Howdy,
A thank you to all who post the links, start and participate in the many fine commentaries woven into the message threads.
For those who don't know; I ramble away about this and that, at least once each week.
NOTE: For those who visit MFO, this portfolio is designed for near retirement, capital preservation and to stay ahead of inflation creep. This is not a buy and hold portfolio, and is subject to change on any given day; based upon perceptions of market directions. All assets in this portfolio are in tax-sheltered accounts; and any fund distributions are reinvested in the funds. Gains or losses are computed from actual account values.
While looking around.....Five years ago this week, exactly on Trick or Treat day, found our mix of investments at that time, to arrive at its high value. Our house recalls the trading days going into the end of the year and the large swings in pricing, which continued into 2008. Not that any of this matters today; but for this house, caused much head scratching and eventually protective sells of equities in June, 2008.
Busy at this house with pre-winter cleanup outside; as the night temps are already below freezing. But, a brief look backwards into the first 10 months of 2012. We held about 20% of our mix in equity funds at the beginning of the year; which were sold in mid-May. Doing some fast math finds that all funds sold have gains to date between +.52 & +15%. Calculating the gains of the funds to which the monies were moved finds that our current mix would be worth about 1% more on this date, had we retained all of the equity funds. An, oh well; and perhaps this will work out by year end.
The data/numbers below have been updated.
As to sector rotations below (Fidelity funds); for the past week: (Note: any given fund in any of these sectors will have varing degrees of performance based upon where the manager(s) choose to be invested and will not directly reflect upon your particular fund holdings from other vendors.) Sidenote: The average weekly return of 200 combined Fidelity retail funds across all sectors (week avg = + .31%, YTD + 11.76%).
--- U.S. equity - .45% through + 1.3%, week avg. = + .37% YTD = + 14.4%
--- Int'l equity - .21% through + 3.55%, week avg. = + .65% YTD = + 13.3%
--- Select eq. sectors - 2.8% through + 3.8%, week avg. = + .35% YTD = + 13.7%
--- U.S./Int'l bonds - .68% through + 0.3%, week avg. = + .07% YTD = + 3.9%
--- HY bonds - .00% through - .32%, week avg. = - .10% YTD = + 11.9%
A Decent Overview, M* 1 Month through 5 Year, Multiple Indexes
You may consider our portfolio to be quite boring, but you may be assured that it moves and bends each and every day; from forces beyond our control.
I have added a few blips related to our portfolio and market observations at the below SELLs/BUYs and Portfolio Thoughts.
SELLs/BUYs THIS PAST WEEK: = NONE.

Portfolio Thoughts:
Our holdings had a + .35 % move this past week. Our portfolio return for October was about +.47%, as a notable slowing of capital appreciation exists at this time within most of our bond holdings. Some of this gain came from several bond fund distributions on Oct. 31. Tempted with the housing and building sector; but will wait for post election and anything else of special note; political or otherwise. We'll continue to watch; but do not have plans at this time, to enter into equity areas.
b> Still plodding along, and we will retain the below write from previous weeks; as what we are watching, still applies.
--- commodity pricing, especially the energy and base materials areas; copper and related.
--- the $US broad basket value, and in particular against the Euro and Aussie dollar (EU zone and China/Asia uncertainties).
--- price directions of U.S. treasury's, German bunds, U.K. gilts, Japanese bonds; and continued monitoring of Spanish/Italian bond pricing/yield.
--- what we are watching to help understand the money flows: SHY, IEF, TLT, TIPZ, STPZ, LTPZ, LQD, EMB, HYG, IWM, IYT & VWO; all of which offer insights reflected from the big traders as to the quality/risk, or lack of quality/risk; in various bond sectors.
The Funds Boat is at anchor, riding in the small waves, watching the weather and behind the breakwater barrier. To the high praise of MFO and the members, it is very difficult to find a topic to note here that has not been placed into the discussion boards. Excellence, as usual.
I have retained the following links for those who may choose to do their own holdings comparison against the fund types noted.
The first two links to Bloomberg are for their list of balanced/flexible funds; although I don't always agree with the placement of fund styles in their categories.
Bloomberg Balanced
Bloomberg Flexible
These next two links are for conservative and moderate fund leaders YTD, per MSN.
Conservative Allocation
Moderate Allocation
A reflection upon the links above. We attempt to establish a "benchmark" for our portfolio to help us "see" how our funds are performing. Aside from viewing many funds within the balanced/flexible funds rankings (the above links), a quick and dirty group of 5 funds (below) we watch for psuedo benchmarking are the following:
***Note: these week/YTD's per M*
VWINX .... + .25% week, YTD = + 9.54%
PRPFX .... - .51% week, YTD = + 5.51%
SIRRX ..... + .33% week, YTD = + 6.46%
TRRFX .... + .16% week, YTD = + 9.66%
VTENX ... + .21% week, YTD = + 8.65%
Such are the numerous battles with investments attempting to capture a decent return and minimize the risk.
We live and invest in interesting times, eh? Hey, I probably forgot something; and hopefully the words make some sense. Comments and questions always welcomed.
Good fortune to you, yours and the investments.
Take care,
Catch
---Below is what M* x-ray has attempted to sort for our portfolio, as of Nov. 1, 2012 ---
From what I find, M* has a difficult time sorting out the holdings with bond funds.
U.S./Foreign Stocks 1.9%
Bonds 93.9% ***
Other 4.2%
Not Classified 0.00%
Avg yield = 3.99%
Avg expense = .57%
***about 18% of the bond total are high yield category (equity related cousins)
---This % listing is kinda generic, by fund "name"; which doesn't always imply the holdings, eh?
-Investment grade bond funds 28.2%
-Diversified bond funds 22.4%
-HY/HI bond funds 14.5%
-Total bond funds 32.4%
-Foreign EM/debt bond funds .6%
-U.S./Int'l equity/speciality funds 1.9%
This is our current list: (NOTE: I have added a speciality grouping below for a few of fund types)
---High Yield/High Income Bond funds
FAGIX Fid Capital & Income
SPHIX Fid High Income
FHIIX.LW Fed High Income
DIHYX TransAmerica HY
---Total Bond funds
FTBFX Fid Total
PTTRX Pimco Total
---Investment Grade Bonds
ACITX Amer. Cent. TIPS Bond
DGCIX Delaware Corp. Bd
FBNDX Fid Invest Grade
FINPX Fidelity TIPS Bond
OPBYX Oppenheimer Core Bond
---Global/Diversified Bonds
FSICX Fid Strategic Income
FNMIX Fid New Markets
DPFFX Delaware Diversified
LSBDX Loomis Sayles
PONDX Pimco Income fund (steroid version)
PLDDX Pimco Low Duration (domestic/foreign)
---Speciality Funds (sectors or mixed allocation)
FRIFX Fidelity Real Estate Income (bond/equity mix)
---Equity-Domestic/Foreign
NONE outright, with the exception of equities held inside of some of the above funds.

Scout Unconstrained Bond manager interview--
Q: How much cash do you have in the fund?
A: We’re running about 30 percent net cash because of so many things we sold. We’re looking for short-term bonds and securities to purchase with one-year maturities to hold our ground against that zero cash interest rate which can eat up real returns over time. We’re looking at floating-rate securities, asset-backed securities and high-quality short-term assets. The best times are gone. Longer term, fixed income in the traditional sense is almost an uninvestable asset class and should be shunned by almost all investors.
We’re slightly short high-yield bonds, which is unusual for us. The absolute level of yield on high-yield bonds is so low now it highlights an extraordinary risk people are taking. And the reason for the runup in high yield, which is primarily because of central bank activity, makes us cautious. So we’ve exited our derivative exposure going long and now we’re in a small way buying insurance for the portfolio for what we think is likely to be a decline in the prices of high-yield securities and a rise in volatility.
We also think oddly enough the policies the U.S. Federal Reserve is pursuing in an attempt to bring volatility down are inherently destabilizing. The combination of the various quantitative easing programs they’ve undertaken are outright balance sheet expansions for the government. These expansions feel good in the short term like an injection of drugs to an addict but are destabilizing in the long term.
The Fed has absorbed the entire supply of mortgage bonds and long-term Treasuries. Central banks are monetizing everything and causing a shortage of high-quality fixed-income securities. That destroys the price mechanism because nobody knows where a BB-rated credit should be priced today in the absence of all this central bank activity to prop up the markets.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-10-02/the-best-bond-fund-manager-youve-never-heard-of#p1
Confessions of a fund alarm/mfo addict--holding RNSIX, MAINX, RPHYX and probably adding this one. Now where would one get those ideas. Given this infernal fixed income
market brought about by the financial engineering activities of central banks our fixed income allocations have evolved into betting on a Snowball's chance in hell. A significant cash position when warranted along with actual shorting holds capital preservation appeal
among a mix of fixed income funds.

Just one comment on Stewart Capital. I'm sorry but I'm not buying what they are selling. Cannot believe manager excuse about not owning enough shares of fund or how he is putting his money where his mouth is. Need to know how much of his net worth is in this fund and I suspect most of it is in Stewart Capital stock and this is NOT a positive for shareholders of his funds. By that logic everyone should flock to Greg Holmes funds at US Global. Most of their funds are also not all appropriate for everyone, but if Holmes continuous buying of GROW is supposed to be reason to buy his funds - which HE doesn't - then...
Finally, you take out year 2009, this funds record is nothing to talk home about. Lot of funds had a stellar 2009. I would be more convinced if 2008 record of the fund was substantially better.
With due respect Mr. Snowball, you have been hoodwinked.

Dear friends,
I always hope you folks are doing well. Especially as I speak with chip about conditions in eastern New York (roads impassable because of fallen trees and lines, no utilities, even folks with generators running out of gas, two-hour lines at the few open stations - all of that for the folks fortunate enough to have escaped direct personal loss), I mean it more now than usual.
After a slight storm delay, we posted our update. There is, I think, some cool stuff there.
Scout Unconstrained Bond and Stewart Capital Mid Cap are profiled this month, and both seem to be doing freakishly well - consistently high returns, moderated risk. I might try to find a way to talk directly with the Scout manager. Up until now, he's mostly been replying to questions via email.
Because folks want to launch new funds before January 1 and the SEC imposes a 10-week registration period, October usually sees a lot of new funds. This month, with about 30 no-loads and active ETFs, was no exception. I've highlighted four that seem especially interesting.
Finally, I think I'd like to commit to a monthly conference call of the sort we ran with David Sherman from RPHYX and was hopeful that you might both think about the project and think about becoming involved in the calls. I'm imagining a system in which we do interviews with paired funds in consecutive months: two neat long/short managers in November and December, two focused managers in January and February, two emerging markets guys, two unconventional income guys, that sort of thing.
Mitch Rubin (RiverPark) and Matt Moran (River Road) have both signed on to be our first pair. If you could think about how to make for really productive conversations and how best to attract folks to the calls, I'd appreciate your reflections.
Take care, dear friends.
David

AQR Funds:
https://www.aqrfunds.com/Portals/0/FundNews/AQR Cap Gains Distributions - Estimated 2012.pdf
Harbor Funds:
http://www.harborfunds.com/downloads/2012_Dividend_Estimates.pdf
Delaware Investments:
https://slais.mktingfulfillment.com/OneClickDownload/dspDownloadPDF.cfm?sku=CGE-RET&client=DelawareInvestments&source=Web-Delaware
Highmark Funds:
http://www.highmarkfunds.com/uploads/hmf-2012-estimated-capital-gains_4301.pdf
ING Funds:
http://www.ingfunds.com/MutualFunds/TaxCenter/Capital-Gain-Distribution

In terms of a (very) partial play on housing, STWD has been buying foreclosed homes ("Through his publicly traded Starwood Property Trust Inc. (STWD), Sternlicht has been buying foreclosed homes to rent as he waits for greater price appreciation. Through his private equity firm Starwood Capital, he also has been “actively” acquiring apartment properties since the beginning of 2010 to capture the growth in rental demand, said Chris Graham, a managing director of Starwood Capital, based in Greenwich, Connecticut." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-03/sternlicht-hedges-bets-as-buying-tops-renting-mortgages.html)
I don't own STWD. It is run by Barry Sternlicht, former CEO of Starwood Hotels. It yields over 7%.

Vanguard:Preliminary for preliminary
-November 15, 2012
Preliminary capital gains estimates: List of Vanguard funds and ETFs expected to distribute taxable capital gains for 2012, with estimated capital gains figures and scheduled record date
-November 25, 2012
Updated estimates: Year-end capital gains for applicable Vanguard funds and ETFs, broken down by short-term, long-term, and total gains.
-December 5, 2012
Updated estimates: Year-end capital gains for applicable Vanguard funds, broken down by short-term, long-term, and total gains, plus estimated income and qualified dividend income percentages.
-December 20, 2012
Updated estimated breakdown: Distributions for Vanguard Managed Payout Funds, as well as estimates for any additional year-end distributions for these funds.
-January 5, 2013
Final year-end dividend and capital gains distributions. (You'll be able to find this information on our distribution tables for mutual funds and ETFs, respectively, as well as in each fund's or ETF's individual profile page in the Research Funds & Stocks area.)

Howdy,
A thank you to all who post the links, start and participate in the many fine commentaries woven into the message threads.
For those who don't know; I ramble away about this and that, at least once each week.
NOTE: For those who visit MFO, this portfolio is designed for near retirement, capital preservation and to stay ahead of inflation creep. This is not a buy and hold portfolio, and is subject to change on any given day; based upon perceptions of market directions. All assets in this portfolio are in tax-sheltered accounts; and any fund distributions are reinvested in the funds. Gains or losses are computed from actual account values.
While looking around.....We'll just be hang'in out with our current portfolio mix; as the coming elections are a likely coin toss as to a forward path. The power brokers will remain in place; at both Wall St. in N.Y.C. and K St. in D.C., regardless of the elections. Yes, a president who is a real person of action, could make a difference; given a few years time, but I don't find that person in our near future. The likely key will be what legislation will be in place for the lame duck congress and who among that group will show their real colors with voting; as they are not beholden to the public. Okay, this is all; as last week and this coming week find a very full schedule with other areas at the home front.
The data/numbers below have been updated.
As to sector rotations below (Fidelity funds); for the past week: (Note: any given fund in any of these sectors will have varing degrees of performance based upon where the manager(s) choose to be invested and will not directly reflect upon your particular fund holdings from other vendors.) Sidenote: The average weekly return of 200 combined Fidelity retail funds across all sectors (week avg = - .92%, YTD + 11.34%).
--- U.S. equity - .50% through - 2.28%, week avg. = - 1.36% YTD = + 14%
--- Int'l equity - 1.70% through + 1.33%, week avg. = - .70% YTD = + 12.6%
--- Select eq. sectors - 5.0% through + .45%, week avg. = - 1.44% YTD = + 13.3%
--- U.S./Int'l bonds - .37% through + 0.62%, week avg. = + .01% YTD = + 3.50%
--- HY bonds - .30% through - .67%, week avg. = - .48% YTD = + 11.2%
A Decent Overview, M* 1 Month through 5 Year, Multiple Indexes
You may consider our portfolio to be quite boring, but you may be assured that it moves and bends each and every day; from forces beyond our control.
I have added a few blips related to our portfolio and market observations at the below SELLs/BUYs and Portfolio Thoughts.
SELLs/BUYs THIS PAST WEEK: = NONE.

Portfolio Thoughts:
Our holdings had a - .07 % move this past week. Our portfolio return has become about "flat" for the last 3 weeks with bond types trading places as the favored flavor of the week. Most equity sectors ended the week in the negative, with Japan, China and a few other Asian sectors being positive. We'll continue to watch; but do not have plans at this time, to enter into equity areas.
b> Still plodding along, and we will retain the below write from previous weeks; as what we are watching, still applies.
--- commodity pricing, especially the energy and base materials areas; copper and related.
--- the $US broad basket value, and in particular against the Euro and Aussie dollar (EU zone and China/Asia uncertainties).
--- price directions of U.S. treasury's, German bunds, U.K. gilts, Japanese bonds; and continued monitoring of Spanish/Italian bond pricing/yield.
--- what we are watching to help understand the money flows: SHY, IEF, TLT, TIPZ, STPZ, LTPZ, LQD, EMB, HYG, IWM, IYT & VWO; all of which offer insights reflected from the big traders as to the quality/risk, or lack of quality/risk; in various bond sectors.
The Funds Boat is at anchor, riding in the small waves, watching the weather and behind the breakwater barrier. To the high praise of MFO and the members, it is very difficult to find a topic to note here that has not been placed into the discussion boards. Excellence, as usual.
I have retained the following links for those who may choose to do their own holdings comparison against the fund types noted.
The first two links to Bloomberg are for their list of balanced/flexible funds; although I don't always agree with the placement of fund styles in their categories.
Bloomberg Balanced
Bloomberg Flexible
These next two links are for conservative and moderate fund leaders YTD, per MSN.
Conservative Allocation
Moderate Allocation
A reflection upon the links above. We attempt to establish a "benchmark" for our portfolio to help us "see" how our funds are performing. Aside from viewing many funds within the balanced/flexible funds rankings (the above links), a quick and dirty group of 5 funds (below) we watch for psuedo benchmarking are the following:
***Note: these week/YTD's per M*
VWINX .... - .49% week, YTD = + 9.27%
PRPFX .... - .63% week, YTD = + 6.05%
SIRRX ..... + .04% week, YTD = + 6.11%
TRRFX .... - .57% week, YTD = + 9.48%
VTENX ... - .49% week, YTD = + 8.43%
Such are the numerous battles with investments attempting to capture a decent return and minimize the risk.
We live and invest in interesting times, eh? Hey, I probably forgot something; and hopefully the words make some sense. Comments and questions always welcomed.
Good fortune to you, yours and the investments.
Take care,
Catch
---Below is what M* x-ray has attempted to sort for our portfolio, as of June 1, 2012---
From what I find, M* has a difficult time sorting out the holdings with bond funds.
U.S./Foreign Stocks 1.9%
Bonds 93.9% ***
Other 4.2%
Not Classified 0.00%
Avg yield = 3.72%
Avg expense = .55%
***about 18% of the bond total are high yield category (equity related cousins)
---This % listing is kinda generic, by fund "name"; which doesn't always imply the holdings, eh?
-Investment grade bond funds 28.2%
-Diversified bond funds 22.4%
-HY/HI bond funds 14.5%
-Total bond funds 32.4%
-Foreign EM/debt bond funds .6%
-U.S./Int'l equity/speciality funds 1.9%
This is our current list: (NOTE: I have added a speciality grouping below for a few of fund types)
---High Yield/High Income Bond funds
FAGIX Fid Capital & Income
SPHIX Fid High Income
FHIIX.LW Fed High Income
DIHYX TransAmerica HY
---Total Bond funds
FTBFX Fid Total
PTTRX Pimco Total
---Investment Grade Bonds
ACITX Amer. Cent. TIPS Bond
DGCIX Delaware Corp. Bd
FBNDX Fid Invest Grade
FINPX Fidelity TIPS Bond
OPBYX Oppenheimer Core Bond
---Global/Diversified Bonds
FSICX Fid Strategic Income
FNMIX Fid New Markets
DPFFX Delaware Diversified
LSBDX Loomis Sayles
PONDX Pimco Income fund (steroid version)
PLDDX Pimco Low Duration (domestic/foreign)
---Speciality Funds (sectors or mixed allocation)
FRIFX Fidelity Real Estate Income (bond/equity mix)
---Equity-Domestic/Foreign
NONE outright, with the exception of equities held inside of some of the above funds.

Be sure to check the transcripts - good stuff from Steven Romick: http://wealthtrack.com/transcript_10-19-2012.php
On Fed actions - "feel it's really a snowball, gaining forces. ...that's the problem, is that the more money you throw at this problem...And yet the Fed’s goal is just to lift asset prices, with this idea that we’re going to have it all trickle down....I think it just erodes the confidence in fiat currencies. And I don’t honestly know how it ends. I really truly don’t. There's going to be unintended consequences. But I think a lot of people such as myself are very comfortable that we’re, sadly, on the wrong path..."
Positioning for Inflation v deflation
International - "We’re looking to have more of our capital invested overseas, and to be able to invest in other asset classes. So let’s take the overseas investment first. In our portfolio, we have about 21% of the portfolio is domiciled overseas. But more important than that, as I don’t really think that's as relevant as how much the revenues are being foreign sourced. And that's about half the revenues of our long equity book. "
Bonds - "high-yielding corporate bonds are so unattractive, and there really isn’t much distressed debt that exists out there at all....the amount of new corporate issuance that is triple C and not rated is at an all-time high."
He ends with Farmland - ? Where does that show up in his portfolio? He implys it is a substitute for gold. Is there a farmland REIT?

FYI;Regards,
Ted
http://www.wealthtrack.com/video_player-05.html

No new ideas here. I'm overweight flexible bond funds (FSICX, PAUDX), energy (IXC) and metals (XME) stocks.
I would like to hear opinions on foreign equities, in particular Europe such as in FSIIX. I sold to take a capital loss and just can't bring myself to buy back in. I parked that money in Muni bonds (FLTMX).

Reply to @Rbrt: well, that was a one day affair. but the current premium is tiny compared to the average over the last several years. one reason is the reduced distribution yield. the fund is not leveraged as you know and invest in many global high quality sovereigns and corporates. high quality nowadays doesn't pay -- the absolute yields are pathetic, hence the prudent decision to cut the distribution rate by a penny monthly. some CEF managers prefer supplementing lower coupons with the destructive return of capital. MH would not do that.

AllianceBernstein Funds:
https://www.alliancebernstein.com/CmsObjectABD/PDF/TaxGuides/2012EstCapGainsDist.pdf
TFS Capital Funds:
http://www.tfscapital.com/products/mutual/files/2012_Distribution_Estimate.pdf
IVA Funds:
http://www.ivafunds.com/sites/default/files/downloads/Cap Gains Estimates 102412.pdf
Invesco Funds:
http://www.invesco.com/pdf/IFCG-FLY-2-E.pdf?contentGuid=9c8738bd740ec210VgnVCM1000000a67bf0aRCRD

Reply to @Ted: Respectfully disagree with your characterization. I gather that the poster (OJ) is well north of the 70 year mark. At some point - depending on one's health, other assets, other income streams, etc. - capital preservation becomes paramount. The extreme cash weighting isn't what I'd recommend for the vast majority who frequent the board. However, not knowing all relevant details, I'd be loath to characterize the allocation harshly. Also, many count their emergency cash reserve as part of invested proceeds - which may skew the overall allocation in favor of cash. Also, many invested in RPHYX (as I think OJ is) count that as part of their "cash" position. The suggestion by OJ was on the heels of a Fed pronouncement that immediately jolted equities higher. I'd agree such occasions are opportune for those already considering selling. (FYI - OJ indicated some time ago he'd be traveling and not in a position to access Internet for several months.) Regards, hank

Last week Annaly Capital’s CEO Wellington Denahan-Norris (who this week replaced the late Michael Farrell who tragically passed away), said some very interesting comments to Bloomberg on the state of the risk markets. After discussing the impact of the Fed buying Agency MBS she said:
“It’s not just at the mortgage REITs where the returns in this market are being put under assault, It’s the general global landscape where you have an incredible mispricing of risk that’s being delivered at the hands of academics at the central banks of the world.”
Worst fear #1--an unforeseen sharp rise in interest rates resulting in principal losses to fixed income allocations (bond funds.)
Worst fear #2--financial repression/negative real return/negligible yield on any better credit quality/shorter duration asset continuing on and on and on for years.
Either scenario equates to a damned whether you do or don't costly outcome for those who saved instead of spent, the flip side regression to mean for fixed income funds which have enjoyed decades of gains in addition to yield.
Fidelity Floating Rate and RPHYX are held as interest rate risk hedges. A doubling of precious metals exposure from 5% to 10% (gold, silver, mining shares and funds) was done through spring and summer to hedge against the rash actions of poison Ivy League economics PhDs.
http://www.realclearmarkets.com/docs/2012/10/Population delusions 121007 great disorder.pdf
So I keep wondering to myself, do our money-printing central banks and their cheerleaders
understand the full consequences of the monetary debasement they continue to engineer?
Inflation of the CPI might be a consequence both seen and measurable. A broad inflation of
asset prices might be a consequence seen, though not measurable. But what about the
consequences that are unseen but unmeasurable – and are all the more destructive for it? I feel queasy about the enthusiasm with which our wise economists play games with
something about which we have such a poor understanding.
My point is to show that money operates in many social domains beyond the
financial, and that tying currency devaluation to social devaluation might have some merit.
-Dylan Grice/SocGen
Money doesn't talk it swears.
-a different Dylan

Hey Scott
Here are a few ideas that I like ;
1-OAK: Oaktree Capital Management
http://brooklyninvestor.blogspot.com/2012/04/oak-oaktree-capital-management-ipo.html
2-Loews Corp
http://brooklyninvestor.blogspot.com/2011/10/loews-corp.html
3-Leucadia -luk
http://brooklyninvestor.blogspot.com/2012/09/leucadia-fmg-note-resolution.html
4-GLRE: David Einhorn
http://brooklyninvestor.blogspot.com/2012/05/glre-david-einhorn-at-book.html
These are all long term investments and are not meant for a quick trade.
I do own a few of them (OAK,LUK,GLRE) and I intent to buy some more.
Good luck to all
Turtle.

Catch, think I'm getting somewhere with this puzzle. From Investopedia
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/haircut.asp
Definition of 'Haircut'
1. The difference between prices at which a market maker can buy and sell a security.
2. The percentage by which an asset's market value is reduced for the purpose of calculating capital requirement, margin and collateral levels.
Investopedia explains 'Haircut'
1. The term haircut comes from the fact that market makers can trade at such a thin spread.
2. When they are used as collateral, securities will generally be devalued since a cushion is required by the lending parties in case the market value
---
I've gathered elsewhere that if a trader takes a "haircut" that's not good. So having alota hair on it probably implies a safer trade.
ALSO: "Tail Risk" http://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/tailrisk.asp
ALSO: "Long Tail" http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/long-tail.asp
ALSO: "Fat Tail" http://www.fattails.ca/
Well, that oughta cover it pretty well. Your expert obviously understands haircuts & tails very well.
I'll bet he eats, breathes & dreams this stuff! Take care.

Howdy,
A thank you to all who post the links, start and participate in the many fine commentaries woven into the message threads.
For those who don't know; I ramble away about this and that, at least once each week.
NOTE: For those who visit MFO, this portfolio is designed for near retirement, capital preservation and to stay ahead of inflation creep. This is not a buy and hold portfolio, and is subject to change on any given day; based upon perceptions of market directions. All assets in this portfolio are in tax-sheltered accounts; and any fund distributions are reinvested in the funds. Gains or losses are computed from actual account values.
While looking around.....Mixed Bag of Thoughts.....If we periodically need an excuse related to investment decisions; this study Memory and Doors may cause one to consider staying put in one room for a time period, during crucial investment thinking sessions.
A recent post Bond Funds, Total Return or Equity Hedge?
brought forth fewer responses than I expected. Our house will answer with "Total Return"; as that is always our goal, from whatever market sectors we may use. The original question is in place with the basis thought that the majority of investors have been equity investors for several decades. The new question may be whether this will be the case with new and current investors today. Equity investments surely will not disappear; but will this sector draw and continue to hold the most money?
Lastly, the most common proposition of bonds being used as an equity hedge; may become, "equity investments used as a "bond holdings hedge". All of us have our investment holdings placed, based upon whatever we perceive to be the best place for our money, set within our own risk and reward scale. In one fashion or another, we all have some form of a long/short, equity-income, balanced, flexible or other style of investing when looking at the overall portfolio holdings in place. We manage the managed funds, or at the very least; manage the passive or index holdings of our portfolios. We've all placed our investment mix to form a style box of one type or another, eh?
The data/numbers below have been updated.
As to sector rotations below (Fidelity funds); for the past week: (Note: any given fund in any of these sectors will have varing degrees of performance based upon where the manager(s) choose to be invested and will not directly reflect upon your particular fund holdings from other vendors.)
--- U.S. equity - 1.78% through + 2.2%, week avg. = + .36% YTD = + 15.5%
--- Int'l equity - .33% through + 2.5%, week avg. = + 1.06% YTD = + 13.4%
--- Select eq. sectors - 2.9% through + 3.9%, week avg. = + .51% YTD = + 15%
--- U.S./Int'l bonds - 1.7% through + 0.0%, week avg. = - .31% YTD = + 3.48%
--- HY bonds + .09% through + .50%, week avg. = + .33% YTD = + 11.77%
A Decent Overview, M* 1 Month through 5 Year, Multiple Indexes
You may consider our portfolio to be quite boring, but you may be assured that it moves and bends each and every day; from forces beyond our control.
I have added a few blips related to our portfolio and market observations at the below SELLs/BUYs and Portfolio Thoughts.
SELLs/BUYs THIS PAST WEEK: = Reduced our holdings in FINPX, with the proceeds added to FRIFX and PONDX.

Portfolio Thoughts:
Our holdings had a + .09 % move this past week. If one viewed the market data between the Friday's of Oct. 12-19, the numbers would indicate a so-so market in equity and bond sectors. The fact that large swings in both some equity and bond sectors had taken place between Monday and Friday of the week ending Oct. 19 would not be evident; but there were some very big swings in closing out the trading week. Most equity sectors ended the week in the positive, while many bond sectors were negative in returns. We'll continue to watch; but do not have plans at this time, to enter into equity areas.
Sidenote: The average return of 200 combined Fidelity retail funds across all sectors (week avg = + .40%, YTD + 12.4%). b> Still plodding along, and we will retain the below write from previous weeks; as what we are watching, still applies.
--- commodity pricing, especially the energy and base materials areas; copper and related.
--- the $US broad basket value, and in particular against the Euro and Aussie dollar (EU zone and China/Asia uncertainties).
--- price directions of U.S. treasury's, German bunds, U.K. gilts, Japanese bonds; and continued monitoring of Spanish/Italian bond pricing/yield.
--- what we are watching to help understand the money flows: SHY, IEF, TLT, TIPZ, STPZ, LTPZ, LQD, EMB, HYG, IWM, IYT & VWO; all of which offer insights reflected from the big traders as to the quality/risk, or lack of quality/risk; in various bond sectors.
The Funds Boat is at anchor, riding in the small waves, watching the weather and behind the breakwater barrier. To the high praise of MFO and the members, it is very difficult to find a topic to note here that has not been placed into the discussion boards. Excellence, as usual.
I have retained the following links for those who may choose to do their own holdings comparison against the fund types noted.
The first two links to Bloomberg are for their list of balanced/flexible funds; although I don't always agree with the placement of fund styles in their categories.
Bloomberg Balanced
Bloomberg Flexible
These next two links are for conservative and moderate fund leaders YTD, per MSN.
Conservative Allocation
Moderate Allocation
A reflection upon the links above. We attempt to establish a "benchmark" for our portfolio to help us "see" how our funds are performing. Aside from viewing many funds within the balanced/flexible funds rankings (the above links), a quick and dirty group of 5 funds (below) we watch for psuedo benchmarking are the following:
***Note: these week/YTD's per M*
VWINX .... + .37% week, YTD = + 9.80%
PRPFX .... - .14% week, YTD = + 6.73%
SIRRX ..... + .04% week, YTD = + 6.07%
TRRFX .... + .24% week, YTD = + 10.11%
VTENX ... + .12% week, YTD = + 8.96%
Such are the numerous battles with investments attempting to capture a decent return and minimize the risk.
We live and invest in interesting times, eh? Hey, I probably forgot something; and hopefully the words make some sense. Comments and questions always welcomed.
Good fortune to you, yours and the investments.
Take care,
Catch
---Below is what M* x-ray has attempted to sort for our portfolio, as of June 1, 2012---
From what I find, M* has a difficult time sorting out the holdings with bond funds.
U.S./Foreign Stocks 1.9%
Bonds 93.9% ***
Other 4.2%
Not Classified 0.00%
Avg yield = 3.72%
Avg expense = .55%
***about 18% of the bond total are high yield category (equity related cousins)
---This % listing is kinda generic, by fund "name"; which doesn't always imply the holdings, eh?
-Investment grade bond funds 28.2%
-Diversified bond funds 22.4%
-HY/HI bond funds 14.5%
-Total bond funds 32.4%
-Foreign EM/debt bond funds .6%
-U.S./Int'l equity/speciality funds 1.9%
This is our current list: (NOTE: I have added a speciality grouping below for a few of fund types)
---High Yield/High Income Bond funds
FAGIX Fid Capital & Income
SPHIX Fid High Income
FHIIX.LW Fed High Income
DIHYX TransAmerica HY
---Total Bond funds
FTBFX Fid Total
PTTRX Pimco Total
---Investment Grade Bonds
ACITX Amer. Cent. TIPS Bond
DGCIX Delaware Corp. Bd
FBNDX Fid Invest Grade
FINPX Fidelity TIPS Bond
OPBYX Oppenheimer Core Bond
---Global/Diversified Bonds
FSICX Fid Strategic Income
FNMIX Fid New Markets
DPFFX Delaware Diversified
LSBDX Loomis Sayles
PONDX Pimco Income fund (steroid version)
PLDDX Pimco Low Duration (domestic/foreign)
---Speciality Funds (sectors or mixed allocation)
FRIFX Fidelity Real Estate Income (bond/equity mix)
---Equity-Domestic/Foreign
NONE outright, with the exception of equities held inside of some of the above funds.

Reply to @TheShadow: Looks like ARIVX will be seeing a large short-term capital gain distribution, around 5.69% of its current NAV. Something to note for tax planning.

Aston Funds (ASTON/River Road Independent Value Fund):
http://astonfunds.com/shareholders/distributions-capital-gains