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.
It is beyond me why Janus Overseas gets any positive commentary. It's at the bottom of the heap over the last 3 and 5-year period. While I understand it has chosen to load up on emerging market stocks, my guess is that very few folks who own the f…
As Slick so eloquently put, the MOST important thing is the advisor's willingness to disclose everything and the investor's ability to say no and have that be respected. In the end, however, understand that when push comes to shove, the Merrill Lyn…
This is not a fund many people could stick with. Compared to some much lower-volatility funds like GSRLX, PRWCX, and OSTFX, the fund has not put up any better long-term numbers, except for the last 12 months. And that period has been a mostly stron…
If you believe, as MFLDX manager Michael Arronstein does, that the Fed has screwed up again and that we are overdue for a correction, or even if you do not agree, the fund is designed to be a contrary holding. There are times it will underperform (…
Neither one get me going, but I am very cautious with all PIMCO bond funds at this time. Probably nothing to cause it, but Happy Valley seems stranger and stranger all the time. But then you have a choice between Mr. Gross' company and Mr. Gundlac…
FWIW, my observation is that retail investors are NOT jumping into the market at all. Bond fund flows continue to be positive. The average investor is cautious, not greedy. Yes, we are due for a correction, but we are a long, long ways from the e…
A lot of stress would be relieved if investors just did one thing to be less stupid in their investing...don't be greedy. And perhaps one more thing would be to create an allocation that is appropriate for their financial and emotional situation an…
I have been in this business long enough (30 years) to have heard it all, from the perennial bears (like Gary Shilling) who are always calling for a market crash, to the polyannas (too numerous to name), who were bullish even during late 2007 and ea…
Some may, and will, argue. But my take is that all of this New Neutral is a re-constituted version of a lot of PIMCO's New Normal from a few years ago. Back then, the view from PIMCO was that stocks would return fairly low single digits, which is …
When you trade core bond funds for unconstrained (or strategic, or whatever) bond funds, you are trading one kind of risk for another. When you buy an unconstrained type of bond fund, the manager (or team of managers) are THE most important thing. …
We pay thousands of dollars annually for access to our M* database, where we have established hundreds of screens, lists, and research work, not to mention all of our client data. But it is not OUR data. It belongs to M*. If we do not renew our s…
The article is so typical of financial writers and publications, all about "what have you done for me LATELY". No wonder the average investor does so much worse than the funds she/he invest in.
None of them light a fire for me. We have been very happy with Ivy International Core ICEIX, Federated Intl Strategic Value IVFIX, Pear Tree Polaris Foreign Value QFVIX, and a few others that are still relatively 'small'. Causeway is perhaps the b…
This is NOT the perfect portfolio. He never even begins with the return he NEEDS. How can he hope to create a perfect portfolio when he doesn't know what he NEEDS? Major flawed concept. A perfect portfolio is a moving target and in reality is an…
I remember a poster on FundAlarm a few years ago. He was obviously a commissioned salesman, and he ranted continually on how wonderful equity indexed annuities were and how they were the be-all and end-all for everyone of all ages, no matter what t…
We use GSRLX (mostly domestic with 20% in MLPs) and TIBIX, or TIBAX (depending on the custodian, and more foreign than domestic) as core holds in many client accounts. If you want a foreign-only option, IVFIX is noteworthy. Each has a different bu…
UMBMX is a core holding for many of our client accounts. It's hard to find much fault with this one. Strong management, too. WASIX is another one you might consider. It owns an even more concentrated portfolio, though. But it has a dividend yie…
This is so true in large cap domestic and international stock funds. Folks often think active share means how much turnover a fund has. But it really has to do with how different the fund's holdings are from its benchmark. Typically of M* to not …
OSTFX is one of those quietly successful funds. No flash, no surprises. Not bound by any crazy style box (despite what M* tries to do with it). Very little volatility. This is one with which you can sleep at night. OSTVX might be a ok option fo…
For a lot of investors, the more meaningful data is how actively-managed funds perform during periods of high volatility. For example, I might be happy to get 80-90% of the upside of the index if I also get a very low percentage of downside, too. …
Hi heezsafe. Your thoughts are right on. Benchmarking them can be really difficult, but we ask the managers what THEY use, which might be different from what the fund's literature says, and certain to be different than what M* uses. Their benchma…
You got it, OJ. Osterweis Strategic Income OSTIX, Goldman Sachs Strategic Income GSZIX or GSZAX, Loomis Sayles Bond LSBDX or LSBRX, Thornburg Strategic Income THIIX or THIFX. Another one is Loomis Strategic Alpha LASYX (uses long-short bond strate…
It helps that many of these are also among the highest paid in the country, on average. They are likely the most able to increase their 401k contributions. Not so for the average worker around the country.
We are big users of 'unconstrained' or 'flexible-mandate' or 'strategic' bond funds. Investors do trade one kind of risk for another when they move from 'core' bond funds to one of these 'go-anywhere' funds, the key is to know the manager or team r…
cman, you are right on. The active fund industry often uses ETFs to enhance their portfolios or to place sector, regional, or momentum bets. And they certainly use them to play out their short strategies.
Another thing that has happened, which is…
For those who want a diversified portfolio of preferreds, KIFYX, and CPXAX are worth considering, as is PFF. The latter does have most of the large preferreds that have had the biggest run-ups in the last few years, so I might look to the two mutua…
MFO folks know we have used MFLDX almost from its start. We have seen excellent results during those 6+ years. Mr. Aronstein uses a different approach, employing a global macro-thematic overlay. He has been right a lot more than wrong. That bein…
We fired Bill Gross a few years ago, except in 401k plans where we do not have other options. The only PIMCO fund we use is Arnott's PAUIX, which is doing well this year. He is the only PIMCO manager who really does his own thing, and the fund is …
Chrisblade, you make a good point. If you take the time to look under the Wasatch Funds hood, however, you will find very good stewardship when it comes to closing funds. They may reopen them, but they have always given the individual managers lee…
And what will owners of the predominantly Middle East and oil frontier funds do when there is a bust in the oil sector? Looking under the hood, as investors should do with any fund, would tell me that WAFMX may have an ultimate hedge over the other…
Bee, I have not had a chance to look at these at all, but I can tell you that fund rankings hardly ever have much impact on our decision process. There are myriad reasons for this, but one of the best examples involves the recent arbitrary re-class…
We subscribe to M* Office, which has hundreds of data points available, too many if you ask me. Many of our asset class decisions have a heavy weighting on how well funds hold up during bear markets, and there are a lot of ways to screen for this. …
We used PFF for 3+ years, buying it near the market bottom in March, 2009. We pretty much sold all of it last year as we saw prices of the holdings getting way too rich for us. Recently we are dipping our toes in Forward Select Income KIFYX, which…
A better option, it seems to me, would be to use a manager who strives to keep volatility low as a matter of practice, but who is not bound by constraints of the EM index. The M* volatility ranking is not at all helpful, and some of the better fund…
In a gradually-rising rate environment, I would likely avoid any fund that has limited ability to select issuers, sectors, and kinds of fixed income holdings. For us, best bets would be flexible mandate funds like OSTIX, TSIIX, GSZIX, BSIIX, LSBDX.…
There should not be any confusion. Interest rates will go up, but we do not know when or how fast. Likely scenario is no fed increase in Fed Funds Rate until late 2015, unless inflation moves faster than expected. When they do raise Fed Funds Rat…
