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.
Well that gave me a good laugh. I was going to comment on the writer's criteria, until I got to the bottom line: So, I have just used the Learn Bonds 8 Steps to choosing a core bond fund to choose my fund:
The Loomis Sayles Investment Grade Bond …
Update on Schwab - I've confirmed that they require you to call, though you can place a trade online and then "backfill" the info (prior to settlement) without charge. There is, unfortunately, another limitation. You can't select average cost fo…
The rule that you're describing was the old rule. (Actually, the old rule only restricted you one way - once you started using average cost, you were stuck with it, but until you started using average cost you could use specific shares and later s…
This got me thinking about regulations on cash. If you've read enough disclaimers, you've probably read something with your brokerage along the lines of: the transaction account "should be used for cash temporarily awaiting reinvestment; it is not…
For completeness, here's a "flow chart" of VALIC's annuity components - investment options and fixed accounts (including short-term fixed):
http://www.valic.com/images/valic_structured_help_tcm82-150536.pdf
(Since that's a 2009 doc, don't pay too …
A few years ago, I had an annuity 401K plan that offered a true MMF as one of its subaccounts. The net return after annuity expenses was negative. And in a low interest rate environment that's what I'd expect. So if you're getting something di…
To add to what Scott said (including Cambiar not being my cup of tea either), Cambiar Aggressive Value is a Cambiar fund on steroids. Unlike the others, it can, and does short (per prospectus and M* shows -24% cash, -2% bond, and short positions of…
Fixed annuities are very similar to corporate bonds - you lend the insurer money, and in exchange you get a promise on interest and principal. The promise is that you will get a fixed rate of interest that the insurer will reset periodically, and t…
Reply to @bee:
TNEAX is waiving all fees except its 12b-1 fee (0.25%) until "at least April 30, 2013". But this waiver doesn't include waiving the fees of the acquired funds (0.87%), so even with the waiver in place, the total ER is 1.12%. This i…
Point taken. There might be a larger class (lots of small borrowers) that suffered if rates were artificially raised rather than lowered.
I think those that suffered in the other direction might be those holding the notes - MBS funds and their …
Reply to @Sven: I'm not sure that Mutual Series is a great example of a good family gone bad. When Michael Price stepped down as a day to day manager of the Franklin Mutual Series funds March 1998, David Winters was named to replace him in the team…
Not clear why you feel decades of rigging would be necessary for a class action. If one follows the link in the blog you cite, labeled "huge class action lawsuits", you get to a London Telegraph article, whose first sentence is:Britain's banks fac…
Yet another writer with little to say. Dateline July 1, starts by saying S&P 500 (SPY) gained 0.71% through May, but its own data table says that was the 1 year return, and the YTD return was 5.3%. (Not to mention that its June return alon…
Thanks for the article. Found a related one from last March, saying that lots of other companies are getting out altogether. And that what's killing them is the current low interest rate environment: "For every 0.5 percentage point drop in inves…
Reply to @Ted:
It seems that much of the relative difference is due to Villere being a growth oriented fund vs. the value leanings of the other funds. As I posted in another thread, on average, over decades, growth and value do about the same, an…
Thanks. I see your point about how people use balanced funds, and in that sense the Perkins fund is clearly more diversified. It has a healthy dose of international equity, which I like (even though international is currently out of favor).
On …
I'm curious about your relative praise for Perkins vis a vis Greenspring. Like Greenspring, their small and mid cap value funds have had an abysmal time over the past three years. JMCVX (mid cap T shares) ranks 94th percentile over the past thre…
Good points. I've been burned by all of these.
- If a fund is still open for direct purchase, you can sometimes purchase the fund directly and transfer it immediately to your brokerage. (I've also seen at least one fund close it at brokerages a…
No - won't have to pay.
"The individual mandate exempts U.S. citizens living abroad (see PPACA § 1501 (adding Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) § 5000A(f)(4)))".
http://www.ciab.com/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=2102
If you want the gory text itself,…
Reply to @MikeM:
Thanks for mentioning Partnership for Long Term Care. I first learned about it on usenet:misc.invest.financial-plan. Here's the NYS version. At least that's what I think you're talking about.
It's not quite what you're describi…
Long term care was already part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). HHS declined to implement it. So I am dubious that this administration would push for an even stronger version than the CLASS Act (Title VIII of the ACA).
M…
Have you been reading CNN? (I hear Dewey won, also.)
From SCOTUSblog:
“Stocks are reacting very much as analysts predicted in the event that the law was upheld. Hospital stocks such as HCA (up 8%) and LifePoint (up 4%) are rising because the law …
Regarding quarantining - I know banks put extra holds on deposits for the first 30 days an account is open. Schwab might just be doing the same thing. Haven't done too much with them, but I know Fidelity will provide immediate (well, at least w/i…
NTF funds at brokerages generally have broker-imposed short term trading fees in addition to any imposed by the fund itself, e.g. Schwab imposes a fee on NTF funds sold within 90 day of purchase.
Brokerages may impose their own min on funds (e.g. F…
Reply to @Derf:
Don't know about gas prices vs. rates of return (and am not curious enough right now to research it), but I did just read about the Pizza Connection: Since 1960 the price of a slice of pizza has closely tracked the price of a subway…
Reply to @hank:
Interesting chart. I knew we broke the 50c barrier in the '73-'74 OPEC embargo (even/odd gas days), and broke a buck in the '79 oil crisis (2 hour waits for gas). But I did not realize that gas prices effectively plateaued for d…
Reply to @Investor:
I agree that star ratings are completely quantitative. This is subject to the qualification that BobC always points out - they're dependent on the classification of each fund. While the category definitions are applied mechani…
Reply to @hank:
While $1 gas may sound enticing, I feel that deflation is a much worse scenario than inflation, and most people would not be able to live with $1 gas. That would mean a totally dead economy - no products being moved, no jobs, and p…
Reply to @Old_Joe:
Realizing that IQ is in some sense a measure of acquired knowledge, I was going to say zero, since embryos (who haven't yet acquired knowledge) are people. But then I remembered that the Constitution says that representatives mus…
The first link, on individual bond investing, IMHO understates both the risks of individual bonds and the capabilities of bond managers to deal with the issues the author raises. I have a fair amount invested in both individual bonds and in bond f…
One has to laugh at Fidelity arguing that its funds are so sound that they doesn't need firming up. This from the company that tried to sell the industry on the value of insuring money market funds (which of course Fidelity would sell). Hey, what…
IMHO PRSVX is an index hugger in only a narrow technical sense - that its coefficient of determination with respect to the Russell 2000 (its best fit index over three years) is 98.71% (per M*). However, its alpha with respect to the same index is …
There could be 1% truth in the matter. There is (or was) Atlantic Bank of New York incorporated in 1926 - so there was an Atlantic Bank that was 85 years old. Just the wrong state, taken over by NYCB in 2006, etc.
Reply to @Maurice:
Well, technically M* does have a page on its site that says SVVC is a closed end fund:
the annual report at http://quote.morningstar.com/stock-filing/Annual-Report/2011/12/31/t.aspx?t=XNAS:SVVC&ft=10-K&d=46f6ef98c859001b…
Of course Catch and Andy are correct that the total bond funds contain some junk and TIPS. I fell into the same trap of relying upon what I "knew" the fund would have without checking. The amounts are under the 20% that most funds have to go outs…
Reply to @catch22: "our house remains perplexed by the total absence of U.S. Treasury holdings in a fund named Global Bond. "
What's in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II.
…
LSBRX typically performs somewhere between US investment grade bonds and equities, which is to be expected as it is a mix of investment grade, high yield and convertibles (having attributes of both bonds and stocks) and foreign bonds (off in their o…
Reply to @catch22:
"Spanish and/or Italian ... yields may be close to the top edge."
This is a good example of why I don't make short term predictions or trade on them. (Not picking on you in particular, it's just that this one stood out as I loo…
I'm a big fan of funds that have a good degree of flexibility, and of LSBDX/LSBRX in particular. And it does give you diversification over corporate, junk, preferreds, and international in one package.
That said, realize that it is still somewhat …
