Dear friends,
Welcome to the December Mutual Fund Observer, and to the holiday season.
The Christmas of the early American republic would be barely recognizable to us. In many colonies, it was a workday, ignored or mistrusted; only some immigrant communities treated it as a true festival. You’ll remember the Christmas of Continue reading →
MFO’s founding mission is to “write for the benefit of intellectually curious, serious investors— managers, advisers, and individuals—who need to go beyond marketing fluff, beyond computer-generated recommendations and beyond Morningstar’s coverage universe.” But one of our core precepts is “80% of all existing funds could disappear today with no loss to anyone, except possibly the managers who have to explain it to their spouses.” The goodriddance group includes two overlapping sorts of idiocy: (1) many are launched Continue reading →
On October 1, 2025, GMO launched the GMO Domestic Resilience ETF (DRES), bringing the firm’s time-tested quality-focused investment discipline to a distinctly contemporary challenge: identifying companies positioned to benefit as manufacturing, defense production, and critical supply chains return to U.S. soil. DRES represents GMO’s bet that reshoring and nearshoring—the movement of production capacity back onshore or to nearby allies—constitutes more than political theater or a temporary supply-chain correction. The fund targets sectors at the heart of this shift: Continue reading →
On September 24, 2025, MFS Investment Management launched the MFS Active Mid Cap ETF (MMID), bringing one of the firm’s most seasoned mid-cap strategies into the ETF wrapper. The fund represents a straightforward translation of MFS Mid Cap Value – a strategy portfolio manager Kevin Schmitz has managed since 2008 – into a more tax-efficient and accessible structure. What distinguishes MMID is not novelty but pedigree: a 17-year track record, a manager who joined MFS as an equity analyst in 2002 and has spent more than Continue reading →
Welcome, dear friends.
Welcome to autumn. The apples are in, the trees are changing, flurries threaten – four of my students have never seen snow except at the movies – and, at long last, summer’s wardrobe has been laid to its rest. The clocks “fell back” as I was writing this essay, offering me a bonus hour in my day. Hesitant, as ever, to be wasteful, I resolved to spend my gifted hour thinking Interesting Thoughts.
Warren Buffett has more Continue reading →
In the buttoned-down world of institutional asset management, T Rowe Price has long been the firm that makes boring look brilliant. While competitors chased hot trends and flashy returns, the Baltimore-based firm built its reputation as the quintessential “singles hitter,” compounding modest, steady gains into industry-leading long-term performance through disciplined, research-driven processes.
Which makes the 87-year-old firm’s October 2025 filing Continue reading →
On October 13, 2025, GMO launched its newest ETF, GMO Dynamic Allocation ETF (GMOD). The ETF is managed by Co-Heads of Asset Allocation Ben Inker and John Thorndike, and draws on GMO’s proprietary 7-Year Asset Class Forecasts. It will typically range between 40% and 80% equity exposure and can invest broadly across stocks and bonds, not limited by sector, market cap, credit quality, or geography.
This would be an interesting but distinctly contrarian operation. The key is that GMO has a strong and well-founded belief that Continue reading →
Dear friends,
Welcome to the October issue of the Mutual Fund Observer. We’re glad you’re here.
And welcome to the Dog Days of Autumn! The natural world is scrambling to keep up with the changes we’ve triggered, and continue to intensify, upon it. As I walked one of the many bike/hike trails in the Quad Cities on Sunday, I confronted two worlds. One was defined by 90-degree temperatures, hot sunshine, and cracked earth. The other by the rhythm of birds called southward and plants quietening for the season to Continue reading →
On September 10, 2025, Tweedy, Browne Company LLC, launched the International Insider + Value ETF (ICPY). The ETF is both actively managed and fully transparent, which might engender some risk (for example, front-running by high-speed traders) but also simplifies the structure and reduces complexity.
The managers have the freedom to create an all-cap, all-world portfolio that can invest in developed and developing markets and, to a limited extent, in the US. The plan is simple Continue reading →
On September 12, 2025, Research Affiliates launched the RACWI US ETF, which will track its proprietary RACWI US Index. This is just RA’s second directly managed fund, following Research Affiliates Deletions ETF (NIXT), which launched in September 2024 and targets the stocks dropped from traditional large- to mid-cap indexes.
Research Affiliates, founded in 2002 by Rob Arnott, is a Newport Beach–based investment firm recognized for Continue reading →
In January 2025, the Militia Long Short Equity ETF (ticker: ORR) launched. We’re profiling it because Sam Lee strongly recommended we look at it, and we trust Sam Lee. Founder of Austin-based SVRN Asset Management, former Morningstar strategist and editor of ETFInvestor newsletter and MFO contributor, Sam is very smart, has assessed a lot of managers, and has never invested in a hedge fund before. He describes Continue reading →
Dear friends,
Welcome to the September oh-so-totally back-to-school issue of the Mutual Fund Observer! We’re glad you’re here.
I’ve got the privilege of teaching an Honors section of Introduction to the Liberal Arts for the first time in a quarter century. It’s a delight and a terror. Many of my students, like many of you, start with a mistaken idea of what “the liberal arts” are. They are not “the fusty old white guy stuff that they made me sit through until I could get into my major classes.” (sigh) At their simplest, the liberal arts are Continue reading →
Traditionally, the job description for a core bond manager was numbing: (1) show up for work, (2) buy a bunch of Treasury bonds and some investment grade intermediate corporates, (3) celebrate the trading coup that allowed you to buy the same bond as everyone else but for a quarter basis point less – woohoo!, (4) go home and enjoy a fiber-rich dinner and small glass of red wine.
In reality, managers added negligible value. Over 10 Continue reading →
On August 28, 2025, Franklin Templeton launched the Franklin Multisector Income ETF (MULT), an actively managed fund designed to pursue diversified income and long-term capital appreciation. The fund targets dynamic exposure across global fixed income markets while maintaining what the company calls “a disciplined risk management framework.”
The fund invests opportunistically across Continue reading →
Dear friends,
Welcome to the August issue of the Mutual Fund Observer! We just completed one of the five rainiest Julys in the city’s history, with three torrential downpours (the garden celebrates) and roll expectantly into August.
For those of us who teach for a living, August is the season of watchful waiting, a phrase lifted from the Christian celebration of Advent. The faithful are waiting for … you know, Continue reading →
I’m struck by the near unanimity of Informed Commentary on the direction of the US stock market. People seem to agree that “the magic number” is 15%.
The disagreement comes in the query: but 15% in which direction? There, there’s about a 50/50 split among the people paid to pretend to know the future. Both growth and recession, market melt-up and market meltdown scenarios are broadly represented. “The melt-up in risk assets continues,” saith HSBC, the global bank based in London. Remember that markets spiked about Alan Greenspan’s original warning about “irrational exuberance.”
We’ll offer a snippet Continue reading →
In December 2020, Chuck Akre (1941 – today) stepped away from managing the Akre Focus fund, though he remains chairman of Akre Capital Management. During much of his 50+ year investing career, he built an unassailable reputation for discipline, independence, and excellence. The core of his investment strategy was captured by “the three-legged stool.” He looked for (1) extraordinary Continue reading →
On June 17, 2025, Rainwater Equity launched its first fund called, well, Rainwater Equity ETF (RW). The fund pursues long-term capital appreciation by investing in a concentrated portfolio of businesses with recurring revenue and robust leadership. The fund targets dominant companies that generate predictable cash flows and foster customer loyalty. Businesses that might qualify are Continue reading →
Blessed are the forgetful, for they “get the better” even of their blunders. Friedrich Nietzsche, “Our Virtues,” Beyond Good and Evil (1886)
Our summer tradition is to update you on our ruminations and recommendations from three (or five) years ago. That exercise serves three purposes:
Dear friends,
Welcome to the “Midsommar in Scandinavia” issue of the Mutual Fund Observer. Chip and I are enjoying a long-planned holiday in Sweden and Norway. We’re equally delighted that you’re here … and we’re there!
Among other things (how would I know for sure? I’m in Gamla Stan), Lynn Bolin addresses the emerging threat of tariff-induced inflation with “Protecting Against Tariff Induced Inflation,” analyzing how widespread tariffs will likely be passed through to consumers and drive inflation to an estimated 3.4% peak next quarter. Drawing on five years of post-pandemic bond performance data, he demonstrates Continue reading →
