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Reply to @andrei: These are good points. I noticed the portraits, but if you look on page 8, it clearly says that Geritz is leading the fund. Wasatch's paper also emphasizes that fund managers need to travel and spend time in these countries to fu…
Very interesting. I also like checking the asset allocation for Pimco All Asset All Authority PAUIX from time to time. It's been very defensive for a while with less than 20% in stocks (almost all of which are international).
The only part of this white paper that seemed useful was the last chart on comparing market correlations. Otherwise there is nothing in here that is making me jump for this fund. I'm sure there are some good reasons for investing in frontier markets…
Highbridge Dynamic Commodities Strategy has been closed for a while, so it is a little late to profile them now.
I hadn't heard of Invesco Balanced-Risk Commodity Strategy. But it looks like the fund charges a load and the expense ratio is quite h…
Reply to @andrei: I wouldn't worry too much about this. The point of an actively managed, flexible bond fund is that the manager is supposed to recognize these trends and adjust the portfolio accordingly. I don't think any of the DoubleLine funds …
I "sold" FAIRX last week with the idea that I would take a tax loss now and slowly move back into FAAFX. I didn't make money like tgeno, but I cut my losses to an acceptable level.
Yes it was market timing, but I didn't have the cash/margin avai…
Reply to @kevindow: Very helpful, thanks. I checked the chart and ADLIX does seem to have steadily outperformed DBLFX since it opened. I will keep it on my radar. The 100k minimum is too steep for me so I can only get the retail shares.
Reply to @kevindow: What's the difference between ADLIX and DBLFX? They seem to the be same fund but DBLFX has a lower expense ratio.
I considered the high expenses of RNDLX but I am willing to try it out for a while. RNCOX has the same expense r…
I put some of my bond allocation into this fund recently. I was looking at Gundlach's DoubleLine funds but also liked the "alternative strategy" idea of the RiverNorth Core Opportunity RNCOX, so this seemed like a nice way to get both in one packa…
Thanks to TheShadow and Shostakovich for the explanation. I do wish the fund names and strategy descriptions were a little more to-the-point. Anyway I compared RYSEX to Royce Value (RYVFX) which I held until recently. I see that RYSEX is more foc…
What distinguishes this fund from other Royce funds, or other small cap funds in general? I looked at the info on Royce's site but could not figure out what is "special" about it compared to other Royce offerings.
Reply to @mnzdedwards: I don't think you need to apologize. This is a good question and it's something everybody needs to consider before investing in this fund.
Assume you have an asset allocation where you reserve a certain % in cash and a certa…
I would also say that if you have new money and wanted to add to this fund, perhaps now is not the best time. I think it is clear that the manager is waiting for a significant dip in the market before committing more funds. I do like this fund and…
I don't think it is surprising. When I invested in this fund, it was already around 40% cash. The stock market has only gone up since then, meaning stocks are generally more expensive than before. So if he couldn't find enough good values back wh…
I also agree with that quote, but the article itself doesn't really explain why. It mentions that double and triple-leveraged funds can add to gains and exacerbate risk (usually more of the latter), but I don't think that's the point.
It looks like Plus also has the same penchant for large distributions. I think this is inherent with all of the Pimco index funds that are based on derivatives. This is a big problem with holding these funds in taxable accounts -- something I am s…
Reply to @johnN: I think that "diligent research" requirement is a hard thing for many people. I avoid buying individual corp bonds for the same reason I avoid buying individual stocks. If you were to ask me 4 years ago whether Continental Airlines…
I've held BRAIX for a long time, and other Bridgway funds before that. Recently I started moving it over to APPLX, but BRAIX is still a very large position. At this point I think FAIRX and CGMFX are more likely to make back my losses than BRAIX.
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Reply to @kevindow: Two of the more interesting differences I noticed:
PRPFX apparently holds actual gold (coins and bullion) as opposed to PERM which will invest in ETFs. I think most permanent portfolio followers strongly advocate holding physic…
This is pretty ironic, considering last year it was Gross that was betting heavily against treasuries (although perhaps for different reasons than Buffett).
Agree with Old_Joe, you need to be a little more specific, and in any case this is a hard question to answer. In general, a good manager is one that helps you achieve your particular investment goals. But you need to know what those goals are in o…
Here's the profile that was formerly posted on FundAlarm: http://www.mutualfundobserver.com/2012/01/akre-focus-akrex-february-2010/
I was skeptical about FBRVX. Looks like Akre has done pretty good since then.
It depends on the fund and also what you want to do with it.
As randy pointed out above, the usual way is to see what benchmark is stated in the fund prospectus/website. Presumably that is what the fund managers are using to measure their own perf…
Reply to @andrei: A year ago I read that Bill Gross was extremely bearish on Treasuries. I completely agreed with his ideas and wanted to move my bond allocation from VBMFX to PTTRX. However for external reasons, it was not practical to do so and …
Word of warning: Don't be scared off by what sounds like a low-budget car commercial narration at the opening. I thought I had been scammed but there actually is a real interview after the first minute or so.
I switched to Vanguard about a year ago. I have used other brokerages in the past, and by comparison, Vanguard commissions are a little higher and there are not that many perks. However if you plan to invest a good amount of your portfolio in Vang…
Re: MAINX, when you have your discussion with Ms. Kong, I would really like her to tell us what her fund will bring to the table that other diversified bond managers cannot. I've seen a number of reports that Bill Gross, Dan Fuss, etc. are all incr…
Reply to @00BY: I think that is jumping to a lot of assumptions. Foster wasn't the only person on the MACSX management team. It is entirely possible that Foster left because he believed MACSX was in good hands and that he could better serve invest…
Reply to @bee: WAEMX has posted their Q4 2011 commentary here: https://secure.wasatchfunds.com/en/Our-Funds/Commentary.aspx?fund=WAEMX#fullcommentary
It seems they attribute their outperformance to better companies and (I think more likely) investm…
I noticed that you don't always get responses to your weekly posts, so I just wanted to mention that I always read and greatly appreciate these updates, even if I do not always comment on them.
I also hold LSBDX (or rather, the retail version LSBRX…
You mentioned "YTD performance is HOT" -- I know you posted a couple weeks ago, but I don't see anything particularly unusual about the fund's performance so far. It is doing a little better than the Russell 2000 and about the same as TSELX (profil…
Re: Chinese small/mid cap, Matthews offers the Matthews China Small Companies Fund (MCSMX). Holds China, Hong Kong and Taiwan stocks (just one Taiwan stock now AFAIK).
I hold MSMLX for the broader Asia exposure.
Re: the posts recommending buying real estate, what is a good way of investing in real estate without directly purchasing individual properties? There was an article posted some time ago about how REITs do not correlate well with their underlying a…
I also noticed FAAFX's high concentration, but what should we make of it? Do these funds have truly different strategies? I don't think so, because FAIRX is about equally weighted in AIG, and also holds MBIA (but significantly less). Their other …
