....since they are largely momentum driven".
This is basically the way I play index funds in my own portfolio, was interested in tapping into this boards' collective human capital for points/counterpoints, and debate.
Cheers

Vanguard Funds:
https://personal.vanguard.com/us/insights/article/preliminary-capital-gains-11132012
The World Funds:
http://www.theworldfunds.com/pages/DividendDistribution.html

Reply to @Old_Joe:
Hi Old Joe,
I’m sure you did well with American Funds; I hired them in the early 1990s and they did deliver positive Alpha for me for good parts of a decade. I’ve adopted a more passive oriented approach more recently.
The Capital organization emphasized deep research in all their products and developed their talent internally. Given Charles Ellis’s penchant for passive investing, I was amazed at how fairly he detailed the Capital system in his book. He honestly believed that Capital managed to identify, develop, and maintain an exceptional cohort of researchers and money managers to successfully execute the challenging active management task.
He concluded that the firm achieved low turnover rates because of a carefully crafted financial incentive program, and an industry admired corporate culture whereby innovative thinking was encouraged and rewarded.
Ellis writing kind words about an active fund management operation sort of unbalanced me. My cognitive equilibrium was perturbed, like seeing one of M. C. Escher’s staircase drawings. Here is a great Link that presents some of Escher’s more famous physics defying drawings:
http://www.google.com/images?q=escher+waterfall&hl=en&gbv=2&gs_l=heirloom-hp.3..0l10.1636.9414.0.15474.12.6.0.6.6.0.228.916.0j5j1.6.0...0.0...1c.1.rpA423tePJc&oq=escher+waterfall
I particularly like the Escher waterfall picture at:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.lipson/escher/lego_waterfall_1600.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.andrewlipson.com/escher/waterfall.html&usg=__62R1IQmU2_39xJal9W2IRSjn1E0=&h=1600&w=1394&sz=539&hl=en&start=3&zoom=1&tbnid=-MMhbr3uuv3fvM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=131&ei=b-mhUJLDI4Hs2QXMuIC4DQ&prev=/images?q=escher+waterfall&hl=en&gbv=2&tbm=isch&itbs=1
Enjoy and thanks for your comments. Escher’s work wows me.
Best Wishes.

Oakmark Funds:
http://www.oakmark.com/opennews.asp?news_id=609&news_from=h
Tocqueville Funds:
http://tocqueville.com/sites/default/files/Distributions_2012_Prelim.pdf
Wells Fargo Advantage Funds:
http://www.wellsfargoadvantagefunds.com/wfweb/wf/funds/performance/distributions.jsp
Riverpark Funds:
http://www.riverparkfunds.com/downloads/News/RiverPark_Distribution_Info_2012_Website.pdf
Payden & Rygel Funds:
http://payden.com/pdf/Capital Gain Payment_2012.pdf
PIMCO Funds:
http://investments.pimco.com/ShareholderCommunications/External Documents/PIMCO_Funds_Capital_Gain_Estimates_2012.pdf
TCW Funds:
https://www.tcw.com/~/media/Downloads/TCW Funds/Distribution and Tax Information/FUNDsb.ashx

Reply to @bee:
Hi Bee,
I too was fascinated by Charles Ellis’s assessment of mutual fund management fees. I didn’t think it was possible, but Ellis out-Bogled cost containment master John Bogle himself with respect to cost analysis.
John Bogle forever cautioned that cost matters should be judged against prospective annual returns. A 1 % management fee is less onerous when a 10 % annual return is expected and delivered than when a 5 % yearly return is realized.
Charles Ellis proposes a more challenging demand since you already own your portfolio, and are entrusting it to your fund manager's protection against the vicissitudes of general market uncertainty. He suggests that the fee schedule should be coupled to returns measured against a relevant benchmark. Little chance of that ever happening.
Ellis has long been a staunch ally and advocate of passive Index investing. I was shocked when he wrote a book, “Capital” , in 2004 that chronicled the history of The Capitol Group Companies, financial and investment advisors for the American Funds family. I found it unlikely that Ellis would elect to do this task, and even more unlikely that Capital would enthusiastically participate in this company biography, given Ellis’s preference bias and passion for passive fund management. Strange bedfellows indeed.
Yet Ellis produced a book that extolled the virtues of the long term investment outlook, the team management concept, the shunning of investment superstars, and publicity that characterizes Capital and American Funds long, and mostly distinguished, record. Given a long enough time horizon, bad outcomes damage all investors: private, professional, and institutional alike. Recently, American Funds suffered that regression to the mean.
I love analogies. They help in the understanding of a complex landscape and provide stories that facilitate memory. Your toll booth analogy serves both those desirable purposes. It is excellent. I will certainly remember it, and might use it. Congratulations.
Thanks for your contribution, especially for your perceptive analogy.
Best Wishes.

Reply to @catch22:
I would recommend that your friend's first priority should be to do whatever it takes to convince himself that "capital preservation and appreciation" are NOT the goals he should set if he wants to satisfy his needs/wants...
If he were planning to spontaneously blow it all in one shot on a small yacht (let's say to impress some gold-digger he met unexpectedly) at some point then capital preservation and appreciation would be a worthy goal, but given the circumstances you described what his goal should be is a stream of regular income that can be derived from some combination of dividends and capital gains...and towards this end I agree with the perspective of David Swensen that the safety of an investment portfolio used in this way is determined by the stability of the dividends (and that doesn't mean past dividends or dividend yield as naively conceived of by some investors, but the likelihood of stable dividends being paid in the future) and the risk, by and large, determined by the amount of capital gains you intend to siphon from the pockets of the greater fools who may or may not materialize to take the other side of your trades.
So what one ideally wants to do in this situation is establish a safe floor of dividend income (which could include maturing bond principal) to satisfy one's needs and then use the principal to finance various arbitrage strategies to siphon whatever money might be left on the table by the greater fools, should they dare show up to play. There are many ways to employ arbitrage depending on the amount of time and skill you have at your disposal, but the simplest way to capture arbitrage profits I'm aware of that can be employed by an unsophisticated investor is, for a given level of future dividend income, to simply increase the volatility of one's portfolio as much as possible (which acts kind of like a bucket under a leaky roof because as volatility increases all arbitragers face more and more difficulty and their profits tend to spill over the edges and pool at the most volatile corners of the market...this is the source of the so called "risk premium" which really doesn't have much to do with risk at all).
So your question was what funds do I recommend your friend use to do this specifically? Well one way to implement it would be with one of Vanguard's Managed Payout funds...VPGFX, VPGDX, and VPDFX: Get the distributions direct deposited into his checking account, sign up for online mutual fund statements, shred/forget his password, and let the distributions grow (in case of VPGFX) or not (in case of VPDFX). This is not the only way to do it, but the key is realizing that if your need is a stream of income then your goal should be to grow a stream of income, not shoot yourself in the foot by fretting over irrelevant capital fluctuations.

Howdy BannedfromBogleheads,
You wrote:

"And on the basis of my best understanding of prudent investment strategy I have to admit that volatility aversion does certainly seem to be an indication of stupidity because all the investment theory I know says that volatility is rewarded...which is, unfortunately, commonly misinterpreted as the impossible contradiction that "risk is rewarded"; Risk is not rewarded (it can't be because, as you noted, risk is defined from loss which is the opposite of reward and, thus, it's logically impossible for an investment to simultaneously tend towards both risk and reward), volatility is rewarded and so the key to successful investing is to minimize risk while maximizing volatility."

I am in a position of helping a friend with some retirement decisions; and attempting to define your above thoughts as they might apply to his monetary investments during his retirement.
He is being early retired due to the elimination of his current position; along with other co-workers.
He just turned age 65, has no debt, owes a small house that suits his needs and has always been prudent with his spending. He is divorced and his former wife has signed off against his small pension, so that he will receive his full amount. He was not part of a union for his work; so he will need to pay for supplemental insurance plans to offset some fees within Medicare A and B, as well as provide his own prescription medication insurance, which will total about $260/month.
What he will have going forward:
--- $1,000/month gross pension
--- $1,800/month net Social Security (if he started today)
--- About $200,000 total in IRA accounts (includes 401k rollover)
His monthly pension will be totally consumed, and more, from supplemental health insurance, house & auto insurance, utilities, food, auto gas, etc. He will also attempt to maintain an emergency cash acct. at his credit union.
He, of course; prefers to not withdraw any monies from the IRA account until the required minimum distributions after age 70.5 years.
Based upon your statement above, what 4-6 mutual funds could he use to provide capital preservation and also have some captial appreciation of his IRA funds?
Regards,
Catch

I editted this to "fund discussion status" because of all the great "fund discussion" going on here...
A Fidelity article:
building-portfolio-for-income
"If you are saving for retirement, you should be taking a total return approach that considers both income and capital appreciation. If you’re in retirement, you likely have some guaranteed1 income streams like Social Security, a pension, or an annuity. But you may also want or need to generate income off your investment portfolio. And regardless of your stage in life, there may be times you want to generate income for a specific goal..."
Some income investment sectors to consider:

Hi MikeM,
I do believe some of the equity selling is related to possible tax changes for cap. gains; and folks taking profits with some of the better areas of equity returns for 2012.
This could apply to both individual stocks and/or etf's/active mutual funds.
If the sells become large enough within some areas; they may come back in to buy in 2013.
If some of the sellers are looking at locking in gains of 12-30% on some holdings and are concerned about what else may be coming down the road with the "fiscal cliff" stuff; why not sell and sit on the money for a few months?
Just a thought.
Regards,
Catch

Someone else mentioned HQH and HQL as CEF options in terms of health care. They are unique in that they can dip (to considerable degree) into private equity health care names. They also provide a significant yield, although I believe a good deal of that is likely return-of-capital.
The market seems a tad ....... displeased this morning.
Edited to add: went past -300 briefly.

Primecap Odyssey Funds:
http://www.odysseyfunds.com/prices_and_performance/distribution_information.html
Fidelity Funds:
http://personal.fidelity.com/planning/tax/yearenddistributions/fidelity_tax/Fidelity.shtml.cvsr?refpr=FormsaRes7
or Fidelity Funds (advisor, retail & Destiny funds):
https://fiiscontent.fidelity.com/779189.PDF?pos=L
Permanent Portfolio Funds (date set, no amounts posted as of yet)
http://www.permanentportfoliofunds.com/pd_div.htm
Forward Funds:
http://www.forwardinvesting.com/wp-content/uploads/capital-gain-notice-2012.pdf
Nationwide Funds:
http://www.nationwide.com/mutual-funds-distributions.jsp

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.