As for ongoing maintenance, the Yoots won't do anything they're not forced to do. Simple, transparent negligence. When I was still in New England several years ago, there was a WEEK-LONG outage after an early snowstorm in October. "Snowtober." 2011.
https://regreenspringfield.org/snowtober-surprise-springfield-in-natures-crosshairs-once-again/

@stillers
Those of us who are regular investors have often heard investment professionals state that market volatility presents investment opportunities, and over the course of the past couple weeks you are a perfect example of this, being able to take advantage of market/specific stock volatility....good for you!
I don't have the intestinal fortitude to take those risks, thus my upside may be more limited but also my potential downside.
In the past we have owned a very small piece of PRSCX, and only briefly. The adventuresome part of our portfolio currently is Mastercard which we've built slowly over the past 3+ years to 2.5% of assets and since the inception of TCAF, that is also at 2.5%. If those positions beat the market, great. But, that is not necessarily the goal - mainly to add a little measured spice to our overwhelming position in TRAIX/PRWCX.
Not sure if it has been mentioned on MFO threads, but I read recently in the WSJ that one unnamed NVDA customer accounted for 19% of their previous years sales...could it be META?

After the utility related disasters in CA and HI, I have noticed that our local ComEd/EXC is more aggressive in tree trimmings around the power lines.
I recall that just a few years ago, it didn't care about that and ignored complaints. We were not so much concerned about forest fires in Chicago (although there are rumors that a cow many moons ago burned the whole city down), but were concerned about power lines swaying badly in high winds (this is the Windy City after all).
About once a year, some poor squirrel climbs the utility pole and touches the exposed breaker-lever. After a bright flash and loud explosion, the squirrel goes to squirrel-heaven but the neighborhood is out of power for up to 2 hours. I have watched ComEd trucks fixing those after pointing out to the crew the pole from which the flash and loud explosion came from. All they do is use a 1-crew powered-lift, and a long pole to just flip the breaker-lever on, and the power for the neighborhood is back on. One would think that in this high tech age, some plastic mesh can be put around the exposed breaker-lever to avoid this. But it's easier to take care of few outages than to fix this problem. Only if there were some lawyers for squirrels demanding millions for dead squirrels, this problem would be fixed right away.
While regulators and courts may have gone overboard with new regulations and fines, it is also true that common sense maintenance was overlooked in favor corporate margins and profits.
But then there were also weather related utility disasters in PR, TX, etc, and what has been the solution for those?

This ad-hoc feature returns this week. LINK BarronsLINK
FUNDS. Use active funds to exploit the fire sale in HEALTHCARE stocks. MANY biotech stocks were selling below their cash on the balance sheets in 10/2023 and there has been a good rebound since with XBI +40% (still well below 2/2021 peak). Mentioned are BHCFX (37% SC/MC), JAGLX, PHSTX (value), PRHSX (all-caps with some risky bets), VGHCX (giant/biggest, so LC orientation). (By @LewisBraham at MFO)
ECONOMY. EVERYONE knows that BOGLE/ Vanguard started the first SP500 mutual fund. But who started the first US total market index? That was Wilshire 5000 (W5000) in 1974 by Dennis TITO/ Wilshire Associates (names after a CA blvd) and now several firms/indexers offer total stock market indexes. While a catchy “5000” has always been in the name, W5000 had 7,378 stocks in 1998, and only 3,392 in 01/2024. The number of US stocks has shrunk from M&A, LBOs, bankruptcies, and the new listings haven’t been enough. W5000 has gone through several hands and prefixes – FT-, DJ-, back to None-, and now again FT- (so, FT W5000). Vanguard was probably the 1st to offer a total stock market FUND in 1992 under a license from Wilshire Associates, but Vanguard has changed the underlying index several times – to MSCI, and now CRSP. Wilshire Associates also started the mutual fund WFIVX / WINDX in 02/1999 (current AUM $253.4 million only). Dennis Tito, 84, sold Wilshire Associates in 2021 to two private-equity firms (CEO a former FTSE executive Mark MAKEPEACE) and they spun off Wilshire Indexes to a group that includes themselves, Mark Makepeace, FT, Singapore Exchange. And obviously, Wilshire indexes have gone global. (By Allan SLOAN, an award-winning independent journalist)
Q&A/Interview. Suni HARFORD, President of Asset Management, UBS. She thrives on business challenges and financial crises. She thinks that the US stocks below the highflying mega-caps are fine. Russia-Ukraine war has been a huge setback for Europe. Asia has been dragged down by China that can turn on a dime, but Japan has been rallying. Many countries will have elections in 2024, so that should be a support for economies. Allocation 60-40 is making sense again, but she recommends carving out 20% for alternatives – real estate, private-equity, private-credit, etc. Interest rates are normalizing and aren’t high by historical standards. Customized direct indexing for separately managed accounts (SMAs) is in favor and is a big and growing business for UBS. The ESG is less popular in the US as there is lot of anti-ESG misinformation; even Texas has 30% from renewable energy now. But ESG is growing in Europe and Asia with new twists – nature-based solutions, blended investment-finance combo projects, etc. Women have come a long way in business and finance, but more are needed. This industry offers more flexible schedules but requires hard work and has good rewards. Her husband retired 12 years ago, and her UBS stint in 2017 was to be a short post-retirement job, but she may finally leave after the Credit Suisse integration.
RETIREMENT. Target-Date Funds (TDFs) were thought to be set-and-forget funds, but their short history has revealed some problems. The TDFs have adjusted by offering variations within each TDF 20XX as some wanted slightly more or less equity. So, instead of glide-path, we have glide-band. Many TDFs are passive, but several are active or with active-passive mix; some include both mutual funds and ETFs. Their bond sleeves have been stodgy, often with too much of TIPS, but some are now including HY, EMs, FR/BL, etc. (TDFs benefitted hugely from the laws that allow them to be the default options for 401k/403b/457 plan auto-signups and auto-escalations)

I found this section somewhat interesting and sparking deeper thoughts on the sector, reminding us (er, me) that proper due diligence and analysis always is required. Speaking of which, I wonder what Giroux' take on them would be since last I saw he remained bullish on utes....

Our second and even more severe earnings disappointment last year occurred at BHE. Most of its large electric-utility businesses, as well as its extensive gas pipelines, performed about as expected. But the regulatory climate in a few states has raised the specter of zero profitability or even bankruptcy (an actual outcome at California’s largest utility and a current threat in Hawaii). In such jurisdictions, it is difficult to project both earnings and asset values in what was once regarded as among the most stable industries in America.
For more than a century, electric utilities raised huge sums to finance their growth through a state-by-state promise of a fixed return on equity (sometimes with a small bonus for superior performance). With this approach, massive investments were made for capacity that would likely be required a few years down the road. That forward-looking regulation reflected the reality that utilities build generating and transmission assets that often take many years to construct. BHE’s extensive multi-state transmission project in the West was initiated in 2006 and remains some years from completion. Eventually, it will serve 10 states comprising 30% of the acreage in the continental United States.
With this model employed by both private and public-power systems, the lights stayed on, even if population growth or industrial demand exceeded expectations. The “margin of safety” approach seemed sensible to regulators, investors and the public. Now, the fixed-but-satisfactory- return pact has been broken in a few states, and investors are becoming apprehensive that such ruptures may spread. Climate change adds to their worries. Underground transmission may be required but who, a few decades ago, wanted to pay the staggering costs for such construction?
At Berkshire, we have made a best estimate for the amount of losses that have occurred. These costs arose from forest fires, whose frequency and intensity have increased – and will likely continue to increase – if convective storms become more frequent.
It will be many years until we know the final tally from BHE’s forest-fire losses and can intelligently make decisions about the desirability of future investments in vulnerable western states. It remains to be seen whether the regulatory environment will change elsewhere.
Other electric utilities may face survival problems resembling those of Pacific Gas and Electric and Hawaiian Electric. A confiscatory resolution of our present problems would obviously be a negative for BHE, but both that company and Berkshire itself are structured to survive negative surprises. We regularly get these in our insurance business, where our basic product is risk assumption, and they will occur elsewhere. Berkshire can sustain financial surprises but we will not knowingly throw good money after bad.
Whatever the case at Berkshire, the final result for the utility industry may be ominous: Certain utilities might no longer attract the savings of American citizens and will be forced to adopt the public-power model. Nebraska made this choice in the 1930s and there are many public-power operations throughout the country. Eventually, voters, taxpayers and users will decide which model they prefer.
When the dust settles, America’s power needs and the consequent capital expenditure will be staggering. I did not anticipate or even consider the adverse developments in regulatory returns and, along with Berkshire’s two partners at BHE, I made a costly mistake in not doing so.

@WABAC:
Great comments about "stuff" and NVDA's stuff is clearly different and dominant at this point.
AMD is the other company that I note is being widely identified as the one company that may be the first to truly challenge NVDA's top spot. So we are watching AMD as a possible trade or LT holding.
Here's one of the most recent articles I've read on all that:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/nvidia-is-the-magnificent-1-now-but-these-rivals-are-closing-in-3a382a8b?mod=home-page
Excerpt:
The competition isn’t singular either. While Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD, -2.94% CEO Lisa Su has launched the most direct competition to Nvidia’s high-performance GPUs — citing a forecast of around $4 billion for the AMD’s new MI300 GPU — the competition is coming from an array of places that include a number of Nvidia’s largest and most important customers.
See also:
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/magnificent-seven-stock-poised-most-091400084.html
Excerpt:
Nvidia's success is also attracting competition. Advanced Micro Devices, for example, argues that its newest AI chips are as good as Nvidia's. "Magnificent Seven" members Meta and Microsoft are two large customers that plan to use AMD's chips to reduce their reliance on Nvidia. Several of Nvidia's big customers are developing their own AI chips as well.
=====================================
And thanks for the "dinky linky" comparing FSCSX to FSELX, two funds we know very well.
Both funds incepted on 07/29/85.
FWIW, we were enamored with both since their inceptions but at that time somewhat favored FSCSX. But unable to pick one at that time that we thought would be the best LT, we decided to venture into both as Core positions at about 5% each.
That was pretty much my MO for many years - if I couldn't decide between two options, BUY both. That resulted in us owning about 2x (and more) as many funds as we now own! That all began to change for us about a decade or so ago when we started to whittle down our funds to the current baker's dozen.
FSELX began to outpace FSCSX about 10 years ago. We decided to consolidate those two positions, and don't ask me exactly how!, chose FSELX for a 10% Core holding at about that time. In retrospect, truly one of my "blind squirrel" getting lucky moments!
If you adjust your chart for the past 10 and/or 5 years, you will see vastly different TR performance. That said, I was kicking and screaming as we dropped FSCSX, but our methodology/strategy had changed and we parted ways with it and several other old, LT favorite OEFs.
So, for better or worse between the two funds, we chose to ride with FSELX and are continuing that MO currently. When FSELX rises above 10%, we shave it and spread its gains to broader based tech holdings. On the flip side, after it suffers one of its inevitable BIG DROPS, we routinely ADD to it to bring it back to ~10%. The former has been happening a bunch more than the latter over those years!
While the other AI options noted in the OP article are intriguing to us, we just can't muster enough drive to ADD any of them. Really hoping for some more comments/analysis on them to get a better feel for which, if any, are worth venturing into. If/after you examine their holdings, please share your thoughts on them here! TIA!

I haven't examined the holdings of those etf's.
I do think there will be more to AI than chips or servers.
Here is a dinky linky to a back test of FSELX versus FSCSX.
That reinforces my non-expert opinion formed after reading nearly forty years of the business pages of the SF Chomicle covering a nearby valley. Chips and servers are stuff. And, ISTM, stuff doesn't always hold up quite so well.
I recently added a small slice of SMH to the taxable. I already held a larger slice of FSCSX. But your comments got me to thinking it wouldn't kill me to have a chip slice.
I also own a tech dividend fund, maybe not the best one. But I think some parts of the tech world are approaching the status of utilities or consumer durables. I wanted to be there when that happens.
YMMV

Hi @stillers Have at it with tech. related. I'm with you in this area of investing. We have remained U.S. centered with our investments for many years and have whatever foreign pieces make a good fit in the tech. area; as with BOTZ (robotics), IHI and FSMEX both being (medical tech), genomics, FTEC (Fidelity tech.), FHLC (Fidelity Health ETF) and the broad based growth of FBCG (Fidelity blue chip companies). We've not been inclined towards value, small cap, international or EM. We held junk bond funds for a period near the bottom of the market melt in 2008 and for several months afterward, and have held IG bond funds and still do; as well as money market now at about 5% yield. We're about 40% equity. Although we've done dollar cost averaging now into funds; not unlike our early days with IRA's and 401k's. Good enough for now, at this house.

FBCG Top holdings
Top 10 holdings AS OF Dec-31-2023
59.72%
of 159 total
MSFT Microsoft Corp 10.15%
NVDA NVIDIA Corp 9.81%
AAPL Apple Inc 9.63%
AMZN Amazon.com Inc 9.10%
GOOGL Alphabet Inc Class A 6.64%
META Meta Platforms Inc Class A 4.99%
UBER Uber Technologies Inc 2.62%
LLY Eli Lilly and Co 2.34%
NFLX Netflix Inc 2.22%
SNAP Snap Inc Class A 2.21%

Looking to add to my fixed income allocation, JEPI was sold and replaced with WCPNX which should perform well over the next few years.

The very thing! The very one I've been investigating! Have I done something RIGHT, maybe, for a change? ;)

Looking to add to my fixed income allocation, JEPI was sold and replaced with WCPNX which should perform well over the next few years.

I have owned Dodgx for many years- posted returns are accuarate- however I bought Dodfx at its inception and posted returns are NOT accurate- they are much lower I feel as its an insult to shareholders-

@Graust, remind me, where do I send the check?
All kidding aside, it's great to see that somebody gets it and took the time to (at least attempt to - we'll see) clarify! Yep, definitely NO intended bragging, WAY more about the somewhat unique strategy (for us at least) that worked!
For additional clarity...
We are in our 3rd, 5-yr Retirement Model Portfolio, so our strategy and holdings have changed significantly over our 12 years of retirement, mainly at the 5-yr intervals. (I've posted that a few times but some posters are still stuck on our first one!)
To wit, our (referenced) 5-yr, 5+% APY CD ladder is currently acting as two things:
(1) self-funded LT care bucket and
(2) ballast for our current, moderately(?) aggressive 85/15, stock/bond market portfolio. No dedicated bond funds for us at this point - bonds are only currently being held via PRWCX and FBALX.
I look forward to your post on the Mag 7 thread and intend to get back to it after the NVDA trade dust settles.
Hey, and thanks man!
EDIT: And if it means anything to anybody, on the Fido board (different handle, same photo!) I am relatively high in the all-important "Kudos Received' rankings and have received more Badges there than I know what to do with! I also stayed at a Holiday Inn Express, but sadly only once!

@stillers: IMO, the negativity for and lack of participation in the Mag 7 on this particular forum is astounding! And telling!
So, that's what I stated.
To those who seem to have misinterpreted that statement, please point me directly to exactly where in there I stated that my current strategy is better or that anyone else's current strategy is worse.
I can save you all some time - I did NOT.
All I said, pointedly and I thought carefully, was that it is "astounding" and "telling." And IMO, it is.
But I don't think that merits another poster showing me the door to trader's sites of all places! If you've followed my recent posts, you'd KNOW I ain't no trader!
As I've explained on various posts, IMO, very clearly, my two recent stock trades are currently RARE events for us. But we did venture into TWO indv stock trades YTD that have both, for the time being at least, worked out very favorably:
GOOGL BOT and SOLD within 10 days for 6%, and
NVDA BOT Tues-Wed this week, currently UP 18%. Still TBD if we will ca$h it in or HOLD it LT.
The interesting part of these two trades has been our strategy:
Limited reliance on either technical and/or fundamental analysis (both of which failed us miserably at times years ago when we did actively trade indv stocks), though there definitely was some of both, and more based on investor psychology.
(FWIW: We plan to do more of these this year IF similar opportunities arise - they'll be blue chips and will include the same pivot point, either book a ST gain or HOLD the position LT.)
The GOOGL trade was far easier. Market participants, per everything we read and heard then, had inexplicably punished GOOGL stock ~6% upon its last earnings report. The ~6% drop was regarded as irrational and tradeable by the experts we follow. We jumped in and within 10 calendar days it had gained back its goofy 6% DROP. We sold it and booked the ST gain.
The NVDA, Tues-Wed, very brief DCA BUYs, are well documented on the BSW thread. NVDA had a +/-11% swing projected coming into earnings. The DROP, if it was to be a DROP, appeared to start on Tues and continued into Wed, and IMO, was going to be brief, unmerited and tradeable, or act as a great entry point for a LT BUY & HOLD.
We BOT shares on both days and had an avg cost basis just above the Wed close. We missed the ~4% swoosh DOWN after hours and lost out on our intended topping off BUYs. And the NVDA swoosh UP, well, is now market history.
Being LT owners of FSELX since near its inception, we watch Semis, and in recent years, NVDA, very closely (some say anally). We were intent on BUYing any NVDA move DOWN IF revenues and earnings kept its FWD P/E in the same current range. We rolled the dice on Tues-Wed that they would. And...Voila!
To respond to the @Baseball_Fan question:
Yes, we started investing in 1980 and were participants in the dot com crash. We were punished severely as we were always 99+% stocks back in the day. We were young and stoopid and did NOT have a viable Exit Plan.
No, we do NOT see 2023-24 market conditions as anything resembling the dot com era and its historic ~77% NASDAQ crash. Without getting into the weeds on that topic, we'd offer that anyone who has researched that topic with any vigor likely agrees. That however is NOT to say that we can't/won't see yet another mighty DROP in technology - but ~77%, pretty sure not.
More importantly, anyone who did get bent over by the dot com crash (all four of our my hands are raised HIGH!) should have learned by it and should have a viable Exit Plan strategy in place. We do, but IMO, we won't be executing it anytime soon. All eyes are however trained on the Fed and the May meeting, as the Fed, IMO, NOT NVDA or Semis or Tech, are STILL the biggest threat to the markets.
Thanks to @MikeW for the kind words!
Bottom Line: We're having a monster year (so far) but DI's iconic words about "dancing at the exit doors" are always bobbing and weaving in our heads.

All I see is a beautiful uptrend SP500 in the last 4 months + performance of 20+% + low volatility where the index didn't lose more than 2.5% from any last top = excellent risk/reward.
See the chart https://schrts.co/hTeZtxIG
On Nov 1st I posted..."You can just play it simple: no diversification, no predictions, no narrow range funds, looks like tilting LC growth is here to stay which = SPY/VOO or you can gamble and use some QQQ."
So, you can work a lot harder and do much less, such as diversification, invest in lagging categories (value, SC, international, gold, utilities) since 2010.
Of course, at one point it will change but I have heard and read about it for at least 5-8 years.
Bonds: for several weeks already I posted that for 2024, you can use RPHIX="sub" cash and make about 6%, the next 2 CBLDX, RSIIX can make 7-9%. I'm a trader but I haven't done anything for weeks = smooth charts = 99+% invested.

"I loved that show, but don’t remember that particular one incident. There was one rotating female guest he had on who was, well, hot. Don’t remember her name or what she looks like now."
I loved that show too, watched it every week. I'm thinking it was Liz Ann Sonders. IMHO

Liz Ann is certainly not hard to look at, but I'm thinking it was a brunette. Not sure, the show's been off over 20 years I think, so memory is not so good.

Not sure I understand the ruckus over @Stillers posting above. These boards are all about discussing each of our own investing strategies and I have learned a great deal from each of you. Whether you invest in Mag 7 directly or through funds, one cannot deny that these stocks are critical to the movement of the US market making up nearly 30% of the S&P 500. I value the opportunity to learn how each of you are approaching your strategies on these stocks as well as funds that are heavily invested in them. This makes me a better investor. Going back over the past couple of years, Stillers has made some pretty savvy calls on funds that are tech heavy like FSELX. As I recall he invested in this fund at the end of 2022 when I frankly didn’t have the balls to do so. At any rate I appreciate his contributions.

I am sometimes reminded of something Bill Gates wrote in March of 2023: "The development of AI is as fundamental as the creation of the microprocessor, the personal computer, the Internet, and the mobile phone." NVDA's performance today suggests AI's investment story is continuing to unfold and that NVDA remains on its cutting edge. Like @PRESSmUP, I purchased a little AVGO during the dark days of 2020. It is the only semiconductor stock in my portfolio as my individual stock holdings have a dividend focus. I am hopeful that the AI boom is for real and that it will increase the productivity of the economy for the next several years. But, as a 74 year old retiree who is making withdrawals from his portfolio, the MAG-7 stocks included in a few of my OEFs and ETFs coupled with AVGO provides enough of that kind of high growth oomph for my portfolio.

"I'm happy to let my funds hold MAG-7s in controlled quantities. I don't need more of them!" indeed, and they pop up in unexpected places. They are a top holding in Rajiv Jain's international and EM funds for reasons I've yet to hear an explanation.

I trust the

fund managers I’ve hired to make those buy / sell / hold decisions for me! If there are some “babies” being thrown out with the “bathwater” today those managers are grabbing them up. Wait one year. A little over a year ago the hoopla here was all about 5% cash - greatest thing since sliced bread. A mere 18-months ago folks were were crying in their beer over double-digit portfolio losses. And 2-3 years ago the noise was all about I-Bonds!. Give me a break!

I think @PRESSmUP raised an interesting point worth kicking around an investment forum.
Speaking for myself only, I don't trust fund managers that goose their funds with stocks that are unrelated to the category, or the thesis. What's the point of owning an "EM fund" if the returns are driven by stocks from North America and Europe?
You say you don't care. OK by me.
What does that have to do with 5% cash, I-Bonds, or losses?
If you need a break, take one.

@crash
From what I can tell Park is perma bear, perhaps influenced by the dire predictions of the Canadian Housing Market. I only listen to a few things, as I don’t like to spend time on podcasts or Youtube when I can skim written text quicker.
Did you read her book? Does she have any suggestions other than T bills?

Truthfully, it's been a long time since I did much reading on that blog. I thought she was witty, and insightful. Doesn't follow the crowd. Is that what makes her a perma-bear in your eyes? She's not registered to do business in the States, so her opinions and analyses would be DIRECTLY useful only if you're buying Canadian stocks--- even if bought on US exchanges. I still track a bunch. But given my tax situation, I'm keeping my money Stateside, now. Don't want to see chunks of my dividends automatically withheld by foreign governments!
I can't say I've read her book. She is still correct about something she said many years ago: "Canada primarily sells rocks and trees to the world," still. That's the economy's backbone. Natural Resources. Think about the years-long, ongoing de-facing of the Province of Alberta with the oil sands projects, up north, around Ft. McMurray. And the more standard, legacy oil drilling in Alberta. ... WFG is a solid timber choice. The Big Banks are monopolies, in Canada. Bombardier, I think, is working to improve its situation vis-a-vis investors. But now, it's only available in the USA via an "F" share. You have to deal with the Toronto Exchange, I believe. (No, it's OTC. But now that I'm at Schwab, I must steer clear of OTC stuff. That's my understanding--- if I want to avoid FEES.)
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BDRBF?.tsrc=fin-srch
She strikes me as just sensible. That's what appeals to me.

"I'm happy to let my funds hold MAG-7s in controlled quantities. I don't need more of them!" indeed, and they pop up in unexpected places. They are a top holding in Rajiv Jain's international and EM funds for reasons I've yet to hear an explanation.

I trust the fund managers I’ve hired to make those buy / sell / hold decisions for me! If there are some “babies” being thrown out with the “bathwater” today those managers are grabbing them up. Wait one year. A little over a year ago the hoopla here was all about 5% cash - greatest thing since sliced bread. A mere 18-months ago folks were were crying in their beer over double-digit portfolio losses. And 2-3 years ago the noise was all about I-Bonds!. Give me a break!