Disappointments or surprises? PRSNX has held up pretty well, though it is down, marginally. (PRSNX = 9.05% of portfolio.) In the last 2 days, portf. is down -2.14%. Crap. All my growth-y and small-cap stuff is in the jakes. VSCIX PRDSX and EM, SFGIX. MAPOX and PRWCX are both balanced, but MAPOX has fared worse. Total portf = down yesterday by -1.09% and today, just a bit "better:" down -1.05%. No safe haven. PNM (elec. utility) was up yesterday, down by a lot more, today.
Buy, Sell and Ponder -- March Late last week I sold parts of my holdings in SFGIX and DSENX as well as my remaining tiny chunk of FAAFX. With that, I brought equities down to 70% of my portfolio from 80%.
Some of that is for personal reasons. I've been pretty much all in the market for the 15 years, it's been a great ride, and I now want to raise cash to buy a house in a year or so. The money I'm taking out of the market is money I expect to need soon.
I also think that, despite the fabulous economic fundamentals, the US now faces political risk: there's a chance IMHO that Trump will do something phenomonally stupid, or that Mueller will find a smoking gun and that (in the latter case) Trump doesn't go quietly.
I hope I'm wrong on both counts, but I'm sleeping better now that I've got enough in cash and conservative bond funds to meet my near-term financial goals.
Buy, Sell and Ponder -- March @jlev: I hold RPGAX for exposure to international bonds, of which I have little in my portfolio save a sliver of a modest position in
SFGIX. The other two allocation funds I have, BRUFX and CCAPX, do not hold international bonds that I can see. RPGAX's bond exposure is through other TRP funds, but the fund's biggest position is a Blackstone hedge fund. I have no clue as to what its holdings are.
Gary Cohn resigns, Will it be a happy eastern time zone equity morning? March 7 Yer funny. DJIA futures down -58 points at the moment, 11:20 p.m. Thankfully, my investing is not a sprint, but a marathon. Just added (through the mail) to PRIDX and PNM and SFGIX.
Emerging Markets @willmat72, you may have much less EM in your portfolio than the 15% you stated. None of the 3 funds you listed are full-in EM funds like an index EM fund would be. There is a lot of developed, bonds and cash in that 3-some total.
For example, it looks like the TRP fund has about 6% of it's assets in EM equities.
SFGIX about 51% and MIOPX about 27%. If you hold all those funds at about the same weight of that 15% you are calling EM funds in the total portfolio, that's only about 28% EM equities in those 3 funds.
15% (what you call EM funds in your portfolio) x 28% (actual EM equities in your 3 funds) comes out to about 4% EM equities in your total portfolio.
I may not have explained it well, but you may only have about 4% EM equities in your total portfolio (if I did the math right). I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Appears you are closer to the conservative % Ted points out.
Edit: do a M* instant xray of all your funds to find out for sure if you think you need to be exact.
HI Mike,
Thanks for the detail and insight. I had my portfolio screened through Personal Capital, the online/robo advisor. Their software determined that my international holdings consist of about 15% EM. Of that, most was derived from
SFGIX with lesser amounts from MIOPX and PRGTX. Bear in mind that I'm increasing my exposure to the latter two funds during 2018 so that number may increase a bit. If you compare EM with my entire portfolio, it's probably less than 5%. So, your numbers seems to make sense with regard to my total portfolio.
Emerging Markets I'm at 11%, and will be adding to SFGIX. Or you could go with the Matthews shop, which restricts itself to Asia. Lots to choose from, over there. You may have better luck with shareholder services than I did. I pulled the plug with Matthews several years ago. But you'll have to do some real looking. For example, their MAPIX holds a lot in DEVELOPED Asia, by now. MACSX also holds instruments for current income, as well as growth.
Emerging Markets @willmat72, you may have much less EM in your portfolio than the 15% you stated. None of the 3 funds you listed are full-in EM funds like an index EM fund would be. There is a lot of developed, bonds and cash in that 3-some total.
For example, it looks like the TRP fund has about 6% of it's assets in EM equities.
SFGIX about 51% and MIOPX about 27%. If you hold all those funds at about the same weight of that 15% you are calling EM funds in the total portfolio, that's only about 28% EM equities in those 3 funds.
15% (what you call EM funds in your portfolio) x 28% (actual EM equities in your 3 funds) comes out to about 4% EM equities in your total portfolio.
I may not have explained it well, but you may only have about 4% EM equities in your total portfolio (if I did the math right). I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Appears you are closer to the conservative % Ted points out.
Edit: do a M* instant xray of all your funds to find out for sure if you think you need to be exact.
Emerging Markets I've seen quite a few recommendations to buy emerging markets based on this latest correction. Currently, I devote about 15% of my international holdings to emerging markets, with the bulk from SFGIX, MIOPX and PRGTX. I would consider myself a fairly conservative investor with a 10+ horizon for investing. What do you consider a sufficient allocation to emerging markets in an aggressive, moderate and conservative portfolio?
Comparison snapshot during current crazy market period: SFGIX vs. PRIJX Concur with everyone's assessment on
SFGIX. In the semiannual report of
SFGIX, Andrew Foster discussed his view on China and its risk-
seafarerfunds.com/letters-to-shareholders/2017/10/semi-annualAs other noted here that
SFGIX held up better during the wild swing of the last several days. The other fund I am watching is MAPIX which is Asia-focus fund and has sizable exposure to China/Hong Kong as well.
Comparison snapshot during current crazy market period: SFGIX vs. PRIJX Jan. 31 through 06 Feb, '18.
SFGIX -3.38%
PRIJX -3.76% (I do not own this guy.)
Did SFGIX do its job of reducing losses in a downward-stretch?
...And from a different planet, my domestic small caps in VSCIX were down by -4.45% in the same period.
Although SFGIX is listed as a Diversified Emerging Markets fund, it holds about 55% in emerging markets with the rest categorized as developed markets. IMHO, it's not a true emerging markets fund with little more than half exposure. PRIJX, however, holds about 72% in emerging markets with the rest in developed markets. This could explain in part the reason for the greater downswing for PRIJX. To me, SFGIX is sort of a back end way of dipping into emerging markets without REALLY getting full exposure to it. I own the fund myself, just to clarify.
I think this is splitting hairs a bit.
Country Diversification Top 5
VEIVX
China 32.6%
Taiwan 14.4%
India 11.8%
South Africa 7.9%
Brazil 7.7%
SFGIX
China/Hong Kong 19%
South Korea 18%
Taiwan 11%
India 10%
Brazil 10%
Is South Korea an emerging market?
Is Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund, also a "Diversified Emerging Markets Fund", a true emerging markets fund?
Mona
Not splitting hairs at all; just looking at the facts as shown on *M. The MSCI EM benchmark is 70 EM and 30 DM. Currently, Foster is below that benchmark at 55 EM, hence the possible reason for lower volatility. I believe
@BobC mentioned this very issue in July.
Comparison snapshot during current crazy market period: SFGIX vs. PRIJX If we stick to
@Crash's original question and not try and give our reasons for why or how it's different than other EM funds (it of course is - it's suppose to be), there is no splitting hairs.
I believe
SFGIX gives good risk adjusted return. That's Foster's mandate. How the management team achieves that has been well described by Foster (see the MFO profile below). So back to crash's question,
Did SFGIX do its job of reducing losses in a downward-stretch?
Heck yeah - so far.
David writes some great fund profiles. The description he wrote in 2013 and updated in 2015 on
SFGIX tells exactly how this fund gives great risk adjusted return. And it seems to work as evidence from the last week of market turmoil.
For an older guy like myself heading into retirement who is some what risk adverse, it is a perfect way to "back-end" EM exposure.
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/?s=sfgix
Comparison snapshot during current crazy market period: SFGIX vs. PRIJX Jan. 31 through 06 Feb, '18.
SFGIX -3.38%
PRIJX -3.76% (I do not own this guy.)
Did SFGIX do its job of reducing losses in a downward-stretch?
...And from a different planet, my domestic small caps in VSCIX were down by -4.45% in the same period.
Although SFGIX is listed as a Diversified Emerging Markets fund, it holds about 55% in emerging markets with the rest categorized as developed markets. IMHO, it's not a true emerging markets fund with little more than half exposure. PRIJX, however, holds about 72% in emerging markets with the rest in developed markets. This could explain in part the reason for the greater downswing for PRIJX. To me, SFGIX is sort of a back end way of dipping into emerging markets without REALLY getting full exposure to it. I own the fund myself, just to clarify.
I think this is splitting hairs a bit.
Country Diversification Top 5VEIVX
China 32.6%
Taiwan 14.4%
India 11.8%
South Africa 7.9%
Brazil 7.7%
SFGIXChina/Hong Kong 19%
South Korea 18%
Taiwan 11%
India 10%
Brazil 10%
Is South Korea an emerging market?
Is Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund, also a "Diversified Emerging Markets Fund", a true emerging markets fund?
Mona
Comparison snapshot during current crazy market period: SFGIX vs. PRIJX Jan. 31 through 06 Feb, '18.
SFGIX -3.38%
PRIJX -3.76% (I do not own this guy.)
Did SFGIX do its job of reducing losses in a downward-stretch?
...And from a different planet, my domestic small caps in VSCIX were down by -4.45% in the same period.
Although
SFGIX is listed as a Diversified Emerging Markets fund, it holds about 55% in emerging markets with the rest categorized as developed markets. IMHO, it's not a true emerging markets fund with little more than half exposure. PRIJX, however, holds about 72% in emerging markets with the rest in developed markets. This could explain in part the reason for the greater downswing for PRIJX. To me,
SFGIX is sort of a back end way of dipping into emerging markets without REALLY getting full exposure to it. I own the fund myself, just to clarify.
Comparison snapshot during current crazy market period: SFGIX vs. PRIJX I see SFGIX has dropped 4.76% from 1/31 to 2/7. I see PRIJX dropped 5.74% in the same time range. SFGIX dropped 17% less than PRIJX. You decide.
I'll edit and throw in another comparison. Schwab's emerging market ETF, SCHE, has dropped 6.9% from 1/31 to 2/7. SFGIX has dropped 31% less than that index ETF.
Comparison snapshot during current crazy market period: SFGIX vs. PRIJX Jan. 31 through 06 Feb, '18.
SFGIX -3.38%
PRIJX -3.76% (I do not own this guy.)
Did SFGIX do its job of reducing losses in a downward-stretch?
...And from a different planet, my domestic small caps in VSCIX were down by -4.45% in the same period.
