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.
As a whole, my portfolio dropped only 1%, thank you bonds, utility funds and some consumer staples stocks. However, my retirement accounts dropped by 3%, which is just a bit more than the S + P. Consider that portfolio holds FBTIX and ISTIX, and i…
I am heartened to see that I am not alone in my opinion of joe kernan. He is supposed to be journalist/on air host, not a tea party spokesman. He takes every opportunity to blame the current administration for everything from a snowy winter to s…
I dropped an email to the author, and he emailed me this response within a few minutes:
Out of curiosity I reran the screen to see what other small cap funds that are currently open to new investors meet the criteria and here they are:
NNLEX
JDSN…
It would be nice if Morningstar would screen these lists for funds closed to new investors. 2 of the 3 small cap funds mentioned are closed to new investors. Many people look to Morningstar to screen for funds to research further or buy.
@charles,
Thanks, I saw that when i looked at FFSAX , which although categorized as small cap growth, seems to have more characteristics of a blend or core fund like FSCRX the one I currently have. This one will be on my short list of replacements…
To my surprize, the best fund/etf ytd is VNQ + 9.18%, after being flat most of 2013. Next best are my two utility funds FRUAX + 7.68% and MMUIX + 5.75% and coming in third is PHSZX + 4.14%. My other funds vary from -1.16% to 3.91% with overall +…
I have the same concern with FSCRX with AUM over 6B. For a small cap fund, that is way more than I would like to see. It closed, but not before it doubled its asset size from the time it announced it was closing til it actually did. It may be more…
sym,
Its not always only about total return. No doubt DLN is a solid ETF in this space. VIG has lower volatility and went down -26.50 to DTN's -35.9 in 2008. I hold VIG and to add to return in a similar category (but not identical), I have OYEIX.
Bee,
I have MMUIX and FRUAX, added them about a year ago. They seem to have less correlation than you would think, it provides a nice balast to my IRAs since Im all stock in my IRAs. Bonds are held in taxable account. Looks like you have done we…
Sold KMP and took proceeds and added them to my existing position in AMLP , a more diversified approach to mlps seemed best, Kinder has not gone up at all since 2011 except for minor spikes here or there. Also added to ARII , no more additions to i…
I do play with a very small portion of my portfolio on what I feel are potential game changers or innovators, but leave most of that to WAGTX, which I have been very pleased with. Recently I started buying PLUG at $2.60, and stopped when my average …
Reply to @DavidV:
I also added an LCG fund , TFOIX Transamerica Capital Growth,reducing by an equal amount my small cpa blend fund. Also initiated a position in ARII American Rail Car, which I believe two other members had spoken of a while back.
Low risk, World fund with Asia exposure, hmmm. Not an easy order. Although it does not have that much in Asia, you might want to check out WAGTX. It is probably one of the lesser known Wasatch funds, still open, will hold anywhere from small to l…
Ted,
I use the etf PJP, which is large pharma. It complements, does not duplicate my FBTIX and PHSZX. Neither fund has a large amount of large pharma since they have more biotechs, medical devices, insurers and small and midcap pharma. This rou…
If you have access to load funds without paying the load, I recently added OSMYX (the retail shares would be OSMAX). See if you can get load waived. Its 50% europe.
Thanks for posting Ted, I have been watching this one, since my small cap fund FSCRX is now rather large. So far it is keeping up, but its size may inhibit it going forward. My thought is to perhaps take half and buy GTSCX, but this article in Bar…
When I bought my Toyota Highlander last year, I took the easy route. Test drove at the dealer I wanted, they quoted a price, I haggled and walked away, it was too high. Then used the Costco car buying service which gave me the same car I wanted fo…
I guess in this category I have four: PKW (buybacks, largest equity holding), PJP (selected pharma), VIG (selected dividend growth stocks) and RHS (equal weighted Consumer Staples). All had an excellent 2013, first year I owned them. Most likely l…
FBTIX 12.96
PHSZX 9.40
PJP 4.98
VNQ 2.83
OSMYX 1.30
The three health care/biotec funds/etfs represent only 5% of total portfolio, but 8% of retirement portfolio. Health care in general is about 11% of total, my biggest sector bet. Was re…
Might be worth watching for me, I have FSCRX and it is now $7 billion in assets. 2013 was the first year that it did not dramatically outperform its benchmark, perhaps its size is hindering it. One year is not much to go on, but this stellar fund …
Thanks Bee and cman, I did look at all of the etfs, most pretty similar, except a couple of them have more small and mid cap exposure than I need, Im already almost 20% there. Seems like Fido is the main family to offer a diversified industrial, pe…
Reply to @Ted:
Thanks Ted, FCYIX I believe is same as FCLIX, one is advisor one is institutional. I have access to both. I did compare IYJ to VIS, portfolio so similar and Vanguard's was cheaper.
I did look at the aerospace and defense ones, I th…
Reply to @cman:
Actually it is an interesting story, but one that is getting all to common in the mutual fund industry. Hopefully I get this correct:
UMBIX was created by U.S. Trust back in the 80s, advisor to Excesior Funds with David Williams a…
Reply to @David_Snowball:
Thanks David, good info to have. I do like SMGIX, although I would never had looked at it without the load waived. It is my third largest fund after OYEIX and VDIGX.
Reply to @msf:
After I wrote the post, I thought that question might come up. When I sold it in early 2012 I went into Etfs VTI and VBK with the proceeds. At the time, I was with TD Ameritrade and only bought ntf. When I inherited a larger port…
After having posted my holdings in another thread, I looked at them as if I was looking at it for the first time, realized I had two many investments all doing the same thing. I sold DVY, DTN and divided it between my VIG, SMGIX and PKW. Also sol…
Traded half of my ABEMX for OSMYX. Originally was going to buy WAIGX, but decided to go with The Oppenheimer Fund. Also have their developing market fund ODVYX, which did over 8% return in 2013, much better than many developing market funds. Love…
Reply to @Sven:
I actually use Morningstar xray, put my funds through it, and some overlap , but minimal, to my surprise. The one etf I may dump is DTN, but the DVY, VIG have little overlap since DVY has more mid cap than VIG. RHS and XLP also d…
Planning on taking a bit from Aberdeen Emerging Markets ABEMX and buying some Wasatch International WAIGX which has about 80% small and mid cap stocks. This is a piece I was missing. This will be a relatively small position, and will still hold AB…
SFGIX has over 50% of its holdings in emerging markets, which likely are dragging it down. I have two EM funds, ODVYX which is up 6.3% ytd and ABEMX which is down 8.1% ytd, very different from each other. I suspect emerging markets is similar to "la…
