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.
While I generally try to take a longer view rather than be unduly influenced by (relatively) recent experiences, I admit upfront to being biased here by the 2008 collapse of the muni bond insurers.
ISTM that insurers can provide a valuable service…
The reason I linked to the 2015 DOD report rather than the 2019 report is that the former makes reference to more than fortifying its fortresses.The report finds that climate change is a security risk, Pentagon officials said, because it degrades li…
What's the saying? Treasuries are the last refuge of a scoundrel? Nope, that's not quite right. :-)
Still, Treasuries are the last refuge of lots of people. So they tend to hold up better than higher credit risk securities. And when the whol…
@MikeM - thanks for reminding me. Recently I noticed this discrepancy at Fidelity, that you had to dig for the really current yields. I only noticed it by accident.
Fidelity's propensity for quoting old rates means that you have to be carefu…
Money market funds, not bond funds (short term or otherwise). Now offering yields, not what they paid the trailing twelve months.
This piece likewise extrapolated on past performance. It gave current (SEC??) yields, but did not comment on them.…
One of us is misreading this. "ESG managers maintain that environmental and social concerns pose material risks." To invest without consideration of environmental and social impacts is to ignore business risks. (The DOD has declared climate ch…
Why own T-bills when one can own no-penalty CDs, similar maturity, 1% APY, federally insured, fully liquid, and guaranteed not to lose value unlike a T-bill or a corporate bond?
Longer term bonds are another matter. Though as pointed out in the ar…
The funds will still be open via direct investments. So if one should later decide to start a position and hold them through a third party (e.g. a brokerage), one should be able to buy shares directly and then transfer the position.
I did this yea…
John Rekenthaler (M*), The Department of Labor Attempts to Throttle ESG Investing
https://www.morningstar.com/articles/990580/the-department-of-labor-attempts-to-throttle-esg-investing
Would [an ESG fund] be legally protected if it removes all sugg…
@msf who said "Schwab doesn't allow Roths, nor does Fidelity" HUH?
I'm sure I must be misunderstanding something but I've had a full-scale Roth Brokerage account at Fidelity since they became available. Are you referring to some other type of Roth …
The whole rotating-discount/cash-back thing is a turnoff to me. Every quarter or month you need to remember which card to use to maximize which benefits ... too much work! I stick w/my Amex Plat and Amazon Prime Visa and keep things simple so I c…
Most influ vaccines are only 10-20% effective; covid19 vacc may follow same patterns.Why should SARS-CoV-2 be analogized with various strains of influenza? Consider some of the differences.
There are a number of reasons why flu vaccine effectivene…
For us we have Vanguard 13 years, schwab 11 years, and merrilledge 7 years. All are easy to talk to representatives, low cost trading, good bonddesks, schwab offers excellence research for stocks/mutual funds. All maintenance fees extremely low (…
Was the name of any presidential candidate listed? Perhaps it was that the Republican Party candidates for electors were not on the ballot?During the first hundred years under the Constitution, whenever electors were chosen by popular vote, they w…
I agree that @carew888 did a nice job of quickly summarizing what the F fund is and why it performed the way it did. The only thing I'd add to that (I'm not a TSP participant, so please correct me if I'm mistaken), is that divs, cap gains, etc. ar…
Can't find a good page on this now, but there are only two reasons I know of to hold long term treasuries.
One is immunization. If you like the current yield and there's something you're saving for many years down the road, buying a long term …
"Retail" online news/info may be older than you think.
CompuServe, founded in 1969, started offering a consumer online service in 1979. By 1980 you could read newspaper articles online.
https://www.wired.com/2009/09/0924compuserve-launches/
Usen…
Newsday did a similar test over a span of three years, published last year (not paywalled).
https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/real-estate-agents-investigation/
Here's WBUR's program on the Newsday study (45 minutes)
https://www.wbur.org/onpo…
NYT: Deutsche Bank May Offer Wirecard a Lifeline
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/business/wirecard-deutsche-bank.html
Once again, Deutsche Bank puts on its not-so-white hat to cut a deal with a debt-ridden, likely fraudulent company that was hea…
It wasn't that long ago that we sent astronauts to walk on the moon, but we cannot deal with this pandemic while trailing the rest of the world in the recovery. Truly sad! I was actually thinking about that, but in another way.
It really was tha…
Perception clearly is affected by one's experiences. Certainly in many ways the era you speak of, 1968-1974 was worse than today.
It was a dark era after the Second Reconstruction that had extended from Truman to Johnson. Just stringing two…
There's always the option of filing Form 2210 Schedule AI with your tax return. This lets you pay estimates based on the income you actually made each "quarter", rather than paying the same amount on each estimate.
Regardless, you never have to…
My response was to the comment "this is worse in only some ways (somewhat occult treason)". There are a number of other ways in which it is worse now including, but not limited to, the ubiquitous breadlines. Compared to that the comparable 1974 …
"The Predecessor was an unregistered private fund, did not qualify as a regulated investment company for federal income tax purposes and did not pay dividends or distributions." (from prospectus)
Note also that Legg Mason funds (including Brandywi…
There may be less here than meets the eye.
For example, consider the highlighted sentence: "A greater proportion of American companies are older, larger, and more profitable than in the late 20th century, which explains much of the i…
Thanks for the suggestion. Certainly the CMBS portion of the portfolio is one of the most likely candidates.
Almost all the CMBS holdings are derivatives and I really didn't want to get into estimating their yields. So I started with the ass…
"Boeing shielded from federal regulators reviewing its 737 Max aircraft the extent and capability of the flawed computer system that ultimately brought down two jets, according to an inspector general report obtained by CNN. ... The report... inclu…
Because of the low AUM, they own very illiquid, very high yielding bonds. The volatility of these bonds is probably much higher than what the Morningstar performance chart suggests, but due to the illiquidity, you don’t see the big price swings.
As…
I've followed MetWest for years, and heard some of their managers speak in person. I do have faith in their integrity.
On the commercial bond side, there looked to be a good amount of junk. But even that junk didn't seem to be yielding that much…
I can't figure out how the yield is so high, 18%. ... It has about 57% in investment grade bonds, mostly mortgages and corporate credit ... Seems to good to be true, what am I missing?You and me both.
I called TCW. They said it is because the asset…
Interval funds have been getting a lot of press recently, giving people the impression that they're something new. While I was certain that they weren't, I was having problems finding a trace of them beyond the current publicity.
I finally ran acr…
It will take years to document the long-term effects of the novel coronavirus, but early signs have been alarming. One study of hospitalized patients in Wuhan, China, found that nearly 20 percent of those with confirmed cases suffered heart injury.
…
What ever happened to that part of the inauguration where you swear "to protect our citizens from all enemies, foreign and domestic..."Well, since you asked :-)
That's part of the oath someone elected to Congress (House or Senate) takes. I don't t…
Remember - once you die you don't need insurance. Obamacare is too expensive. I will be paying 11,000 US$ for Cobra coverage for my wife on high deductible insurance plan once I leave my cozy company plan. God Bless America.
I can't quite make out w…
if trumpo demonstrate in the next few months he can handle/appease independents he may come out on top. I think Biden maybe slightly ahea but could be too early to predict anything now. Surprisingly I saw polls independent voters in swing states v…
The new guidance clarified that incarcerated individuals do not qualify for a stimulus check. Specifically, the instructions state that, “payment made to someone who is incarcerated should be returned to the IRS.”
I missed that when it originally …
Nothing new here
the I.R.S. had put in place a system in 2013 to update tax accounts with death records to address concerns that tax refunds were improperly going to the dead. ... [T]his control was bypassed
The availability of data to prevent this …
