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 found Felix Salmon's commentary entitled "Can bitcoin capitalize on the death of Mt Gox?" to be interesting: http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/
I found this argument to be particularly compelling:
"Bitcoin is based on mistrust, which makes …
The article draws the lesson: "hold cash, maybe".
I've been drawing a different lesson for the accounts I deal with that need to generate elder care income: "focus on total return, not yield (maybe)".
I have been trying for total return with…
Lots of good comments here already.
I'd add a few suggestions.
1. Draft a simple investment policy statement for you and your siblings to build consensus around. You need to agree on what the goals are, and how much risk you are collectively wil…
Here's the link to the Financial Times article: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/05883196-e8c9-11e2-aead-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2Z9AtKShv
Respond to a one question survey or subscribe to the Financial Times to read the whole article.
Take-home poi…
In following David's advice to "look around", take a peek at your local newspaper after reading this article about Journatic, a company that describes itself as a "leading provider of content production services to media companies and marketers" -- …
MJG
Thanks for this posting. I noticed it only because you alluded to the poor reception it received in your most recent posting.
About that poor reception...
Note that: 1) you posted on what was for many of us a holiday weekend 2) the MJG "b…
A relatively low-cost way to get into Dimensional Funds is available through AssetBuilder (see http://assetbuilder.com), the investment house started by Scott Burns. You do not get to choose from the Dimensional Funds menu a la carte, but instead h…
Reply to @David_Snowball: Your proposed ticker would brilliantly sow additional confusion by making the Balan Fund (PLATX) ring faintly of precious metals.
This short post about the Winkelvoss twins' stunt characterizes their ETF as an IQ test: …
Reply to @STB65: Yes, and imagine my surprise when I clicked down into this thinking "balan" was a misspelling of "balanced". What a "balan" fund would look like boggles the imagination, although perhaps it would be no crazier than some of the ETFs…
Good link.
I also think anyone who thinks he/she thinks he/she can give up the flexibility needs to think long and hard about the life scenarios being planned for.
A lifetime fixed annuity is a great deal if you outlive your life expectancy in…
Reply to @scott:
Gentlemen, I wish to offer a comment on the state of mathematics education in American high schools.
I was a bit puzzled by your exchange, since my son, who just finished up his freshman year in public high school, just finishe…
Reply to @Old_Joe: I believe one of the Zurich Axioms is "Always play for meaningful stakes – if an amount is so small that its loss won’t make any significant difference, then it isn’t likely to bring any significant gains either." I try to reme…
Amen.
One way to help veterans from the last dozen years of conflict is to donate to the Wounded Warrior Project: http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/
It is a Better Business Bureau Accredited Charity: http://www.bbb.org/charity-reviews/nationa…
Reply to @Old_Joe, @catch22: Cliff's Notes version:
Sell in May and go away does not hold in the current environment because a) even greatly reduced equity returns are better than current cash returns b) recent momentum studies show positive …
Edward Owens managed the fund for 28+ years until the end of 2012. His successor was co-manager for the past five years, and is expert in the kind of big pharma stocks the fund tends to own. Also the same analyst team remains in place. If you wa…
To me, the occasional whimsical post on the discussion board by the site operator is the modern equivalent of having to listen to the owner's observations about life and the world at the check-out counter of an old-fashioned Mom and Pop grocery stor…
Hmmm, indeed.
In what I took to be the same whimsical spirit in which David posted, I peeked at Morningstar's investor returns for LMOPX.
I blinked several times when I saw that the 5 year annualized investor returns are -10.22%, as compared to …
mjg
As usual, you've chewed on a lot here.
I am interested in how you implement the change reflected in your statement "I’m venturing more and more into the Index world arena."
Over the comparatively modest number of years I have been investing…
Reply to @Old_Joe: And for those who prefer to listen to podcasts in the car there is a decent summary of the issue here: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/04/19/177999020/episode-357-how-much-should-we-trust-economics . In the podcast, the p…
I am currently viewing this thread using Firefox 20.0.1 on Windows 7. To help Skip out, when reporting browser-specific woes, it probably helps to report at least browser version and OS version information. I sometimes see different behavior with …
ibartman's advice is good.
I would just add: be firm, polite, patient and unintimidated. And maybe keep ibartman's steps handy as a reminder of what the plan is.
I got into a strange situation with Vanguard customer service a couple of years ba…
At risk of repeating merits BobC and Hank have highlighted, I will just mention I use PRPFX as a dull and predictable small allocation diversifier usually in combination with other hybrid accounts.
Although I am not an investment manager, I am fo…
Reply to @rono:
Thanks for the post. I've been holding PRPFX for a long while in large part because of measured pro/con discussions years back among you and other old FundAlarmers. I basically hold gold in the soft coating PRPFX provides becaus…
Reply to @rono:
rono:
Apologies for tardy personal reply. I do not check this board as often as I sometimes did the old fundalarm board. Hence conversations I am in sometimes stagger, rather than flow...
All your points are right on, in partic…
Daves:
Welcome. I cannot comment on specifics of advice from TRP. In general, if you are considering paying for advice, fee-only advisors who are clearly working for you and not a fund company are the way to go, in my opinion.
Prior to selecting…
MJG:
Well, yes.
It is just a slightly disquieting result of the libertarian paternalist analysis here that as more of the new money is routed into TDF funds by more or less beneficent fiduciaries, the new and very naive money may end up doing b…
The response of many of my coworkers to a recent change in retirement plans at my employer made me a bit thoughtful about Scott's pessimistic forecast about retail investors fleeing the markets in future downturns.
My question is: might those wh…
Interesting thread (as always).
Has anyone seen this type of analysis approached from the other direction? Given a drawdown of a fixed percentage of the original portfolio, what kind of mix leads to most attractive distribution of possible returns…
Charles:
I thought the article was taking as a given that BB is a great stockpicker. I thought it was sounding a cautionary note to advisors about investor psychology, the difficulty of getting clients to stick with an manager with his style, and …
alpha66:
I am not a grandparent but a parent with some relatively recent experiences with dealing with money both set aside for long-term purposes by myself and my wife and by other people.
Things to consider:
I would suggest you think through s…
Scott, Walt, Charles et al:
Interesting comments that I find useful for my own thought process. Scott -- good linkage to chicagobusiness.com, and on point comments, as always. Walt, thanks for a cogently formulated favorable case. Charles - nice…
I am one of those who have held this fund as it plunged down and clawed back up. When I bought into it, it was pretty concentrated, but at that time it was very concentrated in Berkshire Hathaway -- as if Berkowitz had judged "if I don't have a bet…
Reply to @rono: Hey good luck. You sound like a kindred spirit to the kind of Republican I used to vote for in my youth, when more "real republicans" still existed. Our old Brahmin Republicans were snooty, but they could do arithmetic. Not real…
I want to qualify any notion that this fund is still working perfectly with some language that it works fine in a well-defined role in the context of a diversified, thoughtfully monitored portfolio. See BobC's comment in the recent thread triggered…
