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.
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Sven
Lynn,
Thank you so much. I am planning on a 3-year ladder since I am a year away from retirement. Lots of spreadsheet work to calculate the income replacement needed. This ladder will create a steady income stream. So thank you for all your help.
I moved back to high quality bond funds this year. Some of which you covered in the SA article. For now, I will stay with agency bonds to the bond ladder. I will pick active managers for corporate bonds.
Sven
Reply to @Skeeter: I concur with your detailed analysis. I felt exactly the same. As the market marching upward I reduced equity incrementally and now is about 50% with cash at over 10%. When the Fed stop buying $80B bond per month, there will be…
I am not rushing to invest with Mark Mobius. His flagship Templeton Developing Market fund is only so so relative to the EM index. On top of the front-load and high expense ratio there are better alternatives, or simply Vanguard EM index.
From …
Reply to @JimJ: This year WAFMX has done well. Concern I have is the country allocation (19% Nigeria, and 13% Kenya) and the political instability of that region. I did noted that defensive sectors that WAFMX is favoring and it seems to contribute…
Reply to @bee: We are all human and it is hard to hang on to volatile funds especially through the rough patches. For instance, regardless how well CGM Focus fund did in the bull markets, but it also suffered worse than the average and tamer funds.…
Reply to @MikeM: I am not as concerned if and when Dan Fuss retires. The other two co-managers have been working with Fuss and Gaffney for well over 10 years. My opinion is that Fuss's investment process would likely stay intact when Fuss moves to…
There is no reason to invest with Kathleen Gaffney. We have had this discussion on this board when she left for Eaton Vance. I think if and when Dan Fuss retires from Loomis Sayles Bond fund, the other two co-managers who have been working with Da…
I couldn't agree more. Problem is there are enough uninformed people in this world who believe there are easy way to financial security, i.e. free lunches.
How does a 3d printer form glass, springs, heater coils...three toster components that require multiple specialized steps to produce the property qualities that turn raw materials into glass, springs, heating elements...not to mention sensors and ci…
Well, they are pretty desperate for business, any business. The old business has long decline to the point that they basically are reseller for cell phones. Problem is there are too many resellers everywhere.
Reply to @bee: As we've regularly seen in daily charts, the new high was not accompanied by volume, which today was 12% below its 50-day moving average.
What does low trading volume is telling us while the market is moving up?
It doesn't have to be a blame game. Not everyone has the opportunity to take an Economic class in high school and may help them to handle their finance in the future.
Happy Mother's Day to everyone!
Reply to @Investor: Concur with many points you made. For those who remain invested on a balanced portfolio through the entire market cycle would more than recover the 2008 loss and more. Those who pulled out on the bottom will likely stay on the…
REIT's valuation is trading above S&P 500. In addition, they are economical sensitive and highly correlate to equity. So tread lightly.
online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052748703591404578453020304813236.html?mod=BOL_hpp_emc#printMode
Reply to @Mona: Pimco as a company use derivatives extensively in their bond funds to hedge bets. Working through the annual report is redoing my qual exam again. Last year I sold my entire position of Total Return, PTTRX, and bought the ETF equiv…
Some of these investors need higher yield to cover their living expense. Timing-wise this is not so great since junk bonds now yielding only 5%.
Now that many central banks are also lowering their rates to simulate their economies. Going forw…
Dan Fuss of Loomis Sayles Bond fund changed the prospectus several years ago that allows it to invest up to 20% in stocks. Many blue chip stocks pay dividends that are competitive to that of investment grade or even junk bonds. Going forward bond…
Reply to @MaxBialystock: I concur with your comment on QE. It is troubling to see other central banks (Japan and Europe) are taking the same approach as US.
guardian.co.uk/business/2013/apr/04/japan-quantitative-easing-70bn
reuters.com/artic…
Reply to @andrei: 27% of it is invested in Nigeria and Kenya
I wonder how Laura Geritz does it (so well in risk management). Nigeria is one country not for the fainted heart.
If you review FPA Cresent portfolio, there is very little that represents farmland... So not sure how this small percentage contributes meaningfully to the fund.
Reply to @scott: Longleaf and T. Rowe Price hold a sizable chunk of Dell. Even at the best scenario, these firms bought Dell shares at higher prices that what is being offered. Doubtful for a good ending.
Reply to @Investor: I sold mine Apple shares when everyone was hyping it at $1,000/share - same sentiment as Cisco at the height of tech bubble. At today's price Apple is being considered as a "value" stock - no debt, solid cash flow, and low PE. …
* Selective Exclusions
* Unconventional Weighting
* Excel Sheet Coding Error
I hope this is an honest mistake, but I think not with all 3 mistakes in this seminal paper. Good for this graduate student who discovered these mistakes.
bbc.co.uk/ne…
If global economy continues to slow, the demand for commodity will decline accordingly. This is one asset class I rather not bet on. If the economy worsen into even a mild recession, commodity seldom do well.
Reply to @scott: Both you and Investor's arguments make sense. Many large cap EM stocks are export depended and they will not do well when developed countries slow or even entering recession. I think the smaller EM stocks are likely to do better w…
If you gentlemen are right, we may have another repeat of last year. Also this is the beginning of the earning season and a number of large firms such as IBM and United Healthcare have missing their numbers even though they have already been lowere…
Like many tech companies, Apple is no exception and it lives and dies by its new product cycles. Meanwhile the existing devices (iPhone and iPad) becomes stale and requires refreshed every 12 months in order to keep the competitors at bay. Until l…
No major move so far. But as the indeces move higher, it brings closer to a point where we will reduce the equity positions.
Going forward, we are increasing our positions in the global smaller caps via GPGOX and WAEMX and emerging market, T…
Reply to @Investor: I concur that this aggressive allocation could end badly when next down cycle comes.
While low expense ratios are important, but it is not the ONLY consideration. From the article it is not clear how these asset allocation ar…
Reply to @BobC: Excellent comment. I have a small allocation on MFLDX before Mainstay bought Markfield. So far nothing change, but I am warily of the ER creeps up.
I look at MASFX but decided it wasn't for us for various reasons. You are right…
Reply to @kevindow: You are not the only one not interest in ARIVX. I was not interested in this fund either.
At this point of economy the valuation of smaller caps are fully priced while larger caps especially those with global exposure are tra…
Reply to @Art: I would vote for Grandeur Peak's offering over Artisan's based on the track record of Robert Gardiner and Blake Walker while they managed Wasatch Global Opportunities. Note that both funds are aggressive and they suffered over 50% l…
Going into bond now is too late in the game with yields already at historical low (and declining). The next move will likely be going up, although this may not take place in the near term.
Reply to @Investor: Since his short sabbatical, the management team has expanded to a total of 7 co-managers, who would be in a good position when Tillinghast decides to retire. This is one of my longest holding in the past 10 years.
