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.
Attempts to maintain my chosen level of asset diversification are defeated by the constant increases in equity valuations. It's a nice problem to have.
Yes, indeed!
Cheap money and those investing on margin..... I don't have any data about how much hot money is in the market place; using margin or otherwise.
"Margin debt—the amount of money borrowed against stockholdings to play the market—hit a record $722 b…
Some people are requesting their $2,000 stimulus checks from Mitch McConnell's Venmo account.
Citizens took to Twitter to document their attempts as well as to encourage others to do the same. One, claiming McConnell has a Venmo account tied to …
I noticed MEASX several years ago.
The fund performed exceedingly well within its category the first three full calendar years.
12-31-2016
3 Yr return: 10.9% (top 2% of category);
standard deviation of 8.91%
MEASX seems to be in a slump since 201…
That's a good point - I don't know how the author arrived at 6%.
As you mentioned, the D&C Fact Sheet from September 30 indicates that 19.8% of the fund's assets are allocated to emerging markets. The Semi-Annual Report from June 30 implies that…
I have been disappointed with Dodge’s international strategy. DODFX has been an average performer for some time. I am skeptical about an EM offering unless they are looking to bring in a new team.
"The following are listed on the filing as managers…
Fascinating to track how it remains the barest hair ahead of VONE over all large intervals from 10y on in --- so consistent. How dey do dat?
From M* Fund Report by Venkata Sai Uppaluri:
"The fund samples the Russell 1000 Index to
minimize taxab…
VTCLX is an actively managed fund that tracks the Russell 1000 Index while minimizing tax effects.
The fund has performed well and may be worthy of consideration.
ARK Innovation ETF is discussed in the following blog post.
Other "hot" funds from the past are also mentioned.
A Short History of Chasing The Best Performing Funds
PRCNX lands in Morningstar's Foreign Large Blend category although its investment style was classified as Foreign Large Value in 2019 and 2020. The fund's trailing 3 Yr. and 5 Yr. returns were average while its risk was below average (according to M…
I think @LewisBraham makes a good point regarding holding high quality stocks in concentrated funds.
For example, PRILX is a relatively concentrated fund with 38 holdings as of 11-30-20.
It has a good long-term record and has performed well during…
I forget if it was exactly a 10-bagger, am thinking more, but I invested with him through his heyday and it was the single best financial decision I ever made, and then I got out
Nice!
CGMFX was too volatile for me so I never considered purchasing …
I haven't heard much about Ken Heebner in years.
He was a real "cowboy" investment manager back in the day.
The trailing returns for the CGM Focus Fund occupy the bottom percentile (100) in the Large Blend category for the 1,3,5,10, and 15 year peri…
From M* support
“Hope you are doing well.
I apologize for the wrong choice of words.
What I meant was that the issue you highlighted as effected all Morningstar users.
As informed this is been taken has a high priority case .
Best regards,”
…
Morningstar has a good desciption of share classes. PDF
Some mutual fund firms offer funds with a veritable alphabet soup of share classes.
American Funds is one such firm.
For reference, look at the New Perspective Fund. Link
This was a very sophisticated cyber espionage campaign.
Russia's foreign intelligence service, the SVR, is believed to have carried out the hack.
Malware was inserted into a service which provides updates to the Orion software platform used to monit…
@Mark,
Thanks for mentioning Heather Cox Richardson.
I just read several of her informative blog posts and then subscribed to 'Letters from an American'.
The president can only issue pardons for federal crimes.
The Southern District of New York has several active investigations into Mr. Trump's business dealings.
Since these investigations fall under state jurisdiction, pardons are irrelevant.
I hop…
Like Mark said, oil companies aren't the only ones taking advantage of tax havens.
As a former Connecticut resident, I recall when Stanley Works planned to reincorporate in Bermuda.
The company rescinded its plans after receiving major criticism f…
VUSFX is a taxable fund with an inception date of 02-24-15.
The fund's largest monthly loss was -1.08% during this past March.
Since 2016, VUSFX has generated only two monthly losses (other loss was -0.05%).
I read the New Yorker article after posting.
It very effectively depicts the culture at Boeing and the FAA which led to the two tragic plane crashes.
What a mess!
The FAA should never have certified the 737 Max with such a major design flaw.
I'm very disappointed in how Boeing handled this entire situation.
Boeing once was a proud engineering-driven company.
However, their culture started to deteriorate after…
"An examination of Mr. Perdue’s stock trading during his six years in office reveals that he has been the Senate’s most prolific stock trader by far, sometimes reporting 20 or more transactions in a single day."
I think it's safe to assume his cons…
AFAIK, S&P is the only major index provider that has this requirement. It's why the 600 index tends to be a bit conservative relative to its peers like the R2K. Something else distinctive about the S&P methodology is that it is not strictly …
At the end of the video, Mr. Trump improbably described himself as the defender of America’s election system, saying he had been told that the single most important accomplishment of his presidency would be protecting the integrity of the voting sys…
@wxman123,
My comments were generic and not directed towards any particular political party or president.
You may be conflating the economy with the stock market.
They are not one and the same.
Values for some important economic indicators are list…
The DOW is an archaic, price-weighted index which does not accurately represent the economy.
DOW 30K is not a great milestone and is of little significance.
This just happens to be a nice, round number that certain writers unjustifiably emphasized. …
The S&P 500 has generated excellent returns over the trailing 10 years.
However, its performance the preceding 10 years (11-27-2000 to 11-26-2010) was subpar.
Small Caps (IWM), REITs (VGSIX), International (VGTSX), Emerging Markets (VEIEX), and …
Christine Benz from Morningstar has also examined asset class correlations.
I believe this is her latest article on the subject.
The PDFs linked below depict historical asset class correlations over various time periods.
1 Yr
3 Yr
5 Yr
10 Yr
15 Yr
IJR and VTMSX should track pretty closely, because they're both based on the S&P 600. The former is a pure index fund that is designed to track the index. The latter "purchases stocks included in the S&P SmallCap 600 Index—an index that …
I just checked Vanguard Tax-Managed Small Cap Fund (VTMSX).
Returns for the past month and three months are 14.35% and 17.57% respectively.
VTMSX was clobbered earlier this year (-32.24%, Q1 2020) but is now up 6.07% YTD.
Mr. Hasenstab was a star bond fund manager several years ago.
The long-term returns for TPINX and GIM were exceptional.
Here are some quotes extracted from Karin Anderson's GIM analysis for Morningstar:
12-18-2014
"From Michael Hasenstab's start…
