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.
Recent changes affecting brokerages:
1) Fidelity has reduced the period for which it charges a short term trading fee on NTF funds down to 60 days;
2) Wells Fargo never required a minimum to get 100 free trades in WellsTrade, just that you link it…
I regard capitalism and Communism as two sides of the same coin - money is all that matters. Unalloyed, either fails. What needs to get thrown into the mix is a human element. Call that socialism, welfare, government intervention, whatever you wa…
MWTIX appears to be available at WellsTrade with a $50 min, at least for IRAs. Similarly, when I enter MSWTIX into a Fidelity IRA, it says there is a $500 min. Schwab's system appears to enforce the $1M min for IRAs.
I think that Wellesley is a great fund, and will likely use it some time in the future when it fits my needs. But I think you're overstating the case a bit when you say no bond fund can compete with it in long term total return. (Also, its target …
Maurice, by skipping the rest of the video, you missed one of my favorite clips (at 1:58) - Greenspan testifying that he was shocked, shocked, that self regulation in general and specifically for banks, doesn't work - that it fails the shareholders,…
Fama's study was reported in his paper The Behavior of Stock-Market Prices. Unfortunately, an obvious flaw in the study was his disregarding survivorship bias, which would tend to overstate the fund industry's returns.
Still interesting for the ta…
Their incinerator (Harrisburg Authority) fiasco has been going back years. Here's a NYTimes article from a year ago saying that Harrisburg had already defaulted on the Harrisburg Authority (a separate entity) bonds that it had guaranteed. (If you …
John Neff's Windsor. If I remember correctly, it had been closed for many years, then reopened in the early(?) 80s. Young and naive, I didn't understand the concept of value investing well. I looked at his portfolio, loaded with auto companies (…
Human rights - as in "my rights were violated, it's unconstitutional, I'm going to take it to the Supreme Court". Soros asserted that his rights were violated, claiming was charged with an ex post facto law.
In the US, that would get you into f…
Don't know about European law, but the statement by the court that Soros "should have realized that he risked violating insider-trading laws" sure would sound unconstitutionally vague if one were applying US law.
One does not risk violating a law w…
Wells Fargo announced newer fees last month. According to a more recent WSJ article, these fees will begin Oct 14th. Maybe not for your neighborhood (state), but for some.
It just becomes a more interesting game to play. Schwab gave up its Visa…
Andrew W. Operwager, M.D., CFA was a submanager of Van Eck Multi-Manager Alternatives Find (VMAAX, VMAIX) from 2009 to April 2010, via Columbus Circle Investors (CCI). CCI, along with a couple of Van Eck managers, appears to have been summarily dis…
Customer-friendly is in the eye of the beholder. Not defending BofA here, just pointing out that different people look for different things.
There was a period of several years (80s-90s?) when banks started charging their own customers for using…
After looking at that price curve, now I know why it seemed gas prices hadn't moved. They're the same as they were when I filled up my tank in April :-) There are solutions other than horse and buggy.
Regarding the heat map and driving for gas - t…
Investor - thanks. I have gone through some FASB concept statements and FASs, but not in years.
I think the penultimate paragraph is not especially relevant, because (if I'm reading it right), it requires separate revenue lines for goods and ser…
"Net Revenue" is not exactly the term that Groupon used in its revised filing, but it is darn close. Footnote 1 of its Consolidated Financial Statements (link also in NYTimes article) reads: The Consolidated Financial Statements have been restated …
I may be in the minority here, but I see this reporting change as storm and fury signifying nothing. Groupon sells cash-value coupons. One can regard these coupons as goods, and there's a cost of acquiring goods, which they reported clearly litera…
What's the difference between a "do nothing Congress" and a Congress that's out of session? If the theory is "the biggest risk to investors in today's market is political risk--the risk that the rules will change" (that's a quote from the fund pag…
Though I'm not a Jaffe lover, his calling FAIRX (Fairholme) a stupid investment generated enough comments that I figured I'd point out he's also called this fund a Stupid Investment of the Week.
You can download the videos and then play them locally. Registration not required. The videos are okay for what they are - a collection of very basic thoughts about HFT.
He suggests that with a "runaway algorithm" the market could easily drop 300…
DODWX performance since inception is straighforward to compute.
From the 2010 Annual Statement:Growth of $10,000 since inception (as of Dec 31, 2010) is $9107.
From M*, 2011 YTD performance: -15.39% (through 9/9/11)
Combining, we have total return …
M*: "[T]here are no strict definitions about what constitutes a core holding. Both index trackers and out-of-the box holdings -- such as Third Avenue Value (TAVFX) [which M* classifies as a supporting player, not core], which hunts far and wide for…
The 12b-1 fees are included in the net expense ratio - so you wound up double-counting them.
The idea is that net expense ratio gives you a sense of all predictable periodic charges. So it excludes front end loads and back end loads (each a on…
Unfortunately, you're still paying a load in the form of a 12b-1 fee that goes into the broker's (TRP's) pocket, year after year, just like "C" shares. Not sure the 0.5% comes from; the "A" shares cost 0.92%/yr, while the "R" shares (your class) c…
Generally it is best to go to the horse's mouth; here, that's JPMorgan:
http://si.jpmorgan.com/products/catalogue/index.html?ck=en_US
What I see there are three CUSIPs that come close to matching your description:
2 Year BREN (Buffered Return Enhan…
I'm not sure, either, what you're looking for. Consider a bond that is purchased at par, and the interest rate never shifts, so that its market value (NAV, if you wish) remains constant.
If you just look at NAV, your return is zero. Certainly f…
"Volatility in the market" sounds like a euphemism for "the market plummeted". A high turnover fund might be inclined to look for more cash with gyrating markets, but a moderate turnover fund like BERIX will look for more cash if it's seeing redem…
T Rowe Price Floating Rate Fund (PRFRX, PAFRX) is a new fund, not new share classes of T. Rowe Price Institutional Floating Rate Fund (RPIFX, PFFRX). As such, it doesn't have a YTD figure (just a lifetime performance figure, since its lifetime is …
Reply to @Anonymous:
Can't do it. I don't know if IRA custodians will allow savings bonds in the IRAs, but even if they do, you're limited to $5K/year per SSN in book entry form, and another $5K per SSN (for 2011 only; after this year, no more pape…
Reply to @Anna: "The Obama part of the graph does show too high spending ..." You can stop there, for you've validated my point. The NYTimes graphic does not include this "too high spending" as a major factor in deficits during Obama's administrat…
This graphic doesn't mention of the defense spending under Obama - not only the increase in Afghanistan and excursion into Libya, but non-war-related defense increases as well. (Clinton, in contrast, did keep defense spending down, so the omission …
It so much sounds like the investment adviser industry is either filled with less than fully competent people (who genuinely couldn't identify the "best" investment for their clients, but could at least pick some out that are "suitable") and is fear…
It's as real a date as one can get. Unless you believe that the US will not default if the debt limit is not raised, then by the intermediate value theorem, there will be a precise date when the US first defaults. (That is, if the cash on hand min…
Maybe I missed it, but I don't where in this article it says what ETNs invest in. All I can find is a sentence referring to the businesses of MLPs, and that is incomplete: "90% of the MLP’s income needs to come from real estate, commodities or nat…
With an expense ratio of 55 basis points, commissions, and bid/ask spreads, tell me again why I would buy this instead of PTTRX (Total Return, Institutional Class) at 46 basis points, a proven track record (the ETF fund will not be operated the same…
Understand the difference between a default and a loss. Failure to make timely payments is a default; that doesn't mean you won't get your money. In this sense, it's not much different from the bank failing - you can get your insured money out, bu…
While the M* snippet suggests that M&N has been sustaining nice profit margins, M* also objectively classifies the family funds as "below average" in expenses.
And the S-1 registration filing includes among the risks to potential investors in t…
