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.
@MikeM: I assume you will receive a K-1 form from DB for the 2021 tax year. I do my own taxes, so I’m curious.
I subscribe to a stock picking newsletter that has been advocating for DBA and DBC over the last few years. It has turned out be be goo…
@davfor and @Charles: Since you both mentioned CBLDX, I wonder if you stacked that fund up with the other one that made the "no drawdown" list, ICMUX? Both are short duration corporate high yield funds, despite M*'s categorization of both as multise…
Mike Holland appeared on Rukeyser’s show fairly often. His advice, IIRC, was all anyone needed was a good balanced fund. His own fund did not shoot the lights out, but the advice makes sense. I really ought to leave my heirs such a simple portfolio …
My first computer ever was an SE 20, purchased with an Apple dot-matrix printer, for a grand total of $3000. Other than a Mac clone, I’ve never owned anything but Apple products. I wish I could say I bought Apple stock back then and never sold.
@Shostakovich: I don’t get “metaverse” either, having been born in the middle of WW II. I do like a conspiracy theory as well as the next guy. To wit: the FB team saw the terrible earnings numbers looming and invented a smokescreen or a diversionary…
@stayCalm: thanks for running these numbers. My immediate thought on reading the OP was that there may be good global allocation funds, but that they don’t have a single “genius” manager in charge. They seem to divide equity and fixed income respons…
Thanks, @hank. I do hope the money gets to public education. I didn't intend to sound moralizing; I wouldn't buy a lottery ticket, but I do roll the dice on some questionable investments.
We are inundated here in SE MI by TV ads for several online sports books. All of them appear to offer “risk free” wagers to the newcomer. The fine print at the end of the ad gives a phone number for those who have a problem with gambling.
From what I can determine, SVXAX is NL NTF at Schwab, but not available to MI residents. SVXFX is NL with a TF. No availability at TDA, it seems. Maybe availability will change if AUM increase.
MGGPX: reduced
BGAFX: reduced
ARTYX: sold
The first two funds had massive inflows in 2020 during run-ups; the opposite is true for 2021 when outflows are seen. The charts are ugly. ISTM that the managers will have a hard time reversing recent misfo…
@bee: there are 7 share classes, but the 2 main ones are SMVLX and SVFAX. I own the latter, the A shares sold NLNTF at Schwab. MFO Premium has the nice feature of listing all share classes, but M* seems not to.
Smead Value was up 2.4% over the last week, COWZ 0.82%; the rest of the portfolio not so great. The weakness in healthcare really hurt (and surprised) me: BHCFX and RYH took it on the chin.
@JonGaltill: one more factor to throw your way is the record of the fund manager(s) in their other vehicles. In the case of DVSMX, the 2 main managers are responsible for the very good micro-cap growth DMCRX, which has a longer record. I have not lo…
@stillers: I think Vanguard Target Date funds could be used. If your friend wants maximum return and does not care about volatility, VTTHX, the 2035 fund, holds about 73% US and international stocks. 2035 is just an example; 2040 or 2045 will have e…
While I don’t know what moves I may make for 2022, I have done a cursory review of what happened to my portfolio last year. Global growth stunk up the joint with MGGPX the worst offender with APFDX and ARTRX taking nose dives in the last few months …
I did understand where the language came from, @newgirl. My point was that we should all be wary of investing fads. I agree that lots of companies are rushing to get ESG labels affixed to their funds, but I believe there is no standard by which to m…
@newgirl: interesting topic. When you mention that there’s a “stampede” to invest or to gather assets then my antennae go up and I wonder if some unsuspecting investors might get swept along. It seemed at one point that solar panels could not fail t…
@davidmoran: COWZ also uses free cash flow as the primary criterion to select the 100 stocks in its portfolio. DSTL and it are pretty well matched over a 2-yr period, while COWZ has done better this year.
@JonGaltill: I had a somewhat similar experience with BCSIX, a long-time SCG holding that had a miserable year. I reduced exposure but kept a small bit because it is a closed fund. The fund had drifted into MCG territory, although that is not a prob…
@JonGaltill: Ted was a treasure, but he was really harsh if you tried to link an article you'd just read but failed to note that he had posted it earlier that day. I think it was said here that he was up before dawn screening links for that day.
@JonGaltill: Needham is a company brought to my attention here by TheShadow on Nov 1. He pointed out the success of NESGX, the SCG fund. While researching I found that Needham has 3 funds: the Growth Fund (NEEGX) managed by John Barr and Chris Retzl…
I got a couple of my kids started when they were young, using UGTMs. They are adults now, so they have the accounts. With a relatively small pie to start with, I found it necessary to find MFs with low initial investment limits. If your grandson is …
I agree with @KHaw24 that PAVE is an enticing play on building back the US infrastructure. I get down every time I read the news of how this great need has been handled by the pettiest of our citizenry. No need to name names.
@hank: as you know, I let TMSRX go. I just took a look at the fund's allocation stats on M* and I am a bit perplexed. If the PMs are really holding 59% in cash with a 10% short position on US equities, it's no wonder the thing acts like a MMF. They …
@MikeW: I think CDC could work. I evaluated it and COWZ and decided on the latter. LCV with solid dividends. I also moved some growth money to SVFAX as I believe Bill Smead is a great value manager. For SCG, I'm sticking with DVSMX and adding NEAIX/…
For a bit of humor, I clicked on the fund symbols above and chose the Morningstar link. The message from M* was: “404 Error, Like guarantees of future returns, this page doesn’t exist.” The Schwab site does not recognize either symbol when I entered…
@rono: I was trying to be clever by referring to the latest crazy idea, a NFT, a non-fungible token. If I understand it correctly such a work of “art” is created digitally as per this definition:
“A non-fungible token, or NFT, represents a digital …
I had never heard of RoundHill before. They have a suite of funds trying to profit from the latest crazy idea, to wit: NERD for esports, BETZ for sports gambling, and DEEP which follows something called the Acquirers Deep Value Index. This index pur…
Thank you kindly, @bee. If I were clever enough I could find all the stuff I thought was lost to the ravages of time right on the internet!! That’s the game we played, maybe with a Mickey Mantle rookie card worth big bucks today.
@bee: I’m trying to remember the schoolyard game we played with baseball cards. I recall tossing the cards against a wall with the aim of getting a “leaner,” which entitled the thrower to all the cards in the game. Obviously not possible with some …
There have been previous discussions on MFO about GP’s numerous funds, many closed with relatively small AUM. What I’ve had a hard time grasping is how the PMs are able to keep track of as many as 325 stocks in one fund (Global Reach, for example) w…
