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.
Hi, guys.
Quick highlights.
Charles got to spend some serious time with quant investors and shares his experiences at, and conclusions from, the Democratizing Quant Investing conference.
Ed reflects on the ripple effects from interest rate rises …
Meh ... I wouldn't describe it as "fake" at all, in the sense that JC has no financial stake and clearly identifies the costs and benefits of membership. Not "news," but Humble Dollar doesn't claim to be a news source. It's a long-time columnist's p…
Hi, guys.
Sorry about the delayed response.
The story is this: after two members of the Board flagged a thread as problematic, we reviewed it and deleted it. It's a judgment call. I made it.
In general, there's an issue of heat versus light that…
Hi, Derf.
Sorry about whining, but the glitches are an almost daily feature now. When you can't even rely on the simplest function - correctly identifying that a fund exists in their system - work gets challenging.
David
Hi, Derf.
My portfolio review is a victim of my problems with the Morningstar website. I can't even see my portfolio through Chrome, my default browser, and I've been exchanging (amiable and patient) notes with them for six weeks about it. That kee…
Our latest profile of LEXCX is from 2012. The point that I've made before is that it's the coolest fund to write about once, the dullest to try to write about twice.
David
Hi, David.
He's using average, which is inflated relative to Leuthold's calculation and including the frothiest part of the tech/telecom bubble (1997-20) in his calculation of what's normal. Using the average overweights the impact of the largest, …
The only L/S fund that's been around for the full market cycle and has qualified as a Great Owl, is Hundredfold Select Alternatives (SFHYX). That's not an endorsement, just a statistical report. It has outperformed its peers by 2.7% annually for the…
Hi, Ron.
The Navigator just aims people at (mostly) external pages. Is the problem that you're getting 404 - page not found errors or external pages that seem stale? I used Seafarer as an example and clicked through all the links. USA Today and US …
Hi David.
Hmmm ... my concern is the implication that your total return in the current market cycle is 231%. That comes about because the bull market is disconnected from the bear portion of the cycle. From 2000-2010, the market's net return was ze…
"Most important," "most misleading," it's a hard call.
You'll notice that all of Mr. Edelman's up periods begin at zero, they don't begin at the negative point where the "little itty bitty down" finished. Somehow he assumes that if you rise 50% aft…
Cheers to one and all. You're among my most active blessings! Cheers, too, to Charles who spent Christmas morning tweaking MFO Premium (I get notices); he must mightily perplex Santa.
Wishing you peace and joy, now and in the seasons to come.
David
Thanks, Ted.
Thanks, too, for the heads-up on the Steadman Funds. He really was a visionary (how many people would devote a fund to ocean nodule mining ... oh, wait! The same folks who'd imagine a fund devoted to 3D printing!) and a crackpot.
I …
Thanks!
The argument about ICMAX is interesting. If your time horizon is short and you can guarantee that the market will rise steadily (a feat that some technicians and timers believe is doable), then you should be fully exposed to the stock marke…
In response to an emailed question, here are the US equity funds with the highest Martin ratios over the full market cycle that began in October 2007:
Reynolds Blue Chip Growth (RBCGX), 1.75
Intrepid Endurance (ICMAX), 1.67 (which I own shares of, …
My problem is that I subscribe, so the links always work for me. Apparently Google had enforced a "first click free" rule that said something like, "if someone Googles your exact article title, you need to let them in." If publishers didn't agree, t…
Hi, Lewis.
I'd hoped to include a link to your article in the profile, but my understanding is that a new agreement between Google and various publishers makes the paywall rather tighter. Is that about right?
On the asset bloat piece, they're alre…
Hi, Ben.
I had the same concern but spoke with the adviser about it. The turnover is a one-time event linked to the move from being an Allianz fund to being independent. Two factors: Allianz wanted large cap and they pulled all of their clients' as…
Sorry, LLJB, I should have been clearer. I've been reading work on the adviser's site, which is more extensive. https://www.fullerthaler.com/news. They've run the strategy in several wrappers back for a couple decades. Microcap, if I recall correctl…
Dear friends,
I'm delighted that a number of folks joined us this month who we haven't heard from in a while.
Sam Lee reflected on the tiff involving Morningstar and the Wall Street Journal.
Mark Wilson shared some brief and welcome reflections on …
Today's WSJ reports:
1. that he is dating another Fidelity portfolio manager
2. that he had to get an HR waiver to permit him to have that relationship with a junior colleague
3. that he claims that he left, voluntarily and amicably, because he was…
For what it's worth, I notified Morningstar of the manager problem five days ago. Here's what I've heard so far:
Hello David,
Thank you for writing to us.
I apologize for the delay in response and for the inconvenience you may have experienced …
Hi, Ralph.
See Chip's note on the other "broken ticker" thread. At base, our address is now "https mutual fund observer," rather than "http mutual fund observer." We need to find where, in the plug-in coding, our address is mentioned ... and then a…
Yep. We're still working on things. Somehow the security layer broke Accipiter's ticker lookup and we haven't yet made the upgrade to MFO Premium. Both are in the pipeline for this week.
David
You're right. Towle is open to direct purchase, which they say is relatively rare but from welcome investors since those are the folks who are doing something more thoughtful than clicking through a One Source list. Closed through the supermarkets.
…
They actually changed fees on seven major funds, with four seeing higher fees and four seeing lower ones.
Have trouble with 4+4=7? One fund raises expenses on some share classes and drops them on others.
Details in the September issue, for what in…
Right. I'm entirely on board with the claim that the average manager is just a cog in a team-managed, marketing-sensitive team whose mantra is "don't get noticed!" The question is, what useful insight does that convey? One line of argument is "avoid…
They link from the "discuss" tab on the far right of the top bar on the Morningstar homepage. http://socialize.morningstar.com/NewSocialize/forums/default.aspx
Hi, guys.
The moderators can "announce" a post, which pins it to the top of the board. Usually I announce the new issue then, after a week, unannounce it. That means if no one has commented on it recently, it drifts down in the list, though it does…
Hey, Derf!
In Charles's system, blue shading is always the preferred end of the scale and red is always the troubled end.
If you like at a fund's profile and see a line of blue across the board, you immediately know that it's in the top (i.e., bes…
For about 60 years, the nuclear powers have relied on the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction to maintain the peace. The premise is simple: you simply convince your opponents that you're precisely crazy enough to end the world if they push you …
Thanks for the kind words. I'm hopeful of finishing the second edition (which expands the discussions of errors embedded in cross-cultural communication and technologically-mediated comm, both increasingly pressing in a globalized workplace) this fa…
