky I guess...KINAX and KINCX are brethen funds. Still WWWFX is the only no load and has the lowest ER of all three. Maybe a technical question ito Chi…
>>
Not quite a sophisticated reading of the history or the events or the reasons.
This is sort of a start, and droll as well:
Taxing Growth:
"Taxes drive a wedge between the market value of an activity and the amount received by the produce…
Are investors (in the U.S.) the ONLY people who make money (capital gains) then bitch about it...?
I've never heard a ditch digger say "well I'd dig another ditch but you know I'm going to have to pay taxes" just wondering?
TB,
As I recall, Massac…
