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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.
  • Fed Bank Officials Called Out by Forsyth in Monday’s Barron’s.
    Here’s a related article. More complete than what Forsyth’s article contains (Forsyth was trying to cover too many bases in one piece.)
    https://www.dallasnews.com/business/banking/2021/09/09/dallas-fed-ceo-robert-kaplan-traded-millions-in-stocks-like-apple-tesla-in-2020/
    Excerpted
    “Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan to sell off his holdings in stocks like Apple, Tesla and Amazon”
    “The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas pledged Thursday to sell his holdings in individual stocks such as Apple, Tesla and Amazon by Sept. 30 after his trades totaling millions of dollars in 2020 became public this week. Kaplan and Boston Fed president Eric Rosengren released near-identical statements about their plans to divest their stock portfolios and reinvest in either diversified indexed funds or keep the proceeds as cash. In Kaplan’s case, his trades last year came while he was voting on critical monetary policy for the U.S. during the pandemic.”
    “Kaplan, 64, was a voting member of the 12-member policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee last year. The committee rotates the policy-deciding votes among regional bank heads each year. This year, he’s not a voting member. That means he attends the eight yearly FOMC meetings and contributes to discussions but can’t vote. Rosengreen, a voting member this year, listed stakes in four separate real estate investment trusts and disclosed multiple purchases and sales in those and other securities last year. There is precedent for Kaplan and other Fed Presidents to trade stocks while serving on the committee.”
    *** This story’s a bit hard to access. But clearing cookies or trying a different browser should work.
  • VDADX / VIG change
    Summary prospectus announcing the above change -
    https://personal.vanguard.com/pub/Pdf/sp602.pdf?2210173701
    Pg 2 -
    "The changes to the Funds’ target indexes are not expected to increase Fund
    expense ratios. The transition may cause each Fund to realize taxable capital
    gains. In the event the transition generates capital gains, the Funds may be
    required to distribute capital gains to shareholders.
    The Funds are expected to implement the index changes in the third quarter of
    2021. The Funds’ prospectuses will be updated at that time to reflect the
    changes. To protect the Funds from the potential for harmful “front running” by
    traders, the exact timing of the index changes will not be disclosed to investors.
    In the meantime, the Funds will continue to seek to track their current indexes."
  • VDADX / VIG change
    For now, just an FYI - I received the following Vanguard reply to my enquiry about changes to VDADX's benchmark index
    Vanguard has recently selected a new benchmark provider for Vanguard
    Dividend Appreciation Index Fund Admiral Shares (VDADX).
    VDADX will change its index to the S&P U.S. Dividend Growers Index (S&P
    DJI) from the Nasdaq US Dividend Achievers Select Index. The changes will
    take effect in the 3rd quarter of 2021.
    As part of Vanguard’s ongoing due diligence, we regularly analyze all our
    products to ensure that they are delivering on their investment objectives
    and giving investors the best chance for investment success. Recently, this
    process has highlighted the solid design of the funds, along with some
    opportunities for benchmark refinements.
    Vanguard has a longstanding partnership with S&P DJI, and employed S&P DJI
    benchmarks for 22 index or index-oriented offerings with $1.18 trillion in
    assets under management as of March 31, 2020. S&P DJI is a leading provider
    of benchmarks and investable indexes designed to help track market
    performance, evaluate portfolios, and develop investment strategies.
    S&P Dow Jones Indices is a market leader in dividend index strategies, with
    more than $91.7 billion in assets under management tracking its dividend
    indexes as of March 31, 2021. We believe that S&P DJI’s approach to
    dividend growth indexes closely aligns with our view, and that they are
    well positioned to administer the indexes for VDADX moving forward.
    While we feel that S&P DJI is the optimal partner for VDADX moving forward,
    we continue to maintain a significant relationship with Nasdaq, Inc., as a
    valuable partner across business lines, including the registration of 24
    ETFs encompassing $319.9 billion in assets under management on the Nasdaq
    exchange as of March 31, 2021.
  • Quality Growth: AKREX, POLRX, EGFFX
    Concerning AKREX less financials and more tech, this statement was taken from M* analysis of November 2020. Unlike many computer generated summaries, this was a real analysis of changes there. I invest in this fund for many years, and I am very happy about it, but yes indeed it is more slow now.
  • Catastrophe Porfolio
    Perhaps it’s already been noted, but a clue to how well a find might hold up can be found in its 2008 performance as well as by looking at how it fared during the first quarter of 2020. Of course, not all funds under discussion date back that far. Yahoo Finance does a great job on performance records for the funds that were in existence.
  • A lexicon of China’s tech crackdown jargon
    This is a wide ranging review of current thinking about the ongoing transformation. Here are a few examples:
    The party Central Committee shifted its economic emphasis “from efficiency to fairness” in late 2020, a researcher at a Beijing think tank wrote in August in Caixin, China’s most prominent business magazine.
    The party moved from “early prosperity for some to ‘common prosperity’” and “from capital to labor,” wrote Luo Zhiheng of Yuekai Securities Research Institute. He said leaders are emphasizing science, technology and manufacturing over finance and real estate.
    As the previous decade’s economic boom fades, “Xi sees himself as the only person capable of recreating the momentum,” said June Teufel Dreyer, a Chinese politics specialist at the University of Miami.
    China chases ‘rejuvenation’ with control of tycoons, society
  • Quality Growth: AKREX, POLRX, EGFFX
    Good discussion on AKREX. I had almost forgotten about this fund. I just rechecked and another point in its favor is that only dropped about 15% in Feb and March of 2020. I need to study this one again. I’m also interested in looking at its correlation with SPY to see if helps diversify my portfolio more. Like others I am still a bit too heavy on growth — primarily because my 401K equity options are somewhat limited to SPY, EFA and FSMAX. EFA is a more value oriented index but Europe has greatly underperformed US for years
  • Quality Growth: AKREX, POLRX, EGFFX
    Founding manager of AKREX Chuck Are steped down at the end of 2020. He is 78. The team was preparing for that for a long time, so hopefully they will be just fine. But the focus of the fund was changing lately, less financials, more technology. Time will tell...
  • Quality Growth: AKREX, POLRX, EGFFX
    I've held AKREX/AKRIX for a number of years and am very pleased with it. It's all about perception and expectation, I believe. If you want a LCG fund with FAANG stocks and other go-go stocks, then AKREX/AKRIX is not the vehicle.
    AKREX has performed superbly outside of 2020, when it was in the 87th percentile (-15% of LCG), BY FAR its worst relative performance.
    Unfortunately, 2020 skews its multi-year relative category performance ranking. Its annual ranks range from 1% to 29%; YTD 28%. Not bad as far as i am concerned.
    Its ten-year rank is in the 17th percentile (20.04%), again good with me. As Graust stated, its a good diversifier for other growth funds. I'll go a step further and say it's a good diversifier for most LCV and LCB funds, particularly S&P500 indexes which are top-heavy with FAANG.
    One last point, its Risk/Reward profile for all time frames is exceptional; it's also a GO fund. That's not so say there aren't better funds available, but AKREX/AKRIX is a fund to consider.
    Just one man's opinion.
    A good discussion, keep the thread alive.
    Matt
  • Vanguard Customer Service
    I do not own any shares in any Primecap managed fund.
    Flagship customers can open accounts, investing up to $25K in each. You don't see any reason why one cannot game the system and open[] additonal accounts at Vanguard with different account numbers and put $25K of Primecap and $25K of Capital Opportunity in each account, each year.
    If there's nothing stopping one from gaming the system, one could then immediately combine those multiple accounts to meet the $50K Admiral share requirement.
    I only gave an existence proof that even if one is not a flagship customer, once one has multiple open accounts they can be combined. Combining them does not violate Vanguard's restriction on opening new accounts (which flagship customers don't have to follow, anyway). Nor does it violate Vanguard's restrictions on buying additional shares.
  • Vanguard Customer Service

    Now you ask, what prevents me from opening additonal accounts at Vanguard with different account numbers and put $25K of Primecap and $25K of Capital Opportunity in each account, each year?
    My answer is nothing.
    My answer is that pretty much any fund from any fund company can reject a purchase order that it chooses. Sometimes this is phrased as "a trade that would be disruptive", sometimes not.
    Each Vanguard fund reserves the right to reject any purchase request—including exchanges from other Vanguard funds—without notice and regardless of size. For example, a purchase request could be rejected because the investor has a history of frequent trading or if Vanguard determines that such purchase may negatively affect a fund’s operation or performance.
    https://personal.vanguard.com/pub/Pdf/p059.pdf?2210168823
    Given that Vanguard has limited the amounts one can invest so that purchases don't negatively affect a fund, it's hardly a stretch for Vanguard to consider gaming their rules disruptive.
    But if you want to game the system, why stop at $25K/account? Vanguard allows shares to be moved from one account to another existing (not new) account. Sure, it took me over an hour on the phone with Vanguard years ago when I converted some shares in kind from a traditional to a Roth IRA (with existing positions in both accounts), but it can be done.
    So open two accounts with $25K, move the shares from one account to the other, then convert the $50K to Admiral shares. Even if you get so far as to open multiple accounts of the same type (e.g. two taxable accounts) in a closed fund, I have my doubts whether Vanguard will then let you take the next step.
    Side note: Fidelity once initially rejected a purchase order of mine for a Fidelity fund because it might have been disruptive. (Upon review, Fidelity allowed it to go through.) So this is not a matter of Vanguard being different from other families.
  • Vanguard Customer Service
    Exactly. Vanguard only allows cancel order early in morning. Other times are not okay even if you call their agents.
    I will talk with their Flagship service first to see if I can get into the Investor shares first. Afterward i can add up to $25k per year until reaching the Admiral requirement, $50K.
    As Flagship, you can. If you desire, you can purchase $25K of Primecap and $25K of Capital Opportunity between now and the end of the year, and then purchase $25K in each after the first of the year, and convert to Admiral Shares, assuming the total in each is 50K or greater.
    Let's have some fun with this and my guess is if you call Vanguard six times, you will get three different answers. This is my understanding:
    Let's say that you have your retirement accounts with Vanguard. A Roth, Inherited, and Rollover IRA. You can purchase $25K of Primecap and $25K of Capital Opportunity in each account, each year.
    Let's say that you have four taxable accounts with Vanguard, all with different account numbers. You can purchase $25K of Primecap and $25K of Capital Opportunity in each account, each year.
    Now you ask, what prevents me from opening additonal accounts at Vanguard with different account numbers and put $25K of Primecap and $25K of Capital Opportunity in each account, each year?
    My answer is nothing.
  • Quality Growth: AKREX, POLRX, EGFFX
    AKREX also lagged large growth in 2020 because it is less exposed to tech than other LG funds (20% in tech per a quick check at Fidelity). And I think this has been generally true over the years…..AKREX finds growth companies mostly outside of tech and holds them for years (low turnover). Good diversifier to other large growth funds, IMHO.
  • Executives at Hedge Fund Renaissance to Pay $7bn in Back Taxes
    “Top executives of Renaissance Technologies and their spouses have agreed to pay about $7 billion (€5.9 billion) in back taxes and penalties to federal authorities in connection with trades made by the quantitative hedge fund in the largest tax settlement in US history, according to people briefed on the matter. Jim Simons, a mathematician and former cold war codebreaker who founded the fund about four decades ago, will pay an additional $670 million, according to a letter the group sent to investors, which has been seen by the Financial Times.
    Dispute
    The settlement put an end to a long-running dispute linked to trades made by the firm’s Medallion fund between 2005 and 2015, when several of its executives converted short-term capital gains into long-term profits, which are taxed at a significantly lower rate. Renaissance has also counted among its top executives Robert Mercer, who financed the far-right news website Breitbart and backed several Republican political candidates including former US president Donald Trump.”

    (Originally Published in the Financial Times) https://www.irishtimes.com/business/financial-services/executives-at-hedge-fund-renaissance-to-pay-7bn-in-back-taxes-1.4664159
  • Vanguard Customer Service
    @Mona, thanks for the reminder of Odyssey funds. I am a Flagship client, but I don’t use their advisor services. Not sure the process of getting into Vanguard PRIMECAP funds. Vanguard Capital Opportunity is managed by PRIMECAP and is similar to their mid-cap equivalent of Odyssey Aggressive Growth, POAGX. Will contact Flagship service.
  • Vanguard Customer Service
    @msf, thank you. I am interested in Capital Opportunity fund.
    Since Capital Opportunity is also closed if you are not Flagship, you might want to look at Primecap Odyssey Growth POGRX.
  • Vanguard Customer Service
    @msf, thank you. I am interested in Capital Opportunity fund.
  • Harbor International Small Cap Investor HIISX/HAISX
    Actually, HAISX's largest outperformance in 2020 was in February, when it outperformed its peers by 2.34% (-6.57% to -8.91%). In no other month of 2020 did it outperform by 2% or better.
    In only two other months did it outperform its peers by over 1%, and one of those months was January. It paced its peers in March, -19.81% vs. -19.96%.
    http://performance.morningstar.com/fund/performance-return.action?t=HAISX
    From March 20, 2020 through the end of 2020, it underperformed its peers, gaining 66.42% vs. its peers' 75.20%. See M* chart here.
    66.42% is not chopped liver, so it's fair to say that it took off "after last major market correction". But it's not fair to suggest that it outperformed or even matched its peers because of the bounce.
    Regarding those five attempts: Between April 30, 2019 and July 31, 2019, the new management substantially overhauled the portfolio. This became in effect a new fund. The only holdings kept (if I read correctly) were:
    Senior PLC (aerospace), added 10%, totals 1.9% of fund
    JAFCO Ltd, Japan (capital markets), 2.5% of fund
    April 30, 2019 semiannual statement, HAISX portfolio
    July 31, 2019 quarterly schedule of holdings, HAISX portfolio
  • Quality Growth: AKREX, POLRX, EGFFX
    Just another general comment about AKREX and PGIRX (a somewhat close cousin to POLRX). Both under performed in 2020 as the stock market melted up in response to central bank and fiscal policy interventions. That doesn't concern or surprise me. This is waiting time for me for these two OEFs. How successfully will their stock selection approaches adapt to match the contours of the emerging new normal economy? It will take perhaps a couple of years for me to get a sense for that. And, yes. Multiple studies indicate active manager market out performance that continues for a decade or more is quite unusual for OEFs.
  • Vanguard Customer Service
    @msf said:
    One cannot open a new account in a Vanguard PRIMECAP fund (Primecap, Primcap Core, Capital Opportunity) unless one is a flagship customer at Vanguard. As Vanguard closes other funds it usually (but not always) continues to make the funds available to flagship customers. Only flagship customers at Vanguard can add more than $25K/year to VPCCX.
    Correct me if I am wrong. I don't think you can open new account with closed Primecap funds. Do you need to talk with a representative?