inclusion is not the only thing, of course
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/01/opinion/trump-biden-economic-policy.html

@Derf,
Linked article addresses the nature of what are commonly termed donuts. I believe these distributions are done primarily to comply with regulations imposed by either the IRS, the SEC, or likely, both. So it’s a way for investors in the funds to pay their legitimate taxes. Of course, in a tax deferred account, it doesn’t make any difference.
Sometimes an investor will suffer a mild “panic attack” on what’s called “the record date.” That’s the date the distribution amount is drawn from funds through a reduction in NAV. Typically, investors will experience surprise at a big drop in their fund’s NAV. On the following day, however, that temporary reduction is plowed back into accounts in the form of additional shares. Bottom line: investor owns more shares but at a lower NAV. The term donut actually refers to the circuitous nature of the transaction.
I had that happen with DODLX a week ago, a fund one wouldn’t ordinarily associate with cap gains. But it really rocked my boat when the NAV fell through the floor one day for no apparent reason. Of course, next day the $$ was back in my account via additional share purchase. Should add here that often both cap gains and normal income distributions are credited to the account on the same day. Likely, you observed some of both.
Article

Point of order?
Would it be permissible here to note that former President Jimmy Carter turns 96 today?
Full Story

I suspect that what @Derf might actually be observing is income or dividends being paid out and than used to buy additional shares, as some funds pay out income on a quarterly basis. Technically, the payout likely occurred at the end of the day yesterday.
In any event, Derf may be inaccurate in assuming that distribution donuts amount to extra food on the plate. In reality, the distribution in whole is extracted from the shareholder’s pie at the end of the day before it is reinvested back into the same account. So slice-to-slice, distributions shouldn’t affect the total amount of pie on the plate.
Re: Distributions Dates: Generally the payout date for capital gains falls somewhere around the end of the quarter for those funds that have donuts to dish up. Some funds‘ distributions more closely resemble pizza than donuts, being issued only once a year - if at all. Don’t confuse distribution donuts with the income frosting most bond funds (but not all) serve up monthly or quarterly. Two different desserts.
Me? Doesn’t make much difference. With rates so low, income funds are shucking out crumbs these days.

Numbers as of 9/30/2020.

Observations for one month as of 9/30/2020:
Multi- Flat for the month but securitized shined with 1-2.9%/
HY Munis – Flat for the month but Nuveen (NHMAX,NVHAX) did better.
Inter term – (-0.1%) for the month. TGLMX (mostly securitized) did 0.4%.
Bank loans – up 0.3-4% for the month.
Uncontrain/Nontrad -0.2 for the month. Securitized(JASVX,DFLEX)
HY+EM – HY -0.9 and EM=-1.7% for the month with correlation to stocks.
Corp – down month. PIGIX -0.4%.
SP500(VFIAX)-Down monthth at -3.8, YTD=5.55%.
PCI-CEF huge upside at 7.1%. YTD still at -13.7%
My own portfolio
I started the month with IOFIX+DFLEX and replaced DFLEX with JASVX+NHMAX. It’s pretty obvious that funds loaded with securitized bonds are doing well. HY Munis don’t have a momentum yet but I bought NHMAX because it’s in my taxable and it showed a better momentum than others but the last 2 days are down, I was too early but now I’m watching closely. It was another good month for me.

An example of how Covid-19 effects continue to ripple through the economy. Forbes
“ In March ... American Airlines, without notice, cancelled its order for 1.35 million bags – or 1.7 million pounds – of mixed almonds, cashews, pecans and pistachios, the much-loved mix that it had been serving warm to its premium-class passengers for more than 30 years.“
-
Related : After posting the above, this more sobering story broke:
Fort Worth-Based American Airlines to Cut 19,000 Jobs CNBC
The flowers died on fields of hope
All the way from east to west
Where the mighty winds will blow
I'll put my dreams to rest
This scary monster is very much alive
Like a hundred years ago
From: The World We Used to Know

You can actually sell or buy both....it’s just you do so for different reasons. But a call gives the holder the right to buy the underlying security (if exercised)....and the put gives holder the right to sell the underlying security.
I’m by no means an expert! And VF got me thinking about using this for income again (I have done covered-calls for several years now). But I’ve been noodling around with selling some out of the money puts (thereby “going short” on the put) on triple-digit-priced stocks for 1-6 weeks out.....hoping to not have it exercised, and it “sidelines” the money required to purchase the underlying stock, at the exercise price, for the duration that the put option is held short.
Also, when buying calls (“going long” a call), most do this to take advantage of a price increase on the underlying stock (bullish stance) without having to put as much capital at risk (theoretically, only the cost of the call premium is put at risk). Sometimes, you can make more when a stock increases by holding the call option, depending upon maturity and how far out of the money the exercise price is. Many do not hold the option until expiration/exercise, but trade in the value of the option contract itself.
It seems very complicated when you explain it, but if you paper traded some options (maybe on the CBOE website or something?), it makes a little bit more sense. But I have very little idea when it comes to option spreads (multiple options on the same security)....
Sorry to hijack the thread! :)

A bird's eye view of stock market performance in 2020:

I decided to examine year-to-date returns of every component in the S&P Total Market Index (ITOT), including large caps, mid caps, small caps, and even smaller listed companies that do not qualify for the small-cap index.

Of the nearly 3,664 listed stocks with full year 2020 returns, the median return (e.g. the 1832nd ranked return) is -14.75%. There is a large gap between the median return for U.S. stocks in 2020, and the weighted average mean performance for large cap stocks that are up between 4-5% on the year.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4377000-distribution-of-u-s-stock-returns-in-2020?utm_medium=email&utm_source=seeking_alpha&mail_subject=ploutos-distribution-of-u-s-stock-returns-in-2020&utm_campaign=rta-author-article&utm_content=link-0

@FD1000; I'm guessing you bought in around 3/25/20 ?
Derf

Nope, I sold over 90% at the end of 02/2020 and the rest days later.
Made several good trades with QQQ+PCI in 03/2020.
Start investing back in bond funds to over 99+% in 04/2020.
I had a huge % in GWMEX for several months. I owned IOFIX only in the last several weeks.
I wish I was brave enough to buy IOFIX on 3/25/2020. It made over 50% since then.

How do you square owning IOFIX with your later comment in this string to avoid risky funds?

I'm a trader and don't recommend what I do to others. My posts are generic unless someone asks me specifically about my portfolio.
This thread isn't about avoiding risky funds. Please read the original posts "What are your 5 or 6 largest holdings? *Or where are the bulk of your holdings?"
BTW, I don't believe in just lower risk funds, I believe in great risk/reward funds. You should look for funds that have good performance but also good risk attributes(SD, Max Draw, Sharpe, Sortino).
For allocation my go 2 funds are:
Moderate=PRWCX. In the last several years VLAIX is good too.
Conservative=VWINX,VWIAX

@FD1000

Not trying to pile on Matthews, because I don't currently own any of their funds, but another PM recently departed after co-managing the Pacific Tiger fund for several years. He was replaced by two people, one of whom had earlier been at Matthews but then spent a short while at Seafarer (leaving there under what looked like less than the best of circumstances). Matthews appears to be a fund company in flux right now.

You're right SFnative. Just googled and found the article below from April 2020. Two PMs actually not mentioned in the recent articles also left earlier in the year: Lydia So who was lead pm on the Asia Small Fund and had been with the firm for 15 years based on her linkedin, and Rahul Gupta who was co manager of Pacific Tiger fund (this is the one you referenced) both left the firm in April 2020. Tiffany Hsiao actually took over Asia Small when Lydia departed before leaving herself a few months later.
So that's 5 very senior PMs departing in the span of 6 months, plus the President/Global CIO, COO and CHRO. I see smoke!
https://citywireusa.com/professional-buyer/news/fund-files-matthews-managers-depart-invesco-fund-under-review-after-index-error/a1354995
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydia-so-cfa-b9b0171b3/

@FD1000; I'm guessing you bought in around 3/25/20 ?
Derf

Nope, I sold over 90% at the end of 02/2020 and the rest days later.
Made several good trades with QQQ+PCI in 03/2020.
Start investing back in bond funds to over 99+% in 04/2020.
I had a huge % in GWMEX for several months. I owned IOFIX only in the last several weeks.
I wish I was brave enough to buy IOFIX on 3/25/2020. It made over 50% since then.

How do you square owning IOFIX with your later comment in this string to avoid risky funds?

I love these fantasyland hypothetical scenarios that presume that A. most Americans have $750 extra a month to stash in the stock market and B. that the stock market's past returns will be the same in the future. Depending on which study you believe, on the low end, 40% of Americans have less than $1,000 in liquid assets to invest: https://bankrate.com/banking/savings/financial-security-january-2020/
But more importantly, who can say with any honesty what the next 20 years of stock performance will bring? No one.

@FD1000; I'm guessing you bought in around 3/25/20 ?
Derf

Nope, I sold over 90% at the end of 02/2020 and the rest days later.
Made several good trades with QQQ+PCI in 03/2020.
Start investing back in bond funds to over 99+% in 04/2020.
I had a huge % in GWMEX for several months. I owned IOFIX only in the last several weeks.
I wish I was brave enough to buy IOFIX on 3/25/2020. It made over 50% since then.

MaxFunds is too generic instead of looking at risk/reward as the best measure of funds. MFO is a fantastic source too.
Easy example: VWENX(98 by MF) vs PRWCX(83 by MF) in the last 10 years (link)
VWENX has a bit lower SD but PRWCX is beter for the following: performance was at 2+% annually, Worse+Best year, Sharpe+Sortino.
===============
What are my 5 or 6 largest holdings?
As a trader I use only 2-3 funds and now I have a big % in IOFIX and smaller % in JASVX+NHMAX. I could change it any week or stay with it for weeks.

Summary
° Household equity allocations (as a % of household assets) are near the high end of their historical range.
° An analysis of corporate capital structures in terms of equity and debt, and how it changed over time.
° Why fiscal policy is a key variable to consider within any tactical investment framework, at this particularly juncture.
By Lyn Alden Schwartzer at SA

While I'm a fan of using standardized periods (e.g. calendar years) for comparing funds because it prevents cherry picking, when it comes to looking at one fund's performance cherry picking may be what one wants. For example, one disregards year (and often month) boundaries when looking at max drawdowns.
With that in mind, AKREX lost 9½% in the year spanning Feb 11, 2015 to Feb 11, 2016 roughly matching the S&P 500. FWIW, CPOAX lost 16¾% over the same 365 days.
M* chart.
Also, as I've said before, an unusually hot (or cold) few months for a fund can make not only its past year performance look great (or lousy), but can also skew 3, 5, and sometimes even 10 year figures.
For example, if we back up just six months, and look at the ten year period between March 19, 2010 and March 18, 2020, we see that AKREX outperformed CPOAX. Similar result if we stick to calendar years (2010-2019). The 10 year comparison is skewed by a few months of hot performance by CPOAX.
M* 10 year chart (ending March 18, 2020; cherry picked to filter out impact of latest hot streak)
M* 10 year chart (2010-2019)

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/106830/000168386320013496/f6993d1.htm
497 1 f6993d1.htm VANGUARD CASH RESERVES FEDERAL MONEY MARKET 497
 
Vanguard Cash Reserves Federal Money Market Fund
Supplement Dated September 29, 2020, to the Prospectus and Summary Prospectus Dated December 20, 2019 (as supplemented September 29, 2020)
Effective immediately, Investor Shares of Vanguard Cash Reserves Federal Money Market Fund (formerly known as Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund) are closed to new investors. The Fund’s Investor Shares will remain open to existing investors. You may convert your Investor Shares of the Fund to Admiral Shares at any time by contacting Vanguard.
It is anticipated that all of the Fund’s outstanding Investor Shares will be automatically converted to Admiral Shares beginning in the fourth quarter of 2020 and continuing through 2021. Once all outstanding shares are converted, the Investor share class will be eliminated.
  © 2020 The Vanguard Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Vanguard Marketing Corporation, Distributor.PS 030H 092020

I like MaxFunds, and it's one of my go to resources. The problem here is that AKREX is being compared to funds that are riding 80% plus gains ytd on the backs of shopify, zoom and the like. That usually ends very badly. I'll take my "average" of plus 17%/year over the last decade with no down years and an SD under 12 for AKREX as compared to say CPOAX -- yes it has a 10 year average of 22.8, but with an SD 0f 19.51, including two down years. It does wonders when a fund is up 85% ytd!

“Opportunity and inclusion are important for achieving a strong economy ... Policymakers can improve economic mobility by increasing access to high-quality education, helping all households gain access to high speed internet and eliminating systemic inequities in access to credit and financial services” Mester said. Story
Duh.
No disrespect to Mester. Just find it incredible that this needed to be said at all or that it took a Fed Reserve official saying it to make news. It would seem so damned obvious. Relates back to the recent Ray Dalio thread in some ways.