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.
I suspwct that some of the stories are mostly prewritten. Morningstar has an onsite newspaper that reports, in advance, on what the speakers are going to have said. (Neat verb cluster.) So reporters start with that and add snippets from the post-…
Hey, MJG.
Wish you folks were here too. It turns out that MFO is modestly more well-known than you might suspect, and so I've been drawn into more impromptu conversations with fund folks than I'd budgeted time for. In the long run, that will help…
"Global brands" certainly seem to represent a popular theme among the international crowd. There's really a sense that the emerging EM middle class will be a growth driver (50% of global GDP currently, 60% by the end of the decade) and that lots of…
Morningstar's funny. "Smaller" = "our smallest medalists." The sizes here range from $1 - 8 billion and Kinnel himself admits "the last two [Causeway at $5B and Manning & Napier at $8B] are a little too big to count" as "below the radar" but …
Hi, heez.
A number of families - Artisan included - have text-free semi-annual reports. They strike me as a waste of paper. In RiverPark's case, the managers do uniformly solid quarterly letters though with the inevitable (given the tech, nearly …
Thanks for the Bryan questions. I'd been curious about his decision to leave Waddell & Reed (was bloat an issue?), his take on HY valuations (including stuff in the portfolio other than HY bonds) and how he sees himself as distinctive. Had not…
Curious. I hear rumblings of dark doings at Third Avenue from one of my senior colleagues. The insider buzz seems to be a struggle for the soul of the company and control of its next generation. I have no independent information to confirm that s…
Hi, jerry.
I never swipe at Ted. He and I go back decades now, through three sets of discussion boards. Over that time, he's posted hundreds of thousands of links as well as thousands of individual comments. It's a trove, he's a treasure.
That …
The "spliced index" seems to mean that Vanguard has changed index providers over time and they've attempted to aggregate the returns of the combined indexes (one index's return in 2005 is married to the next index's return in 2006 ...).
Here's the …
I'm mulling over both Mr. R's piece and the underlying research. If I were prone to be skeptical, the skepticism would begin with the observation "researchers from a firm whose bloated funds have low active shares report that low active shares are …
I love his analysis: "We’ve been wrong because the world’s markets have not corrected." Translation: "we were wrong because we were not right."
Sometimes I think the only thing the market is efficient at is converting pundits to putzes, and vice v…
Hi, guys.
Sorry about the long silence. Life feels like it's slowly settling down - my furniture is in place and the number of contractors is dropping, but my life's still mostly in cardboard boxes - and I'll be a bit more visible now.
On RiverPa…
I respect Mr. Winters and understand the argument that "I'm worth what I charge; if you disagree, invest elsewhere." While I don't disagree, I have invested elsewhere because of the high minimum and high expenses.
That said, Morningstar makes a pr…
(told you it wasn't just us)
As a quick tech update, the changes we've made seem to have substantially increased our stability. After the start of the month we're also having Green Geeks move us to a more secure server, which should help with the …
"Small funds need not apply."
Morningstar highlights nine funds in the article, with assets up to $101 billion. Those are drawn from a list of 28 that made the cut. Of those 28, one has under a billion in assets.
The key to making the cut: Morni…
Pear Tree used to be the Quant Funds and one of the earlier manifestations of Pear Tree Quality was Quant Quality Fund and another was Quant Long/Short. They rebranded about three years ago because, they argued, "Quant" no longer fairly described …
Uhhh ... S&P looked for large cap core funds (home of tiny funds with distinctive strategies, fer sure) with above average returns and below average volatility. And for what time period do they check? The past three years, a period of virtuall…
I've noted before that Mr. Clements' time at Citigroup looked to me like time spent in the wilderness; I don't think they knew what to do with him and it looked like he mostly wrote an occasional blog piece for them. At least that's what was visibl…
Hi, OJ.
We're seeing all sorts of weird spikes in demand. We'd forwarded them to Brad, our outside consultant, and we're monitoring actively now. If need be, Chip can reboot the server or I can contact Green Geeks to get them to.
On the upside, …
Uhhh... in line with industry norms, Calamos's annual bonus is expected to be 600% of his base pay, while co-CIO Gary Black's is 300%.
I once got a gift certificate for a turkey!
David
With the (major) caveat that these have been bad investments - lots of unprofitable or speculative firms in the sector, low returns and lots of mutual funds in the sector liquidating - you might look at Fidelity Select Environment and Alternative En…
At least I had the last word:
Whatever emerges next, many pros suggest steering clear. Acronyms are "marketing devices, not investment insights," says David Snowball, publisher of the Mutual Fund Observer website.
Hi, Joe.
I guess I was noticing the above average returns (more or less top 10% in the low term), slightly above average upside capture, slightly below average downside capture, exceptional Sharpe ratio (that is, risk-adjusted returns), low expens…
Actually Ms. Gudefin has co-managed the fund since inception. I went back to the prospectus to check. There are two different spots in the doc, dated 10/13, that identifies the fund as co-managed by Gudefin and Lahr since inception.
David
PIMCO …
Hennessy Focus (HFCSX) used to be FBR Focus, Mr. Akre's fund before FBR tried to squeeze more revenue out of the fund by squeezing the star manager out. Since launch, AKREX has been a bit better than Hennessy and is now twice its size.
Westwood Te…
(chuckles) Thanks for the kind words, Rick. I joked that the house had a colonoscopy last week; we ran a camera on a cable down the clean-out, out to the city main and back. Don't really want to repeat the experience.
I'm much taken by the place…
You're quite free, by the way, to believe anything you wish. It would be nice if those beliefs were backed by some combination of evidence or expertise, rather than annoyance and suspicion.
To Derf's point: we're still trying to figure this one ou…
Part of the answer might depend on how complex you'd like your asset allocation to be. If you put yourself in the position where you'll need to select and monitor a dozen funds, you're likely better off with a good fund-of-funds like Vanguard STAR …
Barron's claims there are a thousand such funds, a number which I'm skeptical of since journalists rarely distinguish between portfolios and share classes. That's why you forever hear folks prattle on about the 25,000 mutual funds being greater tha…
Hi, Pete.
I actually substituted Driehaus EM Small Cap for William Blair EM Small Cap Growth. Would have covered both, but Blair closed to new investors which made coverage a much lower priority.
Yes, I know Morningstar says it's open. Here's …
