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.
Thanks, @Old_Joe, for tracking down those links.
I remain alarmed about AI without really understanding how it could get out of control. Maybe even more troublesome is the amounts of money the big tech firms are throwing around. I’ve never read ab…
For subscribers, the NY Times published today the third installment of its series on AI. Very well done. Today's article treated various government attempts to keep a lid on AI, or at least to keep it safe. Most of the officials quoted admitted that…
I remained Covid-free until September, although my wife has had two infections, the second along with mine. Paxlovid really did help. As retirees, we were able to curtail our social interactions without suffering economic losses. Family gatherings d…
The argument about increased borrowing costs makes sense to me. A number of alternative-source energy projects have been scaled back this year. The one I just read about in the Times concerned SE Connecticut, where I grew up. While construction for …
What is one to do with all that horsepower? The Bentley super car that crashed into the immigration barrier at Niagara Falls just before Thanksgiving was similarly over-powered. Have to wonder what some nut job might do with the Tesla truck. Crashin…
Sectors that have been close to moribund have attracted buyers. Totally anecdotal, because I’m no expert. Nonetheless, healthcare has moved up, and two of the four « final trades » on MSNBC at noon today were in health. My position in GSK no longer …
Since French got into the discussion, I’ll point out two verbs in English, to peek and to peak, and a third which is piquer in French. This verb means to poke or sting and has been borrowed by English in the expression to pique one’s interest. I dou…
@hank: it may be too early to judge whether the ETF will outperform. In the case of Capital Group, the marketing materials discourage comparison with the OEFs, pointing out that the teams of managers are not the same and that the ETF is a new vehicl…
@rforno and @Mark: far as I can tell from the many TV ads I see for insurance, there is no connection between the ad content and the product on offer. In fact, there’s almost nothing funny about insurance, yet all the providers seem to be competing …
@FD1000: thanks for your comment about Liberty Mutual. I had been a long-time Amica customer, but left them when I found they were completely inflexible on the premium. LM offered a decent deal to grads of my university, so I switched. After 15 year…
Our local success story, Zingerman’s, is said to be offering the “Rolls Royce” of turkeys at $250 for a bird 7-11 pounds. A larger one is, natch, even dearer. I read no further in the news article because it seemed pointless to exacerbate my stunned…
Somehow, in the household in which I grew up, the substance in question was referred to as « insipid instant. » Maybe the recent advances in coffee technology have left me in the dust, but I remain doggedly wed to the real thing.
@WABAC: the “wide-moat” approach taken by the Van Eck MOAT considers other factors besides the existence of a narrow or a wide moat. In addition to deciding if a firm has a moat, M* establishes a fair value for the stock, expressed in stars 1 to 5, …
@WABAC: we are organic coffee drinkers and my wife buys from Aldi who offers good Peruvian or Honduran beans. I prefer a much darker roast, so I order online. $10 per lb. for good organic coffee is a good price these days.
My daughter alerted me to…
Steve Rommick is also one of the managers on another allocation fund, SOR. Source Capital is an allocation CEF that has beaten the 60/40 bogey the fund uses over the past 1 yr and 3 yr periods, but it has not done so for longer periods. Rommick didn…
I also own NEAGX/NEAIX for SCG coverage. ER is high, especially for retail shares. Otherwise, no reservations. SCV is a head-scratcher. CALF has a lot going for it and Pacer Funds, which include COWZ, are exemplary in explaining their free-cashflow …
@MIkeM and @Mark: I do think SCV is due to recover, but it's hard to say when. AVUV and CALF have held up relatively well in the past 3-4 months. My major disappointment in this asset class has been BRSVX, although I dumped it some time ago.
I read related pieces in the NY Times and in the WaPo. Seems Dalio ran a bizzaro shop and may have benefited greatly from cozying up to those who could affect policy, and therefore the movements of currencies, markets, etc. Genius hedge-fund manager…
I like what I read and hear from David Sherman, ergo I turned over some MMF cash to two CrossingBridge funds. I hope the rumblings about bonds « being back » are prescient and I will earn more than what Chuck was paying me to park my cash.
@hank and @shipwreckedandalone: I watched the interview also. Did either of you get the sense that Rieder, for all his smarts, was making the best case for his fund with the goal of attracting assets? I suppose one could feel the same way about any …
How can a political candidate possibly get elected by presenting reasonable arguments if a large percentage of the population appears to be immune to reason? It’s no wonder qualified people disdain seeking office.
@Crash: not related to your problem in Norway, but we found traveling there to be exorbitantly expensive. Our car rental agreement, despite an already high rate, carried a 25% surcharge added to the whole f'n bill.
The sector continues to suffer, with BMY and GSK down more than 3% today. There may be other examples, but I don’t have the stomach to seek out more carnage.
@EvanDGI: my glitch is resolved and I am receiving regular statements regarding my monthly DCA as well as quarterly statements. My suggestion would be to review how the paper documents accompanying the quarterly statement might be consolidated or ed…
I found the following Wapo guest piece quite enlightening about how the drug companies’ legal strategies and arguments are playing out in the various courts where the challenges to the Inflation Reduction Act are being heard.
https://www.washington…
@Ben: they were slow dealing with a check I sent. I wish I had established bank transfer to open the account. Now transactions work fine. Not using DGI for IRA.
One aspect is clear to me, at least. If there's a drug to be sold, the American healthcare system will address the problem of obesity. Otherwise, it's a moral issue and neither doctors nor big pharma want to be involved. No one wants to take on the …
I have read the book by David Grann, whose work as a researcher and investigator of seemingly strange stuff is absolutely terrific. The New Yorker has published many of his pieces over the years. I don’t buy books at my age, but I have been rewarded…
@randynevin: You raise an important issue. I had been a long-time investor in healthcare stocks and CEFs. I have but one token MF holding now. As you rightly point out, the top of the market was in 2015 and this was particularly true for biotech whi…
