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.
Support MFO
Donate through PayPal
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
Trading ETFs and stocks have no holding periods for buy and sell. That is one of main driving force to use ETFs instead of mutual funds. However, there are excellent active managed mutual funds that have no equivalent ETFs.
The dividend and cap gain distribution will be reinvest without transaction fee. You can to decide if the distribution goes to the sweep account (money market) or reinvest. Make sure you make this selection online.
Learned from @msf years ago, y…
The rep was puzzled too. I suggested they issue a ticket to resolve this internally. Fidelity has been very responsive in the past. Will continue checking.
For taxable account we keep rolling our 3 mo and 6 mo ladder. Not sure when the yield curve will be like a year from now. However, the longer end of the curve is gradually rising. Have been watching the 2 mo-10 yr spread.
@hank, I have been talking with Fidelity on this topic. D&C funds disappeared from Fidelity mutual fund listing in the last few weeks. Very strange since it was on their Transaction Fee platform for years. It is also strange that when you ent…
@yogibb said,
FWIW, I like to receive some things via snail mail, but I am OK to get other stuff via email. So, on sites that allow selectivity (Fido, etc), I only get statements and 1099s via snail mail, but the rest (confirmations, prospectuses, …
I have invested in BL/FR bonds in last several years and managed to have a modest gain. Now it is time to rotate these bonds into longer duration investments grade bonds - treasury and corporate. If and when the recession arrives, the FED will cut…
Agree. We moved away from paper statements when the electronic ones became available. They are easier to store in your hard drives. Additionally, you can get them several weeks earlier.
Inflation number looks encouraging for Tuesday reporting.
The consumer price index, set to be released Tuesday at 8:30 a.m ET, is expected to show that all-items inflation increased just 0.1% last month, equating to a 4% annual rate, according to …
I too think the upcoming FOMC meeting and CPI reporting this week have unusual observation. Surprising CPI data could change the tune just as Canada and Australia hiked their rate unexpectedly.
Mike Wilson of Morgan Stanley has been bearish for …
@MikeM,
I started a new tread on the same topic. Glad to see you are doing well with your bond funds. The timing question on rotating to bond funds is a person decision. I was mostly out of bonds in 2022 and now at half of my target bond allocati…
Water is the lifeblood for the western half of US. TSMC is following Intel who has built a plant in Phoenix many years ago. Clearly the management picked the location due to the largest $ and land granted by Arizona. Will see how this will plays o…
IMHO, I think picking Arizona as the manufacturing site is a mistake. Semiconductor manufacturing is a very water intensive process and the West is having severe water shortage in past decade. Local building codes and environmental laws govern wheth…
@yogibb, I have made the switch already since January this year to increase allocation to intermediate term bonds since. First started on treasury and then corporate bonds using both active and passive managed funds/ETFs. Though I have limited cho…
There is lots of work to be done on the software side. It may take several more years of refinement before they will start be deploy. On the hardware front, NVIDIA and other gaming chipset manufacturers are the spotlight lately.
Another play in t…
@Observant1,
Here is more info from Vanguard on fixed income team on their outlook for 2023; Sara Devereux leads their fixed income team.
https://advisors.vanguard.com/iwe/pdf/FAFIXINC.pdf
Same here to take advantages of higher yields as my maturing T bills and CDs in coming months in my cash buckets. Have been adding to other intermediate term and BL bond funds.
Exactly! Investor sentiment reflects their emotion. Money flow is more reliable on their buy/sell decision. Inflation data will be released next week and FOMC meeting take place on the same week.
CME FedWatch say the Fed will hold in June. http…
Scam emails and text messages are more common today. By reading them more carefully, one can often detect the flaws: written in bad grammer and click baiting to get you to click on the embedded links. Never click on these links. Often that is how m…
AAII Sentiment Survey, 6/7/23
Vow! Bullish became the top sentiment (44.5%; above average) & bearish became the bottom sentiment (24.3%; below average); neutral remained the middle sentiment (31.2%; near average) Big changes from a week ago b…
Converting these office space into other uses will not be trivial and most likely it will be costly. It is out of question for heavy manufacturing. Light manufacturing and living are possible depending on the building codes and lots of remodeling.…
It was the turning point to defeat Nazi Germany. Many sacrifices their lives to land on Normandy beaches in order to make Operation Overlord a success.
An excerpt from Professor Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter on D day,
On June 5, 1944, G…
Building codes in many western states are not set up to prevent wildfires today. Siding and roofing materials commonly used are susceptible to fires. Since wood is plentiful in Pacific Northwest region, wood siding is common instead of concrete sid…
@yogibearbull,
On Friday, the market broadened to other non-tech stocks as reflected in DJIA. If I look at equal weighted S&P500 (RSP) versus market-weight SPY for this year, they tell a very different story. I hope the breath will broaden pos…
Climate change have changed the desirable places to live. Many places on Canada are experiencing drier and warmer weather. Article from Washington Post ( behind a paywall) indicating we are heading into big trouble.
https://washingtonpost.com/sc…
@WABAC and @Yogibearbull,
USFR and TFLO are the two etf's I know of that only deal in floating rate T-Bills. They both charge the same. There does seem to be some minor differences in SEC yield and total return over time. Anyway, both at about 5.2…
@Charles, if the breath of the S&P 500 rally is more broad-based, I would be cheering with you. It is only a handful of large tech stock and AI stocks are advancing, the remaining stocks are flat. So I am concern.
@WABAC, what is the best way to invest in US floating rate treasury bills?
2 yrs FR bills are auction only 4 times a year. iShares floating rate bond ETF, FLOT, has a 0.15% ER with a 30 days SEC yield, 5.75%.
https://digital.fidelity.com/prgw/d…
@Old_Joe, Problem can creep up during the annual policy renewal. It is getting hotter and drier in Portland, OR area in recent years. Many houses hear are built with wood sliding and composition roofs; both are flammable. Some have metal roofs bu…
Even if you pay cash to purchase your house, how do you get your house for insured for damages due to natural disasters?
In addition, Florida and the southeastern coast are all vulnerable to hurricanes. The natural disaster issue is more widesprea…
@Old_Joe, I read other insurance companies including AIG have already halted issuing new homeowner policy. It is a requirement for obtaining mortgages. How does Californians handle this? In fact, many western states are having more wildfires than…
Agree. As of last Friday, Fitch is still saying downgrade is still possible even after the debt limit deal.
https://cnn.com/2023/06/02/economy/fitch-credit-downgrade-warning/index.html
One can verify the email address by hovering over the sender's icon. Sometime the email extension, .XXX reveals the country's origin. Watch for those from Middle East and Eastern Europe. Never click on embedded links in the email to download malwa…
@Yogibearbull said,
He uses this example to point out that generative AI cannot do any original thinking, but only make conclusions based on the data it has been fed.
He is a good example of a critical thinker - able to talk about his biggest inv…
