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.
Reply to @BobC:
Years ago, I was one of those people who did not see the reason for an AUM advisor, although I thought it was wise to seek out hourly or occasional review from a fee only advisor. I managed my own investments, chose my own funds …
Reply to @Old_Skeet:
Thanks for the links, took a look at Thermostat Fund, 75% bond is a bit high, but interesting sector breakdown on equity side. I do own one of the holdings, Columbian Contrarian Core. Good information to check from time to tim…
Reply to @Old_Skeet:
Thanks for your feedback, always is a welcome sight. Actually I am close to target asset allocation, a bit overweight in Healthcare and underweight in energy, but my advisor keeps me in line. Thats why I hired her, even tho…
I was curious as to how my equity portfolio sector analysis looked compared to the S + P. I feel I am well diversified, but SHOULD the market correct more than 10% how well was i positioned ? I am 65/35 equities/bonds and cash. I am 13% foreign. …
Reply to @Old_Skeet:
Thanks for thinking I am clever, but all I did was look up SPY on the Merrill Lynch site as to its ytd to compare to some of my funds, and there it was, staring at me. I knew it looked out of place, so thats why I posted it. …
In the past two weeks, added to:
:
Proctor & Gamble
Merck
MMM
ISTIX
MWLIX
Initiated positions in:
Lincoln Electric
Tessco Technologies
Travelers
Sold:
GLD (I waited too long, took at 20% hit)
Century Link
FSCRX (sold in taxable, bought equal…
I hold one small cap fund, FSCRX, one small cap stock TESS and have a number of funds such as my biotech, health care and technology funds which have small cap exposure. Total seems to be about 12%.
She is so far to the right, it's where she belongs. I always found her irritating when she interviewed someone and answered the question for him or her, regardless of the resulting response from the guest. She would always slant the questions to h…
Reply to @MikeM:
Thanks for providing the link for clarifying the difference between fee based and fee only. This year I switched over to ML from Fido, and although very pleased with how portfolio is now positioned, there are some Vanguard funds …
Reply to @Charles:
What I have learned, and should have guessed was going to happen, is I bought more Ford on Tuesday, then it goes down two days straight. My Union Pacific (UNP) stopped out on half my shares to conserve profit, then it goes up …
I have been waiting for CAT to come back, on Tuesday I finally was at breakeven for the first time in 10 months, then kapow. Jury is out as to whether I will continue to hold or not, if it gets back to even, it might be a good time to move on. I h…
Reply to @rono:
The only thing I dislike about them is that they are in larger increments, I would have preferred smaller laddered bonds or at least ones with diffrent call dates, so as they were called or matured, I could use the cash instead of …
Reply to @msf:
Actually got a bid of 106 and change and decided to pass. Both you and David made some very valid points on my expected return on IRAs if funds were left alone to grow vs the yield I am receiving on the bond 4.13% . From now until…
Reply to @msf:
Thank you for such a detailed and enlightening answer to my original post. To answer some of your concerns, I inherited them just about a year ago, and as of the transfer date, they were valued above par, and they were originally pu…
Bilvihur,
Thanks so much for posting this link, I was able to find all of my funds except Artisan funds. If you click on "A" and "F", scroll down far enough you will find the "missing" fund families B - E. It sure IS nice to see how my funds are …
A hold on all of my funds, neither adding to nor reducing, but I keep waiting for my GLD to go up, and I have been watching it sink since I got it. I did sell half about 4 months ago. It's in my Roth, so plenty of time, but have been so surprised b…
Reply to @msf:
I vascillated back and forth on whether I should post the correction, its a mistake easily made. I often have that same foot in mouth disease :)
Reply to @msf:
I was a bit confused by your response that PHSZX had lots of pharma in the top holdings. Only one of their top ten is actually a large pharma, 7 are biotechs, one insurance and one service co. True, when you look at the top ten,…
mclaugh,
I think any of those are fine funds, the one I have is closed to new investors, PHSZX, and for biotech, I have Fidelity's Biotech Fund. One thing I added however, since many of the health sciences or health care funds have a cross section…
Reply to @Vert:
If you are referring to active vs passive management, PKW would be considered passive, since it is based on an index. To become eligible for inclusion in the index, a company must be incorporated in the U.S., trade on a US exchan…
Reply to @golub1:
I guess that would depend on the index. For instance, I own PKW, an ETF which tracks the Nasdaq Buyback Achievers Index. It not only beats the S + P and the large blend category for 1, 3,and 5 years (it was started in 2007), bu…
I'm seriously pondering selling Pfizer, in exchange for more of PFP, which beats it in the 1,3 and 5 year category. I do have a good slug of health care via FBTIX and PHSZX, but those do not have large concentrations in big pharma. I bought PJP ea…
Reply to @Skeeter:
I had to laugh when I read your post, since the handle "Slick" is also from a pet. He was a wonderful Half Arabian/Half Morgan cross that I had for about five years when I lived in Cleveland. I have used that handle since signi…
Prinx,
Earlier in my investing history I invested solely in ntf with discount brokers, ignored funds with loads. Since that time many great fund families have been purchased by load families, although there still are many ntf families available. …
This is one area I decided to go for managed funds rather than ETFS. My biotech fund bested the BBH by about 10% ytd, and has done so consistently. As I wrote in a previous post a while back, there are certain areas such as biotech, international …
Reply to @Mark:
Thanks for posting those links, didnt see them when I did a quick search late at night :). Long term hold for me . I hate it when some twerp can post something and create a change in direction for an investment just because he/she …
I have it too, been watching it go down and wondering the same thing. In contrast, I also own UNP which is a major transporter of fossil fuels, and chart is quite the opposite. I've taken some profits twice this year in UNP , and its still one of …
I found this article truly a gem, and should be read by not only the novice, but the experienced investor as well. The portion on bonds was especially enlightening. Thanks for posting!
The recent trading I have done is sell two etfs (EEM, IYW) in favor of funds , because I felt managed funds were better in these sectors. I also changed out IYR for VNQ because it had lower fees and better returns over all time periods. Also a…
