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.
Go with the crowd because the crowd makes self-fulfilling decisions? Lots of people buy because prices go up because lots of people buy?
By that reasoning, the S&P 500 (TR) should be outperforming the S&P Top 50 (TR), and yet ...
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Buying into the S&P 500 seems like buying into megacaps but then adding 300 "smaller" companies for what? Seasoning? Diversification?
If the decision is to go with megacaps, then why bother with that dreck? Or if the decision is to divers…
My Treasury positions at Schwab and Fidelity matured on June 15 (Saturday). ... Schwab did not show anything last night and added to cash this [Tuesday] AM.
Unlike Fidelity (at least from what other posters here have written), you can trade online …
My Treasury positions at Schwab and Fidelity matured on June 15 (Saturday). ... Schwab did not show anything last night and added to cash this [Tuesday] AM.
Unlike Fidelity (at least from what other posters here have written), you can trade online …
Do I earn interest in my Schwab MM fund from the date when the trade to buy is executed (today) or when the trade settles (Thursday)?
The prospectus for SWVXX / SNAXX, SNVXX / SGUXX, SNOXX / SCOXX, SNRXX, and SNSXX / SUTXX reads:
Orders to buy sha…
excluded are ... Treasury stock (buybacks that aren't cancelled).
Treasury shares are usually not counted (in the US) even before making a free-float adjustment. This is because indexes start with outstanding stock and Treasury shares are not outs…
it's hard to argue that dividends don't matter.
Sigh. Once again, I am not saying that investors should fritter away dividends (dividends don't matter, so don't include them in your total return). Rather, I am saying that whether or not a securit…
The only reason that I originally opened a separate account at Vanguard was to have access to Vanguard funds. Switching to Schwab or any new institution doesn't add to the number of places I'm dealing with, so I'm more open to Schwab than I would …
That’s a nod to the fact that over time compensation (water) can form inside the engine and contaminate the oil.
Do I receive compensation for observing that the risk is water condensation? :-)
The first time I brought our car in for annual servi…
I've started the move(s) from Vanguard.
Am transferring full Vanguard accounts to Fidelity, and will then transfer Vanguard funds (major part of those accounts) to Schwab for bonus and some TF waivers (notably Vanguard funds).
Am making smaller…
Additional detail and links in this NYTimes article (June 5):
Europe Has Fallen Behind the U.S. and China. Can It Catch Up?
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/05/business/economy/europe-economy-competitiveness.html
It says that "Mr. Draghi’s report w…
Two identical investments will net out equal total returns over a full year cycle, no matter when the distributions are made. That is tautology.
Bingo!
Total returns match not only at the end of a full year but day by day, as I illustrated. To …
guaranteed-income or lifetime-income ... Old name for these is annuities but that tainted term is now avoided.
Love it. See George Carlin's bit on euphemisms (shell shock)
Defined-benefit (DB) pensions have gone away except for some federal …
PRCWX traditionally lags its peers further and further as the year goes on, then distributes a massive dividend and CG payout in December, putting it squarely back in the pre-tax Total Return lead.
This statement says that the dividend adds to tota…
New Jersey and California do not conform to federal law regarding HSAs. Plain and simple, they just don't recognize them. From the states' perspective these are simply taxable accounts.
https://thefinancebuff.com/california-new-jersey-hsa-ta…
While it is obviously true that distributions dilute NAV on the day of posting, almost all high quality funds prices will revert to mean fairly quickly. PRWCX posted its last dividend on Dec 18, 2023 and NAV fell over 3.5% on the day, but price full…
You wrote that you were "hoping with heavy inflows [MRFOX] also would be able to buy new or more promising investments."
During the period in question (the one ending Aug '23 with zero turnover), MRFOX increased the number of its positions by al…
Effective date appears to be today, June 15.
Well, not as of 10:15AM EDT. I tried.
Click on the "Cash" link in your CMA account (positions page); you'll see a Change Core Position button appear. Unfortunately, clicking on that pops up a page…
this is was the major reason why I never went into the state's pension system when joining the university. I don't trust government/political investment committees
From the article: Large public pension funds have an average 14% of their assets in …
It shouldn't make any difference. The checks are actually processed through UMB Bank, which taps whatever the core account is for the cash needed. You're not writing checks directly against the core account, whatever that is.
M* shows MRFOX has zero turnover (8/31/2023) ... Not sure what the current MRFOX turnover is. I was hoping with heavy inflows they would be able to buy new or more promising investments.
Four of the fund's 19 holdings (see below) were new position…
Reinvested dividends give investors fractionally more shares. As the value of a stock increases, the value of those fractional shares increases as well. This tends to widen the gap between adjusted (div reinvested) share value and unadjusted (ra…
Stockcharts link?
An unadjusted stock price is lower - it drops every time a dividend is paid. Look at Yahoo's historical price table for AAPL. On Feb 9, the closing price went up 53¢ (from $188.32 to $188.85) due to market fluctuation. The a…
That addresses the dividends. However, are not capital gains separate?
Regardless of what distributions are called, the effect is the same. Though for tax purposes distributions may be characterized as ordinary income divs, qualified income divs,…
I don't think the above chart is correct. M* shows for 5 years that PRWCX made 73.4% and WVENX made 58.9
I can't see the referenced chart, though I suspect it is a price chart and not a chart of total returns.
The underlying premise, viz. that div…
Thanks. Sounds like you did a great job of negotiating, bargaining up from a competitor's offer.
Schwab seems especially amenable to negotiating. It's as though AUM is paramount to them, regardless of how little or how much they make on thos…
When I moved to Schwab from Fidelity, Schwab was matching "cash incentives" offers, from competing brokerages. They matched an E-trade offer for me.
Did they match the terms of the offer or just the amount? Merrill requires one to maintain the ba…
Often a brokerage will allow an investor to transfer in shares of a fund that cannot be opened at the brokerage. In the past I've transferred to Merrill Vanguard Admiral shares and institutional shares of a fund in another family. Neither of thes…
A Schwab rep called on Monday. We talked about Schwab acquiring a lot of former Vanguard customers and what Schwab can do for them, like waiving Vanguard fund fees. A very open conversation, where I asked for fee waivers and Schwab was amenable w…
The example I gave of an issue with T+0 had to do not with T+0 intrinsically, but rather with the friction between T+0 and T+1. It came from personal experience and I presented it only as an existence proof that inconsistent MMF settlement dates d…
I like the idea of looking at NRSRO ratings such as Fitch. Financial institutions will usually give their ratings on their website.
For example, here's Morgan Stanley Bank's ratings. Morgan Stanley has its own credit ratings and separate rating…
FYI - The link takes one to the login page.
If you're already logged in (requires a Merrill account) the link takes you to the cited page. If you have a log in but are not logged in, then when you log in on that login page you'll land on the cite…
@msf- If you can temporarily pool enough cash to get into SUTXX, once that fund is open you can reduce the holding to well below the $1m. I was advised on that at our local Schwab branch, and that's our situation at the moment, having just taken cas…
Thanks for the suggestion.
Elsewhere (another thread) I considered SGOV or USFR as partial subs for Vanguard Cash Plus (which can hold MMFs as well as having a bank sweep).
I could use an internet bank for FDIC-covered cash (many still paying 5%+),…
Thanks. As it turns out, I just had a couple of conversations with Schwab today. They let me know about this option; they even referred to it as a loophole.
No way I could come up with that much cash in a taxable account. Whatever taxable cash…
I do not know how much money Schwab makes on their payment for order flows but I can bet Fidelity makes a lot more from me on their MM funds and 12b-1 fees on non-Fidelity funds.
In 2021, 10% of Schwab's total revenue came from PFOF. That was pur…
The card readers that set the crypto codes every 24 hours used a type of IBM paper punch hole card.
Old, old joke:
How was Thomas J Watson buried?
9 edge down.
Etymology of "nine-edge" and "twelve-edge"
I agree that Schwab is better at providing access to institutional class shares. Above, I wrote: What Schwab did right was reduce the mins on lots of funds (including institutional share classes)".
Though more does not necessarily equate to bet…