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.
I have a paid subscription to the NYTimes (Weekender, including full online access). I was able to uphold the family tradition once the Times went national.
I have an unpaid subscription to Morningstar (thank you T. Rowe Price, grandfathered).
Ye…
There seem to be two tasks desired, at least by the OP:
- Auto update of holdings (see more below)
- Ability to sort at least on basic criteria like percentage of portfolio
Before even getting to update, there is a question of how aggregation wor…
The two objections raised on the page are costs and high risk.
Both skew and kurtosis are mentioned in the "Momentum Has Its Moments" paper, meaning that momentum investing has long, fat tails on the loss side (good chance of catastrophic losses…
I've never looked at the form, but you might check out Form 4626.
https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i4626
But that was then. This is now, and now there's no more corporate AMT. It was permanently repealed as part of the 2018 tax cuts.
http://www…
Just do the same thing I described, but point-to-point. Identify each segment of time where the top five don't change. For each segment, compute the total return using Portfolio Visualizer (PV), setting the start and end dates ot the segment. Th…
I had to go back and check, but U.S. Treasury notes do not compound. Here’s an explanation:
“A $10,000 treasury note with a seven percent coupon rate pays an investor $700 per year interest in two semi-annual payments of $350 each. The interest fr…
No institution provides flawless service. In this respect, what matters is how often glitches happen, and how well they address them.
For example, while Fidelity automatically calculates and distributes the RMD for my inherited Roth IRA annuall…
I think that David was comparing the fund houses, not the brokerages. Fidelity has done a good job at improving its bond funds, and it has the occasional fine equity fund. But overall, and especially for equity/hybrid funds, I would go with T. R…
It seems like NextShare ETMFs, the few that there are, are dropping like flies. See, e.g.
https://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/49121/causeway-liquidates-two-etmfs-civec-cgvic-link-28-000
Even their creator, Eaton Vance, seems to have…
My first impression (not based on any formal description) of MM accounts was that these bank accounts were like fixed rate savings accounts except that they paid a "market rate" of interest, i.e. their rates floated more readily.
Regarding the Inve…
One of the biggest changes occurred when the government decided in 1978 to deregulate airlines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_Deregulation_Act. Rather than adhering to prescribed fare structures, the airlines were free to price competitivel…
Morningstar used to say that the fund category was something that they changed very slowly, as opposed to the current style box which changed as new portfolios were published. So that they would wait and see whether a fund were actually changing it…
Today many Californian retirees cannot afford to stay in their beautiful but expensive home state. In the Pacific Northwest we have many Californians retired here with lower cost of living. No doubt California has lot to offer but only as a touris…
These days one get a small bag of peanut.Consider yourself lucky.
"Southwest joins several other carriers that do not serve prepackaged peanuts, including American Airlines and United Airlines."
https://www.npr.org/2018/07/10/627681758/southwest-ai…
Using the Stones to advertise annuities is "a 2019 version of the entertainment and advertising geared toward a geriatric crowd, like the old Lawrence Welk TV show."
As Lawrence Welk might quote, that's just one toke over the line.
China Airlines did indeed have a reputation for crashes. One of the reasons we usually took Eva to Taiwan. I'm told that decades ago, China Air was staffed by many retired Taiwan air force pilots, not necessarily the best ones. Though that is …
That excerpt from the report seems to be diametrically opposed to the way "gambling" was used in the MW story. The former is talking about some investors' perceptions, while the latter was talking more about "reality" (my word).
Here's the same ex…
The cited paper discusses how various different decumulation strategies could work: SPIA, laddered bonds, systematic [periodic withdrawal] spending, target date fund + QLAC, managed payout fund, and annuity with GMWB rider.
The paper is focused…
Let’s say I could earn an extra quarter of a percent by moving my money to another online bank offering better rates. For every $10,000 that would net me a whopping $25 a year in additional interest.
Is it worth it to go through the account opening…
\\\ ... pointing to the fact that using CAPE as an investment strategy has shown lower volatility and a higher rate of return over time
>> I don't know what he was looking at.
Well, he's speaking after CAPE has been in operation only 54 wee…
Seeing as DSENX invests in those sectors that are the cheapest, I would it expect it to be less volatile than the market and that it would resist downdrafts better. Why don't the numbers play out this way? The downside capture ratios are all slightl…
@Mona - not sure if this will help you or not but the security type breakdown as a % of net assets according to the annual report of March 31, 2019 says:
Non-Agency Commercial Mortgage Backed Obligations - 12.9%
Collateralized Loan Obligations - 12…
... managers ... look at 11 US stock sectors and select 5 undervalued sectors, then take 4 sectors out of 5 with the best momentum. A couple of clarifications:
The five candidate sectors are the most undervalued not relative to the market, but to th…
That's as clear as mud. It says that there's a fee to "buy into" DSEEX, but doesn't say whether converting shares counts as "buying into" the fund.
Especially since it recognizes that purchases and conversions are different types of transactio…
Totally agree with you Dave. Any average-Mike going to M* and seeing the portfolio break-down stating 73 percent cash is going to think the fund has hmm, let's see, oh, 73 percent cash. I guess any average-msf will take an extra hour or 2 out of t…
Har. Someone goes to M*
http://portfolios.morningstar.com/fund/summary?t=DSENX®ion=usa&culture=en_US
and is supposed to parse out at a high level (or any level) what sort of beast this is.
45% bonds, it says. Nothing listed under mark…
Coefficient of determination wrt VFINX = 97% (portfolio visualizer), beta > 1 (M*). Simple.
BTW, that's the same coefficient of determination that portfolio visualizer shows for VWELX wrt VFINX. If one were to leverage Wellington to the hil…
BIVRX's latest annual report 's balance sheet shows $46.4M in cash held for collateral, out of net assets totaling $78.1M. That's 60% in cash for collateral. The remaining cash-like assets (e.g. foreign currencies, receivables for securities so…
If one is going to invest in a fund that's effectively 200% long (DSEEX), then I suppose there's some sort of logic in buying another fund that sells 63% of its portfolio short.
DSEEX (summary prospectus): the Fund’s total investment exposure (…
These back doors can change day to day, and also seem dependent on the competency of the rep one is talking to. I've done two tax-free, commission-free "upgrades" of funds in my taxable account. But I've encountered difficulties as well.
Genera…
If your interest is simply consolidation and you're willing to do a little work, you could purchase the shares at Vanguard and then do an in-kind transfer to Schwab. Selling shares of all funds, even TF funds, is free at Schwab.
Traditionally, tr…
I buy DSENX and then convert asap to DSEEX, which Fidelity now does promptly (always done for free). A reclassification worth knowing about there. Merrill does not offer.
In order to provide the service of a tax-free, fee-free exchange of shares, a …
Not in my Fidelity Roth IRA, so far as I can see anyway, and a $50 TF as well. How many years since you opened your position in DSENX?
At a savings of 0.25%/year, in four years one would make up the TF on a $5K initial investment. Less time on…
I did a search for any funds with better 3, 5, and 10 year performance and lower volatility (as measured by three year std deviation).
An oddball fund that has superior performance and similarly low volatility (though not quite as low) is FRIFX.…
Do a search here, several have analyzed it thoroughly, and its own writeups are clear enough, at least on the surface. Buy the cheaper DSEEX if you can put in >$100k.
$5K min for IRAs at Fidelity and Vanguard (mouse over min for IRA min), prob…
Averages are just that, averages. Some prices go up more than average, some less.
I believe the two fastest growing costs are health care and education. While health care tends to hit older people disproportionately hard, education costs tend t…
From the prospectus' cited page:
To provide annuity income, on the Annuity Date, all Accumulation Units in the Investment Option will be redeemed and the money will be transferred to our general account. All money used to support annuity income pay…
I thought one needed a full price (or nearly full price) economy ticket in order to upgrade from there. To me, that's the big obstacle, not the upgrade price. I still shoot for the $99 specials. Hard to get upgraded from the cheap seats.
The article discusses guaranteed income streams upon annuitization, or in the case of deferred annuities with GLWB riders, drawing down according to a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal rate.
Those guarantees are the whole point. If a portion of you…
