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.
Vanguard made the mistake of not licensing its "ETF class of funds" patents to anyone. By now, this idea is quite stale. Vanguard itself has launched some self-standing ETFs in the US, and in Europe, most of its ETFs are self-standing. The Australia…
International stocks and U.S. stocks generally move in multi-year cycles.
U.S. stocks have significantly outperformed foreign stocks for an extended period through 2021.
Relative performance of S&P 500 vs. international developed markets base…
I have never had much success with Vanguard funds, other than the standard plain vanilla stock and bond funds. With a few exceptions they do not seem to know what role they want them to play
Vanguard has several good funds which are managed by Welli…
I'm also a past FMIJX investor.
The fund was sold after my Roth IRA was transferred to a different brokerage firm several years ago.
I generally prefer unhedged foreign equity funds but favor hedging foreign bonds.
The statement below was found in the VGWIX and VGWLX prospectuses.
Hedging equity currency exposure was not mentioned.
Many foreign equity funds do not hedge currencies at all or in any meaningful way.
"With respect to local currency bonds, the F…
Gimmicky funds, but I'm sure certain political partisans will invest in them.
How long will it be before TheShadow posts these funds are being liquidated?
Some Google employees didn't realize they were laid off until they arrived at the office and found that their access badges were deactivated.
This is terrible!
Maybe Google isn't such a good place to work as some claim?
[snip]
In the meanwhile, Meta laid off 11,000 (13%) of their employees and will buy back $40 billion of their stock. It is all about keeping up its stock price. Other big tech including Google, Microsoft and Amazon are having sizable layoff too. A…
I hit a paywall with the Barrons article.
As of yesterday, the 7 day SEC yield for VMRXX was 4.31%.
Is that with or without the fee waiver?
You may want to check if your local library system offers Proquest.
I'm able to access Barron's and Wall St…
I believe, @Observant1, that I bought the Investor shares of the same fund that you mention.
Yes - same fund but different share class.
As Mona mentioned, SIVLX is available at Vanguard where I have an account.
It has a $25K minimum initial investme…
Poor guy. How will he ever get by. Maybe he will need to claim EITC. Which was a joke but we always hear about zillionaires paying zero taxes. If they show minimal taxable income do they qualify for government subsidies?
Maybe he'll pick up a few ex…
@AndyJ,
Thanks for the link to yesterday's show.
This is one of two Real Yield episodes on YouTube labeled 01/20/2023.
Perhaps someone cut & paste the title but forgot to change the day?
Looks like "death spiral by reorganization and mass defections." There was a time when this was a fine shop.
That was then but this is now.
The near-term future for Matthews Asia looks bleak.
I received an email from Vanguard today to "explore Vanguard's newest bond fund."
VMSAX is managed by several members of Vanguard's Fixed Income Group:
Daniel Shaykevich, Arvind Narayanan, and Michael Chang.
Some other funds managed by these folks a…
Here's another excellent source for current information on Covid and other potential epidemics- Katelyn Jetelina- Your local Epidemiologist.
She publishes a newsletter once a week or so. I've been following her information for over a year, and she'…
...And I notice that Katy Griefeld did NOT say she was "standing in for Jonathan Ferro."
Yep, looks like Katy's it.
I have nothing against Jonathan Ferro but Katy Greifeld is very easy on the eyes.
It's always a shame to me when you get and lose a decent human being as a political leader. I totally understand and believe her reasons for stepping aside and admire her for the work she did. Her positions took guts and humility and seemed always …
@MikeW,
Professor Snowball mentioned several EM stock funds in his recent Investor's Guide to 2023 article.
Seafarer Overseas Value (SIVLX) seems to be a good choice in this category.
Link
According to Tipswatch, non-seasonal inflation usually picks up from January to March.
Consequently, the May 1 variable rate for I Bonds might not be heading to 0.0%.
We'll see what happens...
Link
@LewisBraham,
Several Morningstar articles had mentioned the use of quantitative research for DODEX.
"Dodge & Cox isn’t normally associated with quantitative work, but quant analysis can serve fundamental strategies just as well as tactical tr…
Stock selection for Dodge & Cox Emerging Markets Stock (DODEX) relies on quantitative research
but the firm's other funds mostly depend on fundamental analysis.
DODEX also has far more holdings than other Dodge & Cox equity funds.
Not saying…
A local Long Island newspaper (The North Shore Leader) reported about George Santos before the election.
Since this paper reaches about 20,000 people, few outside of Long Island may have been aware of his antics.
Link
@hank,
I can appreciate your personal position.
In the past, I've strongly endorsed certain mutual funds which I thought were excellent.
The problem is we all have different goals, risk capacities, risk tolerance, etc.
Now when someone asks for f…
”Too many George Santos impersonators have infiltrated some of these forums.”
[snip]
One here whom I greatly respect, Mark Freeland (@msf), has always astutely avoided identifying or acknowledging any stocks or funds he may own. I can’t speak for…
Only similarity here between Trump and Biden is that classified documents were involved.
Trump refused to return the many classified docs in his possession
and his personnel lied when questioned about the situation.
When Biden's team discovered a sm…
Portfolios can be rebalanced based on time intervals or asset threshold ranges.
Frequent rebalancing may be counter-productive due to short-term market trends (momentum).
Rebalancing annually or even biennually can be more productive.
Investors of…
Thank you all for the excellent information.
I reside in Washington state which has strong creditor protections for "employee benefit plans."
Here's a snippet from the corresponding state law:
"The right of a person to a pension, annuity, or retir…
Kevin McCarthy may become one of the weakest House Speakers in history.
He had to make major concessions to win approval from the holdouts.
Any one lawmaker can now launch a "motion to vacate the chair."
It's been said that some holdouts will get se…
