Akre Focus performed well while Chuck Akre managed the fund.
It delivered strong returns with relatively low volatility.
After Chuck Akre retired in 2020, all experienced investment personnel left except for John Neff.
Neff was backed by two somewhat new analysts.
Akre Focus isn't the same fund now...

@ Observant: Thanks for bringing up that Beach interview. I'd like to know the details of the "state and local education" problems. The AI on Duck-Duck answers the question this way:

The revisions in the jobs report indicated that state and local education job gains were lower than previously reported, primarily due to reduced hiring as pandemic-era government subsidies expired. This led to significant job cuts in education, reflecting a broader trend of declining employment in that sector.

Hmm. What "broader trend"?

I have used both as MD and patient, although I haven't used Cerner since 2020
Back then Cerner was far easier to deal with as a provider, and Epic was far far too complicated. EHRs were designed as billing and revenue capturing platforms not to enhanced providers or patients experience. Once Bush crammed them down our throats, there was no way to win.

Hi @Old_Joe
The below is a very good overview. The report is widely followed, and the data is announced and discussed at/on Bloomberg and CNBC tv business programs, and others.
ADP report
The ADP National Employment Report (also known as the ADP Report) is a monthly report that provides an independent measure of the US labor market's private sector.
Here's a breakdown of the key information about the ADP report:
1. What it is
The ADP National Employment Report measures the change in US private-sector employment and pay, according to PR Newswire.
It's based on anonymized payroll data collected from over 25 million private-sector employees across the US.
It's produced by the ADP Research Institute in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.
2. What it shows
The report provides insights into overall private sector job gains and losses, pay growth, and sectoral employment trends.
It details the change in total private employment for the current month and weekly job data from the previous month.
The report includes a sectoral breakdown of employment changes by industry, allowing for detailed understanding of which sectors are growing or contracting.
It also categorizes employment changes by business size (small, medium, large) to highlight trends within different-sized companies.
The report also includes data on pay trends, specifically focusing on year-over-year pay growth for both job-stayers and job-changers.
3. Why it's important
Labor Market Indicator: It offers a timely and representative picture of the private sector, a crucial segment of the US economy.
Predictive Value: The report is released before the more comprehensive Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Employment Situation Report, often serving as a leading indicator for predicting the BLS numbers.
Sectoral Insights: The detailed breakdown by industry helps understand specific sector performance and trends.
Economic Forecasting: The job and pay data are used by economists and market analysts for economic forecasting, influencing expectations for consumer spending, business investment, and overall economic growth.
Informs Business Strategy: The report helps companies understand labor market conditions, manage risk, and make workforce decisions, such as retention or layoff strategies.
4. Key recent findings (July 2025 report)
Private employers added 104,000 jobs in July, which was higher than the expected 77,000 addition and the largest monthly gain since March.
Hiring gains were primarily driven by the services sector, which added 74,000 jobs, particularly in leisure/hospitality and financial activities.
However, the education and health sector experienced a net loss of jobs, continuing a negative trend for the year.
Year-over-year pay growth remained relatively stable, with a 4.4% increase for job-stayers and a 7% increase for job-changers.
5. Next release
The August 2025 ADP National Employment Report is scheduled for release on September 4, 2025, at 8:15 a.m. ET.
In essence, the ADP report offers valuable insights into the health and dynamics of the US private sector labor market, acting as an important tool for businesses, investors, and policymakers alike.

as i heard on a recent podcast, the global reallocation of capital will lag the reallocation of trust.
and yeah, i dont need some trading genius to tell me to look out the window to see if the immediate weather is good.

@Mona,
I was surprised Ms. Hynes remained the sole manager of Vanguard Health Care
after being promoted to CEO in 2021.
You'd think she had plenty of other responsibilities associated with the CEO role!
FWIW, a M* analyst downgraded Vanguard Health Care in late 2020.
https://www.morningstar.com/funds/why-weve-downgraded-this-fine-vanguard-fund
Note: Sorry, I probably shouldn't have derailed yogi's thread!

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/890540/000139834425014318/fp0094738-1_497.htm
497 1 fp0094738-1_497.htm
THE ADVISORS’ INNER CIRCLE FUND II
(the “Trust”)
Vontobel Global Environmental Change Fund
(the “Fund”)
Supplement dated August 1, 2025 to the Fund’s Prospectus (the “Prospectus”), Summary Prospectus (the “Summary Prospectus”) and Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”), each dated January 28, 2025
This supplement provides new and additional information beyond that contained in the Prospectus, Summary Prospectus and SAI, and should be read in conjunction with the Prospectus, Summary Prospectus and SAI.
The Board of Trustees of the Trust, at the recommendation of Vontobel Asset Management, Inc. (the “Adviser”), the investment adviser of the Fund, has approved a plan of liquidation providing for the liquidation of the Fund’s assets and the distribution of the net proceeds pro rata to the Fund’s shareholders. In connection therewith, the Fund is closed to investments from new and existing shareholders effective immediately. The Fund is expected to cease operations and liquidate on or about August 29, 2025 (the “Liquidation Date”). The Liquidation Date may be changed without notice at the discretion of the Trust’s officers.
Prior to the Liquidation Date, shareholders may redeem (sell) their shares in the manner described in the “Purchasing, Selling and Exchanging Fund Shares – How to Sell Your Fund Shares” section of the Prospectus. For those Fund shareholders that do not redeem (sell) their shares prior to the Liquidation Date, the Fund will distribute to each such shareholder, on or promptly after the Liquidation Date, a liquidating cash distribution equal in value to the shareholder’s interest in the net assets of the Fund as of the Liquidation Date.
In anticipation of the liquidation of the Fund, the Adviser may manage the Fund in a manner intended to facilitate the Fund’s orderly liquidation, such as by holding cash or making investments in other highly liquid assets. As a result, during this time, all or a portion of the Fund may not be invested in a manner consistent with its stated investment strategies, which may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective.
The liquidation distribution amount will include any accrued income and capital gains, will be treated as a payment in exchange for shares and will generally be a taxable event for shareholders investing through taxable accounts. You should consult your personal tax advisor concerning your particular tax situation. Shareholders remaining in the Fund on the Liquidation Date will not be charged any transaction fees by the Fund. However, the net asset value of the Fund on the Liquidation Date will reflect costs of liquidating the Fund. Shareholders will receive liquidation proceeds as soon as practicable after the Liquidation Date.
PLEASE RETAIN THIS SUPPLEMENT FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.

An interesting discussion with Cliff Asness from AQR on The Long View podcast.
"The founder of AQR Capital Management discusses alternative strategies,
private markets, tariffs, and the role of AI in investing."
https://www.morningstar.com/podcasts/the-long-view/526f0852-3f72-4259-941c-e27eed99645f

I had PRHSX for decades. I dumped most of my healthcare holdings before I lost too much of the outsized gains I had accumulated. The weakness started in early 2022.

Hi @JD_co

Does the Big Beautiful con job sabotage the Bull market?

More so now than a short time ago, I do believe.
Europe has been soft for several trading days, after the very large gains. Many Global sectors were downward today (Thursday).

Wall Street’s Big, Bad Idea for Your 401(k)
Excerpts from a current Wall Street Journal article by Jason Zweig
The excerpts shown here are a very small section of Mr. Zweig's entire report. I stronly recommend that his report be read in it's entirety. The above link should be free to all.

Wall Street is promoting a colossal lie.

Money managers are in a desperate race to stuff illiquid, so-called private-market assets into funds anyone can buy, including your 401(k). They say we all can earn high return and low risk with nontraded “alternatives” like private equity, venture capital and private real estate.
Because private assets don’t trade, it’s the fund managers—not the market—that determine what they’re worth. That enables the managers to report much fewer and lower fluctuations than public funds do. Then they get to declare that private funds are low risk.
That’s ridiculous. In the real world, risk is the chance of losing money, which has nothing to do with how often prices are reported. Cliff Asness, co-founder of AQR Capital Management, calls the smooth returns reported by alternative funds “volatility laundering.”
Owning an alternative fund is a lot simpler than selling it. When you own it, you might take the manager’s valuations for granted, even if that’s a bad idea. When you sell it, the valuation matters—a lot. That’s a risk.
In short, an alternative fund can claim to be low risk and to be at least partly liquid—but, sooner or later, it won’t be able to sustain both claims at once. That’s true here, and for all the other funds hoping to rope in a much wider base of everyday investors.
Remember that as politicians ease the way for alternative funds to land in your retirement plan.

David Stein (Money for the Rest of us Podcast) stated that its not a great time to be investing in PE.
- fundraising has slowed tremendously
- there are tons of PE firms that can't sell their firms due to various reasons
- tons of liquidity problems
- uni endowments are selling at tremendous discounts because they are so illiquid
- PE firms are needing to raise liquid capital to let investors out of old PE investments out.

@Observant1, thank much.
From the best that I can tell, Alan Bond, a frequent guest on Wall Street Week, was last on the show for episode number 2922 broadcasted on 11-26-1999.
"On December 16, 1999, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued New York pension fund manager Alan B. Bond for fraudulently receiving over $6.9 million in kickbacks from brokerage firms..."
https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-16394
"On June 10, 2002, former money manager Alan Bond (Bond) was convicted of six counts of federal criminal investment adviser fraud and wire fraud. Bond's conviction related to a "cherry picking" scheme in which Bond illegally allocated profitable trades to his own personal account and allocated the vast majority of unprofitable trades into client accounts that he managed through his money management firm, Albriond Capital Management, LLC (Albriond)"
https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-17560
"On February 11, 2003, United States District Court Judge Leonard Sand sentenced investment adviser Alan Brian Bond (Bond) to a prison term of 12 years, 7 months and ordered him to pay $6.6 million in restitution, with possible additional restitution, for his role in both a kickback scheme and a trade allocation or "cherry picking" scheme..."
https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-18018

Liz Ann Sonders
* 02/2019: Market may be ignoring risks of an earnings slowdown (https://www.kbzk.com/cnn-business-consumer/2019/02/13/market-may-be-ignoring-risks-of-an-earnings-slowdown/)
Reality: the SP500 made 31.2%
=============
06/2020: In her 2020 Mid-Year Outlook, Liz Ann Sonders, Chief Investment Strategist at Charles Schwab offers a word of caution for the short-term but strikes an optimistic tone for long-term economic progress.
It is safe to expect elevated volatility through the remainder of the year as economic numbers remain depressed while the newly kickstarted economy may sputter with a second wave of coronavirus outbreak.
However, this pessimism is balanced with potential economic surprises and continued advances in treatments and vaccines for the virus. (link).
Reality: The SP500 made 24% during 06-12 of 2020.
=================
03/2022 (link)
Actions in stocks: The actions: Particularly during times of uncertainty, diversification across—and within—asset classes and sectors is of paramount importance. Given the expectation of continued bouts of volatility, especially at the sector level, resist the temptation to try to predict sector leadership and instead focus on shoring up your stock portfolio’s quality characteristics.
Actions in bonds: As central banks adopt tighter policies and yields move higher, consider looking for potential opportunities to add to your intermediate- and long-term bond holdings.
In particular, a bond ladder—in which you buy bonds with staggered maturities and reinvest the proceeds in new bonds as each one comes due—can be an effective way to increase the yields in your portfolio over time.
Reality: She missed it all. Bonds had one of the worst year in decades and stocks were in bear market.
=================
12/2022 (https://www.businessinsider.com/charles-schwab-liz-ann-sonders-invest-markets-stocks-recession-book-2022-12)
Reality: Her narratives were pretty weak. You didn't have to do anything special. The SP500 made 26.2% in 2023.
===================
12/2023: The stock market probably has an okay year if we get more stability and less uncertainty with regard to monetary policy and, in turn, inflation and interest rates.
(link).
Reality: The SP500 made more than OK, 24.9%
===================
I can summarize her narrative over the past several years like this:
Valuations are high
Markets carry risk
Stick with good companies
I have no idea what the market will do, but it’ll be fine
(After all, since 1980, the S&P 500 has been positive about 80% of the time.)
I'm a Chief Investment Strategist, but since I’m an economist, I’ll mostly focus on the economy — even though it doesn’t have a strong correlation to how stocks or asset categories perform over the next 3, 6, or 9 months… which is exactly what most investors care about..

listening to a podcast yesterday and the guy was only in favor of it in 401k's as part of a target date offering like the state street + TDF's.
he justified its use by saying pension funds buy a ton of private equity and the 401k removed a lot of that capital to be available to PE.
again, to me its unnecessary and largely a way to get into the pockets of investors.

LOLs all around!
I am in a holding pattern with 58% equities and more cash than ever. I perceive the recent surge of U.S. market gains as mainly based on retail investors buying into smoke and mirrors. If I am wrong, I am still sitting at what is a good safe allocation for a person very close to retirement. If I am right, I will add 2-7% to equities in a downturn, and add to bond oefs/cefs, as indicated.

Hi all, I was curious about Capital Group's new ETF's and if they are in any way related to a mutual fund counterpart, so I went through the holdings and also put the fund's in portfolio visualizer asset correlation to see. its not perfect, but it's something I'd thought I'd share in case anyone else was curious. some are twins or near twins, while others I call sister funds. some have no obvious OEF to match.
Global large blend
CWGIX sister CGDG
AGVFX twin CGGE
Global large growth
ANWPX sister CGGO
ANEFX none
Global Small Cap
SMCWX none
International Large blend
IGGAX twin CGIC
International Large Growth
AIVBX twin CGIE
AEPGX sister CGXU
International Emerging Markets (they add some large US to these btw)
NEWFX twin CGNG
DWGAX none
US Large Value
AMRMX twin CGCV
CGVV none
US Large Blend
AIVSX sister CGUS
ANCFX none
AWSHX sister CGDV
US large Growth
AGTHX sister CGGR
AMCPX sister CGGG
Balanced Fund
ABALX sister CGBL
US small/ midcap
CGMM none

Interesting, since TRP still shows it closed.
https://www.troweprice.com/financial-intermediary/us/en/investments/mutual-funds/us-products/capital-appreciation-fund.html

497 1 wavelength497.htm 497
July 23, 2025
ULTIMUS MANAGERS TRUST
WAVELENGTH FUND
(WAVLX)
Supplement to the Summary Prospectus and Prospectus,
each dated September 28, 2024
This supplement updates certain information in the Summary Prospectus and Prospectus of the Wavelength Fund (the “Fund”), a series of Ultimus Managers Trust, to revise information contained therein as described below. For more information, or to obtain a copy of the Summary Prospectus or Prospectus, free of charge, please contact the Fund at 1-866-896-9292.
Effective July 31, 2025, the Fund will change its distribution frequency from quarterly to monthly.
The following disclosure replaces in its entirety the first sentence in the second paragraph in the section entitled “DIVIDENDS, DISTRIBUTIONS AND TAXES” on page 34 of the Prospectus:
The Fund expects to distribute substantially all of its net income to shareholders on a monthly basis and its net realized capital gains to shareholders at least annually.
Effective July 31, 2025, the Fund will reduce the minimum initial investment from $10,000 for regular accounts to $2,500 for regular accounts.
The following disclosure replaces in its entirety the first two sentences in the section entitled “PURCHASE AND SALE OF FUND SHARES” on page 8 of the Summary Prospectus:
PURCHASE AND SALE OF FUND SHARES
Minimum Initial Investment
The minimum investment is $2,500 for regular accounts.
The following disclosure replaces in its entirety the second paragraph in the section entitled “HOW TO BUY SHARES – Minimum Initial Investment” on page 26 of the Prospectus:
Minimum Initial Investment
The minimum initial investment for regular accounts is $2,500. This minimum investment requirement may be waived or reduced for any reason at the discretion of the Fund.
If you have any questions regarding the Fund, please call 1-866-896-9292.
Investors Should Retain this Supplement for Future Referencehttps://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1545440/000158064225004429/wavelength497.htm

@Crash
You seem to be very fond of T. Rowe Price.
Not that there is anything wrong with that...

That’s normal. When I moved on to a Fidelity brokerage account (around 2020) I maintained large holds in 3 or 4 TRP funds. Over time I learned ”There is life after T Rowe Price”. Today I own none. Top holdings today: Cohen & Steers, Blackrock, Calamos, Oakmark, Gabelli (GAMCO).
”Variety is the spice of life.”