Reply to @Ted: True enough, though most of the difference is accounted for by a single day - the last paragraph above. If you made your investment on January 3rd, the difference between the two would be more modest (SEEDX 15.2%, VFINX 17.3%). For a fund 20% in cash, that's a fair return. Only time will tell whether it's fair enough.
David

Bitzer:
I do not know where you got the impression that Yacktman's funds were defensive. Both YACKX and YAFFX suffered horrific drawdown in the last bear market, shedding over 50% of their NAV from 2007 through 2008. In fact, I believe they lost more than SPY (the S&P 500 index fund).
There are numerous defensive mutual funds that lost less than SPY during the 2007 - 2008 bear market but you have to be willing to accept subpar performance on the way up. Funds that immediately come to mind which are defensive yet still give decent performance on the upside are (both balanced funds and pure equity MFs):
QRSVX: Queens Road Small Cap Value. That said, NO SC fund is truly defensive.
PVFIX:Pinnacle Value
FPACX:F P A Crescent
ICMBX:Intrepid Capital
FOBAX:Tributary Balanced
APPLX:Appleseed
XLP: SPDR Consumer Staples ETF
XLV: SPDR Health Care ETF
Finally, I strongly suspect that the new Oakseed Fund SEEDX that David Snowball has introduced to this website will also prove to be defensive in a bear market. I base this guess on their Top 25 holdings and their performance in the last 6-7% swoon.
DlphcOracl

Reply to @kevindow: I should have noted earlier that POAGX is more of a multicap growth fund than a pure midcap growth fund (though M* lists it as midcap growth). I will also pay close attention to the new fund SEEDX -- John Park did a great job reducing downside capture at ACTWX (a midcap growth fund), though SEEDX seems more large cap oriented.
BWG

Charles:
You must have been reading my mind (or vice versa) because that is precisely what I did yesterday (6/10/23). I had a 30% to 35% weighting in bond funds that were, for the most part, multi sector or unconstrained with little to no exposure to U.S. Treasuries. Despite their flexible mandates, ALL of them have lost 2 or 3% over the past several weeks, a huge move in a bond fund. Additionally, unlike the previous three years, all of them were flat or nearly so over the first five months of the year --- unlike prior years in which these funds appreciated 5% to 10% in addition to the dividends paid.
Clearly, the bull market in bonds has to end sometime and I decided not to hang around long enough to find out precisely when. The risk to reward ratio for ANY bond funds (IMHO) is not favorable and the dividend income is not worth the risk to principal if interests continue to rise rather than bouncing between a 2% to 2.4% range. I am content to let the money sit in cash at zero interest rather than sustain further losses in my bond funds. The funds I dumped were all good ones: RNSIX, MWTRX, MWCRX, PIMIX, PDVDX, and SUBYX. Doesn't matter.
I continue to maintain my 60% weighting in equity MFs, most of which have demonstrated some ability to lose less than other funds in a bear market, specifically: FPACX, AMANX, DLHAX, EAASX, FMIMX, JMCVX, MAPIX, BPAVX, RYSEX, and WSCVX. Incidentally, I have bought into the new Oakseed Fund (SEEDX) and it seems to lose considerably less than other equity MFs on days in which there are steep losses. This fund may be a real keeper.

Reply to @David_Snowball: Hmmm....There is a Jerome Dodson (father?) still running Parnassus. Hopefully AUM increases. I have had two "new" funds shut on me because of low assets. I will keep this under watch just like SEEDX.

Has anyone seen any updates as far as the portfolio composition of this fund? This fund has two well proven managers in Greg Jackson and John Park, Not only do they have outstanding track records but they are heavily invested personally in this fund. I'd like to see where they are invested to see if this fund would be a good compliment to my other holdings
Jim

Dear guys,
The updates are all in place. We have, I think, a couple substantive and fairly interesting pieces. Following our discussion of the Longleaf Global closing and the leads offered by Charles and others, I tried to put again an examination of what happens when firms that never launch new funds actually launch new funds. And I looked, too, at the Artisan IPO and the questions surrounding fund company stocks.
Dale Harvey's piece, an elevator talk, made me think a bit about how easy it is to misjudge a fund. It's got two stars now but that seems a matter of timing (what months are included and which excluded from the calculation) as much as strategy.
The plan for April is to celebrate our second anniversary (Chip tells me that the average website lasts about a month) and to look at CEFs (I've been talking with Patrick Galley a bit about them). I'll try to profile a couple, including FEO. May's first feature will be a look at funds run by Harris/Oakmark alumni. We'll update FPIVX and add a profile of Greg Jackson's Oakseed Opportunity fund (SEEDX, open two months and it already has $30 million in AUM). And yes, Whitebox gets its profile, too.
As ever,
David

Two things that I find troubling about what is an otherwise excellent fund (FPACX):
1) The failure to close the fund and the substantial increase in AUM without a corresponding significant drop in E.R.
2) Romick talking up his use of alternate assets like farmland when, in fact, the farmland investment is less than 1% of the portfolio -- IMHO, not enough to move the needle.
BWG
p.s. TSP_Transfer ..thanks for mentioning SEEDX. Maybe worth David taking a look at in the monthly commentary.

Here is a link to Crescent's Annual Report.Mr Romick states his case for a continued high cash position and his current strategy.He continues to believe the current economic situation will not end well.Their is even a slight hint of closing the fund. FPACX continues to be a core holding of mine.I did sell some to buy into MFLDX within the past eighteen months and am glad I did before MFLDX went corporate with their share classes.These two funds plus BRUFX form my core Roth holdings four years into retirement.For younger readers I strongly advise setting up a retirement account through FPACX's shareholder services.$100.00 down,$100.00 a month and no sleepless nights! I just did that in a non-retirement account with SEEDX in the past month, same shareholder services,$100.00 down and $50.00 twice a month.Two younger managers with good creds from Acorn and Harris Associates . http://oakseedfunds.com/home.htm
CRESCENT ANNUAL REPORT
https://materials.proxyvote.com/Approved/MC2221/20130207/AR_154573.PDF