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.
Unlike the proverbial where three people will give rise to five opinions, here there are only three options: buy, hold, and sell. So five sources can have at most three opinions, not the other way around.
That said, AEPGX should do as an example…
There are criteria, and then there are the application of those criteria.
For example, though it's not a major factor for me, like Hank I do look at fund size. But unlike Hank, I don't have a preference for larger funds; mine is for anything not …
VWENX is closed only to "prospective financial advisory, institutional, and intermediary clients", but is open to investors who open accounts directly with Vanguard.
From Summary Prospectus.
I agree with Ted that it is a fine 60/40 fund. I wouldn…
A couple of brief additional points on Burns' inclusion of payroll taxes.
- He counts the employer's contribution (7.65%) as taxes that the employee pays. But if the employee is the one actually paying that tax, the employee is also earning that…
Burns is saying at least a couple of different things here:
- subsidies (such as for health insurance) and tax credits (such as the EIC, though he doesn't explicitly state this) significantly increase marginal tax rates.
- Cruz has the right id…
There is no right answer to this question.
Some will say that you should average into the market - this avoids buying in at the top. Others will point out that more times than not, buying all at once works out better. If it doesn't, can you affo…
"The nearly 19-year-old Defined Risk Strategy" - not fund, i.e. private money
Also from the article:
"The $1.5 billion Swan Defined Risk mutual fund (ticker: SDRAX), launched in 2012, hasn’t performed as well, which is largely a function of time an…
I believe that VISA/MC networks charge a 1% fee; if your card charges less, the bank issuer is eating the cost. From the bank's perspective, this fee (like any fee) is "extra revenue", though here it may be for the purpose of covering its network …
The card charges 1% foreign transaction fee. That's somewhat insignificant in the sense that you still net a 1% reward (2% reward less 1% fee), but that net is less than Quicksilver, with 1.5% cash back and no foreign transaction fee.
Here are th…
I'm probably one of the few here who still keeps money directly at the several houses rather than using a brokerage.. Without trying to defend this archaic practice, I will say that it does impose some badly needed discipline on me and eliminates a…
Well, yes and no.
For the most part, the store cards are used to determine shopping patterns generally. The data isn't mined so much for individual patterns tied to identities.
Version 1.0 cards don't require names, or if they do, it is easy to p…
So long as the BofAs are all serviced by BofA (and not their FIA subsidiary), it should be possible to transfer some of the credit line from one card to another. Though I don't know what I'd do with a $60K credit limit.
I can't remember a bank in…
Right now I'm trying to figure out VISAs to clear out of my wallet. I try to maximize cash (or cash equivalent) rewards and minimize foreign transaction fees.
One card that I have (but may dump) is what started as the Schwab 2% VISA. When it wen…
This is a good fund to demonstrate just how bunched together bond funds tend to be.
MCOIX (class I) with its 0.50% ER does get a 5* rating. But its sibling shares classes don't.
MSCAX.lw (class A, load waived) with its 0.75% ER gets a 4* rating.
…
The Patriot Act requires credit card banks to obtain identifying information. It does not require you to provide your SSN, let alone income information.
(You are required to provide SSN to open a bank account, but not a credit card account - thi…
Not anywhere close to the old Schwab Visa card (2%, no foreign fee).
The features described above are for one of the two Amex cards Schwab is offering. The other is a Platinum Amex ($450/year) charge card that gives Membership Rewards points (1.…
Until July 1. Costco card and Costo change from Amex to Visa at the same time.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/5-things-to-know-about-the-costco-and-amex-breakup-2016-02-11
"The load only applied to the first select fund you bought."
That's also true of American Funds and all the other load fund families, including Fidelity (Advisor funds). At least with these load funds, you can get advice (we can debate the value…
The instant AT&T divested itself of the RBOCs (1/1/84), it started marketing its 3B line of minicomputers, developed at Bell Labs. Coincidence?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3B_series_computers
Nice point in Lewis' article about dispersion.
Many years ago I posted in misc.invest.mutual-funds opining that Fidelity's use of inexperienced managers in its Select funds really didn't matter, because they were effectively buying bunches of si…
The "Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi" (that's the official name) starts June 20th. Looks better than the Costco Amex card it is replacing (aside from the Amex to Visa switch):
- gas: 4% (to $7K) vs. 3% (to $4K)
- restaur…
I believe those were not actually money market funds, but other MMF-like vehicles including short term investment funds (STIFs) and enhanced cash funds. Extensive quotes from an ICI paper explaining these are below (after --- break).
The ICI also…
About half - mind's not too focused today. Looks interesting though and I'll wade through the rest.
The Figures resemble standard supply/demand lines out of Samuelson, so I pretty much skipped those. And I focused on the sections that describ…
I must be having a bad hair day. Don't get confused, as I did, by the phrase "classified two company investments as passive", thinking that this might have something to do with passive mutual funds. Or that mutual funds have different disclosure…
This column does not do a good job of making its point - I'm even sure what its point is.
As it notes, aside from continuing to prohibit demand deposit (traditional checking) accounts to offer interest, Regulation Q had been phased out years before…
Isn't that the whole idea of ETFs? That APs generally redeem in kind (thus providing the tax efficiency that is purportedly lacking in open end funds).
Admittedly there are some types of ETFs that typically trade in cash, but they're the more eso…
When I closed on my current home, the tax calculations were all messed up. I don't remember the sequence of events, but I wound up reading every document in real time (slowing everything down and annoying everyone). I then had them fix the numbe…
" I expect that any unused rewards will be switched over to the new card. "
I called Fidelity a couple of months ago; they verified this is what will happen. Otherwise, I would have built up enough points to redeem, cashed out, and stopped using un…
The term is "clickwrap" (analogous to "shrinkwrapped" agreements on packaged software).
A term I hadn't heard of before is "browsewrap", where you're implicitly agreeing to terms of use of a site merely by browsing the site. This seems to be much…
There are some things that Fidelity won't deal with by email either. But they are working on enabling their secure email system to handle more types of papers.
I "beta tested" this fairly recently (Fidelity made a one-time invitation when I spoke…
@BobC - That sounds like a much more nuanced appraisal. Thanks!
A change from the original regs was to reduce the number of hoops to jump through, but not to eliminate them (i.e. a compromise).
The core - fiduciary duty - remains, and is what re…
To be clear - a stock, no matter how good or bad, is valued at the current market price. ISTM that liquidity/volatility is the most important factor in what stocks the fund hands over to its investors redeeming in kind. That's why pro-rata loses.
…
M*'s take (from the WSJ giving quotes on reactions to the final regs that I cited in another thread):
Scott Cooley: "“One of my fears was that people who had already had paid a commission on their retirement accounts would be moved into fee-based a…
His (Bloomberg Intelligence) answer to what's in the US Aggregate Bond Index (or SCHZ): "everything ... mortgages, munis, the whole package." (At 1:22)
It's all well and good to talk about fees, but first comes knowing what you're buying. (The in…
For more on cheering the final regs, see WSJ article (giving 31 separate company, politician, brokerage, etc. reactions):
https://www.google.com/search?q=Reactions+to+the+Labor+Department’s+Fiduciary+Rule&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 (top link)…
The devil is in the details.
Every product and package in BobC's list above was allowed to be sold in the original regs proposal. (Other products, like non-traded REITs had been excluded in the proposal but were not excluded in the final regs; is…
