I swapped out VHCOX for FPURX. I've held Capital Opportunity for over 20 years, but it just seems to have lost its edge (Similar to why I sold out of POAGX earlier in the year). I think in the current environment FPURX will provide a steadier ride over the next 2 years. At this stage in my investing life steady is good.

Thanks for the heads-up @Mitchelg
Not really understanding options very well I dug up some information from the fund’s prospectus and also about ELNs from another source. Possibly this may prove helpful for other ”Options Dummies” like myself.
About RSPA
”The portfolio managers seek to construct the options-based income component of the Fund’s portfolio by investing in high-income, short-term ELNs with a focus on downside protection. The ELNs in which the Fund seeks to invest are hybrid derivative-type instruments that are specially designed to combine the characteristics of investing in one or more underlying equity securities or an index of equity securities and a related equity derivative, such as a put or call option (or a combination thereof), in a single note form (typically senior, unsecured debt) issued by financial institutions. The options within the ELNs in which the Fund invests will be based on the Index or on ETFs that replicate the Index, and such options will generally have covered call and/or cash secured put strategies embedded within them. When the Fund purchases an ELN from the issuing counterparty, the Fund is generally entitled to receive a premium generated by options positions within the ELN. Therefore, the ELNs are intended to provide recurring cash flow to the Fund based on the premiums received from selling the options.
“Selling a call option entitles the seller to a premium equal to the value of the option at the time of trade. When the Fund sells call options within an ELN, it receives a premium but limits its opportunity to profit from an increase in the market value of either the underlying benchmark or ETF to the exercise price of the call option (plus the premium received). The maximum potential gain on the call option embedded within the ELN will be equal to the difference between the exercise price of the option and the purchase price of the underlying benchmark or ETF at the time the option is written, plus the premium received. Accordingly, because these premiums can partially offset losses incurred by the Fund's equity portfolio, the Fund's investments in ELNs may reduce the Fund's volatility relative to the Index, while providing limited downside protection against declines in the value of the Fund's equity portfolio.”
Prospectus
About ELNs
”An Equity-Linked Note (ELN) is a debt instrument, usually a bond, where the payout is based on the underlying entity. The underlying equity of the ELN can be a collection of stocks, a single stock or an equity index. A typical ELN is usually principal-protected meaning that the investor is guaranteed the return of the initial investment, but as ELNs have become more exotic in nature, fewer ELNs are principal protected.
“Generally, the final payment is the amount invested times the gain in the underlying stock or index times a note specific participation rate. For example, if the underlying equity gains 150% during the investment period and the participation rate is 50%, the investor would receive $2.25 for every dollar invested. If the equity remains unchanged or declines, the investor receives the full investment back. However, if the underlying equity defaults, the investor will receive only what is available after bankruptcy.
“Investors should understand everything they can about the underlying equity because what may seem like a safe investment may fail. For example, in 2008 equity-linked notes tied to equity in Lehman Brothers failed. Many investors sued the broker-dealers for promising 100% principal protection and still losing money.”
Source

Half cash and half balanced? For a young worker? Just no

An optimal portfolio for many young workers (early 20s to mid 30s)
would be allocated predominantly, if not entirely, to equities.
After all, young workers' risk capacity is great and equities
generate the highest long-term returns.
But what if an inexperienced investor has never encountered
a nasty bear market like the Global Financial Crisis?
It's possible some investors may panic and sell equities when prices are extremely depressed.
Then they may decide to remain out of the "market" for years failing to capture tremendous gains.
Would it be beneficial for certain investors to start with a lower equity allocation (maybe 50% - 60%)
which can be increased after they gain experience and discover their true risk tolerance?

+1
It’s difficult to draw a line in the sand (or concrete). But if you’re under 40, dollar-cost averaging in and planning to work at least 20 more years … put it in a good low cost growth fund and let it rip. No more than 3 funds I’d say. You can withstand the +35% and -35% market whipsaws with that kind of time horizon.
I get the feeling from our friend @Joyes that his situation is different - probably an older investor.

Half cash and half balanced? For a young worker? Just no

An optimal portfolio for many young workers (early 20s to mid 30s)
would be allocated predominantly, if not entirely, to equities.
After all, young workers' risk capacity is great and equities
generate the highest long-term returns.
But what if an inexperienced investor has never encountered
a nasty bear market like the Global Financial Crisis?
It's possible some investors may panic and sell equities when prices are extremely depressed.
Then they may decide to remain out of the "market" for years failing to capture tremendous gains.
Would it be beneficial for certain investors to start with a lower equity allocation (maybe 50% - 60%)
which can be increased after they gain experience and discover their true risk tolerance?

Thanks @Observant1
Here's an interesting article on a previous week's guest (Bitcoin Goes Mainstream):

Given crypto’s extreme volatility, instead of sourcing from broad equities, an investor could pull from the riskiest areas of the equity sleeve like innovative growth companies. One might assume that the cryptocurrencies have a higher correlation to riskier stocks. However, bitcoin and ether’s correlation to the broad growth index from July 2020 through June 2024 is similar to the broad global index, ranging from 0.33 to 0.82, so this avenue likely wouldn’t result in a different outcome.
Bitcoin and ether’s galactic returns may be compelling to investors, but their volatility can have a colossal impact on a standard 60/40 portfolio, and diversifying within crypto still leads to a heightened risk profile. Their newfound accessibility through ETFs has many investors eager to add one or both cryptocurrencies to their portfolios, but one must be aware of how they change the risk composition

are-two-cryptos-better-than-one-6040-portfolio?

@Joyes
One of the most helpful things I encountered when beginning an investment journey was to purchase and devour materials which covered aspects considered helpful for new investors as well as more seasoned folks with more capital. Upon graduation from college, my parents purchased for me a subscription to Kiplinger. I still have that subscription some 45 years later. Many sample portfolios are included in the magazine as well.
Barron's was mentioned previously, but I'd suggest Kiplinger for someone starting out. It's a great tool for learning and becoming familiar with investments.

On the topic, Empower dashboard has definitely deteriorated from a stability perspective after Personal Capital was sold to Empower.
I poked around with a few competitors in order to move on but unfortunately had to return back to Empower because it is still the best imo. It is an outstanding tool for free, I would happily pay a reasonable annual subscription fee for a better product.
How do folks here track financial footprint, net worth and allocations? For me personally, pulling everything into a spreadsheet will not work.

Empower is the former Personal Capital. I use their free wealth tracker dashboard, not any of their paid FA services. I tried to do the same with Fidelity's Full View but did not find it convenient or useful.
Empower is convenient because it can automatically pull(like Yodlee) and aggregate from various accounts -- brokerages, banks, credit cards, etc. to give you a complete picture of net worth and allocations. It has other useful tools like Retirement Planner, Cash Flow, etc..
Below link has a visual on Investment Checkup feature
https://www.empower.com/personal-investors/investment-checkup
Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalCapital/
I primarily use Empower for the Allocation view and as a quick check on how much of a particular asset I am holding in aggregate across brokerages vs. having to login to Fidelity, Schwab and HSA to manually figure it out.

Active fund with an objective of long term capital appreciation.
Good timing!

In the IRA: Closed out NUSC and FSNDX. Gave a ten percent bump to XMHQ and FDSVX. I don't expect to be making additional purchases on the equity side at current prices.
I continue to mull bond funds. Any new fund will have to have had a better than zero return in 2022 and 2020. It will also have to be doing better that the money market sweep account over the last week, month, three-month period. I don't feel the need to do anything in a hurry on that front. I don't feel the need to add to MNHAX, THOPX, or WCPNX at the present time. They don't meet the criteria described at the beginning of this graf; they're just little toes dangling in the water.
In the taxable: Nothing shaking but the leaves on the trees.

Concentration by itself doesn't work. I have been using concentration + momentum + best risk/reward funds + being in the right wide-range categories.
Since I started in 1995, there have been three long term cycles
1995-2000 + 2010-2020 = US Large cap tilting growth
2000-2010 = US Value, some small cap and some international
BTW, I changed the number of funds from 5 (2000-2018) to only 2-3 since retirement in 2018 because I can only find very limited great ideas.
You can read how I did it (here).

https://velafunds.com/large-cap-plus.html
Investment Objective: Long-term capital appreciation.
As of 6/30,
Number of Holdings Long/(Short)/Options 66/(24)/60
Gross / Net Exposure 109%/93%
$67M AUM (inception date 9/30/2020)
At the bottom of the page are risk statistics.
@baseball_fan, Do you mind cluing us in what your goal with this fund is (i.e., what role you would like this fund to fill)?

John Rekenthaler articles makes a few important points:

while value and growth stocks might seem the unlikeliest rebalancing opportunity, as they are subsegments of the same investment universe, their fortunes have substantially diverged. In 2022, the Morningstar US Growth Index shed 36.7% of its value, while the US Value index lost less than 1.0%. That was the opportunity that rebalancing seized

At present, do we all have a favorite LCV Fund that we can reallocate LCG outsized gains?

in this universe, as opposed to the alternative world of hypothetical studies, assets don’t regularly record the same long-term returns. Which begs the question: Over that same 9.5-year period, using the same portfolio assumptions, what was the actual benefit of rebalancing?
Not much, as it turns out.

I try to discipline myself to "milk" the cow when I am blessed with a 20% + gain (YTD) in my portfolio...where to put it is the more difficult question.

Swapping between growth and value stocks remained helpful. Otherwise, though, rebalancing reduced the portfolios’ returns.

The rebalanced portfolio may forgo some gains, but it will not surrender its relative safety. Consequently, the risk/return trade-off remains intact. That said, there may, in fact, be a trade-off, rather than an unambiguous benefit. Rebalancing can provide a free lunch—but, as this column has shown, it does not always do so.

when-rebalancing-creates-higher-returns-and-when-it-doesnt?

Ok, I got it.
MM pays now 5+% but for years it pays under 1%. A couple of year from now it will be much lower. I can always find pretty good risk/reward bond funds but that's my specialty.
Logins at 4 weeks interval and not interested too much tell me Fidelity is better for you.
How can $250K sit idle? Suppose I sell 1 million and buy $950K(5% less than a million) it's only $50K. To have $250K sitting idle means you sold $5 million. I'm a stickler in that dept, if I see $100 left, I invest it.
Taking care of my money and logging in 10 minutes 2-3 times per week is worth it. I always check all my other financial institution sites too. IMO, It's a must in the digital world to protect and verify your assets.
I only invest in funds/ETFs, very rarely, I trade leveraged CEFs for hours/days when I see a good trade, like 2020, or 2022.
What does someone pay for RIA services?

Lucky you!
I too was heavy IOFIX from beginning of 2018 through that awful 3rd week of March 2020. A champion of the strategy and the firm, especially Tom Miner.
Junkster called it the greatest fund ever ... and I agreed with him.
IOFIX was in good company during Covid. Many got slammed. Terrible, fearful time in the markets. Perfect storm for them though.
Fortunately, they well recovered, but others like BDKNX never did. I think it's a credit to GP.
My last update with GP was November 2019, I believe. Met with them in person. The last time world was normal. And all seemed right with the fund.
I was disappointed with the odd-lot violation, but many firms (PIMCO) have been tagged with that one. The fabricated bidding for bonds they already owned is more troubling. Not sure when that occurred.
I did get back into IOFIX in late spring 2020, if I remember, thanks to Junkster's encouragement. Heavy again. I rode it all the way back, which I am very grateful for, exiting the position when it started to roll in 2022. I think many investors were quick to exit this time, as you can see in the flow data. Not wanting to make same mistake twice.
I do not know what happened after that. Do not know when Tom left GP. But IOFIX appears broken ever since. A disappointment for the firm, its investors, and me.

Just like FAIRX,SGIIX,OAKBX during 2000-10, and later 2010-17 mostly in LC tilting growth, I slowly changed to bonds, by selecting PIMIX as my first bond fund in 2010 and increasing it to over 50%, but I sold in 01/2018 and never looked back.
Then I replaced it with IOFIX for over 50% of my portfolio again. But the world experienced covid and I sold at the end of 02/2020, which is part of my system. I posted about it on the current site (https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/55299/bond-mutual-funds-analysis-act-2/p2).
I started buying again at the end of March 2020 and was fully invested by April. But, IOFIX lost it's mojo in 2021 and I discarded it like I did with many others before.
The lesson, I make good money with special bond funds, but I'm very careful and sell immediately when the risk is high; in fact, I sell everything anyway.
I follow this song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hx4gdlfamo)

Thanks. I'm usually skeptical of faith-based and veterans-based funds (USAA). Ever since I came across Timothy "Biblically Responsible" Funds (see family table below), which is perpetually on the bottom of our Fund Family Scorecard, likely because of high fees.
But AVEFX seems to be a frequent Great Owl. It pops-up on a MultiSearch screen requesting top quintile 3-year rolling averages over last 10 years, with the added constraint of never losing money in any of those 3-year periods. As does, Azzad Wise Capital WISEX. Another faith-based fund, but this time Islamic. Azzad is based in Falls Church, VA. Schwartz is based in Plymouth, MI. Timothy in Maitland, FL.

7/17/24 Looks like profit taking today for Tech and a few others. Utilities I have were on both sides of the trades. Energy positive while Industrials negative. Lost all gains of yesterday and then some.

Let us assume the economics work out the way the fund anticipates (e.g., without any counter party risks). Without discussing known risks, if you do not anticipate selling this fund and trigger cap gains, is this a good investment under various (or any) scenarios? E.g., can this be used as a rainy day fund?