True story. I was online earlier this week looking at JM bullion at bars of gold. Thinking about it, no action yet

RE JM Bullion Bars - They are pretty. Many, many years ago I owned a bunch. Silver’s very streaky. It was actually a silver miner I mentioned this morning that bounced 6% out of the gate. But p/ms are a wild ride. It is quite interesting that the bank fiasco seems to have sparked them.
Speculators are banking on (perhaps a poor choice of words) the grinches at the Fed Reserve backing off on the tightening.
EDIT - Sorry at Baseball_Fan / I mistook the JM bars you mentioned to be silver at first. That’s what I owned years ago. Gold will cost you a pretty penny. :)

Do business with solid institutions. We don't have to try out anyone's latest innovation or gimmick in matters of money. Although SVB was 50 years old? its hard to know in these situations. but explains why JPM is up 2.5% today. when in trouble, everyone goes to papa.

I was taught in a college communications class more than a half century ago: ”A percept is a product.” / While we can mitigate the actual significance of the failure of SVB and put it into proper perspective, the perception out there among the investing public (and perhaps some in the investment community) may be substantial.
PS - Every teacher’s wish is that their students still remember what they were taught 50 years later. :)

Typical FDIC intervention - close the bank on Friday, reopen on Monday under new ownership.
Many confuse similar rescue for brokers (by SIPC) and insurance & annuity companies (by state regulators) - but those may take months or years to workout.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/10/silicon-valley-bank-is-shut-down-by-regulators-fdic-to-protect-insured-deposits.html
https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/2023/pr23016.html

@johnN @junkster
What little of CNBC I watched yesterday was when Mayo was on with Scott Wapner, and they talked about financials (I didn’t know the huge financial sell-off stemmed from $SIVB)….mentioning that the largest, multinational banks have been stress-tested annually for several years, and are probably in good shape (C, BAC, WFC, JPM, etc). The banks just under that size, whether super regional or regional, have not been stress-tested. Obviously the worry is contagion.
I have been trading ZION; it’s a conservative UT (redundant? Ha) bank that I have traded in and out of for last 18 months or so. Good dividend growth. But it was down 10-11% yesterday, so I bought more.
Good luck to us….I’m in junkster’s camp that we’ve been in a rally since October, and that was the bear bottom….but man, all these walls of worry keep being built! Ha

This suggestion by YBB is very wise indeed. Keep TIPS maturities <= 5 years. I frankly like the idea. So why go longer maturities? No two portfolios are the same. There are a 1000 ways to make potatoes in India. We must all solve for what works for us.
Incidentally I have been listening to a lot of Myron Scholes lately on this podcast:
https://www.janushenderson.com/en-us/advisor/bio/myron-scholes-phd/
This podcast is available online for free and I listen to it on my phone while walking. He speaks fast and there are many complex topics but he is dealing right in the heart of all the topics related to portfolio construction. Listening to it is humbling because there is just so much to it even for the sophisticated investors.
None of this is supposed to be easy. But I do agree that YBB's suggestion is a step in the direction to make it easier.

"To Sell or Not To Sell?" by Charles Bolin in the March 2023 MFO issue. Chart 2 appears to be using years ending 01/31/23 or perhaps 12/31/22 (the five funds with dashes for later years are all aged just past the years of their last entry). Chart not reproducible now, as MFOP now includes February data (but such a chart looks worse now).

Not trying to change the topic. Treasury bill and notes are also competitive to broker CDs. They are good vehicles to build ladders.
As of 3/8/23, 6 months yield 5.34%,12 months yield 5.25% and 2 years yield 5.05%.
https://home.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/interest-rates/TextView?type=daily_treasury_yield_curve&field_tdr_date_value_month=202303
Treasuries are highly liquid that can be sold in open market before reaching maturity.

Pretty sloppy for a guy who is always not only on top of everything, but actually well ahead of everything... he didn't bother to check his link response, which seems pretty odd considering that he has such superior financial systems. Makes you wonder a bit.

I have been posting for years, and rarely my links don't work. Because the link didn't work I am sloppy?...mmm...it tells me a lot about you.
BTW, how about discussing the topic?

Used to own Templeton Emerging Markets Small Cap Fund, but I liquidated my position a couple of years ago.

@msf I'm sorry but I don't see this as a Santos level of deception. To be honest, I don't think you do either, but for some reason you are standing by that comparison, perhaps to win an argument. If anything, Samra's record today is long enough to stand on its own and exceeds that of the fund he worked for previously certainly in recent years. (I won't use the term "previous charge" in case it's misconstrued.) So, unlike with Santos, what is the benefit to him or Artisan of any grand deception?

Analysts matter greatly, and I wish fund sponsors would provide information about them as well as their management teams. My comment was intended to be narrowly focused on exactly what Samra did at Oakmark. Had he been a portfolio manager there, then Oakmark would have provided information about him.
I remain troubled by the fact that Artisan presents Samra as a former portfolio manager at Oakmark. Here's another page from Artisan, this one about their International Value Team. Here too Artisan says that Samra was a portfolio manager at Harris Associates (Oakmark).
https://www.artisanpartners.com/individual-investors/investments/international-value-team.html
Artisan is a little more careful elsewhere on the page, though. It writes: "Portfolio management averages more than 21 years of investment experience." While that may lead the reader to infer that the team averages 21+ years of portfolio management experience, all that it is claiming is that the team on average has been involved in professional investing for 21+ years.
Such "embellishment" is what Santos said he was doing with his CV. Artisan is embellishing; Santos was (and is) lying.

72T uniform withdrawals allow PENALTY-FREE (but TAXABLE) withdrawals from retirement accounts (IRA, 401k, 403b) before the age of 59.5. However, the rules are COMPLEX to prevent excessive withdrawals & are very RIGID – once started, there couldn’t be any changes & the program must continue for 5 years or to age 59.5, whichever the later (even if there is risk of running out of money, triggering premature termination penalties). A less noted provision of the new SECURE 2.0 allows some flexibility for 72T in making partial transfers and rollovers after 12/31/23.
https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/thread/249/uniform-withdrawals-retirement-accounts-72t?page=1&scrollTo=964

I appreciate everyone’s posts on this topic. I invested in DODEX back in January because I wanted EM exposure and as part of that China exposure. But there are so many geopolitical risks that I’m just not sure it’s worth the risk. I’m watching it closely but could pull the plug at any time. I do closely follow SIVLX and that fund is impressive in its long term performance. If EM is FINALLY going to outperform that seems like a good place to be… But seems like we’ve been waiting for years for that to happen

"Previous charge" makes it sound like Samra was a fund manager (even if not the lead) on OAKIX. No question about ARTKX doing better than OAKIX, just about what Samra was actually charged with at Harris.
It's true that he worked in Harris' international group, but that's as much responsibility as Sama was charged with. His name doesn't appear in any Oakmark prospectus (based on spot checking) in his Harris years of 1997-2002.
One does find statements that he worked as a portfolio manager at Harris, e.g.

Prior to joining Artisan Partners in May 2002, Mr. Samra was a portfolio manager and a senior analyst in international equities at Harris Associates LP, from August 1997 through May 2002.

https://www.artisancanvas.com/?filter=tag+eq+artisan-canvas:authors/david-samra
Though what Samra himself says is:

I worked in the international group there with a very famous value investor, David Herro, who still operates the Oakmark International, Oakmark International Small Cap Fund. And I worked there for five years and left there in 2002. By then I had had almost 10 years worth of experience as an analyst and decided that like to try employing my own philosophy, and I found a terrific home here at Artisan. We launched the International Value Fund in 2002.

https://mebfaber.com/2020/04/29/episode-216-david-samra-the-primary-driver-of-our-behavior-is-finding-a-company-that-trades-at-a-discount-to-intrinsic-value/
At least he was a whole lot closer to being responsible for a fund than Santos got to working at Goldman Sachs. For all we know, Santos was just a copyboy for a company (LinkBridge Investors) that in turn did business with GS.
https://people.com/politics/fact-checking-the-george-santos-claims-from-goldman-sachs-employee-to-college-volleyball-star/
Side note: curiously, there appears to be a Jorge Santos who is a VP at GS. Scroll down to #46 in this Yahoo piece.
https://www.yahoo.com/video/the-e-mpower-top-50-future-ethnic-minority-leaders-2019-230100555.html

I certainly agree with the volatility. I have been in OAKIX for a number of years, and it finally got to my stomach in October of last year. I waited for it to bounce back and sold it yesterday. Today, I will put the proceeds into ARTKX which I have also held for a number of years.

"Shares of Credit Suisse have erased about 95% of their value since the summer of 2007 after years of scandals and losses."
You mean there was a towel left to throw in?
With the exception of Mass Mutual Overseas fund (rated 3* or 4* depending on share class), all of the nine funds co-managed by Herro are rated 2* or 1*. Those include his flagship OAKIX and its clone NOIAX, both rated 1*.
Still, M* analysts rate those two funds "gold". And "Morningstar named [Herro] International- Stock Fund Manager of the Year for 2006 and again for 2016, and also International- Stock Fund Manager of the Decade for 2000–09."
https://www.morningstar.com/articles/812708/10-questions-with-david-herro
Continuing from that 2017 M* page:

How do you handle the scrutiny that comes with being such a large shareholder in controversial names such as Credit Suisse CSGN: CH?
You stay focused on doing what is best for your clients, which means pushing managements to stay focused on long-term value creation.

Keeping your eye on the ball doesn't help when the ball keeps bouncing lower and lower.

Mark Mobius, in a Fox News interview discussing in Fortune, claims that China doesn't want to let him move his money out of the country.

Mobius, founder of Mobius Capital Partners, has been a longtime booster of Chinese equities, yet revealed why he’d changed his mind ...
The investor revealed that he had funds trapped in an account with HSBC in Shanghai. “I can’t get my money out. The government is restricting the flow of money out of the country,” he said.
Mobius continued that the Chinese government was “putting all kinds of barriers” in his way. “They don’t say, ‘No, you can’t get your money out,’ but they say, ‘Give us all the records from 20 years of how you’ve made this money,’ and so forth. It’s crazy.”

We've written about both successful EM funds with low China exposure (2021) and funds that, by prospectus, exclude China (2023).
By coincidence, China's premier stepped down yesterday after 10 years in office. His departure was described as "marking a shift away from the skilled technocrats who have helped steer the world’s second-biggest economy in favor of officials known mainly for their unquestioned loyalty" to Xi (AP, 3/5/23).
Both of the Seafarer funds are China-light, about 9% weight against a peer average of 28%. My other EM fund, Grandeur Peak, is about 11% China.
For what caution it suggests,
David

Wilson noted the gap between reported earnings and cash flow is the widest in 25 years, driven by excess inventory and capitalized costs that have yet to be reflected.

Hi, sma!
Hmmm ... I may have lost my claim to being a Weeble ("Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down!") but I'm still moving forward more than back.
Working on setting up manager interviews. Seafarer Value (the only EM fund that didn't crash last year, top 3% since inception), Osterweis Strategic Income (they're one of the shortlist for my rebalanced toward bonds, RSIVX would be an option but I like spreading manager risk a bit), Leuthold Core (in an ongoing effort to give folks an option in a market that refuses to make sense; their portfolio makes frequent small shifts in response to outputs from their quant model) and Standpoint Multi Asset (for about the same reason, just with a shorter track record).
I need to think about what I need to ask. My worst screw-ups come when I simply listen to the sweet song of a passionate manager or become enchanted by "the story." My better work starts with getting the facts down then pursuing the two or three questions that the public record doesn't allow me to answer.
Then there's a mystery of North Star Microcap, a fund that Morningstar agrees has a micro-value portfolio but which, in the face of that, they moved to small-core. Up until 2022, they booked double-digit absolute returns in the prior two years when they had bottom tier relative ones. Then 2022 and a complete dump. Hmmm ...
Oh, right. Also grading, rebuilding the Honors program and meeting a new faculty member and three student research groups today!
Life's a party.
David