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.
A few active management funds I have screened based on comparative performance within their sector:
Foreign Small Blend - GLFOX
Foreign Small Value - QUSOX
Foreign Small Growth - WAIOX
World Allocation - KTRSX
Europe - CAEZX
Not to rain too heavily…
@Maurice - are you personally that much of a bad luck charm? What investments should I be avoiding? :-)
I suspect that Fidelity is picking up part of the tab on these cards - think of them as loss leaders to attract/maintain accounts. As far as …
I continue to be puzzled by suggestions to use ultrashort bond funds in place of cash. Their SEC yields are typically under 50 basis points (vs. 1% for insured bank savings accounts), unless they are diving well into junk.
On top of that, here we …
More fine journalism - STSBX may have had a 10 year return (not yield) of something approaching 3%, but its current SEC yield is 0.21%, and trailing twelve month yield is 0.51%. Its 78 basis point ER might have something to do with that, even if y…
I've been pleasantly surprised by Bloomberg. I remembered the screens as being so cluttered that no matter what they had on, it was painful to watch. Could have been that I finally gave in and bought an HD screen a few years ago, but I find the l…
This is not the first time PBS has tried outsourcing a financial program. There was one featuring this guy, Louis something or other, that PBS canned after just 32 years. Brought in some magazine to liven up the show.
Ironically, the old show (…
@JohnChisum - You may be in an unusual situation because you're coming from outside the US.
For US residents (including Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands), Amex offers primary insurance similar to the company you cited, charging a simple flat…
The transparency issue is timely because I was debating the auto insurance issue on rental cars which is a scam in my book. Using the web I found a alternative. Insuremyrentalcar.com. They are for real.
I found this link for AMEX card holders:
ame…
Value and quality are not necessarily synonymous. Buying cheap stuff and continually replacing it can still provide better value than buying higher quality goods that don't last proportionately longer. (This is another way of phrasing Maurice's p…
OJ - now that you've cleared things up - that you're using a Costco ID card with charge privileges (like a store card), my additional research may be moot. But since I did some digging, there is another possible connection between Capital One and …
I'm not aware of any licensing agreement between Amex and Capital One, but the two are related (via Costco), with one degree of separation.
Capital One had an arrangement with Costo, where you could get a higher interest account at Capital One if y…
Following up on BrianW's thoughts, here's today's NYTimes Editorial Notebook:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/16/opinion/goodbye-to-the-electronics-store.html
Anyone remember Lafayette Radio and Electronics? Ahead of its time - it went bust in 198…
Catch, Mark, thanks for the notes. Between the holding companies, the subsidiaries, and the attempts at hiding names and ownership, I'm not sure I'll ever be clear on what, if anything, FIA really stood for. It could be, For Instance, Anything.
…
From the Fidelity Amex card agreement:
This credit care program is issued and administered by FIA Card Services. American Express is a federally registered service mark of American Express and is used by the issuer pursuant to a license.
"We", "us…
The Costco gas options likely vary by region, but I haven't surveyed most of the states to check.
I agree with the BofA interruptions - my Fidelity 2% Amex (FIA - a BofA subsidiary) was replaced twice in 2014 because of their lax security (or paran…
Well that was clear as mud. Somewhat better to go to the source - the budget proposal is linked to by the Tax Foundation page.
There, the actual proposal says that the purpose is to "close a number of inefficient, unintended, and unfair tax lo…
Interesting program. I was aware of BofA's 10% bonus (I have a legacy Schwab, now BofA card, and a legacy eSavings account, no min balance, to qualify), but was not aware of these higher bonuses (50% at the $50K/platinum level).
I'm going to guess…
I doubt you'll need another MC or Visa card if Costco goes with one of those networks. Even Costco's current deal with Amex doesn't require you to use a card issued by Centurion Bank (i.e. Amex's bank). For example, one is free to use Fidelity's …
Aside from excellent service, I've always wondered about Amex's raison d'être, especially in the 21st Century.
And another one gone, and another one gone - perhaps too obvious:
From 50 (1982) to 6 (2012) --- what did you expect would happen?
http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6#ixzz3Rag7weAt
And your local papers, no matter how tiny their circulation, are probably …
That's a problem for Amex on the mass market end. It's also having problems on the high net worth individual end:
Bloomberg: Amex is Losing its Millionaires
When Costco switched from Discover to Amex, there weren't free Amex cash reward cards, so …
The waiver is still in place, until at least February 28, 2016. Expenses, excluding "interest, taxes, dividend expense, borrowing costs, acquired fund fees and expenses, interest expense related to short sales, and extraordinary expenses" are limit…
The figures that Ted quotes (accurately, that is what Whitebox states on its website) are wrong. The website states that this is as of the date of the current prospectus, but these figures are from last year's (2014's) prospectus.
The figures fro…
The forecast was right, the geography was off a little, as is typical. More often than not, nor'easters veer northeast, crossing Long Island and Connecticut toward Boston. (The north east of the name comes from the counterclockwise winds hitting l…
@Mark - no need to apologize - I'm not sure myself what's right; Intuit has done a poor job communicating. People should just be aware that regardless of what they get, they could still have to upgrade (even if they're careful).
I was rereading information about Lindsay's snowstorm (1969) - "the storm forced the first ever weather-related closure of the New York Stock exchange."
http://webra.cas.sc.edu/hvri/feature/feb2013_notw.aspx
Snow, Snow - Pete Seeger
Schedules C, D, E & F are no longer included in the TT Deluxe version. A TT user must now purchase the Premier version to get those schedules.
According to Forbes, Premier isn't high enough if you're filing Schedule C (sole proprietorship) or F …
The city that never sleeps just put its transit to bed:
"The MTA is committed to the safety of its customers and its employees, and due to the forecast, will be suspending service on all bus, commuter rail and subway service at 11:00 p.m. this even…
For a more readable version of the first link (and apparently the original source), and one that respects the copyright (by noting source and copyright), see:
http://www.nasdaq.com/article/money-managers-led-by-fidelity-close-to-launch-of-dark-pool-…
While it is true that SEC30 day yield is "more current" than trailing twelve month, I feel that the more important factor is that it is a formula that approximates yield to maturity, rather than current yield.
To take an extreme case, consider a po…
If you've owned your home for a long time, then in Calif., courtesy of Prop 13, you're paying absurdly low property taxes.
And for retirees, Calif. has a one-time get out of jail free card - if you want to downsize, you can take that low assessm…
Basically correct. To the extent that your taxable income remains within the 15% tax bracket, your cap gains/qualified divs gets taxed at 0%.
In 2014, if a couple had $94,100 in AGI (all cap gains/qualified divs), then line 38 (AGI on p. 2) would…
Look on the bright side. They say the more money a manager has invested in his fund, the better it is for the other investors. Gosh, are they going to be a bunch of happy investors now. :-)
I suppose the reference is self serving in the sense that an oft-quoted statement is self-serving: "What's good for GM is good for the country." The actual statement was "What's good for our country was good for General Motors and vice versa." (S…
There are some people who just shouldn't be left anywhere near a calculator.
He writes about a $100K investment in a fund whose underlying portfolio gains 10%/year, and carries a total ER of 1%. He uses the SEC calculator to determine that over…
"While shopping in Macy's NYC store few days ago I found a great pair of shoes that fit perfect. Price with tax was bit over $150."
Not that it will help with your CC, but next time if you buy something slightly less expensive, you can avoid the ta…
Remarkably (to me), some people like this. They feel it shows the banks are taking an active interest in security. In my mind, it shows that the banks are shifting the costs of security/losses from themselves to their customers (in time and inco…
That's an interesting comparison. I like it. Tweedy, Browne does come to mind as offering hedged funds, value oriented. One difference is that TB is overpriced, while Vanguard might even be called "underpriced". And the VG fund is more of a mi…
Thanks for the list. I was aware of VTMFX, but in general it seems very difficult to find hybrid funds that use munis as their bond sleeve.
From the list I discovered that AllanceBernstein has a whole family of these funds - ACIYX (40/60 stock…
I thought that's what you might be using, but the 23 I got included only two midcaps and a small cap - the rest were large caps. So I saw 20 US large blend, growth, or value.
FWIW (and remembering that this omits the Goldman Sachs fund):
1. MR…
