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.
Several emerging market and currency bets went wrong over the years.
Maintaining a low overall duration also didn't help.
As was mentioned, Mr. Hasenstab could be stubborn in holding losing positions for too long.
"Credit spreads in Europe haven’t been this tight this consistently since, again, the summer of 2007.
In the credit market, unlike stocks, stability like this should ring alarm bells.
Investment-grade issuers, and not just low-grade junk issuers, …
M* take on Tad Rivelle's retirement:
"Rivelle is a giant in the fixed-income world, and his retirement is noteworthy.
However, the strength of the remaining trio of generalist managers and the quality of the specialist teams that support them sh…
Multi-alternative funds tend to be pricey, complex, and opaque.
They may use combinations of various strategies: long/short equity, interest rate/currency bets, derivatives, commodities, arbitrage, etc. Many investors don't understand how these disp…
According to the various prospectuses, flagship customers can open new accounts. The prospectuses don't describe the procedure.
VPMCX:
Vanguard PRIMECAP Fund is closed to new accounts for investors not enrolled in Vanguard Flagship Services® or Va…
"But you don't need to own Vanguard mutual funds or ETFs to get the benefits of its unique low-cost structure. You can (and should?) get them almost anywhere."
True, except for the Admiral shares of actively-managed funds.
Bill Smead was a regular guest on the local PBS finance show "About the Money".
I was impressed by his thoughtful investment strategy and candid demeanor.
I didn't like Smead Value Fund's expense ratio which was rather high.
The fund has performed …
My two most important considerations are 'Commissions and fees' and 'Investment choices'.
The total number of available funds is meaningless if many funds are mediocre.
Having good 'Tools' (screeners, calculators, etc.) is a plus but it is not man…
I thought all brokerages that charge zero commission receive PFOF which the brokerage keeps, not just RH. No?
Fidelity and Merrill Edge do not accept payment for order flow.
There may be others...
If Vanguard has spent $1B on technology the results are thus far invisible to me, as in absolutely no difference over the past few years (except for glitches they have had to reverse).
I personally have not seen any technology updates which have im…
I've used secure messaging to avoid phone calls for non-urgent questions.
Borrowing a Flagship ID seems like a good hack to facilitate contact with an actual human being.
The increase in people working from home is not the root cause for Vanguard's problems.
Dan Weiner's 'The Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors' newsletter reported the following issues in the November 2019 issue:
computer "sucked" money from…
I prefer the S&P 600 over the Russell 2000.
It has a bit more of a quality tilt.
Companies must have positive earnings over the most recent quarter as well as over the most recent four quarters (in aggregate) to be considered for inclusion.
Vanguard Advice Select Dividend Growth will be managed by Donald Kilbride of Wellington.
This fund will be a more concentrated version of Vanguard Dividend Growth which Mr. Kilbride has managed since 2006.
Vanguard Advice Select International Growt…
Ryan Jacob:
"They're not all making money yet but they're all developing strong franchising operations," he said. "We're strong believers that these companies will be leaders in the field into the next century."
Sounds familiar...
That is also correct. In some respects, S&P funds aren’t automated index funds in that the stocks in them are selected by members of the S&P index committee and one of the criteria for the committee’s inclusion of a stock in the S&P 500 …
It's good to know that E-Trade offers Vanguard funds with no transaction fees.
Unfortunately, admin shares for active Vanguard funds appear to be unavailable.
AFAIK, you must purchase these admin shares directly via Vanguard.
The Garrett Planning Network is a national network of hourly-based, fee-only financial planners.
Garrett
The following articles are a few years old but should still be useful.
Note: The SEC adopted Regulation Best Interest in 2019.
The 19 Question…
Thanks for giving examples of what bothers you. Some I agree with, some are beyond Vanguard's control, and some don't fall under the rubric "poorly designed and inefficient".
[snip]
Research facilities are clunky and barebones - I completely agr…
The page layout for the same (or essentially same) data differs depending on the access method.
This divergence can be distracting when an investor is navigating between various account information.
Example #1:
Account Overview
Select Account
"Mod…
Vanguard's website for brokerage clients is poorly designed and inefficient.
The "look and feel" reminds me of websites from the late '90s or early aughts!
I purchased Baillie Gifford's 'The Emerging Markets Fund Instl' (BGEGX) from Fidelity on 01/02/2019.
The following Baillie Gifford funds (and possibly others) were available from Fidelity as of 01/31/2019:
International
EAFE Choice Fund
EAFE Fund C…
The performance of VOO and VTI should be very similar over the long term.
Exposure to small-cap/mid-cap stocks and index methodology may be considerations.
The above statement referred to Vanguard "active" investing generally and not to bond funds specifically.
I see your point though. Vanguard has not previously offered any options in the multisector category.
This is a broad category where speciali…
I seldom had issues or questions where I needed to contact Vanguard.
However, I did contact Vanguard several times via Message Center when I did have a question.
If an immediate response is not required, Message Center is an efficient communication …
This is of interest to me, but I am suspect of Vanguard's investing approach. They are a traditional "passive" investing firm, dependent on very low management fees, which is not a glowing basis for more active management of multisector and core pl…
It sure took Vanguard a long time to offer active core-plus and multisector funds!
Since I'm not a fan of most passive bond funds, this is a welcome development.
Three comanagers of the new core-plus fund also currently manage VCOBX.
They've done a …
Direct indexing provides several potential benefits.
Investors can personalize portfolios by removing select companies from an index and tax-loss harvesting opportunities are optimized. Just Invest's technology will only be available to advisers at …
@JD_co USAA has USBLX similar but a slightly higher ER. I also believe Vanguard has a Small cap Tax managed fund (VTMSX) that might be a nice addition to VTMFX.
Click here -
Allocating VTMFX with VTMSX
Good call. VTMSX would be a nice addition to…
Here's a more detailed history of AMG:
https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/13/Affiliated-Managers-Group-Inc.html
Until I checked, I also thought: "Affiliates operate independently" and "AMG invests in independent investment managers and a…
