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If you want to leap outside the higher investment grade categories of Intermediate Core/Core Plus, I am a proponent of starting to dabble in Floating Rate/Bank Loan funds. This category has been one of the most consistent and strong categories for …
In this general space at this time I like WCPNX and LFLAX, and as always PIMIX (still my largest bond holding, trust earned over time even if performance is not the "best"). Going out on the HY limb I really like BGHIX, riskier but stellar.
I like WCPNX, would have held that versus the alt investments you refer to. That said, I think both are good choices in the space and you could buy each as they do not move in tandem.
Many fine point along this discussion. Yes, FSRRX won't perform well during low inflation periods. I like Vanguard Global Wellington (VGWAX) in addition to VWIAX. These and other funds should be the core of a portfolio.
I like FSRRX, VCMDX, COM,…
While I'm a big fan of VWINX, I don't feel that comparing it with funds that are very different in composition is quite cricket. VWINX has had a 40 year tailwind (falling yields), while real return funds have had a headwind over the same time fram…
What would be the use case for such ETF's? It would seem to me that you are assuming some amount of default risk for very limited upside in a vehicle that would likely move directionally with stocks. I would think something like BSV would be far b…
@waxman who said "Leveraged loans and BDC's, stay far, far away IMHO." Would you care to elaborate?
Sure, these are very volatile beasts that can be traded but are not good long term investments, in my opinion. Since 2013 BIZD (an etf that holds B…
Another high yield ETF I reviewed was VPC, a newer private credit fund with good performance but an expense ratio of 5.53%! The base direct ER is 0.75%, while the remainder is attributed to AFFE (Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses). Granted it is a f…
Firstrade:
A Short Term Redemption Fee of $19.95 will be applied to redemptions of mutual fund shares held less than 90 days. Broker-Assisted redemptions will incur a charge of $19.95. Redemptions of less than $500 will incur a $19.95 fee, unless th…
MERFX collapse was due to the collapse of the Aon/Willis Towers Watson merger agreement. DOJ had argued merger would reduce competition and raise prices in the insurance industry, so merger was called off due to regulatory concerns. This was a $30 b…
@wxman123
Interesting EFT...an ETF fund of ETF funds...I charted HNDL against VWINX which appears to have a similar bond/equity mix...obviously not the same sectors. HNDL overweights Tech, Energy and Communication Tech.
Read about HNDL's methodol…
Obviously the Diamond Hill HY team is great, I've been with them for years and very happy. My existing Brandywine fund (LFLAX) has been just as great in its own right.
You might want to explain what you mean by "just as great in its own right." I…
The article concludes: "As the name says, the stocks and funds inside pay out a 7% average dividend today."
There's an etf for that, HNDL. It's been pretty well optimized during its short history. I like it.
Obviously the Diamond Hill HY team is great, I've been with them for years and very happy. My existing Brandywine fund (LFLAX) has been just as great in its own right.
Thanks for the HY suggestion, AJ.
I now want to focus on a safe allocation fund with low fees for my taxable account, and I've settled on VTMFX which is roughly 50/50. It will be my core. No more procrastinating.
I can DCA into VTMFX and let …
Schwab allowed the trade to go through with no transaction fee
Do you mean you selected one of the transaction fee options at the point of purchase (as appears in the screen I just previewed), and that the fee was not charged, OR was there no optio…
i own two bond funds OSTRX and WCPNX - im thinking of taking all the money out of OSTRX and adding it to WCPNX - but i wont make my decision til the end of the year. any comments on these funds would be very much appreciated. im not the brightest bu…
I guess the only way to protect yourself against this type of misconduct is to stick with funds offered by the household names. Highly unlikely something like this could happen in the first place, and I would think the house would make good on any …
For me now I'm 1/3 of my portfolio in cash, money markets or CDs earning anywhere from .5% to 3% (lucky 5 yr cd's bought a few years ago). I'm VERY conservative, but OK with that. I don't look at the cash as an emergency fund, just a guarantee not…
I'm a strong supporter of PRBLX/PRILX and hold the latter in large quantities at the moment.
Though Portfolio Visualizer hardly shows it giving index-like returns. It does much better!
Indeed, if I could go back in my investing history and pick…
YTD performance is .34% for this well known and outstanding long term fund. Just curious how current investors in Wellington feel about this closure to intermediaries? Is this a good sign, neutral or negative to you?
More like 3.54% YTD. Having a g…
No strategy can work all of the time. I'm a holder of VMVFX as it's an EASY hold at least for now. If it gets better great and if not I can dump. To soon to give up on this one. I followed the same strategy with FMIJX, balanced out its losing pe…
I wouldn't put my life savings into this fund but I do own it as a satellite position and pleased so far. Even though it's short-lived it did great in the COVID drawdown (max DD 6.33) compared with IOFIX (max DD 37.95% during the same swoon). I'd …
Yes, those are the funds up exactly 0.97%. As you noted, that's not helpful if one is comparing with a multi-fund portfolio.
One isn't likely to achieve that return in either the aggregate or with an individual fund these days without using jun…
BTW, M* reports only five share classes of taxable bond funds with YTD returns of 0.97%. Three are not generally available to retail investors:
Not sure where M* is getting its info from but two of my largest HY holdings (FAGIX and DHHIX) and up ov…
Once again, you can't have a sensible discussion on this subject without defining what is meant by "bond fund." YTD my bond fund portfolio is up .97% compared to BND which is down 3.09%. Going back to 2002 FAGIX (which admittedly holds some stock …
Bond funds are essential to most portfolios unless you have the stomach for watching your life savings cut by 50% at any given point in time (as per VTI). Of course as interest rates rise many bond funds won't do well but some will do just fine (e.…
Why single out TMSRX? Pretty much any fund except the most vanilla of the vanilla might hold hard to value assets. It sounds to me like these guys had problems way beyond that, like fraud. I would rely more on the integrity of the firm than the a…
DHHIX, what a fabulous fund. Hope they don't change a thing, one of my largest holdings. Still surprised that DH let this go. These guys are what the firm should have been building on.
Thanks@wxman23 for adding to my investment vocabulary. I’d like to know the origin of “stink bid,” if you know it. I do place orders below the bid price, but I did not know the practice was enshrined in an expression. It takes patience and a willing…
Yes, and this is generally true for most CEF's but with caveats...most significantly some CEFs can trade at premiums or discounts for a very long time. I look at the history on MS, and you have to really get a feel for a fund before making signific…
