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MFO search doesn't pull up anything on active ETFs GDE or GDMN.
GDE is LC stocks and gold. AUM $642.4 million, ER 0.20% (low for active ETF).
GDMN is gold-miners and gold with leverage 1.8x (effective 90% in gold-miners, 90% in gold-bullion). AUM …
ETF SPC (09/2021- ) has changed name, ticker & objectives as CUSD (01/2026- ).
SPC invested in the niche area of pre-merger SPACs. A new SPAC has to find a viable business within 2 years or return the money to investors. Pre-merger SPC counted …
Silver bullion definitely had a crash on Friday (1/30/26).
In general, a rapid decline of over 20% from whatever level qualifies as crash.
Flash-crash is a decline of over 10% in a very short period.
There was a flash crash in precious metals o…
First Eagle Investments has been owned by private-equity since 2015.
2015-25 Blackstone/BX and Corsair Capital
2025- Genstar Capital
So, the firm and its people have gotten used to private-equity ownership.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_E…
Very interesting.
HY bond market quality has improved (BB-rated have risen to 59% of total HY) because some of the bad credits have shifted to bank-loans (with floating-rates; BB-rated have declined to 30% of total bank-loans) & private-credit …
Post-Presser Notes
Rates: Fed fund held at 3.50-3.75%, bank reserves rate at 3.65%, discount rate at 3.75%. Fed fund rate is around the neutral rate (unknown). Risks to Fed's dual mandate (prices & labor) are nearly in balance, so a rate pause …
140 tonnes of gold is VERY impressive for a company like Tether. That's more gold held than by many small central banks - Philippines, Mexico, S Korea, Australia, Denmark, etc. Tether will be in Top 30 by gold held in the country list.
https://en.wi…
@equalizer, Peter Lynch's original plan was to retire in 1987, but the crash of 1987 intervened, FMAGX had large redemptions, and Lynch didn't want to leave the fund with that situation. So, he delayed his early retirement to 1990 and fund AUM had s…
From M* bio under FCNTX, the new comanagers have industry experience, but have overlapped with Danoff only since 04/2025.
Asher Anolic is co-manager of the VIP Growth Portfolio, which he has managed since July 2017. He also manages other funds. Sin…
Gold-miners are cyclicals, so their P/Es have to be interpreted differently. At cyclical peaks, P/Es are LOW, at cyclical bottoms, P/Es are HIGH or N/A (due to loss).
For example, NEM has fwd P/E of 15.93, ETF GDX fwd P/E is 13.02. These P/Es anti…
Another island, Diego Garcia is back in the news. Transfer by UK to Mauritius was agreed last year, although all formalities aren't completed yet. UK has a 99-yr lease (renewable) on a portion that it subleases to US for a key US base in Indian Oce…
Both PRWCX (M* moderate) and PRCFX (M* moderate-conservative) have "capital appreciation" prominent in their names. So, expect them to be more aggressive within their M* categories for their equity and fixed income sleeves. "Other" can be derivative…
Chevron/CVX and SLB ( former Schlumberger) are already in Venezuela - they never left but just scaled down operations. Now they can ramp up things quickly.
I recently read that while ETFs are extremely popular with retail investors, big investors have moved on to direct- or customized- indexing. So, in 5 years, direct-indexing may be eating the world (-:)
What's great about direct-investing? Better co…
Looking at the lists of funds under VCM and VPM (SAI link in the OP, repeated), I couldn't figure out any underlying rationale. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/34066/000119312526009903/f43758d1.htm
Most of the sector funds and specialized s…
Many firms do this to protect you when your snail mails are lost or stolen. You can look at an older statement and write down the full a/c numbers somewhere for all financial accounts.
I checked US BKGI and Euro version at M* Canada. The portfolios are quite different and that's beyond the currency effects.
BKGI https://www.morningstar.com/etfs/bats/bkgi/portfolio
Euro version https://global.morningstar.com/en-eu/investments/funds…
Some big moves have already occurred. Notable is the absence of Magnificent 7 from the top 10 list.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/07/best-performing-stocks-of-2025-dont-include-alphabet-nvidia.html
Top 10 performers in the Russell 1000 in 2025
Lume…
No issues.
But if you have a problem connecting to the forum,
(i) Try direct link, not the saved bookmark,
https://big-bang-investors.proboards.com/
or
(ii) Try global sign in for ProBoards and then click the forum.
https://www.proboards.com/
As noted, DepositAccounts is a good resource for local banking info.
https://www.depositaccounts.com/banks/rates-map/
Also be on the lookout for unusual terms, 11 month, 17 month, etc. FDIC watches banks that routinely appear on the top CD rate lis…
Audio
At 0:14:30 - Short Intro of David SNOWBALL.
At 0:34:00-0:56:50 - Discussions: 1940 Act OEFs are history, ETFs are in. MFO focuses in ACTIVE management, but the name MFO stays - too expensive to change name & URLs & do related PR. Ign…
Connecting what TRUMP and PULTE said, the purchases would be by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buying back some of their outstanding bonds.
Pulte is the Director of FHFA who overseas Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In his spare time, he also looks through …
@Crash, I checked, and the rule for IRAs is that any % withholding is allowed, but if not chosen by the IRA owner, then 10 % is default withholding.
This may or not be useful for @Ben - the amount distributed and the amount withheld (to be refunded…
There was a prospectus supplement dated 12/5/25 that should have been also received in mail by the holders of POPFX. Liquidation was on 12/31/25.
As for IRA, withholding is required for any distributions not rolled into another IRA.
It's too late i…
A judge has approved Elliott's underbid for Citgo-US that's at 50% of the value. There was another higher bid that wasn't accepted due to some concerns about closing.
It's a distress sale after debt default.
There are now appeals by the bid-loser…
Most refineries need medium grade crude, so they mix heavy/sour crude with light/sweet crude. This is why US has to import crude even when it's the top global producer (#1-US, #2-Saudi Arabia, #3-Russia, #4-Canada, #5-China). Another reason is that …
SSA trust fund is basically Treasury IOU - in exchange for all of the FICA going into the general Treasury fund. The SSA benefit cliff is expected around 2033 when the Treasury IOUs reach 0 and SSA benefits drop to 70-75% to match SSA inflows and ou…
SSA payout should be looked at pre-deductions, not post-deductions.
Assuming that @Old_Joe provided pre-deduction amounts, puzzle for SSA reductions beyond FRA remains. I don't know of WEP/GPO offsets applied - they went away in 2025.
It is typically a few months from the time you apply for Social Security to the time SSA payments actually begin. You may be overthinking this for possibly 1-2 months earlier than your FRA. IMO, just aim for your FRA. People who want to take it earl…
