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 quote page is just a summary, while the final analyses are on the detail pages (performance, portfolio, etc.). I found the 30% figure on M*'s portfolio analysis page.
As with reading any data, it's a matter of knowing the definitions, what th…
"These reforms require prime institutional money market funds to “float their NAV” (no longer maintain a stable price) and provide non-government money market fund boards with new tools — liquidity fees and redemption gates — to address runs. Thes…
That fund (OPCHX) no longer exists. A search (as I did) of current funds that did badly a decade ago will miss the ones that died off.
But another issue with that particular fund is that it was heavily leveraged. Again I question the wisdom (s…
M* (quote page) shows that this bond matures 2/15/2025, so in all likelihood it is CUSIP 645913BD5. As you said, a zero.
According to EMMA, it is currently trading at a YTW of about 4.2% (priced about 77 where 100 is par). While the underlying b…
For clarity: you're referring to institutional (high min) share class of retail MMFs, not to institutional MMFs. Institutional MMFs are required to float their NAV. For example, FDPXX.
In theory, institutional MMFs are open to retail investor…
Many folks lost more than 55% in their portfolios?
They must have had some really creative portfolios, because I can only find around 110 funds that lost that much in 2008, and a sizeable portion of those are ProFunds and Rydex leveraged funds. …
SPRXX at Fidelity has a 7 day SEC yield of 2.09% and a $0 minimum.
https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/summary/31617H201
You may be able to buy Vanguard MMFs at Vanguard and then transfer the shares in kind to Fidelity. At Fidelity, th…
I hadn't realized that Nixon also terminated agreements and imposed broad based import taxes, but that's what happened. David Frum wrote in the Atlantic:Donald Trump is often compared to Richard Nixon in his disdain for law and ethics. The paralle…
Financial institutions were still open, so it was possible to trade mutual funds. See, e.g. https://www.vox.com/2018/12/5/18127158/george-hw-bush-open-national-mourning-day
I placed a fund order at 8:51 AM yesterday and it settled at end of day. …
This year, the stock market recorded the four largest ever point drops in the DJIA: -1175.21 (Feb 5), -1032.89 (Feb 8), -831.83 (Oct 10), and today's close of -799.36.
"The stock market continues to shatter one record after another". Trump said it…
Just an observation, not a suggestion: nearly all the funds mentioned are growth or blend funds on the equity side. My understanding of traditional balanced funds is that they were conservative, value-leaning funds, in the VWELX mold.
"BERIX? I…
Just because a fund claims its strategy is value-driven doesn't mean that it should be classified as value according to "traditional" metrics (P/E, P/B, PEG ratio, etc.). For example, Bill Miller's LMVTX often (usually?) fell into the LCG box as m…
"Comments should be received on or before October 31, 2018."
Maybe the SEC will extend the comment period.
Here are the comments that were submitted:
https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-12-18/s71218.htm
Not that the tail of taxes should wag the dog of returns, but FWIW: for short term (1 year or less) CDs paying interest at maturity and for short term zero coupon Treasuries, the interest isn't taxable until maturity. So you can often defer taxes o…
At Fidelity, money that you have in a position MMF can be used automatically to purchase securities. There is no need to explicitly transfer the cash to your core account. This automatic "reverse sweep" means that you don't have to worry about ha…
I think we're in agreement here. If one buys a "go anywhere" international fund that really does go anywhere, then one is delegating regional allocations. Then one should simply benchmark against a global ex-US index and not complain about the w…
Let me try fine tuning VF's statement slightly. Instead of "YOU are supposed to know how much exposure you should have to the market", try: YOU are supposed to know how much exposure you should have to various markets.
If you invested 100% in a (…
My comment was on the headline, that spoke only about Thanksgiving. I thought you posted the piece because it was more informative than that: "The stock market ... will see an early wrap to the day on Friday."
That's something a bit less obvio…
Okay, the financial markets are closed on Thanksgiving. (I think we all knew that.)
Here's some information on the retail markets: Stores Closed on Thanksgiving Day
It contains links to a list of stores open Thanksgiving Day, and to Black Friday h…
Do the number of shares remain the same? That depends on the price of the investor shares and the admiral shares. There's some well defined dollar value of your fund holding (number of shares x investor share price). You're going to end up wi…
M*: Vanguard Minimum Investment Cuts Overdue
https://www.morningstar.com/videos/901729/vanguard-minimum-investment-cuts-overdue.html
Glaser: ... Is this a competitive response to, say, the Fidelity zero funds? Is it just Vanguard passing on the bene…
"Didn't bother to get briefed on exactly what was going on, complete incuriosity, and no hesitation in expounding whatever silly conclusions he came to by some bizarre form of reasoning."
No need to be so picky. Don't forget that this man represent…
Nice marketing move by Vanguard, but it seems a little hard to rationalize on a cost basis. That is, if it costs virtually the same amount per dollar invested to administer a small index fund account as a large index fund account, doesn't it also c…
Thanks catch. I'm not sure whether the penalty is passed on through the private insurer or paid directly to Medicare (like part B premiums).
I do know that IRMAA (high income) surcharges on Part D (drug) premiums are paid to Medicare and not to t…
"Roth notes, fee-only advisors are also conflicted. If they’re charging, say, 1% of a client’s portfolio, they may ...advocate complicated strategies simply to justify their own fee."
Does he have evidence that this is happening to a significant de…
.[From CNBC]There will be no penalty for failure to maintain minimum essential health coverage in 2019. This year, the penalty was $695.
Does this mean I don't need part d coverage ?
So much confusion in so few words ...
In 2018 the minimum penalt…
Here's the Investment News link:
https://www.investmentnews.com/article/20181115/FREE/181119943/money-in-donor-advised-funds-can-make-impact-before-distribution
The article's first statement, that "money sitting in the [donor-advised] fund actually…
This says that Vanguard will be integrating its 401(k) processing with Health Equity's HSA. It doesn't sound like any new HSA product is being offered. Interestingly, it seems to characterize HSAs as retirement savings:
For Vanguard participants…
What's the thinking behind the list of "Top Emerging Market Funds To Buy"?
It seems this is the top half (10/21) of US News' list of Emerging Markets Bond funds.
https://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/rankings/emerging-markets-bond
US News' r…
The equation shown in this blog subtracts half of the square of some variance (of what, it doesn't say). Volatility is often taken to mean standard deviation, and variance is the square of standard deviation. Thus according to the blog's equation…
One should expect premium bonds to get called. If a bond is trading above face value, that means that the interest payments (coupons) are above market rate (based on face value). So the issuer would prefer to pay off that bond and reissue it wit…
it might be the case that you pay $1050 for a bond which will pay you $1000 on 2/1/2020 (so you have a capital loss of $50).
No capital loss, but a diminution of interest as I described above.
In your example, that $50 would offset the interest …
Valero Energy Corporation offers a coupon rate of 6.15% with a maturity date of 2/1/2020. I see a Goldman Sachs offering with coupon rate 6% with maturity date of 6/15/2020.
If I were to purchase shares of either of these bond offerings, is it a…
what kind of 'invasion' gives the enemy 3 months' notice?Lots of them. That Hubble telescope can spot their ships before they hit the solar system.
Oh, not that kind of alien invasion?
You've got the right idea, but the dividends don't make any difference.
Whether for RMD or for any other reason, one always wants to buy low and sell high. So if, say, you want to pull $4K out of an account, you'd rather do it when that account …
To a large extent, I agree with you that 12 month periods are baked in as intuitively obvious. That said, I disagree that the 12 month period must be tied to a calendar year.
When I look at one year performance, I'm looking at the past 12 months …
Quoting further:
Einstein’s theory of general relativity proposes that time is only the same for all who are moving through space at the same rate, like those of us on Earth. If we could travel in a spaceship at almost the speed of light, time would…
"guaranteed Treasury bond". What does "guaranteed" mean?
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/guaranteedbond.asp
Say I have two bonds, both maturing in two years. Each has a similar yield to maturity (not yield "of" maturity) of 2.8%-2.9%. …
