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.
To paraphrase: Vanguard knows better than its shareholders what is in their best interest.
How patronizing.
When Vanguard says that it must maximize returns, is that returns over the next quarter, or over the next decade? Penny wise and pound f…
Thanks, but I'll take BCOIX over this fund.
Nearly identical in most metrics (duration, credit quality, credit breakdown, number of bonds/bonds in top 10%, country breakdown). TIORX is long and short in cash, but with same net cash as BCOIX (n…
See TSPPTransfer's post (link) at:
http://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/comment/79405/#Comment_79405
(though you focused on a different portion of the article)
Mark to market. Period.
All that matters is what you have now, and going forward. Capital gain/loss is a tax concept that is irrelevant in a tax-sheltered vehicle.
If you sell, risk is present whether you buy a different fund or the old fund.…
Yes, but it's built on a dubious assumption - that returns continue at 20%/year.
The 20% yield was based on a price of $7/share and a dividend of $1.40/year (20%). As stated above, the price now never drops below $10/share, and the dividends (dol…
Source of that info was email from Vanguard.
Interesting that Vanguard is not moving the cash from the prime account to the new Federal MMF settlement account.
Does Vanguard let you make trades in a cash (non-margin) account if you don't have c…
That's a multi-part question.
- Will Vanguard move brokerage settlement account money from Prime to Federal? I would have been stunned if Vanguard wasn't going to do this. I just called them and verified. Except for a few special cases (don't …
Another writer who can't communicate the new rules:
" The new rules are focusing on so-called prime funds that invest in short-term corporate debt, typically with maturities of a few days to a year. Other types of funds invest in short-term municip…
* Note: Vanguard's target date funds only invest in the "Investor" class of Vanguard's index funds. The "Investor" class is the most expensive class available; this is price Vanguard charges for the convenience of the target date funds. Otherwise…
You're getting lost in the weeds.
Here's a simple math problem to illustrate: Two trains are 100 miles apart, each traveling at 50 MPH. A bee, flying at 100 MPH starts at the first train, flies to the second train, reverses direction until getti…
I'll try to address each of your comments:
Two years ago the BCBS premiums for my CPA firm in Michigan increased 55%, and that's after increasing the deductible two and a half times. The average increase for my small business clients here in Michig…
At Fidelity, its CMA account and most tax-sheltered accounts also use bank accounts.
However, the bank accounts used by brokerages for sweeps are low paying checking accounts (they can't be savings accounts which are allowed only 6 withdrawals per …
I was glad to see the writer mention that only the US and New Zealand allow these prescription drug ads.
I point that out whenever someone says you can't trust Canadian drugs since they're not approved by the FDA. Well, these ads are "approved" (…
Okay, that last remark got me curious, so I checked. In its category (the one I'm guessing Ted used - M* 30%-50% allocation), there were two funds that had worse 5 year records.
One has continued its bottom 2% performance except in the past few m…
Ignoring tax issues, IMHO always mark to market (i.e. look at current prices).
Say you bought a share for $40 that was yielding 20%, and it is now selling for $100, yielding 8% (same $8 interest, just divided by a higher current price).
You've got…
A very misleading title, as only one paragraph (the 11th) out of 13 even mentions annuities.
Better would have been the subtitle: "Silicon Valley financial advisor Jennifer Ellison counters a low-return, low-yield world with strategies that promise…
It's always difficult to divine hedging policies, even with M* analyst breadcrumbs. FWIW, M* writes that FMIJX "fully hedges its non-U.S. currency exposure to the dollar." Not merely that it is currently hedged.
The prospectus, um, hedges its c…
@msf- Speaking as an "unnatural person", I'm also wondering what to do with the cash that we've been keeping in American Funds and American Century MMFs. Not particularly worried about safety/stability of either of those companies, but makes nothing…
The quote above talks about generic "investors" pulling cash from MMFs, but the article goes on to write about corporate investors.
It would be interesting to know whether a disproportionate amount of outflows are coming from the institutional side…
You might put the Aston/Pictet International Fund on your watch list. It would be more similar to the Harbor fund than others mentioned so far.
The fund is rather similar to Harbor Int'l. But with all due respect, I think you'll find LZIEX to be…
A favorite around here seems to be FMI Int'l (FMIJX). Personally, I tend to tread carefully with highly concentrated funds (33 stocks vs. 67 for Harbor), but its extremely low turnover (9%) speaks to its conviction in its holdings. And you can't …
Not likely you did this, but if you made a separate Roth contribution within the 60 day window, you could call that a rollover of the money you withdrew. That would let you make a "contribution" with some or all of the money you withdrew (subject …
How I did not include WHGIX in my previous post is a mystery. It has been a consistently steady performer. ETNMX looks like it could be worth a look, but a 1.23% expense ratio is a bit steep for this kind of fund. Perhaps it will continue to do w…
As I commented above, you can get PSLDX for just $100 at Scottrade. But then the transaction fee ($17) would constitute 14.5% of the total committed ($117). And people say 5.75% front end loads are expensive!
Regarding Schwab - I tried a test tr…
TIBIX - $2.5M minimum (prospectus), $2.5K in a Fidelity IRA. Not quite the 10,000:1 ratio (prospectus vs. brokerage min) that one finds with PIMCO, but 1,000:1 is still pretty darned flexible.
One of the weaker aspects of Merrill Edge is that if …
The PIMCO prospectus gives the min as $1M. Brokerages generally have some flexibility in setting their own minimums. Fidelity may require $100K, but Scottrade requires just $100.
From a TRP early (October 1, 2004) prospectus:
Savings to the underlying funds are expected to result primarily from the elimination of numerous separate shareholder accounts which are or would have been invested directly in the underlying funds and…
@hank - I'm always happy to admit I've overlooked something. (Well, not exactly happy, but willing :-)) So I went back and checked the holdings (1Q2016) of TRRIX.
None of the funds it holds are marked as institutional. In contrast, the holdi…
"The average charge for a target-date fund is 0.73% ... The average stock fund charges 0.68%, while the average bond fund charges 0.54%."
I'm surprised the averages are that low. Perhaps if index funds and ETFs are included that's true. What likel…
In response an the original question: do multi-asset income funds further diversify a portfolio or are they a "fad", my thinking is no and no.
Until the 1990s, funds tended to be classified and analyzed according to their objective, e.g. aggressive…
I believe the 7 day yield is neither APR nor APY, but a hybrid - the compounded yield over a seven day period, extrapolated as simple interest over a year. Not that it makes any difference at these low rates (as you'll see below), but here's the c…
Currently, Fidelity's retail MMF FZDXX ($10K min in IRA) is yielding 0.45%, while the Fidelity institutional MMF listed by iMoneyNet, FIDXX, is yielding 0.44%.
These figures are as of June 30th, 2016 according to the linked pages. Price stability…
Sort of. You can find the SEC formulas as instructions to Item 26 in this form:
https://www.sec.gov/about/forms/formn-1a.pdf
The 7 day yield is the actual income (excluding cap gains) earned on an investment in a MMF over a period of seven days (…
Direct payments from employer-sponsored plans (401(k), etc.) are subject to the 20% withholding. Direct payments from IRAs are not.
See IRS: Rollovers of Retirement Plan and IRA Distributions.
https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participa…
" As the name implies, institutional fund shares are available only to businesses, defined benefit plans, endowments and other corporate investors, not individuals."
The article has it backward. Institutional fund shares are available to business…
AndyJ is essentially correct; the Zack's information is outdated.
I'm a strong advocate of going to the source. However, the "rule" was no rule at all, but a proposed IRS regulation - having no force of law, just providing clues as to how the IRS …
"F" is Franklin, right? :-)
That fund (Franklin Mutual Shares) has a noload share class MUTHX open to people who were continuously invested in any of Michael Price's old funds (they are grandfathered in) and to investors in wrap accounts.
The no…
Why not go the traditional pension route? Not only don't I trust state pension/investment boards (or their political masters)
[and]
More pathetic, the clowns running many of these funds/programs are suckered by the allure of hedge funds, private e…
Here's what I posted at Investment News, along with a couple of links I did not provide there:
M&G was removed as a co-manager of a single series (fund) of Vanguard Variable Insurance Fund (a series of variable annuity funds). It is that single…
NTF @ TDAmeritrade.
When someone asks for an alternative fund, it's hard to answer without knowing what there was about the original fund that appealed to the investor.
FDSAX is a somewhat quantitative (rule based), highly concentrated, high divid…
