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.
Thank you, sir.
Chuck and I had an interesting chat yesterday. He's fired-up about the quality of guests he's attracted lately and is working on what sounds like an interesting story on small, independent funds. It should be done today and live, pr…
We appear to be a sort of standard line tacked on to the end of a number of her stories, including one this week about the importance of knowing what a "benchmark" is. I mostly nod and think "well, she is spelling our name right."
David
Hi, Matt.
Do you have another browser (Chrome or Firefox) on your computer? If so, would you please try that and let us know if it works?
We'll try to figure this out.
Best,
Chip
Death Wish Coffee, David. How could you not be intrigued by a product that gets reviews like:
Here's a general rundown of my experience with the first pot of Death Wish Coffee.
1st cup - Hmm, this aint bad. Tastes pretty good. I like it.
2nd cup …
In approving the renewal of the adviser's contract last month, the board of trustees noted that while the fund lagged just about everyone for the past 1, 3, 5, and 10 year periods, 75% of the money in the fund was the manager's so he had all the inc…
Yuh ... pompous, pedestrian and vacuous thoughts generally precede pompous, pedestrian and vacuous letters. If you're looking to trust your money to someone who is pp&v, these letters are a great place to find leads!
David
Hi, guys.
We're open to tweaking the text. I'm under a fair amount of pressure from folks with "J.D." after their names to take "certain sensible, conventional precautions" as our visibility grows. It's new stuff to think about.
David
My latest note(s) to "Joe" and Carly mention that they're wrong on the AIP minimums for both Artisan (which does waive the minimum, contra Morningstar) and Vanguard (which doesn't, also contra Morningstar) and encourages them to try to make any sens…
Hi, catch!
Hard to say. This disclaimer appears only on the discussion board page. I've been wondering if I should include something in the monthly commentary, especially when I don't control the content (e.g., in the Elevator Talks and guest fea…
Let's see: when George was promoted to co-CIO back in 2011 or 2012, Royce went to some pains to publicly disavow the prospect that he was engaged in "succession planning." Some might imagine that was Royce's way of saying, "don't worry, I'm not tru…
It is curious. The other Driehaus funds are $10k - 25k, and they don't typically allow supermarkets to waive those.
As the time gets closer, I'll ask. For the nonce they're not going to speak, citing the SEC's "quiet period."
David
The distinction, which we mention in our profile of Driehaus Emerging Markets Small Cap Growth , is the Driehaus substantially hedges their portfolio. That's produced a pretty remarkable profile. Maybe here, too. We'll see.
David
Silly me ... given the celebration of Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth Nations and the former Armistice Day here, I imagined a celebration of Harry Patch, who was the longest-surviving soldier who'd fought in the trenches in WW1. He died in 2009…
I passed your concerns along Carling Spelhaug, one of the folks in Corporate Communications for the Morningstar. She's really pretty good, so perhaps we'll hear something interesting back.
I'll keep you apprised.
David
The folks who once ran Third Avenue Focused Credit (TFCVX) left to run the closed-end Avenue Income Credit Strategy (ACP) which launched in January 2011 and earns five stars. Eighteen months later they launched Avenue Credit Strategies (ACSAX), whi…
There was a short audio remembrance of Tommy on NPR this afternoon. They didn't use any clips from the boys' long career, perhaps out of deference to the family's desire for a bit of quiet.
David
I drive a 2010 Corolla, bought used a couple years ago. Wonderful car, surprisingly nice backseat, all things considered. I've driven it as far as Pittsburgh (630 miles) and have been happy with the feel and handling.
A close second with the Scio…
I'm afraid that LLJB's joke might not be far from the truth. The site went down last night at almost exactly midnight Eastern. A sense of a disturbance in The Force caused Chip to wake around 1:00 a.m. Eastern to discover a series of alarm notices…
The stats that strike me as more interesting come from Leuthold, who simply asks "well, how bad could it get?" That is, they're not currently predicting a meltdown but they are tracking the magnitude of "normal" bears from here. You can measure t…
The saddest thing is that there was next a "next generation" after them. Greg Frasier was great at Diversified International, then left. Reasonably talented folks rotated through Magellan, then mostly left. And the names I read five years ago on …
Curiously, a fair number of folks tweet us (tweet about us?) each month. Chip follows such things and reports that a half dozen folks whose names you'd recognize might tweet us and rather more than that retweet them.
For what interest it holds,
D…
And so they tell us: The Legacy share class "is open specifically for existing Meridian shareholders. For example there are well over 25,000 direct retail, advisor, and institutional shareholders in Meridian Growth (Meade and Schaub's small/mid cap…
Hey, big guy.
I don't profess to any particular insight on SPHQ nor any great passion for SRFMX. My argument for SRFMX comes down to this: "many folks found DGAGX's ultra-low turnover approach to ultra-large cap stocks attractive. It does, over t…
Hi, Paul.
I've never known a manager to be open about why he or she left a firm; the most I've ever gotten is "excited to explore new possibilities at this point in my career." I'll note, in passing, the striking number who offer veiled criticisms…
Hi, Ira.
Good thought. I know it's good because I make a similar observation in our impending profile of JACUX. Gross has managed PIMCO and Harbor Unconstrained since their manager's sudden desire for a sabbatical in December 2013.
More soon,
D…
Thanks!
The parent of a prospective student, visiting campus for the first time, once told me that we were "the only college we've visited that actually looks like the pictures in its brochure."
The Gallery, for what interest that holds.
David
I also had to sign-in this morning. Happens about once a month for me, usually around the first. As a security move I'd cleared my browser history yesterday, which might account for the odd timing of it.
The process is controlled by the Vanilla …
Yuh, the CEO at Janus is the former COO at PIMCO. Reportedly he and Gross got along quite well. Not to say that it ain't what you know, it's who you know, but ...
Just to confirm: the new Gross fund is Unconstrained Bond, not "Global Unconstrained Bond." The Unconstrained Bond fund prospectus contains only one limit on the income-producing securities in which it might invest: no more than 50% of the portfoli…
