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.
It's an interesting idea, but I have my doubts about whether it would work. In order to make a QCD, the money goes directly from the IRA to the charity. It's something like a direct rollover where the IRA sends you a check, but one made payable …
"It doesn't matter what anybody thinks, the price reflects the end results of all decisions. The price is always right " (FD1000, April 9).
As to what those decisions are based on, the LA Times article makes a good start in observing that consumpt…
Recently I've had multiple bad experiences with Vanguard.
I've identified what appear to be two sources of their problems:
- Vanguard is focused on its brokerage side, virtually to the exclusion of its mutual fund platform
- Vanguard's front lin…
That's a good point. Though excise tax revenue is a fixed amount per gallon, so at least revenue doesn't drop as gasoline prices decline. The revenue declines "only" because gasoline consumption is rapidly declining.
Merchandise is still being …
Watching oil prices now - they're "down" 103.7%, meaning that they've "dropped" 103.7% from around -$37 to around +$1.37.
That is, the price change is in the neighborhood of -103.7% x -$37 ~= +$38.37
Ain't arithmetic great :-)
Gasoline prices operate in a rigged system. When oil prices fall, it takes several weeks for the drop to work its way through the pipeline. But when oil prices rise, gasoline stations raise prices almost immediately, citing "rising costs".
"In …
I moved money from Vanguard Prime to this fund because it would be "safer". I need to move it to high interest money market I guess. Or make some other plans.
The closing of a fund is a change, and change automatically suggests risk. Here the pur…
Vanguard says this is to preserve yield as rates on Treasury paper plummet. If there isn't a lot of money flowing in (net), the fund doesn't have to buy a lot of low yielding notes all at once. So closing is a good thing for existing investors.
…
Agree. Very nice set of papers from @sma3.
I've been going through the NEJM paper and have some clarifying questions about the oxygen support figures. From a high level perspective, this detail doesn't matter, but I do try to understand various…
I don't disagree that it is promising. Which is another way of saying that it hasn't flunked a trial yet.
What these drugs do is treat a disease, not end a pandemic. Though in shortening the period of time that someone has a disease it can have…
This sounds Promising but the report is only anecdotal at this point. We need to see the full results from the clinical trials that are ongoing. Unfortunately, "anecdotal" is one of those words that is bandied about without clear meaning. I'm af…
Consider someone working 11 hours a day, leaving 5 hours for personal time, and 8 hours for sleep. That person would not be especially inclined to give up one of those few personal hours for extra pay.
Suppose that nevertheless this person would…
On March 21st, the IRS extended the due date for the first quarter payment to July 15, while leaving the second quarter payment due on June 15th.
Apparently a week ago (April 9), the IRS finally untangled this mess by making the second quarter paym…
DERI APRs are now down to 1.75% (under $10K), 1.85% (up to $50K), and 2.00% (over $50K)
https://investors.dominionenergy.com/fixed-income/dominion-energy-reliability-investment/default.aspx
GM Financial Right Notes® are currently paying 2.00%, $50…
Well, we got our reduced virus check by direct deposit today. It partially paid for our quarterly tax which also got withdrawn today by the IRS.
Would that be your first quarter estimate (which is due second), or your second quarter estimate (which …
The tendency of some people to want to work less as the net hourly rate offered goes down.
If you're anxious to work an extra hour (if you can) for $14/hr, but less inclined to do so for $12 (after taxes), then you'll be even less inclined to work …
There is an inherent conflict between economically efficient service and universal service.
Once upon a time, the United States felt that it was important to provide universal access (at affordable rates) regardless of the additional cost. For…
Here's an economics pop quiz:
Your job pays you $10 per hour. Today you get the great news that your boss is bumping your wage up to $14 per hour. (Congratulations!) At the new wage, do you want to work more hours or fewer hours each week?
If you …
There are two rules (that I know of) in CARES regarding $100K distributions from traditional IRAs. If one could combine them, one would have a fantastic loophole on Roth conversions. I don't think it works, though.
First, the basics. As catch…
FXAIX didn't perform better because it didn't have a lower ER all these years. The main difference between me and others is that I supply numbers and not just narrative;-)
It would be very time consuming to find ER for previous years but from mem…
Anyway, let me add that FXAIX does not outperform either Vanguard SP500 product if you go back to their spring 1988 origin, only more recently.
Nothing to do with insecurity, trying to be accurate. FXAIX didn't perform better because it didn't hav…
Rarely have I seen such ineptitude from public servants. The Navy Secretary (acting) is gone.
IMHO such ineptitude tends to come more from self servants than from public servants.
Speaking of facts which are not in evidence (at least to my knowledge…
From the timeline (see timeline page for embedded links/citations):
March 26: TR begins testing entire crew for COVID-19. In Washington, Acting Navy Secretary Modly and other Navy officials say the carrier will pull into port in Guam, fulfilling pl…
I've got a minority, and more cynical, view of Modly's "recant".
Modly's remark (for which he flew at least 4,000 miles - the distance from Hawaii to Guam - to deliver in person), was that either Captain Crozier was stupid to think that his lett…
"On Saturday, President Trump weighed in, saying, “I thought it was terrible what he did.”What exactly is it that he did that you found terrible? Please do go on ...
"To write a letter? I mean, this isn’t a class on literature."
I'm sorry, I'm st…
That was some time ago. As I recall, I tried without great success to match the performance of the bond portion of the portfolio with various other DoubleLine funds. There wasn't a good match unless one took it piecemeal, finding it similar to a…
In the early days of gold mining, doing laundry was outsourced to China, because outsourcing was less expensive. Plus ça change.In order to wash your own clothes in San Francisco, you had to buy water, paying 25 cents for two buckets’ worth. Then, …
Nuance? GARP and value investing are more than subtly different.
M* offers FCNTX and ANEFX as prominent examples of GARP funds. Investopedia says that "GARP investing was popularized by legendary Fidelity manager Peter Lynch." That would be t…
Clipped from Stars and Stripes
https://www.stripes.com/news/us/captain-crozier-captain-crozier-videos-show-sailors-sending-off-ousted-uss-roosevelt-commander-with-cheers-1.624732
Do you think this guy missed the cutoff then? It seems the bill just went into effect:
https://jacksonlewis.com/publication/new-employer-obligations-under-slightly-revised-families-first-coronavirus-act-hr-6201Possibly. The article does mention th…
MSF Interesting details, thanks. Do you know if other states are following suit? Also, I wonder if some insurers won't file lawsuits contesting this ruling down the road?I can't believe I missed this, but Congress passed a bill, signed into law on M…
I'm not sure how much flexibility the federal and state governments have, but they do have some power under their ability to regulate insurers. For example, if the USPSTF were to add a procedure (such as COVID-19 screening) to its list of preventi…
I also would have guessed currency (but Lewis beat me to the punch).
I ran FMIJX, TBGVX (mostly hedged), VEU (unhedged reference), and HEFA (hedged EAFE) through Portfolio Visualizer. While the hedged funds have somewhat better correlation betwe…
If the southern border constituted a significant health threat, then Trump failed us. It took him seven weeks after restricting travel from China (Jan 31) to restrict travel from Mexico (March 21).
As far as construction of the wall for reasons …
Here's the original letter by Captain Crozier:
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6821571/TR-COVID-19-Assistance-Request.pdf
I tend to latch onto numbers. Here are a couple that jumped out at me:
From the Chron article:[Chief of Naval Op…
While two days is not a trend, does this give you any sense that muni money market funds are stabilizing? It seems the answer is it depends on the daily net shareholder cash flows.
Certainly that's a part of it. However, ⅔ of these funds are in …
In fact, Muni MM and prime MM can have the following: "The fund may impose a fee upon sale of your shares or may temporarily suspend your ability to sell shares if the fund's liquidity falls below required minimums because of market conditions or o…
"I'm fairly certain Dr. Fauchi will find employment in any endeavor with half a brain cell"
Assuming he wants that after working since 1968 as a civil servant in the National Institutes of Health. David Rubenstein, the billionaire head of the Car…
Regarding Boeing, it's quite possible that the company is just using the virus as a cover for eliminating its dividend. Sure, it put on a brave face in January ("Boeing CEO says it will keep paying its dividend despite Max crisis").
But it di…
