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.
The TIAA VAs that yogi is writing about are the CREF annuities. TIAA invented variable annuities for the predecessor of 403(b) plans back in 1952. These qualified annuities are different from the non-qualified annuities that Catch is asking about…
You-know-who accords the fund its Silver medal
I know what gives it a silver medal - the medal is 0% analyst driven.
There's no depth in the computer-generated "analysis". It looks at the five year return, which is well above average, without…
Having recently (re)opened a Schwab account, I have a different set of observations vis-a-vis Fidelity. While my first impressions of Schwab below are largely negative, keep in mind (as I do) that using a new site is a learning experience and that…
Am I missing fund pairs or an insight?
Probably too new to provide meaningful performance insight are the three Vanguard Advice Select funds.
Vanguard 2021 launch announcement
In particular, Vanguard Advice Select Dividend Growth (VADGX) is desc…
The number of "funds" in 2023 looks more like share classes than actual funds.
The nine style boxes of broad based domestic equity funds add up to 6,918. ICI reports a total of 8.578 domestic equity share classes (including all domestic categor…
Haven't seen the play, but it looks like at least one production runs longer (2:25 + 15 min intermission) than the movie (2:00). That play running length is consistent with a 2008 production described in the NYTimes.
To each one's own.
("Snappier…
A fine choice indeed. We'll have explore to find where this movie now resides in the world of 1's and 0's,
Ah, found it in HBO library for $3.99 rent. Much cheaper than a hamburger, so TIS a good deal.
It's free on Cinema Box (thank you Roku searc…
In case people missed it, the historical arc of increasing government immunity started with the Warren court.
Now I'm going to go and rewatch a movie I haven't seen in many years about the tension between divine right and the rule of law in days o…
I haven't read the decision yet, but it sounds like a logical extension of "qualified immunity". That originally (1967) gave police immunity from being sued for violating people's rights if they were acting in good faith. It was extended (1982) t…
Vanguard automatically closed my final account on Friday, June 28 (less than 14 days before I zeroed out the account), so I won't get charged a fee.
However, on Saturday, June 29, Vanguard sent me a cryptic note saying only that "Your transfer has …
BoA has reviewed [market forecast models'] performance and they have an R-squared of zero. That is, there is zero predictive validity in them
This is good news. No, really. We've become so accustomed to reading stories about how monkeys throwin…
Robinhood has a similar feature (not a one-off promotion) associated with its Gold ($5/mo) subscription service.
https://robinhood.com/us/en/support/articles/robinhood-gold-deposit-boost/
It announced this new feature in March, and the match recen…
Silly me, I invest mostly the same way whether I'm buying OEFs or ETFs. Which raises the question: do people trade more because they invest in ETFs or do people invest in ETFs because they trade more?
I wrote "mostly" because there is a slight di…
Finally - Today I was able to switch my CM account at Fido to the new option, SPAXX ... What could possibly go wrong?
Under "activities" you should see interest from the old bank sweep accounts for June. This money (like all cash proceeds) is aut…
Feel better. Schwab should give you whatever bonus they promised, regardless of your particular situation.
Just be careful about keeping the assets there long enough. That's something you don't have to worry about until well after you have re…
Cash back is not generally considered income, though the $1400 in interest certainly will be.
In most states, insurance companies use credit ratings to determine rates or even whether they'll renew your policy. Not just auto but homeowner policie…
I did (not for $5M - I wish!). Schwab told me that the higher bonus dollar amounts were for transfers from Fidelity but not from Vanguard. Was the offer you received for transfers from anywhere (or even better, from multiple sources combined)?
…
Even when the technology works, it doesn't make sense.
I tried to close our IRAs (empty accounts), but the system refused. Rep finally found that system supposedly waits 14 days after account is zeroed, and then automatically closes it. This is…
You're looking at M*'s economic exposure view, not a the "classic" asset view.
The Economic Exposure View displays the sensitivity of portfolio return to various asset classes. Economic Exposure will model the impact of these instruments based on th…
We've had this discussion before - see DSEEX: 100% notional exposure to stocks, 100% actual exposure to bonds, and (roughly) -100% effective exposure to cash. (Per M*, it's currently -91%.)
DSEEX is a good case study because it is conceptually sim…
There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.
ISTM that this is a risk whenever a third party is involved. I don't think the problem is with the institutions (fintechs) sweeping money into banks. It's that a third party (here, Synapse) is ser…
Southwest can't figure out yield management in the current travel market.
https://www.tts.com/blog/yield-management-in-the-airline-industry/
If that still sounds like gobbledygook: Southwest is having problems pricing its seats - it's either under…
I didn't mean to imply that JPMorgan was offering these rates. The only JPMorgan CD Fidelity shows is for one year. But that's at 5.40%, so the bank clearly knows this is the going rate and it could have held onto my money for three more months f…
I'll see what happens with my JPMorgan CD, possibly called in two days. ...
I picked it up at the end of last year to hold cash in my inherited Roth for this year's RMD. It locked in a good rate (5.35%) for at least six months (if called) and at…
I don't really want more income being taxed at my marginal rate these days -- so I tend to stick with qualified dividends
Because of the 20% 199A deduction, REIT income is not taxed at one's marginal rate.
CCH, Section 199A Qualified Business …
Yes, also had a transient problem earlier this morning.
Once logged in, my Vanguard saga continued ...
Interest (< $10) from Cash Plus account was credited yesterday (Mon) but didn't appear until today. Website said I could withdraw the cash. …
I had VUSXX and a little cash (bank sweep) in the Cash Plus account.
Vanguard actually credited me with the part-month (June) divs from VUSXX when I closed the position. I didn't know that at first because it didn't report the div transaction unt…
It's all a matter of allocating risk and how well you're compensated for taking on more risk.
If you get a long term, non-callable CD, you're assuming the risk that rates won't rise (opportunity cost) while receiving a guarantee that your return wo…
JPMorgan callables are sucker bait. They will be called, and as soon as possible.
As the reputedly French adage goes, all generalizations are false including this one.
Speaking as one of those suckers, I'll see what happens with my JPMorgan CD, pos…
For sure, they are safe. …. The old Kingston Trio song came to mind and couldn’t resist.
In the same vein is this cover of David Bowie's Space Oddity recorded in the ISS a decade ago.
The fees are definitely significant. A few families refuse to pay even the 10 basis points charged for TF funds. This is why Schwab and Fidelity have started charging TFs of $74.95 and $100 respectively for a few fund families such as Vanguard.
…
Seafarer may be creating this Retail share class to replace its Investor class shares. SFGIX has been closed since Sept 30, 2016.
The Investor class was the class sold NTF. It carries a 0.15% fee to pay for the shelf space. Not as a 12b-1 fee. …
Vanguard continues to impress - but not in a good way.
Tried to move our money out of our Cash Plus account. Sold VUSXX yesterday, settled today. All money now in bank sweep within Cash Plus and listed as available for withdrawal. Withdrawal …
I'm actually considering CapitalOne because of that change. I want a backup card for foreign travel - no foreign transaction fee and preferably a MC (since I've got a Visa card for travel). Now that Capital One has switched, it meets my requiremen…
I think people are making this too hard. The question is to compare what happened by selling/repurchasing vs. what would have happened by simply holding.
Holding: 1,000 shares before and after, plus an extra $87 in cash (from divs).
Sell/repurcha…
Will not bother the Bogleheads. They don’t trade or even look at their statements. Or so they say.
At least some beg to differ. I especially liked this post:I can’t imagine how many people are calling Vanguard customer service today or will in th…
Thanks for the reminder. There were two aspects of Vanguard's announcement that particularly irked me. One was the new closeout/transfer fee (FWIW, Schwab charges $50 vs. Vanguard's $100). The new charge for calling about non-trade-related iss…
Primecap started out as a mid cap growth, evolving over time into a large cap that straddled the growth/blend boundary. Core launched as a large cap blend as I recall. It has usually trailed Primecap in performance, as growth has generally led va…
Is there any ... OEF that has decent volume along those lines?
Why should volume of an OEF matter? Perhaps availability matters, but why volume?
Regarding availability, what that seems to be saying is that S&P 500 funds are a poor person's su…
