For those not familiar, and those who will soon wish they were not.
That was NOT a serious question. Rather...
FD1000 is a constant troll of mine who is Living in the Past (Thanks, Jethro!) , desperately trying to discredit me wherever he goes, with whatever vague, twisted memory he might still retain from years of our joint posting activity on several forums.
He appears to have no life other than his inherently flawed and underperforming Yugo Racing Scheme, while trying to sell his wares on whatever forum allows his continued participation. Sadly he somehow still however finds the time for daily trolling of my posts. If he would have just done what he daily tells "Average Joe Investor" to do, buy and hold an S&P index fund, he'd likely have twice the net worth he currently has. A tall glass of FOMO juice would have served him well. It's truly sad.
FWIW, I currently have a smallish 5-yr CD ladder yanking down 3.35% APY. All proceeds from maturing CDs over the past several years have been rolled into stocks. The ladder was started after early retirement at age 56 to bridge the Red Zone divide. It's done its job exactly as meticulously planned and has been being liquidated for several years.
For 30+ years I was 99% stocks. That dropped to ~60/40 in the coupla years prior to retirement. Since retirement I have always maintained an acceptable % in stocks but increased that to a significant % since the 2020 crash. I've posted all that several times on several forums, but somehow selective memory and ill intent can get in the way of some posters.

I wish I did but sadly don't. There were a bunch of interviews (late 2020/early 2021) with Dennis Lynch (he was being touted as the Cathie Wood of MFs for a bit) that delved into reasons for its explosive year. If interested, I trust you can track some of those down and get your answer.

@stillers: I didn’t intend to bring out the Keith Jackson in you. I transposed the fund symbols on the chart I (mis)used last night. My bad. MSSMX has superior LT performance to DVSMX. The MS fund did have one sickening decline in the past year that might have shaken the most ardent fan’s resolve, while DVSMX has moved more steadily higher over the same period. I did not compare MSSMX to DSMDX; the “former” in my post refers to DVSMX only. Do you know what propelled MSSMX to its fantastic performance in 2020?

@stillers
Sorry for the slow response. I have looked at several managed futures over the years, including AHLPX AQMNX AMFAX CSAAX, but not PQTAX.
AHLPX is the clear winner with better performance ( 42% vs -3% 26% and 25% with better risk metrics than my previous choices, although PQTAX is running about equal. PTQAX has only recently caught up ( last year outperformed by 5%) by a significant outpreformance in 2021
M* still has a "human" analysis of AHLPX
"Man AHL (this strategy’s subadvisor) predominantly uses a systematic momentum-based approach that aims to profit from trends in prices across various markets and provide uncorrelated returns. The approach looks for trends across a two-month timeframe, on average, which is shorter than the typical peer in the managed futures Morningstar Category. That can reduce the strategy’s drawdowns in fast-moving markets relative to peers that are slower to adjust. The strategy’s responsiveness was on display during the first quarter of 2020, for instance, when markets took a sharp turn. It returned a healthy 7.8% during the quarter, outperforming the category average return by nearly 7 percentage points."
It is hard to determine how they differ in portfolio, and I haven't delved into that much, as up-to-date data is hard to find, and they change positions frequently.
In the past I have read that the usual reasons for these funds performance is if they guess the trend in interest rates properly.
Both seem to be better diversifiers than TMRSX as the latter fund has not delivered much with a correlation to the SP500 of .61, while managed futures are both - 0.15

"Fifteen percent of households in the labor force without employer-sponsored pensions indicated owning an IRA in 2019."
Congressional Research Service, Individual Retirement Account (IRA) Ownership: Data and Policy Issues, Dec 9, 2020.
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46635/3
So for the vast majority of people without jobs offering 401(k)s or 403(b)s, the size of the IRA contribution limit makes no difference.

A retirement plan for those without access to traditional 401k/403b plans could include an automatic enrollment provision to increase participation rates. Vanguard released a study earlier this year which indicates that participation rates tripled in 401k plans with an automatic enrollment feature.
This can be a very useful "nudge".
PDF

Roth IRA used to have $2,000 limit when it started in 1998. Many people don’t have jobs with 401K) and 403(b) plans. How can one save enough for retirement with $6,000 and 1,000 catch-up, per year?

"Fifteen percent of households in the labor force without employer-sponsored pensions indicated owning an IRA in 2019."
Congressional Research Service, Individual Retirement Account (IRA) Ownership: Data and Policy Issues, Dec 9, 2020.
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46635/3
So for the vast majority of people without jobs offering 401(k)s or 403(b)s, the size of the IRA contribution limit makes no difference.
If the concern is in encouraging the 75% of households (ibid) who do not have any IRAs to save for retirement, I might suggest better publicizing the Savers Credit and making it a refundable credit.
https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-savings-contributions-savers-credit

Its too soon for me to be certain its different this time. But, the global central banks have been astute and activist enough in recent years to keep investors engaged and satisfied -- garden variety stock market corrections excepted. Accommodative global fiscal policies also made important contributions to this outcome during the past couple of years. Current and projected economic conditions suggest this recent trend could continue through 2022. That said, I suspect any future stock market gains through 2022 will be more modest and will be more interrupted along the way than they have thus far been in 2021.

@lynnbolin2021,
Looking forward to your next MFO article..should be interesting as always....
Curious as to your thoughts for addition in the "all-weather" approach regarding funds such as:
PVCMX Palm Valley Capital Fund. Invests generally in small cap value co's, high quality, strong balance sheets, strong free cash flow, profitable co's. Not afraid to hold cash in market bubbles (whatever that means anymore) Absolute return focused.
TANDX (Castle Tandem Fund) Invests in Large cap, growing dividend payers, that are capable of growing earning regardless of economic conditions, not afraid to hold cash if need be, does not make market call to go to cash, only if can't find the appropriate value in a stock
Trying to look forward as to what may come rather than backwards look at performance, data etc.
Very intrigued by BLNDX/REMIX as mentioned by Prof David, have initiated starter position.
If you would, please define your interpretation of what "all weather" means from your viewpoint.
Is it a marketing term, maybe overused like ESG, maybe nebulous terminology or maybe not?
Mine is of a fund that you could have significant holdings of your wealth and hold thru a 30-40% drawdown in the markets, while sleeping well and having the confidence that the fund mgmt will make the right decisions over the next few years. Also, do like funds that have a succession planning in place...no funds with the boomer aged guru with no protege learning and next in line etc.
I also define as all weather fund as a fund that could compete when compared with a 45% SPY/55 SCHO ETF backwards look performance wise...most can't, no?
Best to all, I enjoy your postings, makes me think...
Baseball Fan

I own it, but have tactically been reducing its proportion in my portfolio. PRDSX. It's my smallest fund holding now. Down to 2% of total. I sense it's lost its mojo. Even though a quant fund is all about statistics and algorithms and such, and not so much about Fund Manager "savvy" and legerdemain. Is the Quant Model they're using not very effective any longer? This is the 2nd year in a row that the fund is a serious laggard vs. peers. (Well, "peers" as categorized by Morningstar.) Longer-term numbers mean much more, of course.
...So, when I see a couple of good up-days, I've been taking tiny bites out of it and putting it into PRSNX, a dollar-hedged TRP bond fund. I want to be growing my bonds, anyhow. And what's with the rather big estimated capital gain in 2021 for PRDSX? ($6.00/share--- if memory serves me.) I'm also thinking I could "afford" to put 6% of my portfolio into TRP Junk Fund TUHYX. Six percent. I would take that 6% from my RPSIX holding. At the moment, RPSIX = 21.95% of portfolio total, and PRSNX = 21.20% of portf. total. The other bond fund is 6.10% of total: PTIAX.

I’m also thankful to have the write-up on REMIX. Last year I committed a hefty sum to TMSRX, thinking I’d be satisfied if it out-performed cash. What I discovered was that I was less than thrilled with performance of 0.94% YTD, given that the fund had done much better than that in 2019 and 2020. I sold at a modest profit and redeployed elsewhere. While REMIX is not completely comparable, it represents an alternative to the vast majority of my portfolio holdings which are traditional OEFs, most of which are not defensive. I’m dipping a toe in the water.

Interesting to see how times have changed. I wonder if people had boundless optimism about these companies back then too:

Also, here are the companies in the Dow in September of 1929:
September 14, 1929
Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation
General Foods Corporation †
Paramount Publix Corporation
American Can Company
General Motors Corporation
Radio Corporation of America
American Smelting & Refining Company
General Railway Signal Company
Sears Roebuck & Company
The American Sugar Refining Company
B.F. Goodrich Corporation
Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey
American Tobacco Company (B shares)
International Harvester Company
The Texas Company
Atlantic Refining Company
International Nickel Company, Ltd.
Texas Gulf Sulphur Company
Bethlehem Steel Corporation
Mack Trucks, Inc.
Union Carbide Corporation
Chrysler Corporation
Nash Motors Company
United States Steel Corporation
Curtiss-Wright Corporation †
National Cash Register Company
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
General Electric Company
North American Company
F. W. Woolworth Company

@hank said,

But I’d have more money if I’d sunk 100% in PRWCX 25 years ago and followed with a “RipVanWinkle” act!

I stand at the launch pad of retirement (age 62) thinking that PRWCX, VWINX and a little Cash will provide a safe withdrawal (different than a safe withdrawal rate) in the first ten years of retirement. I am positioning about 1/3 of my portfolio in these two funds (plus 1 year of cash equivalent withdrawals). My hope is to derive both growth and income from these positions.
The remaining 2/3 will hopefully not be needed for 10 years and will be invested for growth (to help fund year 72 - year 92 ). Along the way, I hope to reallocate gains from this long term bucket back into these 2 funds (and replenish cash). I will deal with down markets by withdrawing a little less since I have other reliable monthly income. I am a fan of withdrawing fixed percentages rather than fix dollar amounts and letting the market dictate the ups and downs of the actual dollar amount (withdrawal).
A 4% withdrawal (based on the entire portfolio) from a fund like VWINX which has a MAXXDD of about 10% would mean a withdrawal haircut in a very bad year that equates to 3.6% (10% off of 4%). I can live with that as a number to plan around. I feel VWINX will work well in conjunction with cash (as an alternative withdrawal source) giving VWINX a 1 year recovery time if we have a MAXDD event. PRWCX will remain a 5 - 10 year position that will be milked or kept out to pasture depending on what the market offers. PRWCX's milk will be refrigerated into VWINX and Cash as needed.
Long time (2/3 of my portfolio) I want to invest in trends....healthcare, tech, and consumerism...trying to own the very best funds and the very best fund managers.

I’ve never seen such heightened speculation across the wide investment spectrum. There’s been spec before - but I fear the new crop of retail investors is unprepared for what may happen. Should we worry? Not a lot. But a good analogy might be driving 70-80 mph on a crowed interstate surrounded by other nearby vehicles operated by drunks or folks who aren’t watching the road. All can seem perfectly “normal” until someone begins swerving out of control and brake lights begin flashing in every direction. In the end, everyone pays for the excesses of a few.
Noteworthy among small retail investors, there’s significant leverage being employed. And there has arisen a plethora self-made internet gurus who amass large followings ready to pounce on their next recommendation - or perhaps sell some hapless stock all on the same day. As the M* piece notes, markets can remain in a state of elevated exuberance for years or even decades. But, if history is a guide, the eventual declines can last for years at a time and be brutally painful.
I can’t recall such wild swings in the value of some assets. Energy stands out to me, with crude oil futures going negative in early 2020 and than rapidly gaining about $140 per barrel to $86 about 15 months later. This leads me to believe there’s a lot of hot money chasing assets. If it’s happening to oil, it’s likely happening to other assets. Can’t even get my head around crypto. But it makes the above mentioned swings in oil meager by comparison. Jamie Dimon, head of J.P. Morgan, is no idiot. His assessment is that Bitcoin is worthless.
There’s notably less public concern today than in the late 90s before the “tech-wreck” which saw the NASDAQ drop about 50% in a matter of days, while dragging down other markets along with it. It was more than a decade before the NASDAQ got back to its 2000:high. Where is Alan Greenspan with his “irrational exuberance” warnings of the late 90s? Or Vanguard with its “Trees don’t grow to the sky” cautionary statement to its investors around than?
What to do? Anybody’s guess. None of us can predict the future. Saying that many assets are in speculative territory does not lead to any particular solution. Some of the answer resides in age, risk tolerance and individual skill-set. Some in ancillary issues like pension, home ownership, dependents, life style. A good portion of the answer, however, resides in one’s macro view of how things will evolve going forward. For example, one view is that asset prices will eventually deflate. Another view says paper currencies will be devalued (thru price inflation) making today’s asset prices reasonable. Politics (often heated) here and abroad, has also become an ingredient to be reckoned with when trying to assess the macro view. And there exists, too, a middle road on which there may be winners and losers. We tend to segregate “investments” into domestic stocks and bonds. Simplistic of course. That overlooks potentially attractive foreign markets. And there are assets like real estate, commodities, infrastructure, floating rate loans, gold and silver; as well as derivatives like puts, calls, options, futures that a skilled professional can use to advantage or to reduce overall risk in heated markets. Funds that lean on such approaches have been highlighted recently in the MFO commentary. While I own some such funds, I don’t find them particularly worthy of note.

@David_Snowball
It pretty much summarizes the capital gain distribution estimates of many of the mutual fund families and related links cited above.

20% for PRGTX is noteworthy, but I had no idea that 8% for PRWCX constitutes a 'big distribution' in the eyes of MourningStar. Sheesh!

@David_Snowball
It pretty much summarizes the capital gain distribution estimates of many of the mutual fund families and related links cited above.

Morningstar emailed a note about CG exposure today. Let me know if you think it warrants a separate post. It reads, in part
Morningstar’s associate director of equity strategies, Christopher Franz today published the Capital Gains Roundup for 2021, evaluating distribution estimates for some of the largest fund families.
Highlights include:

• Based on preliminary estimates from fund families large and small, growth funds once again will make significant distributions, but this year resurgent value strategies will make some big distributions, too.
  
• A confluence of another year of robust performance and the ongoing trend of investors swapping out of traditional active vehicles and into exchange-traded funds and other, mostly passive, vehicles have led many managers to realize gains to rebalance their portfolios and meet redemptions.
  
• Many prominent T. Rowe Price funds will make meaningful distributions, and some are closed to new investors, which can cause managers to realize gains to meet shareholder redemptions instead of satisfying them with cash inflows.
  
• Several Fidelity funds are expected to pay a distribution of more than 5% NAV; the large, widely followed, and Silver-rated Fidelity Contrafund expects to payout 8% of NAV on December 13.
  
• A few passive funds at Columbia Threadneedle, which are supposed to be more tax-efficient, estimate they will distribute gains of almost 10% NAV in December.

I have tried a number of different managed futures funds over the years, and find that AHLPX has the best track record. BLNDX has beaten it with about the same risk, but I assume that is because BLNDX can use equities.
M* says BLNDX started in 1/2020 and lost 8% during Covid, beating other hedged equity funds like JHQAX and GATEX, as you might suspect. AHLPX made money that month, however.
Another MFO hedging favorite CTFAX also lost 9%
Lots of different ways to hedge the downside, but it is hard to predict in advance which one will be most effective.

I rarely own Alternative funds but have again been scoping some recently. So please bear with me with this question.
AHLPX is in the same Alternatives subcategory of "Systemic Trends" as PQTAX. Not sure of their respective managed futures exposures and portfolios could be significantly different,
That said, if it were me deciding between the two, all performance metrics I usually review would point me to selecting PQTAX over AHLPX. Volatility is not as an important a metric to me as I subscribe to the axiom of a venerable, former M* who routinely reminded us, "Volatility is the price you pay for growth."
Could/would you have time to compare/contrast these two funds, especially their holdings which are a wee bit above my pay grade, and state why you would/did select AHLPX over PQTAX.
TIA and understand if not interested in responding.

I have tried a number of different managed futures funds over the years, and find that AHLPX has the best track record. BLNDX has beaten it with about the same risk, but I assume that is because BLNDX can use equities.
M* says BLNDX started in 1/2020 and lost 8% during Covid, beating other hedged equity funds like JHQAX and GATEX, as you might suspect. AHLPX made money that month, however.
Another MFO hedging favorite CTFAX also lost 9%
Lots of different ways to hedge the downside, but it is hard to predict in advance which one will be most effective.

I believe the reason REMIX/BLNDX did well during the downturn is it shorted oil, which collapsed in 2020. I also believe it always has at least 50% exposure to stocks. Not positive about this, but if that's true, it should produce decent returns during bull markets, yet be less defensive normally than futures funds that aren't perpetually long stocks in bear markets.

MSSMX and NESGX are the two Fido NTF SCG funds that always end up being my final two funds to select from after screening that cat.
I owned MSSMX for part of its 2020/2021 heyday move. It started to crash in 1Q/2021 and I sold it well UP, and before too much damage was done, moving proceeds to ITOT. It continued to go DOWN and then sideways. I have recently re-opened a position in it but only 1/2 the value I previously held in it. VERY volatile fund but very rewarding LT. Expecting a BIG pop to the upside in the coming months.
NESGX is more expensive, less volatile and similar TRs over standard interim periods, and a very worthy candidate in this cat.