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.
Isn't it about time for John Hussman to rise from the dead, once again, to tell us "I was right."? It seems strange we have not heard from this smart man/dreadful fund manager in recent months.
Of course the rankings can be misleading, for a lot of reasons, not just the ones mentioned in the article. Rankings, by necessity, force funds into categories that are often inappropriate. But rankings are certainly good for the companies ranked …
This is very unusual for TRP. Strange how New America Growth skipper is joining a value team. And the change at Health is also disconcerting. Not sure what is going on at TRP with these moves.
None of the above for me. I like WAEMX, WAFMX, SFGIX, DRESX, NWFFX. Too many inefficiencies in EMs for me to use an index fund that owns more than 3,000 positions.
We applaud AQR's move and wish more funds would have the honesty to stop inflows before performance suffers. We are still purchasing QMNIX for clients at Schwab, but can no longer do so at Fidelity. I have heard that retail shareholder dollars wer…
I just do not put much stock in a massively long time frame like that. At least 90% of that time was prior to computerized trading and 24-hour negative news. And the last 30 years were a bull market for bonds. I would like to see the same thing do…
mrc70, you make a point, but if M* insists on including global funds in their international category for these meaningless awards, they should identify the award as such. All they would have to do is call the category Global/International, and that…
Like most years, M* blew a number of these. Brown Capital has been closed for a couple of years, but they neglected to mention this. ANWPX is not an international fund. Even M* calls it a Global Stock fund, with holdings almost evenly divided bet…
If there is a REAL credit crunch, shareholders could be issued pieces of individual bonds instead of cash in some of these. So no, they are not structurally "safe." Look what happened to the high-yield fund that blew up last year. There were NO b…
Another point for your thoughts: Literally thousands of items in Dodd-Frank have yet to be interpreted by the appropriate government agencies. So while there may be some new reg, until the appropriate agency issues implementation/interpretation of…
The article is ridiculous. Tanaka has only about $17 million with a 2.45% expense ratio, while Polen, Jensen, and Destra (another teeny one) never owned any energy stocks. And the reference to Doll's Nuveen fund...he wasn't even part of Nuveen un…
Yes, that is my point, the final interpretations of the rules are not yet final. Rest assured once this gets to Congress, the lobbying dollars will take their toll. I do not for a minute think there are any politicians who are "lobbyists" for cons…
Just a follow up, vkt. Thanks for your post. It seems logical that west coast pols would use the two you named, since both Charles Schwab and Bank of America (who owns Merrill) are headquartered in San Francisco. And while Schwab does have an inde…
One thing to keep in mind: the many kinds of deferred annuities "guaranteeing" 5, 6, 7% are not "bought" by consumers. Consumers are SOLD these things. They are way too complicated for anyone to just go out and request one. The opposite extreme a…
Not today, but we will do some re-balancing tomorrow, resulting in selling bonds and buying stocks. 'Twill be interesting. Today was certainly a wild ride. Talk about higher volatility. the sky is falling the sky is falling the sky is falling TH…
It seems simplistic, but it really is an issue of over-supply. Demand is NOT down. The demand continues to grow, not by as much as when China was growing 9-10% annually. But the demand IS growing. Many rigs in the U.S., especially in the shale fi…
He also called a number of other things, which did NOT happen. Even the Poobah doesn't get everything right. With the elderly Poobah (Gross) now on the sidelines, Mr. Gundlach has the press mostly to himself. And he would not have it any other wa…
Interesting about JPMorgan, since their chief global strategist and head of global markets was not at all bearish in a conference call last week. I wonder if he know what one of their analysts (the linked article above) is saying? This kind of dis…
Only one reason for the piecemeal approach. It gets their name out front everyday. In the end, it's all about marketing. And M* does not give a rat's behind what folks think about their selections. They know the funds that get nominated will mar…
As usual, M* manages to baffle my mind. EAASX with a 1.22% ER and a 5.75% load...are you kidding me? They are looking at 1-year returns, so you would think they would factor in the load, since that is taken right off the top. Other strong contend…
Will be interesting to see how this new fund fares. The first 6-12 months' performance may not mean much if there is a lot of cash, which is typical for most new funds. Timing, as they say, is everything, especially with currencies.
Funny how supply/demand works. To survive the recession, most airlines reduced the size of their fleet, both in seats per plane and in numbers of planes. They also reduced the number of flights. And there are now fewer than half the number of air…
As is other selloffs, none of us will know where the bottom is until after it happens. In the grand scheme of things, the current slop is pretty minor assuming it does not feed on itself. As we tell our clients, settle on an allocation that matche…
Strange, since his Flexible Income fund is, essentially, an unconstrained fund. Prospectus says "Adviser has broad flexibility to use various investment strategies and to invest in a wide variety of instruments that the Adviser believes offer the p…
Never owned it. And certainly would not own it as a cash substitute. I would compare it to OSTIX, not exactly the same, but both use very short-term bonds. For this kind of bond fund, I would bet on OSTIX manager Kaufman for the long run. If I w…
Leverenz is a great EM manager, but don't expect him to be a cautious investor. He runs a concentrated portfolio of only about 100 positions, despite the funds huge asset base. We did use Thornburg until their hot manager left for Artisan. An opt…
Agree with Old Joe. The actual RMD factor of more than 7% is not something I would want to attempt, since that would involve tactics that are probably too risky for you. And volatility could well be problematic, too. If you target just the tax ra…
There were also a few 'low volatility' ETFs that did ok, such as USMV, EFAV, IVW. But have to wonder how they will do if 2016 is similar to 2015. Another good year, or? And there were more than a few outliers that had a very good 2015 that were n…
Some folks might do well to consider QMNNX. I would not expect 2015 numbers going forward, but unlike most Market-Neutral category options, this one is truly market neutral. The I-shares minimum at FIDO is $100,000, but the N-shares do not. The 1…
Interesting that today the news headlines are that Gundlach says there is a 30% chance of a recession in the next year. Put another way, there is a 70% chance of no recession next year. Guess it is all how you want to spin it.
This may be too little, too late. While the flood of money into the fund when it was acquired by Mainstay was chasing performance and proved to be easy in and easy out, the real problem is still the volatile difficulty in making consistently right …
We track and use two, neither of which were on the list, which I suppose is good. Vanguard VMNFX is up more than 5% in the last year, dang good for this conservative, low-cost fund. AQR Equity Market Neutral QMNIX has had an amazing year, although…
Perchance comparing apples and mushrooms? Average P/E on the S&P 500 today at 19, and 17 on the Dow. About where 2007 was, and P/E was not awful then. 2000 data, my guess is for S&P 500, not NASDAQ, which was where the majority of high-fl…
Nevertheless, Money, Kiplingers, U.S. News, and all the other mags will have their list of funds to buy NOW. It must sell magazines, but it is shoddy journalism.
Just try to explain this fund's strategy to an average investor...the way it breaks down styles and sectors and makes its quant decisions. The folks at AQR are indeed very smart. But my philosophy, learned after many mistakes, is that if I cannot …
Oh, yeah. This is part of the reason there are so many annuity sales. That and the big up-front commissions, of course. I cannot stress enough the importance of working with a fee-only advisor.
I found this especially galling, since my wife an…
Be VERY cautious about this. Yes, I agree there are some potential bargains. And Yes, you want to buy these at a discount, never at a premium. But most of these funds are very thinly traded which could make selling very problematic. The vibe I h…
