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.
Check out the MIT/ Jeffrey Epstein scandal for another example of how one of our beacons-of-intellectual-hope turns out to be crass beyond comprehension. Heads have rolled, as they also have at Michigan State University, although no one has ever com…
@Old_Joe and @hank: I'm of an age that I remember the 70's, not with any wistful nostalgia. In 1971 there was a gas war here in MI during which a station branded "Progessive" posted a price of 19.5 cents/gallon. Energy was so cheap that in '73-4 our…
I am very happy with the travel photos I take on my iPad (recent smaller format that easily fits in a murse. @davidmoran is right about wildlife pics. I have a pretty unsatisfactory image of a leopard in India, a rare sighting in a national park. OT…
It's just possible that some of us have too many funds because we just enjoy accumulating them, almost collecting them. I'm guilty of buying too many, but I do so in other parts of my life. I've owned so many golf clubs that I had to sell a whole bu…
I may have mentioned on another thread that I had also initiated a trading position in CAPE at almost the same time as Old_Skeet entered his spiff. I have a 3+% gain, also. Somebody’s telling me I should sell Monday. I could do a lot worse looking f…
Market-cap weighting certainly is hard to justify. Also nutty, IMHO, is the Dow’s weighting of its 30 stocks by market price. Boeing is somewhere around $350, so it is weighted more than Walmart, for example. We have the 737 Max fraud revealed and t…
OMG, @Mark, I just assumed the slew of links was posted by @Ted. My bad, once again. @The Shadow (and his/her friends) know(s) and I bow in reverence to his/her expertise. The latter allusion is another key to my age. I humbly accept the apologies a…
Did any of you IOFIX/IOFAX fans catch the prospectus @Ted just posted for another Alpha Centric fund? Go to alphacentricfunds.com to see a fairly bizarre/agressive/innovative lineup of offerings. Now they are proposing a hedge fund in the wraps of a…
Just a new short-term position in CAPE Initiated in early August. I have owned it before. The last couple of up days have pushed it squarely into the green, but it’s been a rough ride. I may have explained elsewhere that I don’t trade DSENX, but tre…
I think Meridian has some other ex-Janus managers. There was a wholesale turnover at the firm after the sudden death of the founder, Rick Astor (around 2009, I think).
@Old_Skeet: I was thinking the same thing on EMs. However, I have to remember how many times in the past I have gone in because they were a "screaming buy," only to discover that the screaming could go on for a long time.
I like @Edmund’s suggestion of VMNVX because its performance is far superior to the recently touted ACWV by M* here:
www.morningstar.com/articles/942390/a-low-risk-approach-to-the-global-market.
If I were building a portfolio from scratch as the O…
I agree with @Lewis Braham about the B-B ticket. I’m class of ‘42 and I don’t want to vote for one or two of us. Remember Groucho’s not wanting to belong to a club that would have him.
@Old_Joe: I delayed my retirement until 2012 because of the crash. In 2008, we had our house for sale and the day it was to be appraised for the prospective buyer, Bernanke said something to the effect that “we may not have an economy left.” Fortuna…
In the abstract I might say I should not point the finger at Koch and his ilk, but I do feel as though they are greatly to blame for the polarization we now witness daily. I am far more extreme in my views than pre-2016 and I'm not mellowing at all.…
@Alex: agree with your comment about divisiveness. We have the Koch brothers to thank for funding the takeover of judicial appointments by those who are opposed to RBG.
I also found this transcript of a podcast to be fascinating reading, maybe the best explanation of how hard it is to be a value investor. You have to be a "maverick." Fear of missing out and disgust at holding a fund that is not currently out perfor…
This link provides what i found helpful about stop orders. It turns out there are different varieties. Never tried one myself. I do remember that the "flash crash" screwed a lot of people who had entered such orders.
https://www.investopedia.com/te…
@Ted: my condolences, also. I join others here in their expressions of support. While we did not lose our oldest daughter, she is still our charge at 48 due to the consequences of what at 5 years of age was labeled a "learning disability." From our …
@MikeW: I don't know how to create a chart of several ETFs and post it as a link; some members do this regularly. However, the chart for XMLV shows a far less severe drop-off last fall compared to mid-cap growth or blend MFs.
Memories flooding back. John Dessauer shilled for Countrywide Credit and a large part of the rationale he provided his subscribers was that Angelo Mozzillo was a wonderful CEO in whom Dessauer had the greatest confidence. Ouch!
I own both DSENX and CAPE, but I use them differently. The MF is a buy-and-hold in both taxable and Roth accounts our family has. As @davidmoran has pointed out elsewhere, the monthly MF distributions serve to buy more shares regardless of the marke…
My memory might not be perfect, but I recall that when Dessauer pushed the stock, it was a Thai food distribution company. I think the shares were listed on a US exchange, probably the pink sheets, because I’m sure I’ve never bought a stock on a for…
@MikeW: while I might not buy it today, I do have a hefty slice of BRUFX, an allocation fund that makes a large distribution annually. It hasn’t kept up in the last three years but I’m hanging on to the low-cost shares in the interest of avoiding CG…
I was one of the grandfathered age groups, @Catch, here in MI, so escaped the effect of the original legislation. I’m still proud to have been union, but my state is certainly no longer pro-worker. Indiana eliminated collective bargaining for public…
This is a biggie for me. Thanks, @catch22, for that Forbes link, which contains an excellent article. It even quotes a financial planner in my area whose services may become even more in demand if this legislation passes. My 1040 may have become sim…
I have held VIG for several years during which time it has out performed VIGDX. What is the big deal about the OEF when the ETF is available? One pundit claims the OEF is actively managed and the ETF is a slavish index fund; seems to me the superior…
@LewisBraham: much like climate change denial, your argument (and I realize you're being ironic) that our economy could not stand the disruption begs the question. We are eating ourselves into oblivion while rationalizing that to eat sensibly would …
@Derf: the bottles you mention (such as at Aldi) are 33cl, the most common beer bottle size in countries using the metric system. Back in the day, my friends and I were most impressed by the NE beer, Narragansett, that came in "Imperial Quarts" of 4…
