I received a “section 19a” document from Alpha Centric via Schwab informing shareholders about the percentage of monthly distributions that is income and that which is return of capital. It seems to me this is the first such notice I have received, but I could have missed something previously. In the event, to date, ROC amounts to 56% of the gross distributions with the remainder as true income. I believe the cost basis of one’s holding in the fund must be reduced by the amount of the ROC. I have no idea if what Schwab reports to the IRS accounts for this, nor do I know if TurboTax can account for this. Apparently, upon sale of the MF, if the ROC is not factored in, the shareholder could be in violation of IRS rules. I did not sell when IOAFX cratered, but I did hear on the board of others bailing out. I hope this is post is not too wonky.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/dont-settle-for-skimpy-bond-yields-and-make-dividend-stocks-your-best-income-play-fixed-income-veteran-says-2020-08-27
Don’t settle for skimpy bond yields and make dividend stocks your best income play, fixed-income veteran says
The fixed-income market ‘is as much of a challenge as I have seen in 41 years,’ says Dan Genter, CEO of RNC Genter Capital Management
Bonds and treasuries mm yields are in the toilets....not many options left
What else are you folks doing? More junk and prefered???
We did buy/add more BAC PREFERRED few days, maybe good play medium long terms
(BAC.PRA)
Pff
Jnk

Here's Vanguard's press release (largely duplicative of the above info)
https://pressroom.vanguard.com/news/Press-Release-Vanguard-Announces-Changes-Money-Market-Fund-Lineup-082720.html

Over the past two decades, Vanguard’s approach has helped Prime Admiral Shares outperform 97% of the competition. However, Prime Investor Shares have only slightly outperformed Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund over this same time period. This shift in the fund’s portfolio [to US government securities] underscores Vanguard’s belief that government money market funds can better meet investor needs for capital preservation and liquidity while avoiding undue risk.

Pardon a bit of cynicism here, but it doesn't take two decades to come to this conclusion. Unless something unspoken has changed, like risk. Not necessarily risk to the investor, but to Vanguard. Jane Bryant Quinn wrote in 1990:

The last year has seen at least two near-misses. Integrated Resources defaulted on commercial paper that was being held by some money funds, and paper owed by Mortgage & Realty Trust was threatened. Among the victims: funds carrying the good names of Value Line, Liquid Green, Alliance and T. Rowe Price.
In each case, the sponsor stepped in to absorb the loss. But if it hadn`t, the fund`s investors would have come up short.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-05-21-9002110461-story.html
The risk in a prime MMF is largely to the fund sponsor - eat the loss or lose face.
Why doesn't Vanguard simply merge the fund with VMFXX? Prime MMF is going to have a similar portfolio anyway. So even if you stay with the fund, you'll get the lower yield of a government MMF. The ER of VMFXX is just one basis point more than the Admiral shares of Prime. With Prime MMF Admiral shares you lose the ability to write checks; with VMFXX you can still write checks.

I've been impressed by the approach taken by Grandeur Peak (as well as by the performance). They seem interested in serving their clients, not merely themselves. In tough markets, like 4th quarter 2018, they may drop like a rock but seem to recover quite well. I used to own OAKIX. Performance, both medium and long term, can now be described as no better than average while volatility is off the charts and fees are too high. The comment about FMIJX reports sounding like a broken record struck home. So many redemptions there, year end capital gains distributions may be ugly for a taxable account. Sold that earlier this year. It's hard to overlook the hot streak VWIGX has been on. Gaudy is the word. But even when you back out 2020 performance it has done very well historically. Personally, I've also opted for rock bottom expenses in the form of VTMGX.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/106830/000168386320012840/f6773d1.htm
497 1 f6773d1.htm VANGAURD PRIME MONEY MARKET FUND 497
Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund
Supplement Dated August 27, 2020, to the Prospectus and Summary Prospectus Dated December 20, 2019
Change in Strategy, Name, and Designation
The board of trustees (the “Board”) of Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund (the “Fund”) has approved changes to the Fund’s investment strategy and name, and a change in the Fund’s designation to a “government” money market fund. These changes will be effective on or about September 29, 2020.
The Fund is currently designated as a “retail” money market fund. The Fund invests primarily in high-quality, short-term money market instruments, including certificates of deposit, banker’s acceptances, commercial paper, Eurodollar and Yankee obligations, and other money market securities, including securities issued by the U.S. government or its agencies and instrumentalities. The Fund invests more than 25% of its assets in the financial services industry.
The Board has determined that it is in the best interests of the Fund and its shareholders to change the Fund’s designation to a “government” money market fund. Pursuant to Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act of 1940, a government money market fund is required to invest at least 99.5% of its total assets in cash, U.S. government securities, and/or repurchase agreements that are collateralized solely by U.S. government securities and/or cash (“government securities”).
Accordingly, effective on or about September 29, 2020, the Fund will invest at least 99.5% of its total assets in government securities and the Fund’s name will change to Vanguard Cash Reserves Federal Money Market Fund. The Fund will continue to invest more than 25% of its assets in the financial services industry (i.e., issuers principally engaged in providing financial services to consumers and industry), which includes securities issued by government-sponsored enterprises, such as the Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”), the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”), and the Federal Home Loan Banks. Currently, the Fund has no limit on its ability to invest in government securities, and will continue to increase such investments prior to changing its designation to a government money market fund.
In addition, in connection with the change in the Fund’s name, the Board also approved the implementation of a policy for the Fund to invest, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its assets in securities issued by the U.S. government and its agencies and instrumentalities. This policy will become effective concurrent with the other changes to change the Fund’s designation to a government money market fund.
Lower Investment Minimum
The Board has also approved lowering the investment minimum for AdmiralTM Shares of the Fund to $3,000, effective immediately. Investors may convert their Investor Shares to Admiral Shares at any time by accessing their account at vanguard.com or by contacting Vanguard.
It is anticipated that all of the outstanding Investor Shares of the Fund will be automatically converted to Admiral Shares beginning in the fall of 2020 and continuing through 2021. Once all investors have been converted from Investor Shares to Admiral Shares, the Fund’s Investor Share class will be eliminated.
The Fund’s registration statement will be updated on or about September 29, 2020, to reflect these changes.
© 2020 The Vanguard Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
or
https://investornews.vanguard/changes-to-our-taxable-money-market-fund-lineup/

From what I can tell, its use of options in this arena means that the option gains/losses can offset the other ordinary gains/losses it earns -- which should, I think, make it fairly tax efficient for a taxable account. I'm also curious how their options 'special sauce' works out as well. And, for a cash-y fund, I prefer less volatility, too -- so I'd happily trade upside gains for lowered volatility during market stress. We'll see, though ... I'm not 'wed' to holding anything forever, and as I said, it's an initial position, but if it doesn't meet my expectations, sayonara!

@rforno, what makes IVOL interesting to you. I see it is categorized a TIP ETF. I compared it to the TIP ETF I use, SCHP, and surprisingly IVOL holds 88% SCHP in it's portfolio. It's dip in march was less but over all it under performs SCHP.
I do think DCA'ing into TIPs isn't a bad idea.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1005020/000110465920099646/tm2029720d1_497e.htm
97 1 tm2029720d1_497e.htm VIRTUS RAMPART EQUITY TREND FUND
VIRTUS OPPORTUNITIES TRUST
Virtus Rampart Equity Trend Fund
101 Munson Street
Greenfield, MA 01301
(800) 243-1574
IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING CHANGES TO THE FUND’S SUBADVISER, NAME, PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES AND PRINCIPAL RISKS
August 27, 2020
Dear Shareholder:
I am writing to inform you of important changes to the subadviser, name, principal investment strategies, and principal risks for the Virtus Rampart Equity Trend Fund, to be renamed the Virtus FORT Trend Fund (the “Fund”).
As previously communicated, on June 17, 2020, the Board of Trustees of Virtus Opportunities Trust approved the replacement of the Fund’s current subadviser, Rampart Investment Management, LLC, with FORT Investment Management LP (“FORT”), and in connection therewith, a change to the Fund’s name, principal investment strategies and principal risks, in order to address concerns that the Fund’s current strategy was not performing as expected due to changes in the way the market operates since the current investment strategies and the quantitative model on which they were based were established. The Board’s approval was based upon the recommendation of Virtus Investment Advisers, Inc. (the “Adviser”), the investment adviser to the Fund. The changes to the Fund were disclosed in a supplement to the Fund’s prospectus dated June 18, 2020, and are anticipated to take effect on or about August 31, 2020 (“Effective Date”).
In summary, the Fund will continue to seek long-term capital appreciation. Consistent with this objective, as of the Effective Date, the Fund’s investment program will consist of two elements: (i) an actively managed portfolio of a broad spectrum of worldwide financial and non-financial futures contracts, which may include, but are not limited to, contracts on short-term interest rates, bonds, currencies, stock indices, energy, metals and agricultural commodities; and (ii) a portfolio of cash equivalents, U.S. government securities (including money market funds that invest solely in U.S. government securities) and other short-term, high grade debt instruments. The Fund expects to seek to gain its exposure to the futures contracts described in this section by investing up to 25% of its total assets in a wholly-owned subsidiary of the fund (the “Subsidiary”) organized as a company under the laws of the Cayman Islands. The Fund may also engage in short sales of any instrument that it is permitted to purchase for investment, and may invest without restriction as to country, currency, or underlying asset type. As of the Effective Date, the Fund will therefore maintain the potential for a significant allocation to cash or cash equivalents and high-quality short-term securities but, unlike before, the Fund will hold interests in derivatives and commodities rather than equity securities.
In connection with the new strategy, as of the Effective Date, the Fund will no longer be subject to Equity Securities Risk and Sector Focused Investing Risk as principal risks, and it will be subject to the following new principal risks..:

“Walmart has teamed up with Microsoft in a bid to buy TikTok in one of the most unexpected twists in the saga of the hugely popular short-form video app.“
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/27/906690522/walmart-joins-microsoft-in-a-bid-to-buy-tiktok
Very interesting.

George Soros called me and said buy a 1000 shares of GLD etf (using a market order) at 10:45 am EDT on 10/7/2020. Said the trade will be good until 1/20/2021. He's calling me back later to advise me as to which model of the Bentley Bentayga I should buy !

Date of Speech: August 27, 2020
- Fed will target 2% inflation rate on average, in softening of policy
- Fed will also monitor shortfalls in unemployment rate, with less concern about overshoots
- No mention of forward guidance
- Speech and statement suggest rate hikes are a long way off
- Stocks and gold rise, dollar falls slightly
Above loosely excerpted from: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/08/27/markets-live-latest-coronavirus-news-pound-euro-ftse-100/
(Ignore the time stamps. That’s London time.)

https://www.google.com/amp/s/seekingalpha.com/amp/article/4371007-gld-next-buying-opportunity-in-6-weeks-time
GLD: Next Buying Opportunity In About 6 Weeks' Time
Aug. 26, 2020 10:35 PMSPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD)
Summary
Gold is trying to confirm its daily cycle low.
We are on week 24 of the intermediate cycle.
The momentum of the yearly cycle and 8-year cycle should mean we have a couple of years left in this bull market.
We did added more gold recently [both physicals gold silvers also from AMPEX.COM and GLD]. think could be more gas left in the tank especially Feds keep pumping more money and central banks around the world keep borrowing to keep their economies afloat.

Checking up on a famous indicator.......

The metric earned its nickname after Buffett once said it's “the best single measure of where valuations stand at any given moment.” The Buffett indicator is calculated by dividing the total value of all stocks in the U.S. market and by the gross domestic product of the U.S. Traders typically use the Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index as a measure of total U.S. market cap.
Historically, the Buffett indicator average has been between 93% and 114%. The ratio peaked at 107.5% at the peak of the housing bubble in 2007 and at 139.5% during the dot-com bubble in 2000. In 2020, the Buffett indicator has spiked to new all-time highs of 182.7%, and it continues to climb higher with each new stock market high.
Benzinga’s Take: Even if the stock market is overvalued, it doesn’t mean a sell-off is imminent. However, it does mean that investors should keep that stretched valuation in mind when assessing risk and balancing a portfolio accordingly.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/called-buffett-indicator-hits-time-211520943.html

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-stock-markets-rebound-is-nowhere-near-over-and-mid-cap-exposure-is-probably-what-you-need-2020-08-26
The stock market’s rebound is nowhere near over, and midcap exposure is probably what you need
Published: Aug. 26, 2020 at 3:38 p.m. ET
Research into stock-market disruptions and recoveries shows conventional wisdom about large-cap stocks is wrong
Hello
Any other mid cap recommendations funds you folks have
(Besides DGIFX) to hold mid long terms
Thank you
Regards

DODFX off 13.37% this year. Lipper ranks it at the bottom (1/5) in total return, capital preservation, tax efficiency and consistency . (But 5 in expenses ). M* gives it a 3. I know some smart people that own and like it. All I can make out is that it’s 30% invested in financials. That’s even more than for DODGX. I’d probably take a spec on it, but only after a bigger pullback.
And check out TCELX - 9 months old. Up nearly 40% YTD. (Did we call that one right last December?)

Hi, guys.
For what interest it holds, Palm Valley Capital is now available through TD Ameritrade. I assume that it will be added to the Schwab list soon, given the acquisition of TD by Schwab. The advisor is still working on Fidelity.
$11.7 million, with modest but steady inflows. 1.27% e.r. The managers have between $100-500,000 in, each, plus their stake in the adviser.
72% cash and up 15% YTD, 16.4% over the TTM. Depending on whether you consider it small value or small core, it's beating its peers by 25 - 30% YTD. It has the second highest returns YTD for either group.
Small core is led by Aperture Discovery Equity (ADISX), a fund with a record of less than a year which is advised by the US branch of a fairly large UK adviser. It's a long/short small cap fund that reportedly it booked a 60% gain in Q2. High expenses, negligible investment minimum with a manager from the private investment world; most recently, Diker Investments LLC, a small- and micro-cap specialist.
Small value is led by NorthStar Micro Cap (NSMVX), a hedge fund that converted about 10 years ago. We profiled their dividend fund last year. Neither Aperture nor North Star holds much cash.
I'll move some of my TD cash into Palm Valley today. I know that Mr. Cinnamond's discipline will disappoint then infuriate investors after small caps have had an extended run and are getting, by his lights, frothy, but I'm not sure that's an immediate concern.
For what interest that holds,
David

Short read that hits on several major themes. It's not so clear to me the Fed's bag of tricks is empty.....

“In the 30 years I have been an economist we have never had this much uncertainty about the effects of the shutdowns, the future of the shutdowns because of the pandemic, the policy response and people’s fear in a sense,” Erik Nielsen, group chief economist at UniCredit, told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe.
“We are running in complete blindness right now, there is no way of being confident about the outlook,” he said.
“Central banks are doing everything they can…but they cannot solve the problem,” he said.
“What we need is fiscal policy and then we need news on the pandemic that things are coming back to normal,” Nielsen said.

https://cnbc.com/2020/08/26/investors-are-running-in-complete-blindness-right-now-economist-says.html

If I make a surprising 25-50% on a stock in 2-3 months, especially if it was not expected given my own view of the markets and the underlying item(s) in question, I consider that worthy of locking in the gains. And no, this is all in taxable. My 403(b) is on autopilot and 100% invested in a single American Fund (RWMGX).

@rforno : What do you consider insanely high STCG profits. Best I could come up with during recent fall - rise was 12% profit. But if one put money to work on the lowest drop day for market , I'd guess profit would be another 3% to 4% profit.
And if you sold , I'm guessing it was in retirement account ?
As for me ,dry powder went both ways , so no sales so far.
Stay Safe, Derf

Leon Cooperman is a 70+ years old hedge fund manager. Lately he has appearing in CNBC and Bloomberg. Interesting quotes from him.
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/billionaire-investor-leon-cooperman-12-best-quotes-2020-6-1029330190#

That was my point of having too many cooks in a kitchen. Unless they work well together, they tend to dilute the strategy as well as the fund's performance. If the asset gets too large, closing the fund would make more sense.
PRIMECAP as the subadvisor to Vanguard's Primecap, Primecap core and Capital Opportunity funds. These excellent funds are closed to new investors. In my opinion, they should be closed long ago.

TimesSquare Capital Management is the fourth subadvisor for the Vanguard International Explorer Fund. I see no advantage in having so many subadvisors. If Vanguard's Oversight and Manager Search team conducted proper due diligence, why would more than two subadvisors be needed? IMHO, this is a detrimental feature of several actively managed Vanguard funds.