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.
Ease up. It’s not rocket science, as the saying goes, and a liberal arts major can certainly learn to suggest mutual funds precisely because liberal arts majors are taught how to learn in a serious undergrad program. Better their advice than that of…
Honda minivans since 1999; Honda Accord for second car since 2010; 1993 Nissan 300ZX convertible for my fun. Short driving season and unpaved roads in MI limit sports car enjoyment.
Along with others here, I have a "healthy" dose of health care in my active portfolio. CELG has been on a roller coaster, but my basis is so low as to make a sale unpalatable, even when it dropped. Also hold HQL, which has underperformed in recent y…
Interesting points made here. I don't want to paraphrase @msf (because he's perfectly clear in his writing), but the idea that "volatility" has become synonymous with a decline in securities is missing a dimension. Pundits frequently warn us about c…
Good point @rforno. Give people free chips at the casino; no matter, because the house will come out ahead in the end. Brokerage stocks swooning today is no doubt evidence of this irrationality.
@davidmoran: I had been reading that piece on Singer just before you posted the link. I think your comment is that Singer’s fund has achieved the same performance as if one had been invested in JNJ or the Contra fund for 40years. I usually finish wh…
@BrianW: thanks for linking that article and asking whether or not it's appropriate to bring up the President in this context. I believe we have a man in office who disregards the precedents set out by many presidents before him and in so doing caus…
I'm very happy with Chuck and he's better looking than Boggle. The banking, debit card, and ACH transfers to external accounts for free are big assets for me. I don't like the work involved, but I am considering transferring our smaller accounts tha…
@Derf: I can't recall how I found out, but after opening my account in 2015, I made purchases in 2016 and 2017 for $6K each year. I'm pretty sure GP announced it and $6K is the yearly limit. Someone may remember what the maximum opening purchase lim…
@sea: GPMCX is 50% invested in Asia, although not a great deal in emerging Asia. It's a bad year for the region's stock markets. The fund is under $40M, turned over about 46% according to latest report, so I hope the managers are spotting some ineff…
Sold CCAPX two weeks ago. I no longer think Ryan Caldwell's allocation techniques fit my style. Keeping RPGAX and BRUFX. Used a part of that cash to initiate a position in the New Germany Fund (GF) when the discount widened as the Turkish lira crisi…
You raise a good point, @bee. I have heard the old saw about undervalued dividend stocks, namely that I'm "getting paid" while the stock languishes. At today's yields, that makes for a long wait before the re-invested dividends and the hoped-for app…
Very enlightening comparisons among these funds. While it does not have the long-term record of the cubes, RYT has been my choice in technology. For the last three years it has been a winner.
Thanks for posting those links, @Old_Skeet. I think Saut is one of the smartest commentators going and what comes through on this travelog is how modest he is and how much credit he gives to others in the business. The anti-Cramer, maybe?
I agree with you, @hank, that going into (or back into for me) EM is risky. M* recently made Tencent (TCEHY) a 5 star stock, one that a lot of EM and Asia funds hold, and which continues its descent. A classic falling knife, but enticing in the way …
I join @Tarwheel in lamenting what we humans have failed to do to protect ourselves and our planet. The saddest experience I've had in this area in the last couple of weeks is reading "Losing Earth" (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/ma…
@newgirl: my advice based on the questions you have asked and what you've said about your holdings is to do a portfolio review first, as opposed to looking at individual stocks that one of your funds holds. The three funds you mention definitely hav…
@hank: You make good points about supporting good journalism. We receive the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books, both of which have wonderful writers and actively promote their authors online. I followed someone's advice here to track down …
The FMI connection makes geographical sense; both companies are located in Milwaukee and degrees from Madison are common among Provident's personnel. Don't want to date myself, but in New England where I grew up the University of Wisconsin had a som…
"Information on closed-end funds is far more limited than
their more popular relatives, mutual funds and exchange-
traded funds," thus reads the first line of a decent summary of sources of information:
http://www.aaii.com/investing/article/web-si…
In my experience the products we buy don't fail often. I've never been disappointed with the many Apple and Honda products we have bought. OTOH, a GE microwave has let us down and two Lennox air conditioners did not last 10 years. A came-with-the-ho…
Of note is that SPFLX, featured in a Barron’s article by our own Lewis Braham, and mentioned in the article @johnN linked, is an MFO Great Owl. Well worth a look.
@Old_Joe: I plead guilty to reading two papers without comics daily as well as a bunch of other stuff that would not pass muster with those who attend the rallies we all see and read about. My mother got me started on the Times when it really was th…
At 9:00 AM EST, it looks as though this might be a day when one could put the theory to the test. All arrows, here and broad, are way down or predicting way down.
M* has a laudatory profile of PRIDX out today. I have always tried to avoid small-cap funds, foreign or domestic, whose assets exceed a couple of $B. This fund is a rule breaker, clocking more than $9B. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.
If there's a seasoned investor on the board, it is you. I appreciate your perspective.
My sense is that the market could drop on a "political" development rather than a "economic" or fundamental swing. Such a drop could be ugly and of indeterminat…
I couldn't do the research to prove it myself, but I do wonder if the share buy-backs haven't been yet another factor in shifting wealth away from wage earners in favor of high salaried and wealthy people. The latter are more likely to see their net…
@Crash: It sounds as though you are an former President. Those guys would also have a hard time getting an interview! A former neighbor, PhD industrial psychologist, got great satisfaction out of working during retirement in the electrical departmen…
I think @hank raises a crucial question:
"When one starts excluding from their investment portfolios stocks of companies with whom they have basic moral / ethical disagreements, where does it stop?"
It is such a slippery slope and the individual i…
It seems to stay in the family, at least in Denver. Doug Rao moved from Marsico to Janus where he's managing the VIT Forty and Forty funds. He made $ for me at Marsico Flexible Capital.
I look at and take action from time to time on those assets in individual stocks, MFs, and ETFS that I manage myself. However, my retirement portfolio I touch only after consulting with my TIAA advisor, usually once per year. I could look at the lat…
I have been doing some browsing on Lipper and M* after receiving my update from Grandeur Peak. Their larger-cap funds (Reach, Stalwarts) have started to creep ahead, and while GPMCX and GPGOX (my holdings) are not doing badly, they're slowing a bit.…
