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.
Excerpted from M* Q2 2023 fixed income retrospective.
"It was a mixed second quarter for bond fund investors. Funds sensitive to interest rates, like long government and intermediate core bonds, were once again beaten down. These funds, which inves…
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I can't speak to all of these points off the top of my head, but I have never been limited to four funds in the free backtest tool. I was just looking at six today for my oldest child's new Roth IRA.
But I think all of those things, except …
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I don't know of another portfolio manager that combines industry sector, allocations, country region and stock intersection.
I have looked around several times but don't find anything else as comprehensive. The brokerages will give u asset …
@yogibearbull,
I reached out to M* Library Services with a question regarding adding individual TIPS to Portfolio X-Ray.
They said this wasn't possible (no surprise) so I informed them I would just use a TIPS fund as a proxy.
This was their reply …
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I also recall the sensitive masked Ted Cruz and entourage being caught by a camera as they sought to flee Covid by traveling to Mexico.
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Ted Cruz just wanted to be a good dad for his daughters!
This had absolutely nothing to do with th…
The largest chunk by far of our investments have been in TRAIX/PRWCX for the past ~16-17 years, so the recent move to reduce some of those holdings was a bit difficult because of the emotional attachment as well as the FOMO on future equity gains. W…
Short-term redemption fees are preferable over higher expense ratios.
GoodHaven is a concentrated fund (24 holdings, 65% in top 10) with low turnover.
Excessive redemptions can be very detrimental to this fund's strategy.
If an investor is unwilling…
"One of Grandeur Peak's most distinguishing features and strengths is that our team structure enables us to utilize our entire research team to manage each of our portfolios. This allows us to fully leverage our 'multiple minds' investment philosoph…
Yeah, small-cap funds tend to be more volatile.
VTMSX is my only dedicated small-cap fund.
I ran Portfolio X-Ray for the period ending June 30 earlier today.
VTMSX constitutes 7.7% of my portfolio.
Old Ted mentioned that he'd not worry about the per…
Yeah, small-cap funds tend to be more volatile.
VTMSX is my only dedicated small-cap fund.
I ran Portfolio X-Ray for the period ending June 30 earlier today.
VTMSX constitutes 7.7% of my portfolio.
I stumbled across an informative article today discussing Markowitz's contributions to investment theory.
"Markowitz agreed with Williams’s approach to valuing individual investments. It was far better than the old prudent man approach. But Markowi…
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I think you are aware that Fido also has the practice of looking through ALL your m-mkt holdings, taking as much as needed from the core/settlement m-mkt, and the rest automatically from the rest of m-mkt funds held.
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@yogibearbull,
T…
Hold individual TIPS to maturity to keep up with inflation. Try 5-yr TIPS.
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I recently purchased individual TIPS for the first time.
Bought a sizable amount (for me) of the 5-year TIPS at the latest auction.
Plan to hold these TIPS (1.832% …
I think that any discussion of the worth of an investment in TIPS should clearly distinguish between TIPS funds, ETFs and a TIPS bond. Big difference.
You are absolutely correct.
I should have done this in my prior post.
TIPS should perform well during periods where inflation is higher than expected.
Breakeven rates can be used to compare TIPS to nominal Treasuries of the same term.
There was a 5-year TIPS auction on 06/22/2023.
From David Enna on Tipswatch.com:
"A…
I agree with @yogibearbull.
I briefly used a financial account aggregator as a test several years ago.
It was nice to consolidate all my accounts in a "single pane of glass."
While I liked this feature, the increased risk wasn't worth it.
All my acc…
The number of publicly listed companies peaked at over 8,000 in 1996
(according to several reports) but has fallen precipitously since then.
The decision by many companies to remain private influenced this decline.
It seems kind of crazy there were…
The Q1 2023 Quarterly Report indicates LSLTX had net assets totaling $12.8 million.
Per the prospectus dated 01/31/2023, the fund's net annual expense ratio is 1.50%.
The gross expense ratio before reimbursement (contract runs through 11/13/2023) is…
The ICI spreadsheet indicates the total number of mutual funds has declined
since peaking in 2001 (8,268) and 2002 (8,223).
But, do investors really need 7,393 mutual funds to choose from?
The Week in Charts (06/25/23)
A tour of the markets covering the most important charts & themes, including the $32 trillion debt milestone,
the Housing Shortage, the Downtown Downturn, and more...
Video
Blog
Interesting history, worth reading for some of it, but it also perpetuates some false mythology about the democratization of the stock market and “everybody getting rich” off it. The vast majority of Americans who own stocks or stock mutual funds, o…
With the current popularity of index funds, it's interesting to note the launch of the Vanguard 500 Index
(initially named First Index Investment Trust) was not a success.
The plan in 1976 was to raise $150 million but only $11.32 million was rais…
Jack Hough from Barron's writes about perceived problems with the 60/40 asset mix.
Jared Woodard, head of the Research Investment Committee at BofA Securities,
states there is strong evidence that 60/40 is broken now.
He believes investors in popul…
There was a good article about Peter Lynch on Yahoo Finance yesterday.
"Lynch headed up one of the most lauded mutual fund successes in history. During his tenure, Fidelity’s Magellan fund racked up a 29.2% average annual return for those investors…
Regarding PARWX...
Jerome Dodson managed PARWX from inception (04/29/2005) until he retired on 12/31/2020.
Billy Hwan became a PARWX comanager on 05/01/2018 and the sole manager in 2021.
Mr. Dodson took a contrarian approach which resulted in an el…
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The more you diversify, the chances are your portfolio will not beat the indexes and why Buffett said "Diversification is a protection against ignorance".
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Warren Buffett speaking to MBA students:
"If you are not a professional inves…
@Roy,
If you are adding to your fixed income holdings and are concerned about inflation,
you may want to consider TIPS. The upcoming auction on Thursday, 06/22 seems attractive.
"The U.S. Treasury on Thursday will offer $19 billion in a reopenin…
If only I had a dollar for every time someone proclaimed the death of the 60/40 portfolio!
Link
Both stocks and high-quality bonds experienced double-digit losses in 2022 which is very rare.
Some historians claim 2022 was the worst-ever year for U.…
The Week in Charts (06/18/23)
A tour of the markets covering the most important charts & themes, including the best start to a year since 1997, the long awaited pause, downward inflation trends, and much more.
Video
Blog
The vast majority of Martians (neutered or not) use they/them as their "personal pronouns."
All Martians should be considered part of the interstellar community.
When neutered Martians participate in competitive sports, their opponents often have
s…
The Week in Charts (06/11/23)
A tour of the markets covering the most important charts & themes, including an increase in bullish sentiment, the enormous eight, a June pause, the jobs comeback, and more...
Video
Blog
