Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
Reply to @Investor:
"This will not change until a fiduciary standard is assigned to every relationship between retail advisor and retail client in the United States."
http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2012/07/03/i-want-you-to-picture-a-furnace/
M…
Same manure, different day.
Edward D. Jones & Co. received $82.4 million in secret payments from seven mutual-fund firms in the first 11 months of 2004, through a lopsided fee structure that in some cases gave the brokerage firm more compensat…
But what the proponents of principal reductions at Fannie and Freddie don’t talk about is what a transfer of wealth from taxpayers (again) to large banks such a program would represent.
Still, the crowd clamors for widespread Fannie and Freddie wr…
Years ago, when I was running my own brokerage firm, an opportunity was presented for me to hire a gentleman who possessed a PhD. Shortly after I retained his services, I excitedly told my mentor and best client of what I thought was a hiring coup f…
"Luck of the draw for where one may be invested at a particular cycle in the next few years; may indeed be only luck"
Indeed. In hindsight the majority of my/our good fortune is rightly attributed to luck.
Also believe that both lucks, good and bad…
VGENX VGPMX FFRHX FSTFX RPHYX SCPZF.PK Also some gold and silver miners in mining friendly jurisdictions (Quebec, China.) I do the grocery shopping and bill paying like utilities, insurances etc. With online bill paying and personal finance software…
The link between the Fed’s policies and this undeniable effect is too direct and too obvious for anyone, including the Fed’s managers, to overlook or misunderstand. We may only conclude, then, that the Fed’s managers either: 1) want to wipe out the …
Kudos on the WSJ recognition.
"gather the evidence, assess the evidence, make an argument."
Allocated some to MAINX. Mr. Snowball's perspicacity and experience make for
a tough customer to argue with and I've very much been the beneficiary for agr…
The degree to which central banks around the world are printing money is unprecedented.
Recently, the eight central bank balance sheets have spiked back to 33% of world stock market capitalization. This has come about not by lender of last resort…
Catch-all reply. The only persuasive case to be made is the case making itself in the fullness of time. Should the present historically low interest rate environment continue for years I will be persuaded that being concerned with interest rate risk…
(it's been in a 30 year bull cycle but interest rates can't go down from here and since prices move inversely to yield . . .)
I suspect all fixed-income investments have become a risky asset.
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Negative Interest
The paper shows that there have been five debt crises over the past hundred years, including the latest one, and the last two, since World War II, have both been accompanied by financial repression. The key to these measures, whi…
Shareholder since late July. Income $900, return $600 due to a few cents erosion in NAV.
Distributions are volatile, Sept $300, Oct $150, a difference of 50%. After three months
ROI is seventy two basis points (0.72%) according to Quicken. Far les…
Thanks for update to RiverPark Short Term High Yield (RPHYX).
Took a position in this unusual fund after being introduced here,
NAV continues to be extremely stable while (theoretically) avoiding
most interest rate risk and credit risk. Practice ma…
Sitting on hands until numb since repositioning bond funds in Jan-Feb-Mar into newer absolute return fixed income funds. Sold MLPs (TPZ) at year end with funds/etfs being launched to capture the increased flows. The entire mlp universe is relatively…
Holding Fidelity Floating Rate FFHRX. I'd anticipated the launching of several investment grade floating ETFs to up the credit quality of dealing with interest rate risk. Turns out their yield is under 1% so passed on them. Instead reallocated to so…
With a view towards interest rate risk I repositioned the bond fund exposure out of multisector bonds (Loomis Sayles Bond, Fidelity Strategic Income, Fidelity Total Bond and Dreyfus Int'l Bond) into absolute return/market neutral multiasset funds (L…