That's odd - MAINX and MICPX have performed better since Teresa Kong left.

Thanks @Crash & @carew388
Neither MAINX (+3% 1 year) or MICPX (-1.65% -1 year) appears to have a terrible one year stretch. Most everything related to EM got clocked last year. Not familiar with Matthews funds - but recall some favorable mentions here over the years. Possibly “fickle” investors fleeing, or maybe (more likely) just the trend out of mutual funds and into ETFs.

mainx. a.u.m. down now to 43 million bucks.

Sad news. These funds have been killing it this year: MAINX up 9.00% and MICPX up 8.39% YTD. And in the past 3 months, MAINX up 33.43% and MICP up 22.01%. Life has been good in Asian bonds.

added to GGSOX on 1/19- Believe it was -12% @ that time.
GP's latest GPGEX - Will add to that when it hits -10% & it's work on that drop.
Sold MAINX a short time ago & then it started a + move !
No serious dips yet, Derf
PS I'll sell either
VMVAX or VSIAX
if they drop to
<25% profit level.
That should stop
the downturn !!

I taken that you don't invest with Matthews Asia funds or have high opinon of their outlook? Though I agree that Matthews Asia funds have not excel with the exiting of several experienced managers.

Yes, quite--- re: Matthews. I was going to create a separate thread about this. The Matthews funds I track are MAPIX and MAINX. (The latter will finally be 10 yrears old at the start of Nov, 2021, if I'm not mistaken.) Seems that for a few years, at least, they have just sucked, performance-wise.

Thanks @BenWP : I saw where MACSX & MAINX took a hit, and wondering if it was caused by this ?
Derf
Checked the two funds I mentioned & no top 10 holding in TAL.

"...Regarding Crash's concern about the frequency and certainty of dividends: there is little special about CEFs in this regard. OEF bond funds may declare dividends annually (e.g. LSGLX), quarterly (e.g. BEGBX), monthly (e.g. VTABX), or even oddly (e.g. FBIIX in April, June, Oct, Dec).
With OEFs you are left "waiting around to see IF a quarterly dividend were declared." BEGBX "generally expects to pay distributions of substantially all of its income, if any, quarterly, but may pay less frequently" (per prospectus). In reality, it has paid income dividends only three times in the past five years!"
*******************************************
Yes, all of that's true. It's all rather variable, or at least it CAN be. That's why I look to see the past pay-out pattern on the calendar for Fund X or Y or Z. It's quickly clear what schedule they're following. Deviations from a customary quarterly or monthly distribution schedule cause me simply to check out other, more reliable prospects. For example, I note that MAPIX and MAINX have not been "Steady-Eddies" in following a dividend pay-out schedule in the past year or two. And the amounts of the divs. vary widely. I don't own Matthews, but I track it.

MAINX down 0.27% , Best I could come up with.
Stay Safe, Derf

I owned some Matthews years ago. A very bad customer service experience--- with one of the SENIOR guys--- caused me to empty my account with them. I still have faith in Teresa Kong at MAINX. I track that one, and MAPIX, because they're in a friend's portfolio--- which I've been babysitting since 2010. ...As for my current holdings, I've got nothing terribly unconventional. I just sold some shares which amount to 2.62% of our total holdings. Good time to do it, with Markets at or near a top, day after day. It is ALL profit! This time, I spread out the withdrawal between a few funds we own. Wifey wants a house to retire to, and for her family to use over there, between now and then. A house for $6,000? And you'll be satisfied with that? "Sure, ok." 2 storeys, sliding glass door, balcony, great view of the surrounding hills. It's out in the country, in her old barrio, where she grew up.

@Sven Yes. I had money with Matthews. A bad experience with them over the phone years ago killed my desire to keep my money with them. MAPIX had a great 2020, but did not pay at year-end. It happened all those years ago, with one particular Quarter--- which is why I was on the phone with them.... Still shepherding money for a colleague and his wife. She has some of her stuff in MAPIX and MAINX. (The rest in DODBX and DODIX.) Ever since 2010, when I rearranged their stuff. Can't complain that much, I suppose. David lately offered us some words of assurance re: MAINX. It has switch from Q to monthly pay-outs.

I am keeping equities to close to 25% my minimum and am selling YCGEX and increasing exposure to AEDAX and MAINX and GLD
Eventually the far better control of Covid in Europe has to be reflected in their economies and as the US Dollar weakens, Emerging bonds and Gold will also benefit
But nobody is going to win until there is an effective vaccine and everybody takes it. The market thinks that will happen this fall, expecting there will be a rally that will knock your sox off.
But this is unlikely and when it is delayed and if there is a Blue wave, I think we will see a March like bottom.

Many foreign and global bond funds hedge currency. The thinking, as espoused by Vanguard, is that one buys fixed income outside of the US to reduce volatility, and exposure to different currencies runs counter to this.

In theory, this diversification can help reduce a portfolio’s volatility without necessarily decreasing its total return. ... The key to realizing the diversification potential of global bonds is to hedge the currency exposure back to the investor’s local currency.

https://personal.vanguard.com/pdf/ISGGLBD.pdf
M* reports 31 distinct hedged world bond funds. (Remember that "world" includes both foreign and global.) Among others, these include FGBFX, HFATX, PGBIX, PFORX, VTABX, and of course PRSNX. M* lists 53 unhedged (or partially hedged) world bond funds, including MDWIX, DODLX, LSGLX, MGBAX, GTRAX, PIGLX, PFUIX, TGCFX.
M* similarly splits emerging market bond funds. Ones denominated in local currency include TGWIX, EEIAX, and PELBX. There are 72 dollar denominated EM bond funds including FNMIX, HXIAX (Asian fund, NTF at TDA), MCRDX, TRECX, VEMBX, VGAVX, and your MAINX.
There are always going to be a few funds that don't quite fit into a category. If there are enough of them, they can be grouped together into an "other" category. M* does this for foreign funds. That's where you'll find the only Korean fund (MAKOX) lumped in with two emerging Europe funds (TREMX, EUROX), the only Russian fund (LETRX) in case those emerging emerging Europe funds aren't narrowly focused enough for you, and so on.
Obviously you can't compare these funds with each other. What's the alternative? The emerging Europe funds could be tossed in with diversified emerging markets. That's what Lipper did. It's arguably a little better, but not really. This is the approach M* took with the Asian bond funds. On the other hand Lipper put them into three different categories: International Income (HXIAX), Alternative Credit Focus (MCRDX), and Emerging Market Hard Currency (MAINX).

PRSNX is labeled by Morningstar as "World Bond/Dollar hedged." Dunno how many others there are in THAT category. It "feels" like an orphan to me in that regard--- like MAINX, listed as EM bonds, but it is actually geographically limited to Asia only: a sub-category of a category. I can't rely on the performance-percentile numbers on those two. You can't even get a handle on the size and shape of the pie. I'm adjusting to the big-feeling daily moves up and down from BRUFX, since share price is over $500.00. Before today's numbers get recorded, my only fund in the black is PTIAX, up just a fraction YTD. Although below the break-even mark, my others are not doing terribly. PRDSX is my worst, -9.7%. But it's just 1.78% of the portfolio.

Hi @Derf, as of this morning self managed is down -5.5% YTD, -7% from high. The Schwab robo did better with -5.0 YTD, -5.3% from high. My biggest mistake was having my bond portion in non-diversified, low liquidity funds like IOFAX, MAINX and HY munis. I took a loss selling off IOFAX and MAINX and chalked it up to a lesson learned.
For a total portfolio at about 50% equity, my #s, -5% YTD aren't very good. If you look at a simple 1 fund portfolio like TRP retirement 2015 fund, PARHX, that fund is only down -3.3% YTD. I often ask myself why not just buy that fund and play around the edges if you want to have fun. Not to hurt anyone's feelings, I'm convinced most of us here do not add value to a portfolio. We may talk a good game with our buys and sells and timing but #s don't lie. Hard to beat a target date fund.

I morphed into a plan over the years though I admit every time it's tested, like in March, I still get nervous.
The plan, the plan...
- 1/2 my retirement savings is in the Schwab Intelligent Portfolio at about an equity:bond:cash allocation of 45:35:10. I can't screw it up, which is good :)
- over the past year I set up a 3 year expense withdrawal bucket in anticipation of cutting back to part time semi-retiring or retiring altogether. I wanted the option.
- The remainder of the savings is my self managed account which went into March at about 56:25:12 and about 7% gold. I'm most disappointed in the bond portion of this where I held IOFAX, MAINX and HY munis. That plan changed. I sold IOFAX and MAINX and the new plan is to be very lean in bond funds going forward. For some reason I can accept an equity fund dropping 25% but I just can't accept a bond fund dropping 20+. I've actually put a lot of the bond sale proceeds into an alternative fund MNWAX.
- I'm 66 and trying to hold off SS as long as I can.

PRWCX PTIAX. Juicier monthlies, even in a falling market. I prefer monthly, rather than quarterly payments, anyhow. Retired, 65, more conservative, these days. But for overseas bonds, if someone should be interested: MAINX is doing RELATIVELY well, down -9.74 tonight. That compares with my RPSIX, which is a TRP fund of funds, and it owns a slice of equities, too: RPSIX is down YTD by -9.51%. PTIAX, still, is down YTD by only a FRACTION tonight.

Quick update. I noted that I was trying to buy additional shares of BIAWX yesterday but didn't because (1) $50 transaction fee and (2) four-hour hold time to talk with TD Ameritrade. Got through this morning, after a 40 minute hold. Two notes. First, they have a callback queue but disabled it because so many people were leaving stacks of callback requests that the system couldn't keep them straight. Second, they were very agreeable about waiving the transaction fee.
That purchase complements yesterday's tiny buys in each of my other TD funds: FPACX, MACSX, MAINX, RPHYX, GPROX.
No idea of where "the bottom" is (Leuthold estimates the market is 4% overvalued though bears do blow through "fair value"), but I figured my managers are good and could use the money. In an vaguely parallel vein, I also made contributions to my local food bank (their shelves are getting bare, too), One Tree Planted and a local small business initiative to provide coffee for first responders and medical personnel. That's 'cause Tom Hanks told me to be a helper!
David

@joe74 posted some of what I was constructing below, though I may still be filling in a little:
"other EM debt local currency funds". Is either fund primarily invested in unhedged, locally denominated debt?
Vanguard says of its fund that "the majority of bonds are expected to be invested in in U.S. dollar-denominated bonds or hedged back to the U.S. dollar. "
Meanwhile, until this month, Matthews benchmarked MAINX against the Markit iBoxx Asian Local Bond Index. According to the fund prospectus, Mathews just changed the fund's benchmark to 50% of this index, and 50% of J.P. Morgan Asia Credit Index, which is dollar-denominated. That seems to suggest that the fund had been invested primarily in local currency bonds but has recently moved closer to a 50/50 mix (currently 54% in US dollars).
With international investments, currency movements can play such a large role in performance that much of the difference between funds can be explained by this alone. I'm not saying that's the case here. Rather the suggestion that these are local currency funds invites checking further into how accurate that is.
Other notable differences:
Vanguard is virtually all sovereign debt; Matthews is 20%. (From M*'s new portfolio pages for the funds.)
Most of the Matthews fund is invested in east/southeast Asia, with the remainder (19%) in south Asia (India, Sri Lanka), while little of Vanguard's fund is in either east/southeast Asia (5% in Indonesia, 2% in China) or south Asia (1% in India). The little exposure that Vanguard has in Asia comes from central Asia (a couple of "stans"), and from the Asian countries of the Middle East (Saudia Arabia, Bahrain, etc.). Very different regions.
Maybe Vanguard alters its mix depending on the investment climate, or maybe these are geographically complementary funds.
A quick check of (semi) annual reports suggests that the Vanguard fund has had consistently little interest in east/southeast/south Asia aside from Indonesia (4% - 8%).
March 31, 2016 report
Sept 30, 2016 report
March 31, 2017
Sept 30, 2017 report
March 31, 2018 report
Sept 30, 2018 report
March 31, 2019 report
Sept 30, 2019 report

Appears to be primarily government debt. Higher on quality scale. Exposure in Central and South America, some Middle East and Africa. Little Asia. Not sure about duration but yields around 5%. High turnover. Also about 5x the size of MAINX though half its age.