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.
Only new investors. Existing investors were grandfathered - according to a grandfathered poster in a M* thread.
At one time you could buy lots of funds with $1K min. Very few around these days (though Schwab is trying to buck the trend). Now,…
TRP does this with virtually all funds, including funds mentioned favorably at MFO such as PRWCX which you own (prospectus) and PRHSX (prospectus).
T. Rowe Price charges an annual account service fee to help offset the relatively higher costs ass…
rforno +1.
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-trump-ceo-defections-20170816-htmlstory.html
"Leaders of consumer brands expressed concern about how their images could be tarnished ... The increased activism among CEOs could reflect …
This certainly wasn't a great PR move, but aside from that, could be viewed as a positive.
It's pretty common to see one fund in a family buying the same securities as another one is selling. Aside from the immediate benefit of reducing tradin…
A little bit more about that 2015-2016 dip. From M*'s article "Your Bond Fund Could Be Riskier Than It Looks" (linked to by Ted)
"the trailing five-year period through July 31, 2017, includes only one stressful period for high-yield corporates: J…
Live free (to take advantage of customers) or die?
Pointless. Fidelity had already downsized its Mass. operations by 60 percent between 2005 and 2015, and since then has reduced its headcount by an additional 8% of those remaining.
So it's not a…
Looking at PSYPX, it looks like they take an extremely aggressive approach in working spreads (the difference between yields of differently rated but otherwise similar bonds), while trying to eliminate interest rate risk.
They do this largely with …
This just sounds like payment for order flow, hardly a secret, not illegal (though it must be disclosed) and, forgive me, (almost) everyone does it.
Here's a sample disclosure from Schwab (generally payments "average less than $.0009 per share"):
…
wow, save more, get full employer match
he gets paid for these math articles?And he doesn't even have to get the math right.
The text says: increase the total contributions by 2%, benefit to the tune of $152,000. If the employer were to kick in (v…
TimesSquare Capital is a welcome addition. However, it will start with only a small sliver of the fund. Vanguard might send new cash its way while not reducing the amount managed by the other firms. Just a possibility - one that would minimize…
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/almost-no-one-can-beat-the-market-2013-10-25
...
The author specifically noted that only about 1% of the investing public (that included individual investors and mutual fund managers) generate positive Alphas relativ…
Thanks for the update. It was not my intention to turn you into the object of attention. It was simply that (knowing you are thoughtful in your investing), I could not see you being compared, however favorably, to 99% of day traders. (That wasn…
I'm familiar with the paper you just cited. Its Table 1 summarizes other papers. Only in that table, in the entry where it summarizes the paper I quoted, does one find the 1% figure you attached to Skeet.
So once again I ask, why are you lumpin…
Much of what Philidor did was to serve as the preferred pharmacy for Valeant's drugs. That meant that you could take a Valeant coupon to Philidor and get a brand name drug for a small copayment. I should know - I got a drug that goes for around $…
Hi Old Skeet,
Congratulations on your investing success story. But not many share your experience. According to much investor research and many research conclusions, it is a rather rare happening.
That observation is "in line with research by Br…
Very good column. I like the observation that the commission model can work well for buy-and-hold investors.
Regarding the fee-based model ... Not only may advisors recommend keeping mortgages, but they may recommend getting a mortgage instead of …
That RealClearInvestigations (part of RealClearPolitics) writing is rather misleading.
It conflates an accurate statement made about June 2016 YTD temperature data with later reports about all of 2016. Here's the YTD data evoking the quoted comme…
Calling seems like the best idea. Here's what I see when I try to do an exchange from a fund I have in an HSA account with TDA (I don't keep spare cash on the brokerage side) to GMLVX. This is from the order comfirm page, right before finalizing …
There's nothing special here about ETFs. Some plain old vanilla OEFs hedge currencies as well.
FMIJX. 97th percentile YTD, closed April 30th. Coincidentally, the article points out that "The dollar reached a peak against the euro last March".
…
Are you sure about TDA? It's retail brokerage research page says:
Not Available through TD Ameritrade
GuideMark® Emerging Markets Fund Service Shares GMLVXOf course sometimes what brokerages actually do is different from what they say on their webs…
My usual threshold question before I go past screening a fund is to check whether I could buy the fund. Are these shares available to you? (So far, I haven't found any back doors to invest without using an advisor, though M* claims that it is ava…
Yeah, right.
NYTimes: "[The fiduciary rule] will become partially effective in June before being fully implemented on Jan. 1, 2018."
See: http://ifn.insurance-forums.net/annuities/fixed-indexed-annuities/phase-two-of-fiduciary-rule-implementation-…
Here is a Link that discusses " a dirty little secret " about investment advisors that is not very secret whatsoever:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertberger/2016/12/19/the-dirty-little-secret-investment-advisors-dont-want-you-to-know/#afaf3bc6f…
For the first link, I think you mean:
http://archive.boston.com/yourtown/specials/dunkin_donuts_vs_starbucks_massachusetts/
You may not realize the scope of Starbucks' failure in Australia, or the depth of contempt for the brand there. Starbucks …
I was told that there are so few Starbucks in Australia because they developed their retail coffee market before Starbucks and Starbucks simply can't compete.
I sought them out for their mugs, not for their coffee. Cheap travel memorabilia, and f…
Classification problems are another similarity between funds and cars. There's Lipper and M* and others, and how you classify affects how the vehicle is perceived.
You have US News including the GTI in its June 19, 2017 article, 11 Best German…
Edelman's wrap account (EMAP - Edelman Managed Asset Program®) starts off charging 2% for the first $150K in retail accounts, gradually reducing fees on additional moneys until they reach 1% on amounts in excess of $750K up to $1M. It then charges…
You can get info on advisory firms and advisors from the SEC site:
https://www.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/IAPDSearch.aspx
You should dig down for the form ADV Part 2
For brokers (as distinguished from advisors), you can use FINRA's search here:
http…
At one time, Starbucks was opening branches inside of Wells Fargo banks. Or maybe they weren't real - just the result of aggressive WF corporate coffee goals pushing branch managers into opening phantom Starbucks.
http://articles.latimes.com/1997…
Okay, so these MMFs have higher risk than bank accounts (" they don’t come with the guarantees that are offered by bank products"), and they offer lower rates than bank accounts (the highest yield mentioned is VMFXX at 0.92%, well less than the 1%+ …
I'm not sure about recovery, but drawdown might line up with depreciation. I buy cars/investments for the long haul, so I want something that is sturdy and will carry me for many years. I definitely want the vehicle (car, investment) to be able…
Same here, Allstate also. I'd been with them more than 30 years if you count all the years I was on my parents' Allstate policy. Through three states, no problems. But on my last move, the agent refused to apply loyalty discounts (at least at the…
Since the mid-90s and my first car, I've had GEICO (or their partners) for auto, condo, and umbrella policies. Not having an agent to talk to is fine by me ... I've never had problems with their call centers when filing claims or updating my poli…
Nice observation.
I would not be able to plug a car in at home (and couldn't see parking at Whole Foods every time I needed refueling). Otherwise I would have loved to have looked into the Model 3.
In the case of Tesla, one isn't just looking at…
Regarding diesels and cheating companies - I'd thought about that (though more in terms of MF scandals than bank "improprieties"), but I figured that was a whole 'nuther thread, perhaps tacked onto ESG.
Not trying to dive into this ethical/legal qu…
Drove over to Fidelity and asked them about APDFX, among other things that wanted to inquire about. Told that the initial minimum for an IRA is $250,000. So that ended that.Not much help, but at Schwab, the min is "just" $100K.
At Fidelity, if yo…
I finally found the NYTimes Op-Ed piece I was looking for (May 4, 2017):
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/04/opinion/noncompete-agreements-workers.html
Once reserved for a corporation’s most treasured rainmakers, noncompetes are now routinely applied…
