Hi, johnN.
I move slowly, but do anticipate splitting my current MACSX holdings between Seafarer and Matthews Asia Strategic Income (MAINX). Sometime in May, maybe? And I guess the implication is that, yes, I do think so.
David

I tend to move really slowly in realigning my portfolio. Among the things I could imagine doing:
1. noticeably increasing my allocation to River Park Short-Term High Yield (RPHYX). The rationale is that I'm way low on "cash" in my non-retirement portfolio because I used a chunk (returning 0%) to eliminate debt (3.5%) and cover an unexpected household expense.
2. liquidating my Matthews Asian Growth & Income (MACSX) position and reallocating to Matthews Asia Strategic Income (MAINX) and Seafarer Overseas Growth & Income (SIGIX). That would be hard for me, given my happy history with MACSX but it would open two new opportunity sets and still keep me in my comfort zone (Matthews + Foster).
3. liquidating Leuthold Global (GLBLX) and moving the money into Vanguard STAR (VGSTX) or Northern Global Tactical Asset Allocation (BBALX). Since inception, Leuthold has substantially beaten Morningstar's "world allocation" peer group but has trailed both of the two alternatives. It's a little more volatile and a lot more expensive but it also has theoretically greater flexibility than either of the other two. Much of the lag occurred in the six months after launch (in the midst of the meltdown) when the other two had a structural stake in Treasury bonds. I could move the money into another core holding, FPA Crescent (FPACX), though that does increase my exposure to manager risk. Romick has been excellent for me.
Just pondering,
David

Initiated a position in MAINX. Added to MAPIX and PEMDX. Bought T, VOD and FHY. Added to NLY. Have sold nothing and still sitting on over 25% cash, so I have plenty of dry powder waiting for a pullback.

Reply to @MaxBialystock: MAINX still is Asia, though.

MSCFX Mairs & Power small-cap. I note Russell 2000 and small-caps taking a beating the last couple (few?) days. Also, MAINX: to use as a destination for money pulled from MAPIX. Way too much overweight in MAPIX.

Thank you David. Each month I look forward reading your commentary. I particularly like your profile on Matthews Asia Strategic Income fund, MAINX.

Reply to @tgeno: In the last 'graph of my post, I meant the currency denomination of the bonds the fund holds. The fund's actually only ~ 8% cash as I recall. Not looking again, from memory, I think the figures were ~ $15 mm total assets with $1-2 mm cash.
I think it would be a good fit for the portfolio here; the other dedicated EM exposure I have is DLENX, which is largely Latin America, and apparently will usually be fairly heavy in L.A. The first ACH into MAINX from this address may be headed that way any day now.
Now that you mention it, I've never sold a single share of Matthews either - just exchanged on occasion.

Speaking of Mainx, the note David included that the E.R. has been reduced to 1.0% is good news.
The news, however, is expressed a little oddly on the Matthews site. The E.R.s are shown as 1% for institutional shares and still 1.40 % for investor shares. But then there's a footnote, which applies to both share classes, that says, in part:
"Matthews has also agreed to waive fees and reimburse additional (!) (my emphasis) expenses for the Institutional Class of the Fund on a voluntary basis. Any amounts voluntarily waived by Matthews in respect of the Institutional Class, excluding any voluntary waiver of class-specific shareholder servicing fees, will also be waived for the Investor Class."
So the note does appear to say the investor class is down to 1% too, though it's not simply stated, but much more technically/lawyerly expressed.
By the way, the full holdings as of EOY-11 are listed. It's 32% US$, the rest local currency. It remains high on this house's watchlist, but no $ committed yet.

Great commentary. Particularly appreciated the insight on the gold/bond bubble. Thanks for the Seafarer interview; I didn't see anything compelling that would motivate me to invest in the funds. However, I did revisit your review of MAINX and doubled my position in it today.

My Asia exposure is limited to mainly Matthews funds. I own MAPIX, MAPTX, MSMLX, and I recently added a small position in their new MAINX.

Kudos on the WSJ recognition.
"gather the evidence, assess the evidence, make an argument."
Allocated some to MAINX. Mr. Snowball's perspicacity and experience make for
a tough customer to argue with and I've very much been the beneficiary for agreeing.
How's that go...good judgement comes from experience because experience comes from bad judgement.
"You've also got to find someone who invests in their fund. Funds in which the managers and directors don't have a substantial personal stake consistently underperform the funds where the managers and the directors put their own money at risk."
(sub)Prime example--
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/business/an-investment-wipeout-that-didnt-have-to-happen.html?_r=2&ref=business
In these cases the managers had a substantial personal stake in their unsuspecting clients heart.
With financial services modus operandi of assymetric informational warfare the customer is always right (in the crosshairs.) Terming the pre-credit debacle activity as dealing with bloodsuckers would be far too kind.
http://roberthood.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/leeches2.jpg

Re: MAINX, when you have your discussion with Ms. Kong, I would really like her to tell us what her fund will bring to the table that other diversified bond managers cannot. I've seen a number of reports that Bill Gross, Dan Fuss, etc. are all increasingly looking to foreign and EM markets for their bond funds. If I have a diversified fund that already allocates (say) 5% in Asia, will I really benefit from additional exposure to MAINX? In particular MAINX's expense ratio seems very high compared to other diversified and international bond funds.