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MikeM

I know you are not a fan of his, Mona (understatement :) ) Another Bills fan!!! Junkster just sent me a note saying the same. GO BILLS! They will be right down the road from me when training camp starts next week at St. John Fisher College. But tickets sold out in hours, so I won't be going. Are you from the area, Western NY?

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MikeM
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  • Not sure disappointing is the right word, but I will not invest in precious metal mining funds again. After probably 5 years of watching holding these funds at varying percentages, I've decided they are just way to volatile for my taste. I held US…
  • Reply to @BobC: Right on Bob. It's well documented that your typical investor sells low and buys high. I've certainly been guilty of that myself. It's been a learning experience for me to look longer term when you find your assets have dropped. I …
  • Unless something changes with managers or management philosophy, equity funds that will stick around are at a fairly high percentage are YAFFX, ARIVX and MACSX (which you could argue is more of an allocation fund). I have smaller stakes in ODVIX, U…
  • I will second the choice of PGDPX. It's a well diversified dividend income fund holding every thing from EM bonds to Global equities, mlp's and more. Go to the Principlefunds.com website if interested. Fairly young fund, but good record so far. But …
  • Is there any way to know if these anonymous posters actually owned these portfolios during the 1, 3 or 5 year time frames, or are they just portfolios put together in hind-sight?
  • I've decided to move on from LSBRX, just like Gaffney and very soon to be, Fuss himself. It's been a great fund, but I've moved my money to PONDX. PONDX has outperformed LSBRX substantualy the last 4 out of 5 years. With Kathleen moving on, and Dan …
  • Never mind that Gundlach has poor character or that he is a very talented money manager. What is important and what no one has mentioned yet, Jeffery is a huge Buffalo Bills fan. Go Bills... :) http://www.buffalorising.com/2011/05/jeffrey-gundlac…
  • Reply to @hank: Thanks for the recap Hank. David's article is what got me thinking of divesting from this fund. Not that I think it's a bad fund. I just think there are better alternative/allocation funds going forward.
  • Well, I sold. This fund has had a great 10 year run (same as gold and bonds) and was very good to me in reducing overall portfolio volatility. I don't see it doing as well in the next 5-10 years. I think it will still be low risk, but I would guess …
  • Reply to @MaxBialystock: There are many versions of Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund. A, B, C, I, N, Y, lw shares. I own the Y share fund in my 401k, ODVYX. This fund fits my investing risk profile to a tee, below average risk and a great upside …
  • Hi Max. I can't beat the great advise you have gotten so far on this, but I will add a big endorsement for the Target Date funds. Especially because of what you said about your wife (and you) wanting to simplify her investment. In contrast to what o…
  • My thinking is they both perform the same purpose, which is giving you Asian exposure with low(er) volatility. So, why hold both? I guess I don't care if one has more or less Japan or not. So, because of that, I only hold MACSX. I like the fact it h…
  • What can you say. Rush is nothing more than an entertainer who will say anything to up his ratings. It's amazing to me that there are actually people that don't understand that dividing the country to further his career is the game plan. The sad par…
  • Reply to @rono: Hi rono. I don't disagree that holding gold long term is a good investment, but I have given up on holding funds like precious metal/miner funds like TGLDX, UNWPX and USAGX. For me, bed-buddies they are not. They tend to keep me up a…
  • Reply to @hank: Hi Hank. For right or wrong, I think of PRPFX as a static risk parity type fund of sorts and I had pretty good luck with that over the last 5 years. I mentioned some where along this thread I've been in the process of replacing PRPFX…
  • I'm not a veteran but certainly solute those who are. I dodged the bullet so to speak with a high draft # during the last couple years of Vietnam. But I have respect and thanks for those who served.
  • Reply to @BannedfromBogleheads: huh? Didn't understand a word of this last reply to Hank, but it doesn't matter. Here's the thing. You keep repeating the same investment view on risk versus volatility and your perception of stupid investors compare…
  • Reply to @Investor: Investor, I'll give you an "amen". Long term is the key. Volatility is NOT your friend when you are near or in retirement and you will be needing that money at some point. It's NOT your friend if you don't have a very high risk …
  • Thought the Schwab article was very good. It's hard for me to keep all this fiscal cliff stuff and what our politician friends actually need to deal with straight in my head. This article covers it clearly. Key points from the article: 1- The bal…
  • Reply to @kevindow: In one article I read on risk parity funds, the author stated that Harry Brown's Permanent Portfolio concept, which was to bundle different asset classes together to combat cycling economic conditions and associated risks, was …
  • I'm sitting in Barns&Noble with a hot chocolate reading Ted's opinion on risk parity funds. The biggest grin came to my face. All I could picture in my mind was those two old muppet guys sitting in their balconey seats giving sarcastic remarks. …
  • Thanks Joe for highlighting the article. I typically by-pass Bill Gross commentaries because I think much of his words are self serving. But this was a great, down to earth assessment of the countries political situation. I am a believer that ther…
  • Reply to @fundalarm: fundalarm; you ought to check with Ted before you make that statement. Talk about legends in their own mind...
  • Ditto what Ted suggested. Most managed fund alpha comes from the small to mid cap categories. And PAMCX And BUFSX are fine funds.
  • Reply to @Mark: Good article Mark. And I think to this Bee's statement is true; the average voter will miss all these facts... Wall Street wants a Romney victory. Why do you think that would be? Guess I'm being political but it is the season. Heck.…
  • Not sure what facts you have stated. Seems to only be your opinion that a billionaire who is paying 14% of their income is as fair as a person trying to get by on $50k having to pay 20%. Paying the same percentage is a normalizing factor equilizing …
  • Reply to @Investor: Thanks investor. I appreciate the bullets.
  • I believe Berkowitz is a top notch fund manager. So for that reason I would hold the fund. I don't own FAIRX, but I do own FAAFX. It's been just as volatile as FAIRX. What's important in my opinion is how much this fund or other aggressive funds yo…
  • Reply to @VintageFreak: I don't get the Hussman comparison to FAIRX. Berkowitz had 1 bad year. He was way to early on his financial sector bets. 2011 was a horrible year for FAIRX, but in 9 of the last 10 years FAIRX has beaten it's benchmark and ca…
  • Reply to @scott: I thought David classified HSGFX correctly in his Oct. commentary..."Wretched".
  • Hi Blufoxx. What if you just set up a test portfolio or two in M* and watch it for a while. It would be a good benchmark for comparing what your actual portfolio is doing. I do similar benchmarking just by watching my returns compared to the TRP tar…
  • Reply to @hank: Hi Hank. I certainly didn't get that 17% YTD return on PONDX. I'm just hoping my jumping on the band-wagon isn't the catalyst that ends this funds good results. Personally, I don't like PIMCO funds. There are just to many of them and…
  • Hi Yugo. RYSEX is a wonderful fund. I actually thought it was closed which would be a reason it is not talked about much (I see M* says it is "Limited" what ever that means). Another reason might be because this fund, I think, is in the mold of o…
  • I've "rearranged" over the last few months. On the bond side I sold my stake in RPSIX and cut my percentage in a Barclays bond index fund so that I could jump on the band wagon and buy PONDX. I don't know how long this fund can outperform as it has…
  • Reply to @andrei: Hi Andrei. I don't disagree with what you are saying, but what you are saying is exactly why I like the fund. Yacktman generally under-performs in hot markets. Agree. But I am a true believer that if the manager can limit losses …
  • Reply to @NickF: Nick, you said it very well. When you buy a mutual fund you have to buy into the managers abilities and strategies. No manager is going to be right all the time or be able to time their buys and sells perfectly. But in the long run …
  • Reply to @andrei: Then you should not buy this fund if you have concerns. ...but its period of significant outperformance is only about 5 years old. What data are you looking at? 5, 10, even 15 year returns blow away it's competition. 15 years take…
  • Hi Charles. You are right if you are only looking at standard deviation. But that can be misleading. Here is the welcoming statement when you go to the Yacktman website. At Yacktman Asset Management we are proud of our successful, consistent, long-t…
  • Does it have to be a small cap fund? ARIVX is my sleep easy small cap also, and I pair it with my sleep easy large cap, YAFFX, the Yacktman Focus fund. ARIVX, YAFFX and MACSX are the equity funds I feel I can hold through thick and thin.
  • Reply to @Charles: Charles, I'm on your side. I have no idea if 20 years from now economic historians will be praising or bashing the Q1-2-3 or more plans, but I do know my and my wife's nest egg was in a world of hurt before quantitative easing too…