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’ve been watching this discussion hoping for some insight on EGFFX, a fund unbeknownst to me. From what I can see looking at the holdings it’s a pure growth vehicle that has avoided the relative drop that affected so many growth funds this calendar…
I have never tried the short game. If you pull up the DOG performance chart on M* you'll see the fund has had one year in the black since 2011, while $10K invested in DOG dwindled to $1000+ while the index tracking the Dow grew to almost $46K. Then …
Agree with previous comments regarding OEF holdings disclosures from TRP. There is not a lot of advantage for an individual investor to be gained from rather stale lists of stocks held. For ETFs, as @hank alludes to, the problem for the managers is …
I tend to agree with those who find the credit card business somewhat shady. OTOH, I have been a fan of AKREX for as long as it has been around and that fund is a huge holder of MasterCard and Visa. Repeatable, compounding businesses that even the m…
FWIIW, I had my risk-averse 30 yo daughter switch some funds out of TMSRX into both PRSIX and RPGAX. She’s just getting into investing, but I had to agree with her observation that the ER for TMSRX is too high. I still have a little bit of it, but I…
Today’s Barron’s has an article on international value funds: Kopernik, Oakmark, and the Polaris SCV fund. I was able to read the article using incognito on Chrome. « These 3 International Funds Will Shine in a Global Recovery. » The Kopernik Intern…
One type of Chinese tech stock got really killed yesterday, the companies offering after-school tutoring, the biggest of which is TAL. Declines of 65% were seen after the Party announced it might move to regulate or curtail such academic instruction…
Setting aside the question of whether the OP is asking a question worthy of our consideration, I get the sense that the person is tired of making decisions about his family’s finances. If so, I think the whole enchilada ought to be turned over to a …
I closed out my SCV positions over the past couple of weeks. CSB, AVUV, and CALF have all had 1-month and 3-month declines, and the SCV index, IWN, has performed similarly. Bought more FRTY and FIW.
I own ARTYX as well. It’s had some rocky going this year. The other EM MF I have is PDEZX managed by PGIM Jennison, a really good growth shop. Downside protection for EM may be hard to achieve. Some think the new Dodge and Cox EM fund will do the tr…
There are other actors in the water "space," including my favorite FIW. According to the index author, "FIW, is based on the ISE Clean Edge Water Index and is sponsored by First Trust Advisors." ISTM that companies that make money selling water are …
My daughter recently had a hard time getting a couple of modest 401-k accounts rolled over fo Fidelity. Her employer was bought out, the retirement plan changed hands twice and wound up in the hands of Transamerica. I believe part of the delay was c…
AVDE, the Aventis international etf holds 3600 stocks, and AVUV almost 1100, so for me, at least, they are close to being index funds. Another SCV I hold, CALF, has only 100 stocks, selected according to proprietary rules.
@msf is right about the r…
I am also a fan of the Aventis funds. DFA attracts massive assets, but their performance compared to funds from the other big boys seems so-so. The NY Times lists performance figures for the 10 largest funds in the day’s given category and the DFA e…
I'm an Apple user, but I subscribe to Dashlane, an excellent password manager. As we have several devices, it's worth the $60 annually. I have not explored the iCloud Keychain. Firefox has a great bookmarks manager.
@hank: GLFOX, a global infrastructure favorite, has several of its 27 holdings domiciled in Europe, with Spain and Italy well represented among the utilities.
@billr et al: Alger makes it tough to get into its mutual funds, especially the small and mid cap focus strategies managed by Amy Zhang. She helped make BCSIX a success before decamping for Alger in 2015. Just this year Alger opened an opaque (my ed…
I don’t watch SNL, either, but I do read the news. I am quite astounded that The NY Times gives coverage to what late-night comedians have been saying. Colbert is not in the least bit funny (my wife insists we watch him in reverence to Letterman) an…
I’ve added some more to RPGAX and lightened up on TMSRX. My 30 YO daughter was also a bit overcommitted to TMSRX, which I had recommended as an alternative to a MMF, so I advised her to start a position in RPSIX. I’ve done the same in my account. Re…
@carew388: are you batting .388 on your stock and fund picks?
I can see playing the materials/natural resources sector by using one of my old favorites, FIW. It’s performance has been outstanding for the past 5 years and it does not have the volati…
Many thanks, @David_Snowball, for all of the fine editing, your patience with the occasional unruly posters, and your tireless efforts to steer our investments toward sensible and understandable funds. I suspect you will not miss the frenzy of the 4…
I, too, would use ETFs as have @carew388 and @davidmoran for new purchases. CDC makes sense, as do other value leaning funds: AVUS, DSTL and COWZ for large caps; AVUD, CSB, and CALF for small caps. For dividend-focused funds, I like VIG and SCHD.
Leaving it closed would be a gift to unsuspecting investors. Even M*’s automatic writing, i.e., fund analysis, is very damning.
The DFA renegades who set up shop under American Century’s umbrella and called themselves Aventis have a very promising …
@billr: I did just what you contemplate. When I turned 66 and first filed for SS, we had two kids at home, one 15, the other 7. The benefits for each continued until their graduation from HS. In the case of the younger one, contributions to the Mich…
I think it’s hard to know, absent a note left by the deceased, why a person decides to commit suicide. The video I saw online appeared to show M de Vaux on a cellphone walking around the roof of the building. To whom was he speaking, was the convers…
@AndyJ is right about EWT. Not surprisingly, TMC makes up 19%+ of AUM. @Sven is also correct; TMC can be found in just about every diversified EM fund and in many international funds.
With respect to SCV, I like CSB and AVUV. The latter I bought thanks to a great tip from MFOer @MikeW. I’m hanging with ARTYX in EM equity, despite a rough patch.
Thanks, @bee, for that link to Finny, a site I did not know. One quirk I found re: RPGAX is that the fund’s holdings are characterized as 959 stocks and 0 bonds, whereas 6 of the top 10 holdings are clearly identified as bond funds. Apparently Finny…
