@AndyJ, the REITs in question have been designated as PFICs by whomever designates these things. Maybe Matthews had been investing in advice that they were not designated as such? In any case they are now and everything I have read says that PFICs are a bad tax item for taxpayers. All gains are taxed at the income rate for that taxpayer if I read it right. That includes cap gains. US taxpayers are advised to avoid any and all PFICs.
Now, is this new tax law? Either Matthews never invested the fund's money in this manner before or new laws have changed the circumstances mid-stream.

Hi LLJB,
Thanks for the link to J P Morgan’s 4th Quarter 2014 Guide to the Markets. Indeed good and useful information is to be found here. I plan to save the link.
I like your idea and it seems very sound to me. As a matter of fact my late father favored dividend paying stocks over traditional fixed income investments. He did carry some bonds for diversification purposes but felt a good dividend stock the better choice as it would over the years, most often, grow its dividend over time plus, in most cases, provide capital appreciation. And, I have not moved away form this concept either as my spiff is paying me a good dividend while I carry it and more so than a short term bond fund would but not what a high yield bond fund would pay.
One of his favorite strategies was taking advantage of the traditional fall and winter stock market rally which I now have now put in play, during the recent October swoon, and have named this special investment position “spiff.”
Putting this spiff into play has tilted my asset allocation somewhat along with the fact that many of my hybrid funds found in the growth & income area of my portfolio are also a little light in bonds and combined has made me light in bonds within my overall portfolio’s asset allocation ranges that I generally follow. My neutral allocation to bonds is about 30% and with me currently managing bonds at the 25% range has already put me at about 5% light. Now, I am at about 22% to 23% in bonds and wanting to work back towards the 25% allocation which I’ll do over the next few months, or so.
According to my quick review of the “Guide” it seems equities are the place to be.
Old_Skeet

Hi Catch and others,
I am working on the coffee this morning too.
Seems, to me, when investors become faint at heart and rush for the exits in an attempt to build their cash positions asset valuations drop. This is one of the reasons Old_Skeet holds ample amount of cash to take advantage of these buying opportunities that usually take place several times a year.
I usually, build my cash position by selling equities into stock market strength. And, I may do this again and lean towards carrying a high level of cash. Currently, I am about neural in cash at about 15%, a little light in fixed income area and heavy in equity area. Come January, I am thinking of starting a sell down process in my equities if the market continues to advance and raise my cash by about 5% above neutral, buy a little fixed income to square the bond allocation to about the 25% range and then bubble equities a little on the light side through the sell down process as we move through the first and second quarters of 2015. I'd like to enter summer being a little light in the equity area by about five percent, or so.
In this way, come fall I can then begin to load equities and reduce cash by starting the "special investment spiff" process all over again to take advantage of the traditional fall and winter stock market strengths. Usually, stocks are the strongest in the fall and winter months and fixed income is strongest during the summer months with a transition period happening in between. However, the central banks have a lot to say about this tradition.
Anyway, this is Old_Skeet's thoughts as we move into December and start to close the year out as I am collecting all mutual fund capital gain distributions in cash. Come January, I’ll revisit this and most likely govern by my late father's old investment playbook.
I wish all … “Good Investing.”
Old_Skeet

Gleaning a little from the M* thread, it sounded like MAPIX was offsetting losses from REITs. There is some question if that is correct or not. I do not understand PFICs so maybe another member here has some insights they could share. Whatever the reason it didn't stop them from declaring distributions before.
Copy and paste from the M* thread. Response from Matthews.
Thank you for your inquiry. To clarify, there was no ordinary income distribution of the Matthews Asia Dividend Fund for the most recent quarter-end primarily due to the tax treatment of the portfolio's Passive Foreign Investment Companies (PFICs). A PFIC is a non-United States company that primarily derives its income from investments. U.S. investors who invest in PFICs must follow unique tax regulations that differ from regular investments.
U.S. tax code requires investors under certain circumstances to deduct from the distributable income capital losses stemming from holdings in companies deemed to be PFICs. The Fund's holdings in real estate investment trusts (REITs) are deemed PFICs.
This is not an indication of a change in how the portfolio is managed. The strategy remains focused on total return while investing in companies with high dividend payouts and growth-oriented businesses.
Should we be able to assist you further, please do not hesitate to reply to this email or contact us at 800-789-ASIA (2742) Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern Time.
Regards,
Matthews Asia
matthewsasia.com

Well, that will teach me to be sure of anything in the MF world!
@MaxBialystock
Sorry, Max. I recall, several months ago, that JC saw some things, from his vantage on the ground in the Phillipines, that had his instincts tell him to "sell all" of his MAPIX, and he did so. I don't know how hard it is to look up info on Asian stocks re. distribution announcements; but you might check out the top 10 of MAPIX's last posting and see if a number of them discontinued their dvds? If no explanation if forthcoming by the ex-date, I'd consider taking your own capital gains by giving this one a big fat trim (insert your favorite expletive, for "fat").
Rather disappointing. I had this fund on my WatchList, if it reopened on a big correction (when US domestic catches a cold, Asia always catches a fever). I dunno now.

According to a poster on M* thread on this very matter, who called Matthews this morning (Monday, 11-24), that is not a typo. No capital gains, ordinary income, or any other type of distribution for MAPIX 4th Q 2014.

A lot of employees with 401k etc plans are looking at their gains and comparing to the indexes. Most are woefully underinvested in stocks so they are making changes. Chasing returns might be more accurate.

A little overdone on the headline,but an issue to contemplate:
Fund boards, management go on high alert around bond liquidity
BY JESSICA TOONKEL Reuters.com
NEW YORK Mon Nov 24, 2014 1:05am EST
The concern is this: As the Federal Reserve begins to raise rates, which many expect will begin to happen next year, investors will rush to sell bonds as their value drops in a rising interest rate environment. Historically Wall Street banks have been the buyers of these bonds, but regulations and capital requirements imposed since the financial crisis have forced these firms to slash their inventories.
"I look around and ask 'at the end of the day how easy would it be to sell what I own?', and the answer is it is much more challenging," said Jason Brady, a fixed income portfolio manager at Sante Fe, New Mexico-based Thornburg Investment Management, which has $70 billion in assets under management, $17 billion of which is in fixed income.
In the end, however, the best way managers can get comfortable with liquidity concerns is to be prepared to hold on to the bonds in their portfolio for the long-term, said Margie Patel, senior portfolio manager at Wells Capital Management, speaking Thursday at the Reuters summit.
"Liquidity is illusory for most bonds," she said. "The only time you need it is when you can't get it."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/24/funds-bondholders-alert-idUSL2N0TA1CH20141124

Asia shares having a big day up on the rate cut news. Australia miners enjoyed big gains.

@Ben - taken from the Tekla website regarding their managed distribution policy:
"The Fund has a managed distribution policy (the Policy) which permits the Fund to make quarterly distributions at a rate of 2% of the Fund's net assets to shareholders of record. The Fund intends, to the extent possible, to use net realized capital gains when making quarterly distributions. However, implementation of the policy could result in a return of capital to shareholders if the amount of the distribution exceeds the Fund's net investment income and realized capital gains. Under the Policy realized capital gains in excess of the total distributed would be included in the December distribution. The Policy is to declare distributions in stock, unless otherwise instructed by the shareholder. The Fund's distribution policy has been established by the Board of Trustees. The distribution policy may be changed by the Board of Trustees without shareholder approval."
So yes, one can probably request cash distributions but it's not the funds policy.

@Scott and @PRESSmUP:
I agree with you both. FAIRX has become a very different fund. I'm sticking with him because I think he just might be smarter than everyone else, and focusing patiently on a few extraordinary situations is probably the only way to achieve extraordinary returns, but yes, I find myself thinking, "Once this Fannie bet plays out, one way or the other, I'm selling half my position with him." This was supposed to be my conservative core fund, and for a while it really did work that way, and I'm sitting on big enough gains that I can't complain, but it's not what I expected.

The nice thing is that if you had purchased pretty much any of these funds 15 years ago you'd be very happy today even if you hadn't chosen the absolute best one. Likewise, if you think you can tell me which one will have done the best 15 years from now, please tell me so I can, well, think about it. :) I own both HQL and PRHSX, have been very happy for a while now and expect to continue investing when there are dips. The one thing I prefer about PRHSX over PJP or IBB, and actually I prefer it over HQL as well but I like the venture capital, is that for a very small increase in expenses you get someone to work for you. Of course that doesn't mean they'll do better, but at least there's some thought to the process, and its cheap management compared to what you have to pay most fund managers compared to a passive alternative.

FYI: Stocks can keep climbing next year, tacking even more gains onto their phenomenal run of the last five-plus years. Just don't expect them to be as big -- or to come with as little heartburn -- as before.
Regards,
Ted
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/daf4168d2e074966bfd5bb898da2cb3e/2015-stock-outlook-good-not-great-and-bumpy

That said, I don't know who's right, and with so many people calling for LT bonds to fall, it certainly would be a contrarian trade to bet on their continued appreciation.

Thanks for the article.
Here's my take...help me if I'm missing something:
QE in other countries creates an incentive to borrow this newly printed money at near zero percent. Investors borrow at these low interest rates and some of this QE arrives on our shores looking for a better rate. Foreign QE buys US bonds paying 1- 4% depending on the duration. All this buying helps to continue lowering the bond yields on US bonds and creates the opportunity for capital appreciation in older higher yielding bonds.

Interesting that a load fund company, American Funds (Capital Group) still plays such a prominent role, with 9.9% of market share. Can't stand when a fund I'm interested in is a load fund.

When plotting PRHSX, FSPHX, HQH, HQL, THQ using Morningstar (which properly accounts for the distributions), then at all time intervals except the narrow interval near the 2000 top, the closed end funds HQH, HQL underperformed. I would guess closed end funds are less tax efficient (just a guess). I understand that they may have some venture capital investments, but so far it did not help them to outperform. If so, do they have any advantages as compared to other ways of investing in healthcare? Any specific advantages in investing in THQ?

Another perspective - ranking by percentage of market, and percentage increase/decease of position (e.g. a fund that had 10% or market share and now has 8% would have a decline of 20% of its position):

Family		Market Share	Pct Inc (Dec)	Cumulative Market Share
Vanguard	18.5%		 13.5%		18.5%
Fidelity	10.4%		  1.0%		28.9%
Capital Group	9.9%		 (1.0%)		38.8%
T. Rowe Price	3.9%		  5.4%		42.7%
Franklin Tmpl	3.8%		 (5.0%)		46.5%
PIMCo		3.6%		(29.4%)		50.1%
DFA		2.1%		  5.0%		52.2%
JPMorgan	2.1%		  5.0%		54.3%
Blackrock	1.9%		  5.6%		56.2%
Oppenheimer	1.7%		 (5.6%)		57.9%

Viewed this way, it seems that just three companies dominate - Vanguard, Fidelity, and Capital Group (American Funds) hold over 3/8 of all fund assets.
Vanguard is obviously the big winner, no matter what perspective you take. And viewed from the perspective of what fraction of their market share was lost last year, PIMCo is the big standout (no surprise there).
Aside from Fidelity and Capital Group (both of which held their market share pretty constant relative the share they already had), all the others had gains (or losses) of about 5% of their market share position.
For example, DFA had a 2% share; its 0.1% gain in share represents a 5% increase in their share of the market.) Could just be noise (rounding error - with market share this low, a 0.1% change in absolute market share amounts to a 5% change). Just another way of seeing that after the first three (or six) families, the rest of the figures aren't particularly significant.

'Course, the higher the underlying price/value of "whatever" moves upward that is throwing off the dividend; will also "push" the dividend/yield downward.
Not unlike the yields that were present in late 2008 in the HY bond area. Heck yes, the yields were really high because the underlying value of the bond(s) had been beaten into dirt. Those very high yields are, of course; gone now; but the captial appreciation in this area was very pleasing.
Always a "this or that" somewhere in these types of mixes. Get the yield/dividend and/or the capital appreciation.
The ultimate sweetness is the "total return", eh??? Get it where you may.......

The first recommendation, the Fidelity Investor: "His five portfolios hold funds an average of 1½ years"
The second recommendation holds funds for 4 yrs, and the third one holds them for only two years.
Those newsletter are Losing a lot of return to capital gains taxes by selling the funds so soon, versus buying and holding a market index fund. And that's not even including the typical annual capital gains distributions from the actively managed funds in the first, second and fourth newsletter.
The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index fund has not had a capital gains distribution in the 10 yrs for which data is available on the website. And since the index investors probably are not regularly switching their fund choices as in newsletters 1, 2 and 4, they have an investment with no capital gains taxes until they themselves decide to sell, which could be many years and in some cases decades. So in a taxable account it's like an IRA, except you have to pay taxes on the dividends.....

FYI: U.S. stock benchmarks climbed to records, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index a fifth weekly gain, as optimism in the global economy grew after central banks in China and Europe signaled additional stimulus measures.
The S&P 500 rose 0.5 percent to 2,063.34 at 4 p.m. in New York, paring an earlier rally of 0.9 percent. The index advanced 1.1 percent this week, pushing its gains in 2014 to 12 percent. The S&P 500 is now only 62 points away from being up 15% closing 2014 at 2,125 just what MFO's Ted predicted back in February.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-11-21/u-s-index-futures-rise-as-s-p-500-heads-for-fifth-weekly-gain.html
Markets At A Glance: http://markets.wsj.com/us