- More troops with live amo defending nation’s capital and elected officials against violent attack from domestic-bred terrorists. You attack. We shoot.
- Less time (0 recommended) of CNN “interviewing” on TV spokesmen for groups so disposed.
A despicable grab for ratings.

You make some fair points, I guess. Thanks Lewis.

Large institutions often provide seed money, although that is not the case for some such as Vanguard, but even when the seed money is large asset-wise, that doesn't mean trading volumes of the ETF are high. The seed money could be from an institution--often insurers do this--that never or rarely trades its shares and just sits there in the ETF. Ultimately trading volume and bid-ask spreads matter more than assets under management for those who trade ETFs. Then again, for those who are buy and hold investors, assets under management and trading volumes really don't matter much. There could be some tracking error versus the index I suppose with a small asset base and too few shares of some companies in the index, but quants have become pretty good at optimizing that away via sampling. In other words, anyone looking for a long-term investment probably doesn't have too much to fear in this ETF, especially in a tax sheltered IRA account. In a taxable account there is a risk of a tiny ETF being liquidated and then having to pay capital gains taxes after the liquidation on appreciated shares.

His summary of 2021? Expecting an 8 percent gain in S/P for the year. Stimulus and Fed accommodating... means a great year for equities, don't hold Bonds unless they are very short term etc. etc. Stimulus is pumping a ton of money into the economy. That money will be spent. That will lift all ships.

There is potential career risk if someone's prediction is wrong and it differs from "the crowd".
In the past, many market pundits predicted 8% - 10% gains for a specific year but market returns rarely fall with this range. If all ships will be lifted, where will customers moor their yachts?

@Mark I got rid of all bonds except a very small position in FXNAX. My FNBGX was up quite a bit in 2020 (not sure why and it still trailed S&P index), thankfully I sold before 2021. Why? It’s down 10% YTD. I’m having a very hard time justifying any bond exposure right now. Actually, when I look back at the last 10-15 years, I held too many bonds (in case of?) and at the expense of many years of equity superiority. The crash(s) where bonds outperformed and helped me were few and far between. But I’m still learning and don’t know what I don’t know.

@WABAC - have you sold all of your bond funds on the expectation of a rise in rates? I'm just trying to understand why anyone would do this while those who control the rates indicate no interest or reason for doing so at this time. I read the articles and I've listened to all the chatter and I just don't see what indications are pointing to a need for disposing bond funds.

Rates can go up even if the Fed isn't actively raising them. Rates will go up if the bonds don't sell.
I found this article this morning.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield topped the 1.49% level on Thursday morning, its highest level in more than a year. . .
. . . The move higher in rates is unnerving investors fearing inflation could be driving it instead of just the economy recovering. The 10-year yield ended January at 1.09%. It closed 2020 well under 1%. So it’s moved more than a half percentage point in under two months, quite rapid for the bond market and relative to rates at these historically low levels.

I don't particularly like bond funds. So rather than watch some remarkable gains -- for bonds -- evaporate, I decided to sell. When I'm ahead 8% on a TIPs index fund it's no fun for me to watch the drip, drip, drip. And so on with the other funds, even if the returns were smaller.
I still have assets that will do well if inflation explodes. FFRHX has been going up while my other bond funds have been going down. MERKX has shown signs of life. But so far, there aren't any wins to lock in.
I might move into ultra-short bond funds if they offer any improvement over Vanguard's money-market settlement fund.
I'm late on reexamining, and re-balancing, my portfolio for the year. For the past 14-15 months I have been as completely invested as I have been for a while. So this season I have been taking some profits, closing positions I no longer have faith in, and generally raising cash.

Large institutions often provide seed money, although that is not the case for some such as Vanguard, but even when the seed money is large asset-wise, that doesn't mean trading volumes of the ETF are high. The seed money could be from an institution--often insurers do this--that never or rarely trades its shares and just sits there in the ETF. Ultimately trading volume and bid-ask spreads matter more than assets under management for those who trade ETFs. Then again, for those who are buy and hold investors, assets under management and trading volumes really don't matter much. There could be some tracking error versus the index I suppose with a small asset base and too few shares of some companies in the index, but quants have become pretty good at optimizing that away via sampling. In other words, anyone looking for a long-term investment probably doesn't have too much to fear in this ETF, especially in a tax sheltered IRA account. In a taxable account there is a risk of a tiny ETF being liquidated and then having to pay capital gains taxes after the liquidation on appreciated shares.

I'm quirky-- I would expect a fund to be better capitalized/positioned at launch.

The ETF launched a few days ago I believe. Unless you're an insurer with seed money for an ETF, initial assets/positions are usually like this. I'm not sure why that requires a "hard pass" in the future if it gains traction.

The ETF launched a few days ago I believe. Unless you're an insurer with seed money for an ETF, initial assets/positions are usually like this. I'm not sure why that requires a "hard pass" in the future if it gains traction.

Thought it was another gimmick at first, but this one seems legit, especially with a low 0.11% expense ratio. Too often these ESG funds take advantage of good-intentioned investors to gouge them price wise which seems hypocritical to their entire mission. But this one has a reasonable mission, eliminate the worst corporate actors from the portfolio while trying to change or improve the remaining ones through shareholder activism: https://humankind.co/mission

How We Create Impact
Investors seeking to promote more responsible corporate behavior can wield power in two ways:
a) By investing more money in and providing more capital to companies that create greater positive value for humanity
b) By utilizing the rights associated with stock ownership to promote company policies that positively impact humanity
At Humankind Investments we aim to do both of those things for you. We do the socially responsible research, so you don't have to. Then we invest in the companies that, according to our research, offer the greatest potential returns for humanity and our clients. We also keep track of opportunities to use your corporate voting power to positively influence company policy.
We believe that an investment made through us is an investment made in your and humanity’s future.

From the Institutional Investor:
https://institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1qphp8ytrkv20/Months-Before-SEC-Investigation-Infinity-Q-s-CIO-Touted-Strong-Performance
"In September 2019, the Texas Municipal Retirement System allocated $125 million to the firm’s volatility alpha fund, meeting minutes show. The State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio also lists Infinity Q among its investment managers, a 2020 annual report shows."

...Oh, now I see what you meant. :)
At the end of of 2020 cash was at 12%. I’m thinking he’s raised that over the past 1-2 months just looking at the lagging performance.

I wonder how much of these CSR delays are RobinHooders flocking to open new accounts elsewhere and/or people calling to ask basic questions about investing and where-is-my-2020-1099-for-the-GameStop-that-I-traded-last-week. ;)

Same here - really enjoy reading his report. His stock picking in utility sector way exceeded utility funds and ETFs. My Vanguard utility fund was flat for 2020 even though it provided a healthy yield. Ventured out to floating rate and short term high yield funds this year for higher yields. Also rotated more into value and small value funds earlier this year. Yacktman fund, YACKX, has recovered quickly after March last year and managed to out-performed the value index. The fund now holds 30% oversea stocks.
We also got a new iPads this year since our 7 years old iPad can no longer updated. They are lighter, run faster and with a larger capacity. We will upgrade our 6 years old iMac in fall while the Window 10 PC is use for work.

Thanks @rforno
At the end of of 2020 cash was at 12%. I’m thinking he’s raised that over the past 1-2 months just looking at the lagging performance. However, Lipper still puts it at that modest 12% figure. Reads like an encyclopedia of investing. Perhaps a bit too much horn blowing. One has to be pleased with the amount of information and analysis contained.
And he’s unloaded Wells Fargo! :)
One interesting blurb: “Our biggest miss in 2019 was Apple and it was once again in 2020, as the stock rose 82% during the year ... The outperformance of Apple for the last two years has been a big detractor from our relative performance and a big disappointment for me personally. We continue to spend considerable time on Apple and have had multiple team members look at the stock, and yet we all come to the same conclusion: There is no reason a company with a long-term 6% EPS growth rate should trade for 30x earnings with two of its fastest-growing and most profitable revenue streams facing increasing regulatory scrutiny.”
Geez - Have a new Mac Air on order. Love Apple’s ecosystem, product support, etc. More important to me than the hardware. FWIW

PRWCX 2020 Annual Report is out ...
https://www.troweprice.com/literature/public/country/us/language/en/literature-type/annual-report/sub-type/mf?productCode=CAF&currency=USD
As always, as a long time PRWCX shareholder, I appreciate Giroux's perspectives and find his analyses to be well-reasoned.
(It seems long utilities and leveraged bank loans are one of the TRP house recommendations for 2021, as that's what Sebastien Page also was saying on Wealthtrack this month, too.)

It seems Fidelity limits this benefit to a "higher class" of customers:
https://slickdeals.net/f/14706584-turbotax-premier-free-for-some-fidelity-customers-premium-services-active-traders-private-client-ymmv-2020-tax-year-thread

h,lmgtfy
F1:
https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2020/demo/p25-1146.pdf

Hey all... a bit off topic (sort of)... but I still own PONAX and IOFIX came across my radar and have read a lot of positive comments on this board about it. It's performing just fine or better than fine in 2021... but did anyone here have palpitations in 2020 when the 1 year return was -9.59%? with the ER at 1.68%? I'm not being snarky... just trying to understand the logic of why you believe in it LT. Reviewed FD's chart showing the fund's momentum and it was logical. #IStrugglewithBonds and understanding the ballast / importance if you ignore 2008-which, hard to believe, was 13 years ago.

The pent up demand from the consumer side is understandable. The time frame of running to prior to March 2020 is within sight with multiple COVID vaccines being available - 4 total. Perhaps this will happens later this year. Also inflation will increase and possible higher rates. So what is your asset allocation should be?

FYI, here are some optimistic market observations from an article in yesterday's WSJ. Here are some excerpts:
"Shares of small companies and sectors of the market like financials and energy notched strong gains, while the broader stock market's moves were more muted. [...]
The jump in bond yields comes as the economy seems to be improving, stoking enthusiasm about a speedy recovery. New data on Friday showed that business activity in the U.S. private sector held up, boosted by accelerating service activity and manufacturing output. That followed a report Wednesday that showed consumers used stimulus checks to boost retail spending in January to the largest increase in seven months. [...]
JPMorgan Chase strategists said Friday that they expect consumers to shatter expectations for the rest of the year given expected fiscal stimulus and economic reopening as the pandemic eases. Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren said he expects the economy to pick up steam as vaccines are distributed.
This optimistic outlook led investors to ditch Treasurys and pile into economically sensitive stocks in the financials and energy sectors, helping those groups notch big weekly gains."