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 driverless systems using multiple inputs (optical, laser, ultrasound) have been approved, but not yet the Tesla's optical-only system. Musk bet big on optical-only system with huge AI supporting it, but AI cannot fix what the optical system …
The SSA COLA uses CPI-W, not the common CPI (really, CPI-U). The SSA even publishes quarterly averages for CPI-W and Q3 averages are used in COLA calculations.
So,
2014/Q3 234.242
2014/Q3 308.729
10-yr ratio 1.3179916
So, 1,000/mo in 2014 will be…
"my SO and I had the same policy, went to the same PCP on the same day, had the same blood test. One of us was charged a $20 copay, the other was charged $0. One had been coded as a lab procedure ($0 copay), the other as a diagnostic test ($20 copay…
My experience with IL retiree group is that decisions are made at the state level - there is IL-CMS (not to be confused with federal CMS). Public or retirees may complain all they want. So, for us, it was IL-retiree-MA, take it or leave it. We could…
Out of curiosity, I checked my local area in IL. It shows 94 plans in my local area.
50 MAPD & MA plans from Aetna, BCBS, Cigna, Humana, United Healthcare, Wellcare
29 Medigap plans from BCBS, Cigna, Humana, Mutual of Omaha
15 Part D plans fr…
Correcting IRA contribution mistakes are possible by the tax filing deadline. She should call Schwab and follow their instructions. My guess is that her IRA will be zeroed out and the money shifted to brokerage account.
https://www.schwab.com/resour…
Some reported breaches have involved not using encryptions for personal and login info, employees falling for spoofing. This is inexcusable in this day and age.
In fact, many banks and card co now warn that if you fall for spoofing, your losses ma…
Credit Karma/INTU also offers FREE credit monitoring. It uses 2 of big 3 - Equifax & TransUnion. One can check credit as often as needed.
I still signup for FREE credit monitoring offered by the breached companies, but I know that I am not get…
There is a larger entity ENDI, also run by DS, that includes CrossingBridge as an important component. ENDI is still tiny as far as the asset managers go.
Yahoo Finance, ENDI https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ENDI/
Website https://www.endicorp.com/
E…
It's OLD news.
The insurance industry uses 3rd party services from Infosys/McCamish and it had a breach. But companies have been tight lipped about it and the news is coming out like cockroaches. Those that have admitted so far are T Rowe Price/TR…
GATEX is an OEF with 12/1977 as inception. It has been using options overlays since soon after there were tradable options in 1970s. Its inception well predates the ETFs that have been around only since 1990s. So, GATEX isn't an ETF, but a granddadd…
Credit the success of JEPI & JEPQ to JPM PR. There is much older GATEX that isn't hot.
Also, the public misunderstands these - that the upside is limited, but the downside is full. Moreover, the potential LT-CGs get changed into premium income.
The chemistry Nobel goes partially to AI.
https://apnews.com/article/nobel-chemistry-prize-56f4d9e90591dfe7d9d840a8c8c9d553
These will provide huge boosts to profitless (so far) AI investment themes (many say AI-hype). So, I am changing the OP cat…
I have a family member in securities compliance business.
Licensed financial professionals are restricted from posting a lot on social-media. In fact, whatever they post may become part of the records they must keep for the SEC and FINRA. For any b…
A nonissue.
Only the current rules for single stock eTF tickers are too restrictive.
Reserving tickers shouldn't be free, but should have some nominal cost. Also, copycat tickers shouldn't be allowed - those reserved by others that are similar to…
Some posters here may remember that years ago, Vanguard tried to be disruptive in the market for variable-annuities (VAs) with income-riders (GMWB, GLWB). People thought that was odd for a major low-low-cost indexer to jump into a product with the h…
From Oak Associates website,
https://oakfunds.com/about-oak/our-team/jim-oelschlager
Oak Associates funds - 7 single-class funds,
https://oakfunds.com/our-funds/fund-family-overview
Morningstar on Oak Associates,
https://www.morningstar.com/asset-…
While the government said it won't interfere by ordering workers back under Taft-Hartley, my guess is that it used that power to pressure both sides to come to a temporary resolution.
1. Management was at +$3/hr increase each year for 6 years, but …
I see many ideas as special situations. For example, several coal companies went bankrupt and provided good speculative opportunities when they came out of bankruptcy. This has nothing to with the fact that coal is a dying industry in the Western Wo…
Market-neutral funds shouldn't be seen as bond alternatives. They are designed with 50-50 long-short exposure. A big risk is that the portfolio manager may be wrong on both ends - the longs AND the shorts. If everything works right, the upside may b…
News is about suspension of strike until 1/15/25, the date to which the current contract is being extended with agreement on wages only. The rest of the issues will have to be negotiated by 1/15/2025.
Wage increases will be as follows:
Current base…
Wade Pfau, David Blanchett and others have recently studied the effects of adding annuities (immediate or deferred) to withdrawal studies. TIAA Institute has also done articles on this. But as the Price/TROW piece mentions, SECURE provided additiona…
LATER, in SAI,
"Any distribution paid by the Fund reduces the Fund’s NAV per share on the date paid by the amount of the distribution per share. Accordingly, a distribution paid shortly after a purchase of shares by a shareholder would represent, i…
A single cat-bond doesn't have much upside - principal + promised rate + interest on the pool kept in Treasuries - expenses. But the downside is huge - principal could be wiped out if the trigger event causes huge losses.
So, in a pool of cat-bonds…
I monitor M* Signature Methodology link where all these documents are found.
https://www.morningstar.com/research/signature
My complaints are:
1. They are now only for download & not for linking (they used to be) as the OP linked from Morning…
People know that rates are falling, but a picture is worth 1,000 words. So, in the chart linked,
The main chart is 3m T-Bill and m-mkt track those with small lag.
The bottom frame shows 10y T-Note that SVs (TIAA Traditional, etc) tracks, also with…
What are these foolish customers thinking? A one-time fraudulent deposit followed by a large withdrawal is not only traceable, but may block the account.
But 16-day business hold? Fido CMA isn't a bank a/c, but can banks do that?
This is a copyc…
@Shostakovich, Vanguard doesn't allow fractional share orders, but one can signup for its brokerage-based reinvestment program - Vanguard will buy fractional shares.
Unfortunately, some ETFs are excluded from VG dividend reinvestment program (TCAF, …
The ER fields for etf in the filing are blank. Hopefully, they will be lower than their OEF counterparts.
SGENX (ER 1.1%) is no-load/NTF at Fido & Schwab, but the ER is higher than SGIIX (ER 0.86%). Fund has always held some gold in the portfol…
2 issues here. Cryptos & the SEC mode of operation.
I was pointing to the "Exemption" racket by deliberate misnaming the SEC. So, make tough rules and then grant exemptions one by one, then hundreds, even thousands - unlike IRS Letters or Rulin…
Stock fund flows have been declining since mid-July and money has been leaving stock funds since early-August despite new highs for major indexes.
Flows into m-mkt funds have slowed since September.
Where is money going?
BONDS - taxable bonds & …
@Charles, some FLOW charts are showing different end dates:
VOO 20240830
VYM 20240830
SPY 20240906 (was updated 2 weeks ago)
NFTY 20140906 (was updated 2 weeks ago)
None of the above show 20240920.
Basic SPIA are OK & some can be bought online without agents. But annuity costs go up when one adds bells and whistles.
With any charitable annuity (immediate or deferred), there are also the donation and tax deduction aspects, so they won't be…
Oh no, not another piece on Teresa Ghilarducci's prpopsals for a national retirement plan. One of her proposals may require discontinuing existing 401k/403b and folding them into the grand national plan. Good luck with that. We and the Government ha…
@BaluBalu, are you referring to this list below from Capital Group (info on ETFs is at the end)? It seems that list shows all Capital Group funds (OEFs, ETFs) but the estimates are shown only if applicable. The dates may also be in the related prosp…
@Sven, Powell did say that dot-plots showed multiple cuts in 2024, and there are only 2 FOMC meetings left. So, more 25-50 bps cuts are coming in 2024. The 2-yr was at 3.61%, meaning sharply lower fed fund rate in months ahead.
