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.
Thanks! I really love Wiley's Non Sequitur, especially his Sunday strips. Used to catch them in the Cron all the time. These days of course, they're online: http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2013/08/29
Replying to VF: I expect more of the ou…
It seems Fidelity is being a bit duplicitous - closing Fidelity Small Cap Discovery FSCRX, managed by Charles Meyers, just to open a feeder fund (fund for Fidelity's other funds to invest in) with virtually the same prospectus, same manager (so much…
Reply to @Investor: Given your enthusiasm for Fidelity Low Priced (FLPSX), I might have expected it to rank higher in your portfolio.
In any case, my top percentages (funds omitted) roughly track yours - 11.7%, 9.5%, 7.1%, 6.2%, 5.5%.
I tend to…
Reply to @Ted:
Thanks Ted. Nice to learn about some of the work she did in financial education. BTW, Cardozo has been a great school for decades (though I'm proud to say that when I went to HS, our school's math team regularly bested Cardozo's…
From the original article:
" Summers [hasn't] ever owned up to his responsibility for deregulation in the 1990s, which led directly to the financial disaster."
Well, as Clinton (Darrell Hammond) explained: "It was the 90s. People did all kinds …
Reply to @catch22:
I'm really reaching into the deep recesses of my memory, and I may be imagining this, but I have the vaguest recollection of Fidelity adding a load to one or more funds - usually they were dropping them, but they may have added i…
That's going back quite some time. I believe Contra was still a load fund then (Fidelity didn't waive loads on many of its equity funds for IRAs until 1992, didn't waive Contra's load in taxable accounts until early 2003 and make that permanent in…
Reply to @Investor:
Finally got around to reading the August update. Good thing too, next week is September. I was taken aback to see Invesco Dynamics being merged away. It certainly has seen better days, with a history going all the way back…
First, let's separate the broad based index ETFs from the leveraged, inverse, niche (the late, unlamented HealthShares come to mind). As Investor wrote, all but the first are at best, designed for traders.
I meet John Bogle half way in my view of …
Reply to @David_Snowball:
As OJ noted, the relationship you described is one form that a load supports, but not the only one. OJ went in one direction - asking about the investor who pays the load without getting the service. (Rationale for thi…
Reply to @Charles:
M* recognizes that different share classes just belong to the same fund, so it reports the total assets in the fund, not the share class.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you've been critical of loads in general (fr…
Reply to @Charles: You were clear on expressing the idea of unique funds (as opposed to double or triple counting because of multiple share classes) when you wrote: "Of the 7500 or so equity and fixed income open ended funds available, unique share …
The two funds you mention are in different categories - they invest in somewhat different asset classes. So the first question is: Are you concerned about having too much allocated to bonds, or the particular funds' performance?
Realistically, in…
Reply to @MikeM:
Wellington is still open, unless you're trying to get in via a broker, advisor, or institution.
From the prospectus supplement (2/28/13): "Vanguard Wellington Fund will be closed to all prospective financial advisory, institution…
Wrong numbers, wrong inferences. (Still a great fund.)
According to the fund's prospectus (not "charter"), the fund invests 30% to 40% of its portfolio in bonds, not the 40% to 60% the writer claims.
The duration was 6.6 years in January (at …
Vanguard never charges a load, period. That 0.5% per year fee (the only Vanguard index fund I could find charging this much is their new Emerging Markets Government Bond Index Fund) goes to pay the management of the fund, and to pay the fund opera…
I'm in complete agreement with Investor. I thought I was the only one in the world not on Facebook, but gosh, there are two of us :-).
I don't use LinkedIn much, but do find value in a focused system. In contrast, Facebook strikes me as AOL 2.0…
Minor points:
First Eagle Global Income Builder, Class A, FEBAX, is available NTF (and load-waived) at Schwab. It's only been around for 15 months, so I have a hard time viewing it as a "long term" superior performer. (Its 1 year performance is b…
Just a little speculation on the responses (or lack thereof) regarding the load fund families Blackrock and Morgan Stanley ...
MALOX (like others, I've always found that ticker memorable) had a great record if one skips the past five years. That,…
Reply to @Investor: Did a quick search and came up with: " Regulation FD ... prohibits selective disclosure, but ... Regulation FD specifically exempts open end mutual funds"
https://www.law.columbia.edu/center_program/corp_gov/corp_govwrit
Here's…
Reply to @golub1: You've given a good argument for legacy funds - if they are decent funds, and you have substantial gains that you expect to get wiped out (eventually) upon your demise, let it ride.
But there are still things you can do. You can …
Reply to @Charles: There could be a less sinister explanation. There are pretty strict laws about what information can be conveyed to investors and in what form. Standardized reporting periods, prospectus accompanying sales literature, etc. I su…
Reply to @Sven: VBS and TDA charge for buying and selling ($20/$49 respectively). Schwab and Fidelity charge only to purchase ($76/$75 respectively), subject to certain holding periods. The difference between the two is that Fidelity generally a…
A few comments on turtle funds, and more on Fidelity ...
People likely know that I've been touting FPNIX as a very conservative bond fund - one which I've had my eye on for years but could never figure out how to get around the load ('till now). …
I got the email, with similar results (though I thought that the question that kicked me out was whether I was working with an advisor).
On the other side of the ledger, I have nothing but praise for T. Rowe Price. I have twice (over the past t…
Reply to @bee: Thanks. I keep forgetting about USAA. Do they require military service (or relationship) for their brokerage as well as other services?
Since we're bringing up what may be "limited access' methods of buying the fund without a lo…
Reply to @mrc70: The 25 free trades apply to TF funds as well as stocks and ETFs. See footnote 8 on the fees and commissions page:For Flagship clients, TF fund transactions are included in the offer of 25 commission-free transactions described in f…
Reply to @STB65: Since you'd mentioned ETFs and index funds, I figured your allocation was based on matching market cap, not biasing away from domestic stocks. As this table from Bespoke shows, at the end of 2012, the US was already down to 32% of…
These funds may be harder to find (without a load), than people think.
I have verified that TTRZX (and TGBAX) are available at Firstrade, as Kevin stated.
But, while Schwab shows TGTRX as NTF, Schwab only offers these shares to institutional invest…
Reply to @Investor:
Earnings in inherited Roth IRAs (including new growth) are tax-free, so long as you follow the five year rule (earnings on Roths are taxable if withdrawn within five years of establishing the IRA).
Quoting Fidelity, where they…
Reply to @bee: Almost perfect. One very minor tweak, and then a subtle addendum.
Tweak - the five year rule only affects whether the distribution is taxed; it doesn't affect RMD - that is, the original Roth owner has no RMD, period.
Addendum -…
Reply to @Art: There are RMDs on inherited Roths.
In fact, the RMD amount is more severe - you may wind up using the single life expectancy table rather than the usual uniform life expectancy table. In addition, once you start the RMD, you have…
Bee hit one of the points I was going to make - thinking in terms of team management.
Somewhat related is the way Vanguard funds are managed. The management of many of their funds is outsourced - Vanguard has ultimate responsibility, and exerc…
You seem to be focusing on value-leaning funds (with funds that I like), but on the growth side is another obvious fund - Capital Opportunity VHCOX.
Managed by the Primecap team, and the only way to get these managers in a Vanguard fund (I belie…
I agree with the principle (mentally aggregate all retirement accounts when doing asset allocation - pick the best investments available in each account rather than try to get the same allocations in each of the accounts).
However, you may find tha…
Though it was a poor week for the long end in bonds, the short end came out fine. The yield curve does not shift uniformly from one end to the other (nor in sync across different types of bonds with the same maturity).
MINT - up 0.02% for the wee…
Reply to @Sven:
Vanguard's theory (and this appears in many other places as well) is that rising rates are not necessarily bad for long term bond fund investors, because investors ultimately benefit from the higher rates and come out ahead. (Bes…
Short answer: No.
In fact, DFA doesn't pay commissions: "Shares of Dimensional's funds are generally available only to institutional investors and clients of select independent advisors. Such advisors do not receive compensation from Dimensional …
Reply to @kevindow:
Kevin,
Just to be clear, I wasn't suggesting MQIFX as better than MDISX. Rather, as you said, it's a somewhat equivalent (though not identical) fine fund. I did have an ulterior motive in bringing it up, though, which will …
