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.
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…
I haven't researched the historical evidence which supports the NIXT ETF.
As far as I know, no funds were previously created to take advantage of this phenomena.
Why haven't other firms marketed funds to harvest this apparent source
of significant a…
Barron's published a good article this week (written by Lewis Braham)
regarding the Western Asset Management situation.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/savingandinvesting/franklin-resources-has-a-problem-on-its-hands-what-investors-need-to-know/ar-…
The Week in Charts (09/06/24)
The most important charts and themes in markets and investing, including:
00:00 Intro
00:33 Free Wealth Path Analysis
01:27 Topics
03:04 The Cooling Labor Market
11:56 Longest Inversion in History Is Over
16:45 Be Care…
Hi @catch22
The article should be accessible to everyone when using the link below.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/americans-are-really-really-bullish-on-stocks/ar-AA1pSZoi
"Positions in FSUTX, GLIFX, and IYK have been keeping me cool during the long Arizona summer."
Don't know if you're in the Phoenix area, but Phoenix experienced 100 consecutive days
with temperatures over 100 degrees as of several days ago.
This sh…
"No doubt, this great unwinding of stock market mania was discussed / analyzed to extent
in her high school business / social studies classes during these teen-age formative years."
LOL!
I'm not so sure about this Hank...
Another rambling, incoherent speech by the ex-president.
Trump doesn't appear to have the necessary mental acuity
to lead this great nation nor be the Commander In Chief.
It's incredibly unsettling that a sizable minority of our population
still sup…
If you followed FD's guidance, you regularly purchased and sold funds
at very opportune times and never experienced losses greater than 3%!
What's not to like?
Easy, peasy... ;-)
When US LC are not doing well (2000 - 2009), it's an easy way to los…
September is purportedly the worst month for stocks.
There are several theories to explain this pattern but none of them are remotely definitive.
Regardless, September got off to a rough start today.
Select equity ETF returns for today are listed be…
The Bloomberg Aggregate Bond Market Index, which BND tracks, dates back to 1976.
Let's put this in perspective.
Prior to 2022, the index experienced only four calendar year losses:
1994 - (-2.9%)
2013 - (-2.0%)
2021 - (-1.5%)
1999 -…
"As someone who makes most of his money in bonds I never understood
why look mostly at high rated bond funds."
High-quality bonds ("high rated" in your parlance), especially Treasuries,
provide excellent diversification for equity-heavy portfolios…
Reputable sources indicate FD will not be attending the Monaco Yacht Show in September.
However, you may wish to avoid London's Frieze Art Fair in October due to your concerns.
It's unfortunate these breaches are now routine.
Freezing one's credit is often a good idea to prevent criminals from opening new credit lines in your name.
Many credit card companies offer zero-liability fraud protection if fraudulent charges are…
"Trump tried to change the subject to say he was being unfairly attacked for supporting a military family.
Vance tried to suggest that Harris should have attended the private ceremony
and that for criticizing it she should 'go to hell,' although she…
The Week in Charts (08/30/24)
The most important charts and themes in markets and investing, including:
00:00 Intro
00:20 Free Wealth Path Analysis
01:06 Topics
01:59 Priced for Perfection
07:28 The AI Arms Race
13:11 Berkshire Joins the Trillion D…
Bill Wilby, former portfolio manager for Oppenheimer Global Fund, is the featured guest this week.
He's concerned about "unknown unknowns."
Specifically, his major areas of concern are Private Equity (PE) and Private Credit.
S&P 500 leverage rat…
In reality, the prognosticators just guess as to what causes daily stock market performance.
No one knows absolutely for sure...
Barron's provided the following plausible explanation - I'm paraphrasing here.
Good economic news seemed to drive the m…
Good question!
M* does have a free trial offer for Morningstar Direct.
I'm not familiar with the offer's terms and conditions.
https://www.morningstar.com/business/brands/data-analytics/products/direct
They also approved new rule changes today mandating that OEFs/ETFs report holdings monthly, replacing the previous quarterly requirement. I think this is a *long* overdue change and one that I particularly welcome.
I agree - this is a welcome chang…
FD1000,
Wow, there's lots to unpack in your commentary!
I'll just comment on two topics.
"Obamacare had a huge affect long-term."
You're correct that "Obamacare" had huge long-term effects:
1) More than 16 million Americans obtained coverage with…
I think these criteria are too M* centric.
Do you really care if M* rates a fund's "parent" as sub optimal?
The culture of the parent firm is very important.
Has the firm been involved in any scandals?
Does the firm bring to market numerous funds …
No worries.
Although fees really do matter, I would not hesitate to own PRWCX if it was a good fit for my portfolio.
Mentioned in the 2018 "28 Terrific Funds" article:
"No funds of funds. The screens just won’t work as well with this type."
The sc…
I don't know why VPMCX was included instead of VPMAX.
The Admiral share class appears to pass all of Kinnel's screens.
The "funds must be rated by M* analysts" screen is problematic
since it excludes excellent funds which are not reviewed qualitati…
The PRWCX expense ratio is 0.71% which lies in the Moderate Allocation category's average fee quintile.
The fund's expense ratio would need to be below 0.50% (cheapest fee quintile) to be eligible for inclusion.
Mentioned in the 2020 "Thrilling…
Nothing fancy here. We have been increasing total bond index fund since spring. Now shifting some floating rate bonds and high yield to BND and other investment grade intermediate term bonds. It is time to dial down the risk in case things get ugly…
BAGIX is a fine high-quality bond fund.
It can be a good core fund for investors who would like to avoid significant drama in their fixed income holdings.
