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
Like Rachael Maddow show too. PBS Newhour is pretty good in presenting views from both sides. It take patience for the 30 minutes show with little commercials in between.
Could be the same type of investors who like to take big bets regardless to their potential downside risk.
BTW, Sears is not able to turn around. Another round of store closing was announced several week ago.
Thank you for your monthly update. Smaller caps did surprisingly well while foreign markets are down for the year. Been building up CD ladder lately since I have no confidence on the market. Since end of January 2018 volatility has escalated with …
Only guarantee you get is the poor house with portfolio like that. Total market index is at least positive for he year. The whole point of successful investing is NOT to rack up sizable loss of this magnitude time and time again.
Don't forget the tariff related layoffs.
Harley Davidson's announcement..
fortune.com/2018/06/25/trump-faces-trade-war-fallout-layoffs-stock-declines-harleys-move-offshore/
Auto manufacturers are likely to follow.
https://bloomberg.com/news/ar…
@hank,
In a globally connected economy, the drawdown will likely to spread widely. The steel and aluminum tariff already creating pain in US-based companies such as Harley-
Davidson and others. Even with our allies in Europe and Japan, it is a …
I share catch22's approach on bond investing. Stay away from private bonds that take time and skills to manage and be profitable. Something to be said about risk diversification with professional management.
@STB65, I would stay with FFRHX in the near term. Floating rate funds are high yield bond funds (aka junk bonds), but they tend to do better than corporate, mortgage and treasury bond funds in rising rate environment. Don't know how the transfer f…
Troublesome precedent Harvard had in the past on Jewish applicants.
Harvard today engages in the same kind of discrimination and stereotyping that it used to justify quotas on Jewish applicants in the 1920s and 1930s.
Discrimination against race, …
This year most of my bond funds are down by about 1-3%. Only Osterweis Stragetic Income, OSTIX and Pimco Unconstrainted, PFIUX are up about 1% even after two rate hikes.
Recently I ran across this article from Smithsonian about Albert Einstein's travel diaries. Even he expressed racism toward Asians, but later in his life his view changed.
https://smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/einsteins-travel-diaries-reveal-his-…
@catch22, Just about all foreign funds and bonds are down for the year. The US large cap funds are up 3-5% while the smaller caps have done better, presumably their business are more domestically oriented and less impacted by the tariff. At some p…
@davidmoran, Fidelity got great online service, free trading on iShares, and new CD offering. Other brokerages I use such as T. Rowe Price and Vanguard have their advantages and disadvantages. For now we have not decide if we want to use their cli…
@Maurice, I have not visit Fidelity office for a long time. From what I read is that they are losing asset and being one of the largest 401(K) administrators is keeping them afloat. I think there is a subtle marketing effort going on between the b…
Never received one from them. Are they advertising their advisor services?
Fidelity is more straightforward and offer cash to move asset to their firm.
The situation is escalating as investors are pulling money from EM ETFs that have over 30% exposure to China. See Ted's earlier post.
https://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/41758/investors-are-bailing-from-emerging-market-etfs#latest
I would ignore his calls. Recessions come and goes and that is market cycle.
I would pay more attention if he would articulate how the impending traiffs would impact the global market, the future earning, and the possible catalyst to trigger the…
@msf, how do you deal with covered versus non-covered shares? Prior to 12/31/2012, the mutual fund companies may not provide cost basis for you to select specific lots to sell.
Is he is spreading himself a bit too thin? Large AUM has always been an issue even with a team of supporting co-managers. That is one of the reason I gravitated toward TRP funds years ago for actively managed funds and Vanguard for their index fun…
I think it is a personal responsibility of our eating habit and not rely on the government or the insurance companies to tell us what is good or not good with respect to sugar consumption. Rather than cutting out all sweets, but moderation is the k…
The title said it all and investors should ask how and where does that level of dividend come from. Even in open end mutual funds there are years where the sizable year-end distribution came from capital gain, even though they may be long term CG. …
Hank summed it up well. Since Michael Price sold his company to Franklin and he left several years later, the old Mutual Series of funds were never the same. David Winters' Wintergreen fund has been mediocre fund since inception while charging high…
@Old_Joe, You are welcome. Graying of Japan should be a reminding to the rest of the developed countries. They are having heavy financial burden supporting their retirees. Either they raise the income tax, radical change their immigration policy (…
PIMIX is down 1.1% YTD and the unconstrainted fund, PFIUX has done better, up 1.2%. Next week the fed rate will likely be raised again. Not sure how the leveraged CEFs will do given there are several rounds of rate hikes are planned for the rest o…
