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Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
  • This recession is going to be bad.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/19/this-recession-is-going-be-bad-really-bad/?outputType=amp
    This recession is going to be bad.
    America has done something extraordinary, perhaps unprecedented. In the face of a looming public health crisis, with potential deaths in the thousands or even millions, we essentially made a collective decision to have ourselves a recession. We’ve shut down a significant portion of our economy, knowing that the result will be businesses going bankrupt, huge job losses and people losing their homes.
  • the single dumbest paragraph filed with the SEC this month
    I've been working on tracking down funds in the SEC pipeline (the Hypergrowth or Falling Knives ETFs, anybody?) and came across Terra Firma US Concentrated Realty Equity. Apparently it used to be some other fund, or funds, or portfolios. Despite naming the manager they won't name who he worked for when advising ... well, you'll see:
    Performance data for the classes varies based on differences in their fee and expense structures. The performance figures for Open Class shares reflect the historical performance of the then-existing shares of the [...] (the “Predecessor Portfolio”) (the predecessor to the Fund, for which [...] served as the investment adviser), a series of [...], from September 23, 2011 to […], 2020. The performance figures for Open Class shares also reflect the historical performance of the then-existing shares of the predecessor fund to the Predecessor Portfolio, the [...] (the “Predecessor Fund”) (for which [...] served as the investment adviser), for periods prior to September 23, 2011. Jay P. Leupp has served as a portfolio manager for the Fund, the Predecessor Portfolio and the Predecessor Fund since December 31, 2008. Christopher J. Hartung has served as a portfolio manager for the Fund and the Predecessor Portfolio since 2018.
    The aforementioned "Mr. Leupp was a Senior Portfolio Manager on [...]'s Global Real Estate Securities team from 2011 to 2019. Prior to joining [...] in 2011, Mr. Leupp was the President and Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) of Grubb & Ellis Alesco Global Advisors."
    (deep cleansing breath, deep cleaning breath, beer)
    David

    Why God made editorial TKTKs [to come]
  • The Rise of Green Bonds
    https://www.troweprice.com/financial-intermediary/is/en/thinking/articles/2020/q1/rise-green-bonds.html
    /the Rise of Green Bonds
    Why investors should take a closer look at the green bond market.
    Key Insights
    Growth of the green bond market expected to continue in 2020, led by sovereigns.
    Germany’s willingness to issue green bonds is likely to act as a reference point for other issuers.
    There is an opportunity to start integrating green bonds into fixed income portfolios./
    Trow price Dynamic Global Bond and Global Aggregate Bond
    Anyone use these vehicles?
  • Energy -Oil jumps 13%, rebounding from Wednesday’s steep losses
    https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/19/oil-markets-coronavirus-stimulus-in-focus.html
    Oil jumps 13%, rebounding from Wednesday’s steep losses
    Oil prices rose more than 10% on Thursday after a three-day sell off drove them to their lowest levels in almost two decades as demand plummeted due to the coronavirus and supplies surged in a fight for market share between Russia and Saudi Arabia.
  • Another buying opportunity
    @hank;you said," I don’t compute my returns daily or report them publicly.
    End of this conversation, Derf
    Not necessarily. If you send me a polite request (via the mfo mail service) sometime after December 31, 2020 I just might share my 2020 net gain / loss numbers with you. I do compute returns at the end of every year for my own purposes and store them in my data bank. However, what possible value to others such (unsubstantiated) data would provide is a bit of a mystery. Frankly, I think it’s silly to get excited about the last 2-3 months’ performance. Seasoned investors know that such data over short periods like that is pretty meaningless. It’s the aggregate compounded return over a number of years that matters.
    In addition to being irrelevant and potentially misleading, performance claims by anonymous voices on an open forum like this are just that. Barring confirming specifics such as name, address, SS#, account numbers and certified statements from financial institutions these claims must be considered unsubstantiated. That’s not an indictment of the forum. There’s a lot to be said for an informal and mostly anonymous arrangement like this.
    You have caused me to rethink how I post. Some whom I respect mightily here have routinely declined to provide specifics regarding their investments / investment approach. But they’re great contributors in other ways. I suspect that in some cases they recognize that without providing personal and substantiating data, their claims would be of dubious value or open to suspicion. In other cases, I suspect it’s because they’re not certified to advise other investors and fear that by referencing their holdings they might inadvertently steer someone in the wrong direction.
    In the future I’ll refrain in my board posts from mentioning any “buys” or “sells” or any mutual funds I own currently or have owned previously. Nor will I acknowledge any business associations I may have with any specific fund company or other fiduciaries or any associations I may have had in the past. Further, I’ll refrain from making any comment about perceived market valuation or direction. I won’t mention specific types of investments I own. And I won’t divulge my allocation to various assets. In essence, comments I’m not willing to substantiate by providing personal account-specific information have no place in this forum. Additionally, I’m not a certified financial advisor and so should not be opining about such matters as asset allocation, market valuations or direction.
    Best regards
  • Coronavirus Selloff Leaves Just One U.S. Active Equity Mutual Fund Positive for the Year
    Coronavirus Selloff Leaves Just One U.S. Active Equity Mutual Fund Positive for the Year
    https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2020-03-18/coronavirus-selloff-leaves-just-one-us-active-equity-mutual-fund-positive-for-the-year
    NEW YORK (Reuters) - A tiny mutual fund that invests in companies that produce products and services for parents is the only fund among the $4.3 trillion actively managed U.S. equity fund industry to post a positive return for the year to date through Monday, according to Morningstar data.
  • the single dumbest paragraph filed with the SEC this month
    I've been working on tracking down funds in the SEC pipeline (the Hypergrowth or Falling Knives ETFs, anybody?) and came across Terra Firma US Concentrated Realty Equity. Apparently it used to be some other fund, or funds, or portfolios. Despite naming the manager they won't name who he worked for when advising ... well, you'll see:
    Performance data for the classes varies based on differences in their fee and expense structures. The performance figures for Open Class shares reflect the historical performance of the then-existing shares of the [...] (the “Predecessor Portfolio”) (the predecessor to the Fund, for which [...] served as the investment adviser), a series of [...], from September 23, 2011 to […], 2020. The performance figures for Open Class shares also reflect the historical performance of the then-existing shares of the predecessor fund to the Predecessor Portfolio, the [...] (the “Predecessor Fund”) (for which [...] served as the investment adviser), for periods prior to September 23, 2011. Jay P. Leupp has served as a portfolio manager for the Fund, the Predecessor Portfolio and the Predecessor Fund since December 31, 2008. Christopher J. Hartung has served as a portfolio manager for the Fund and the Predecessor Portfolio since 2018.
    The aforementioned "Mr. Leupp was a Senior Portfolio Manager on [...]'s Global Real Estate Securities team from 2011 to 2019. Prior to joining [...] in 2011, Mr. Leupp was the President and Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) of Grubb & Ellis Alesco Global Advisors."
    (deep cleansing breath, deep cleaning breath, beer)
    David
  • Investor Bill Miller Calls This One of the Best Buying Opportunities of His Life
    coronavirus deaths < 200. Flu deaths between 22K to 55 = about 35-40,000. Corona is 10 times more deadly but we still have fewer deaths. Sure, we need to do all we do and be informed.
    So far the SP500 fell about 30% from its top. When to buy your first bucket? You got to use charts because it’s mechanical and many algos use it. I looked for several indicators that work for me and I used several but it’s too complicated. For Stocks: based on 2008 (which resembles 2020) the easiest is 100 moving average (Again, R48). 50+200 MA are the most used but 50 is too fast but 200 is too slow. MACD and looking at trends may confuse some/many. For CEF: use weekly MACD. For bond OEFs: use a simple chart trend. See below
    Stocks: SP500 (chart) from 2008 to 2009. See the 3 moving averages below. 100 MA(red line) is the best, not too early and not too late. For the current chart, you this (link)
    CEFs: PCI(chart). Use weekly MACD and enter when it's positive
    Bond OEFs: PIMIX (chart). You want to see several weeks of uptrend
  • Estimated Tax Computation
    Thanks for your reply, but what is your "sense" of what to expect in the way of dividends and capital gains distributions for 2020?
  • Estimated Tax Computation
    With the market in the toilet, and much of my income from dividends and capital gains distributions, how are members computing their quarterly estimated tax for 2020? No one has mentioned extending the 4/15 deadline yet.
  • TARP , TALF , QE - Infinity , what will be plan neXt , as in "X"
    CNBC article, Monday:
    "In the days ahead, Jones expects the Fed to institute some type of facility to address commercial paper."
    NYTimes article Wednesday (link comes from Mark's MMF article):
    "Taking a page from its 2008 financial crisis playbook, the Fed said it would backstop the $1.13 trillion market for commercial paper, a key funding source used by companies to cover payroll and day-to-day operations."
    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/business/economy/federal-reserve-coronavirus.html
  • Federal Reserve Gives Emergency Aid to Mutual Funds
    From the NY Times
    "WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve said late Wednesday night that it would offer emergency loans to money market mutual funds, its latest in a series of steps to keep the financial system functioning and prop up the economy as it spirals toward recession during the coronavirus pandemic.
    The Fed said in a release that it would establish a so-called Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility, which would be backed by $10 billion from the Treasury Department. That program joins a similar lending one for banks, established this week.
    Click to Read
  • GMO: market fair value is unchanged, prices attractive, huge valuation diff b/t global mkts
    Asset Allocation: COVID-19 Update (March 17, 2020). Here's their summary:
    We believe that COVID-19 need not materially change the fair value of equity markets, although this belief assumes that governments will take appropriate steps to help economies and companies make it through the current period.
    We continue to follow our long-term, patient, valuation-sensitive process.
    Equities are meaningfully more attractive than they were at the start of the year, given the large fall in their price.
    We stand ready to act as liquidity providers to capitalize on market overreactions and dislocations.
    The opportunity set for dynamic asset allocation today remains one of the best we’ve ever encountered due to the dispersion in valuations globally.
    Their fair value estimation starts with the 1918 Spanish flu and global markets and allows that "bad" government policies can erode underlying value.
    David
  • Why are bonds failing to act like a safe-haven as stocks sell off
    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-are-bonds-failing-to-act-like-a-safe-haven-as-stocks-sell-off-2020-03-18
    Why are bonds failing to act like a safe-haven as stocks sell off ?
    Money managers have relied on long-dated bonds to serve as ballast for the broader portfolio
  • Schwab articles- quarterly market Outlook & Liz Anders' commentaries
    https://www.schwab.com/resource-center/insights/content/quarterly-market-outlook?cmp=em-QYB
    Quarterly Market Outlook: Coronavirus Tips the Scale
    In our 2020 Market Outlook, we looked at a bifurcated economy asked “What may tip the scale?” We got our answer in the first quarter: the novel coronavirus.
    https://www.schwab.com/resource-center/insights/content/market-perspective?cmp=em-QYB
    Schwab Market Perspective: Coronavirus Hits Markets Hard
  • Investor Bill Miller Calls This One of the Best Buying Opportunities of His Life
    “There have been four great buying opportunities in my adult lifetime. The first was in 1973 and ’74, the second was in 1982, the third was in 1987 and the fourth was in 2008 and 2009. And this is the fifth one,”
    https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/18/investor-bill-miller-one-of-the-best-buying-opportunities-of-his-life.html
  • Another buying opportunity
    @hank: Is the answer Infinite ? While you were fully invested I was the opposite, to much so !!
    With my Schwab account down 22.14 % YTD, I don't think that's to funny ! How are you doing ?
    Since 01/01/2020 I've put 7.3 % of total starting portfolio to work. Approximate half before the down draft. So I'm not throwing a large % into the fire.
    parsig9, from above, is investing a lot more than me , but to be fair he has a (few) years to go to retirement & I've been there for ten years.
    You commented, "What about the current situation makes one bullish at this juncture ."
    Nothing about this situation makes me bullish at this time. Down the line things will turn & Mr . Market will catch his breathe & rise again. Or are things different time ?
    Have a good evening , Derf
  • nibbling away
    Is there a case for that, that the outlook for corporate earnings is better now than in 2016?)
    You could try digging around on this government data site.
    Or, here's one news account that makes me think the answer to your question is no.
    Corporate profits rose ever so slightly in the fourth quarter of last year after three consecutive drops in the first part of 2019. Heading into 2020, analysts were optimistic that earnings would continue to rebound.
    Then the coronavirus outbreak happened. And now, all bets are off.
    For sure corporations won't be buying back their shares this year with cheap borrowed money to jack up the price for executive compensation packages.
  • Knowing what you now know, what would you do now?
    @rono has it correct, as usual.
    Here’s from one pundit I follow:
    “... other than to say there's going to be massive stimulus coming and we're going to have a lot of pain, it's very hard for me to come up with any kind of cogent plan for the near term that I would have any confidence in.”
    Bill Fleckenstein, March 17, 2020 https://www.fleckensteincapital.com/dailyrap.aspx?rapdate=03-17-2020 (subscription required)