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.
I'd like to know how the creation of two customer accounts allowed access to other
customers' information including Social Security numbers and driver's licenses.
Perhaps we'll never know due to the sensitive nature of certain data breaches.
It's im…
"If one is buying anything other than a passive index, one is a trader regardless of whether your average hold period is 3 months or 3 years or 30 years. You are inherently betting that your pick will perform better than an index from an absolute re…
The Week in Charts (10/08/24)
The most important charts and themes in markets and investing, including:
00:00 Intro
00:19 Free Wealth Path Analysis
01:04 Topics
01:57 The Resilient Jobs Market
04:41 Labor Market: Still Cooling
08:34 Big Shift in Fe…
"Vanguard got their work cut for them, especially with their customer service."
The article suggests Vanguard could deploy AI to potentially solve customer service complaints.
AI can help customers with generic queries.
How will AI help customers w…
It appears the union was able to obtain decent wage increases for its workers.
I'm glad this strike didn't last long.
I doubt the union will be successful curbing automation in future contract negotiations.
The Week in Charts (10/01/24)
20 Rules for Markets and Investing...
00:00 Intro
00:20 Rule #1: Be humble.
01:11 Rule #2: Don't trust, verify.
02:57 Rule #3: Play the long game.
05:24 Rule #4: Understand that every time is different.
07:41 Rule #5: …
A bipartisan group of 741 national security leaders endorsed Harris on Sunday.
From Heather Cox Richardson's Letters from an American:
“We do not agree on everything, but we all adhere to two fundamental principles.
First, we believe America’s nat…
The Week in Charts (09/23/24)
The most important charts and themes in markets and investing, including:
00:00 Intro
00:25 Free Wealth Path Analysis
01:11 Topics
02:14 The Easing Cycle Has Begun
15:15 Everything Is Up
18:32 Is the Consumer Pulling B…
"Meanwhile, the rolling furloughs Boeing announced Wednesday for non-unionized employees — requiring one week off unpaid out of four to conserve cash — are being applied widely across all divisions, including Commercial Airplanes, Defense and Space,…
"But it seems idiotic to expect every Tom, Dick & Harry to possess the foresight and financial discipline to save for something that may well be 30+ years away and to have enough stashed at that point to make it last another 30 years if necessar…
Many people long for the era when defined benefit plans were more prevalent.
However, some estimates indicate that only ~50% of employees were eligible for pensions then.
Pensions are costly for businesses to fund and administer.
Moreover, a company…
@yogibearbull
Thanks for the update!
As many here already know, Medalist Ratings Not Assigned by Analysts are not very useful.
I don't think the upcoming Medalist Rating change will enhance the utility for these particular ratings.
Medalist Ratings…
I'm 61 years old and have owned 9 vehicles in ~44 years.
All my vehicles had a manual transmission (trans).
Cars with manual trans were often quicker and delivered better
fuel economy than the same model equipped with an automatic trans.
This may n…
The Week in Charts (09/16/24)
The most important charts and themes in markets and investing, including:
00:00 Intro
00:21 Free Wealth Path Analysis
01:06 Topics
02:42 The Inflation Downtrend Continues
07:57 The Most Absurd Number in CPI
10:46 What …
I don't how key person risk is being addressed at CrossingBridge.
It may be helpful to contact the firm directly to make an inquiry.
https://www.crossingbridgefunds.com/contact
or [email protected]
"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was safe after what the FBI said appeared to be an assassination attempt on Sunday outside Trump's golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida."
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-is-safe-following-gu…
"Kudos to the Wikipedia writer who came up with « disemvowelled. » One does not expect to discover such a gem hiding in the weeds."
This is a nice turn of the phrase.
Of course Trump doesn't want to participate in any other debates.
Unlike Harris, Trump is undisciplined.
Despite his recent comments stating "This was my best debate...",
his advisors must be very concerned that he would lose once again.
"Both this fund and PSTKX go to show that building a better mousetrap with derivatives is relatively costly,
often tax-inefficient, and at the end of the day doesn't come out any better than old, boring vanilla."
MWATX and PSTKX returns lagged VFIA…
M* recently published the following article which may be of interest.
https://www.morningstar.com/stocks/what-happens-stocks-when-fed-starts-cutting-rates
The comment about Trump rally attendees leaving early due to boredom really struck a nerve.
The ex-president has an extreme fixation on the crowd size for his rallies.
Trump got his ass handed to him in the debate.
From my recollection, Trump was fact-checked only three times
(crime stats, killing newborns, Haitians eating pets).
This man spews so many lies (some quite far-fetched) that even Pinnochio would blush!…
The significant DJT decline is incongruous with Trump's debate performance.
The stock's namesake provided his expert assessment of last night's debate:
"This was my best debate.
We had a 92% rating in one poll, we had an 86% rating in another, we ha…
Based on the following reporting, it appears a Boeing strike is imminent.
"After an overwhelmingly negative reaction to a deal struck by Boeing and Machinists union leaders, union leader Jon Holden said Monday he expects rank-and-file members will …
"I would also add that my preference would be for equity funds that are managed by a group of advisors, such as at American Funds. (But I'm not at all pushing American Funds in any way.) Over the years here at MFO I've seen way too much anguish abou…
"I did not realize that you are supposed to invest 100% of your retirement accounts with equities."
Some people suggest younger investors (early 20s to early 40s?) could be 100% invested in equities.
Since their retirement is distant, they would ul…
Thanks for your comments Old_Joe.
Your retirement planning yielded excellent results!
My primary reason for starting this thread was to learn more about various portfolio withdrawal strategies.
I plan to retire relatively soon and wanted to see how…
"M only regret about my early financial decisions is not having our retirement accounts 100 % inequities when I was in my 30s and 40s. But I wanted to sleep at night!"
I also was not 100% invested in equities during my 30s and 40s.
Taking risk tole…
Let's examine some of these assertions.
"Bogle, and Burton Malkiel's Book, Random Walk proved decades ago that if you buy and hold the SP500 you would likely beat most investors and mutual funds for decades to come."
Adding a low-cost S&P 500 …
@bee
Thanks for the link to the Allan Roth article.
I've previously read that Harry Markowitz split his contributions 50/50 between stocks and bonds.
The Father of Modern Portfolio Theory didn't utilize efficient frontier analysis for his own portf…
It's highly unusual that so many Republicans, including many former Trump administration officials,
refuse to endorse the GOP's presidential nominee.
Strong words from former VP Cheney, who is definitely not a RINO:
“'In our nation’s 248 year hist…
Additional Morningstar Fee Level information for mutual funds.
Fee Level – Broad places funds into category groupings that are formed around the fund category
systems of each region. Some fund categories form their own category grouping, while othe…
"Assuming there are no typos there, that's a curious though not impossible situation -
institutional shares averaging a higher cost than retail shares.
One possibility is that there might be some expensive funds offering only institutional class sha…
