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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.
  • Anybody use any hedging or shorting?
    I hold JHQAX, JPMorgan Hedged Equity Fund. I bought in over 2 years ago and have added to it to a point where it is about 10% of my portfolio. We've talked about this fund before and I guess I really can't explain very well the put-call spread collar strategy it uses. I only know it moves with the S&P500 with a much smoother ride. As a hedge fund, it's a way of participating in the equity markets at much less volatility. It just rolls along making money when the market is going up and losing much less when the market declines (upside capture ratio ~51%, downside ~36%.)... FWIW.
    MikeM MikeM in Other Investing
  • Anybody use any hedging or shorting?
    @hank
    Question for you sir. In your opinion is shorting, long short more of a psychological approach to keep you invested? Very difficult to get right, timing and all, have to be right, hard to know when the central banks step in , psychology of market participants....hussman makes so much rational sense, makes money when market turns down but then gives it back and goes nowhere in an interesting way as you alluded to
    My perspective after never winning long term by shorting is to never expose to the markets more than 6 to 9 months of salary, work compensation if the sp500 drew down by 50%. Ya very conservative but compounds the portfolio very well.
    Another way to satisfy the shorting Jones might be to be in a fund like velix which does short somewhat and opportunistically or maybe fpacx which can have an eclectic approach and keep you invested through a down flush in the markets
    Annual average return can fool a lot of folks....start go up 50% and then down 50%. Average over two years is 0% return but you're actually down 25%.. from where you started. Compounding your wealth is important and if shorting prevents the big flush or keeps you from being to aggressive might work...
    Best regards
    Baseball fan
    Baseball_Fan in Other Investing
  • Anybody use any hedging or shorting?
    That’s a hard approach to wrap your head around. If it’s a only small position (ie 1-3% of assets in an inverse fund) you should want to lose $$ on it, since that probably means your total portfolio is doing quite well. But, it’s difficult to want to see anything you hold fall …
    Some I’ve used over the years as short term hedges in small amounts: SPDN, DOG, TAIL, CCOR. GLTR (metals). None (except the precious metals fund) really did well. All offered some mitigation of downside volatility. Selling buying puts seems to be one method of hedging. I think that’s what Hussman uses in HSGFX. The fund has netted close to 0% since inception about 15 years ago. I’ve never set stop-loss orders, but I guess that’s another form of hedging. Of the bunch I’ve played around with, TAIL proved the worst, as it’s tied to the VIX which hasn’t behaved the way it was expected to on big down days. Also, TMSRX and BAMBX attempt to hedge market volatility. Look great on paper, but haven’t exactly shot the lights out!
    There are of course many long-short, market neutral, hedged equity type funds that employ shorts hedging. So as a fund holder you can more / less shut your eyes to the portion of the fund getting hammered. Beware - Those types of funds are often high-fee.
    Cash is a hedge, especially at today’s near 5% yield. Limited ability, however, to cushion really big downside. Also, I’ve thought of using a small position in long U.S. Treasuries as a hedge, but haven’t actually tried it. Would have been a nasty ride I’m afraid.
    hank in Other Investing
  • Need a solid, good, consistent, un-flashy AA fund. (Closed thread.)
    Also worth noting that the bulk of the outperformance (relative to FBALX, for example) occurred from June 23 of this year on. That smacks as a bit of pure luck in being in the right place at the right time.
    It has some pluses in having smaller market cap holdings, more obscure tech holdings, and has been a decent performer, however, I don't personally care for the wide fluctuations in its year-by-year performance. Out of 10 years (and one partial), it was 1st quartile a very impressive 6 times... BUT... 4th quartile 3 times! In contrast, FBALX was 1st quartile an outstanding 9 times and 4th only once.
    Anyway, Crash, I hope you find what you're looking for...
    racqueteer in Fund Discussions
  • Need a solid, good, consistent, un-flashy AA fund. (Closed thread.)
    +1 @msf -
    I was way off. I’ve used “AA” on my asset allocation models over many years to represent high quality credit. While I did read Crash’s original post, somewhere over 3 days my brain began interpreting the thread as related to bonds - which it is not. Thanks for clearing the fog.
    hank in Fund Discussions
  • Yogi Bear Bull Is ill.
    @yogibearbull
    Prayers and best wishes for a speedy recovery, good sir! I have “known” you for a better part of 20 years on M* and beyond….your kindness, help, knowledge, and grace are legendary. Thank you @ceciljk for the heads up!
    Graust in Fund Discussions
  • FD1000...3-Line Break
    Isn't it amazing how much negative impact one or two individuals can have?
    On another popular investment forum several years ago, one person's demeanor was abhorrent.
    This person's actions resulted in the ultimate departure of multiple, knowledgeable forum participants.
    I'd hate to see that happen here...
    Observant1 in Fund Discussions
  • FD1000...3-Line Break
    @FD1000 I have been reading that you are a proponent of 3-line break. What is it telling you today regarding ORNAX and NHMAX? Please don't come back in three weeks and tell us what it told you on 7-14-23.

    mmm...so you want to learn but over the years you weren't so nice.

    Racq wants to learn too, and he has been very nice to you.

    No problem, Racq can contact me and I will be glad to explain it. You trashed me before too.
    No more posts from me on this thread.

    Like I said, perhaps this time in more colorful terms, if you're asking FD to publicly state something prospectively about the markets or his secret sauce strategies and/or holdings, settle into your favorite armchair and pound salt.
    It just simply ain't gonna happen. EVER!
    Because that alone would blow his cover.
    Nice try though @mona!
    Wow, you make a fool of yourself. I posted about it many times on other sites with examples.
    Is this the same stillers that kept posting for years the following: FD lies all the time, FD will never retire, if he would retire he would never make it...and so many other false statements. Well, I retired in 2018 and my portfolio grew so much more, including all the expenses.
    FD1000 in Fund Discussions
  • FD1000...3-Line Break
    @FD1000 I have been reading that you are a proponent of 3-line break. What is it telling you today regarding ORNAX and NHMAX? Please don't come back in three weeks and tell us what it told you on 7-14-23.

    mmm...so you want to learn but over the years you weren't so nice.

    Racq wants to learn too, and he has been very nice to you.

    No problem, Racq can contact me and I will be glad to explain it. You trashed me before too.
    No more posts from me on this thread.
    Like I said, perhaps this time in more colorful terms, if you're asking FD to publicly state something prospectively about the markets or his secret sauce strategies and/or holdings, settle into your favorite armchair and pound salt.
    It just simply ain't gonna happen. EVER!
    Because that alone would blow his cover.
    Nice try though @mona!
    stillers stillers in Fund Discussions
  • Matthews Asia Active ETFs in registration
    I’m through with Matthews after the fiasco with MAPIX. I held this fund for more than seven years and still lost money. It did well for a while and then collapsed. I didn’t realize it had changed management and its investment strategy until it was too late. The whole situation tells me that Matthews is not a well-run company— to take one of its most successful and popular funds and essentially run it into the ground.
    Tarwheel in Fund Discussions
  • Need a solid, good, consistent, un-flashy AA fund. (Closed thread.)
    PRWCX is closed to new investors, so I don’t know why people keep recommending it. Supposedly there are round-about ways to open a new account, but I view that as a myth. My wife and I had accounts with TRP for more than 25 years, and they wouldn’t let me buy, exchange or trade my way into PRWCX — despite numerous attempts. I finally transferred all of our TRP accounts to Fidelity to consolidate all of our holdings and make life easier. I kept some of my TRP funds in my Fidelity account, but exchanged the poorer performing ones to Fidelity funds (including FBALX). I also bought shares in the ETF counterpart of PRWCX through Fidelity.
    In my opinion, the Fidelity website is vastly superior to TRP, although it probably takes time to familiarize oneself. It is much easier to research, compare and buy funds or ETFs from other investment companies through Fidelity than TRP.
    Tarwheel in Fund Discussions
  • Anybody Investing in bond funds?
    Hi @Junkster
    You noted about overbought bank loans. Peeking about, relative to the RSI 14 day theory, with a RSI under 30 being oversold and over 70 being overbought; this is a rare view chart. The chart is for the etf MINT, Pimco Enhanced Short Maturity Active managed.
    The chart is set at 3 years and one can see the period of no love and then the rise when the FED started doing the rate rise. YTD is 3.25%, with a SEC yield of 5.44%. A very uncommon chart in my experience. Current RSI above 93 and holding. Yow !!!
    Remain curious,
    Catch
    catch22 catch22 in Fund Discussions
  • Buy Sell Why: ad infinitum.
    @WABAC : I held this MF for a number of years in 401-K until it was sold due to moving into IRA. 10 year holding & a winner for sure !
    Don't have to start taking IRA distributions for 6-7 years. So I'm hoping it can be an equity cornerstone in that part of the market as I condense the holdings.
    But I can still go crazy with the taxable. :)
    WABAC WABAC in Fund Discussions
  • Buy Sell Why: ad infinitum.
    @WABAC : I held this MF for a number of years in 401-K until it was sold due to moving into IRA. 10 year holding & a winner for sure !
    Derf in Fund Discussions
  • Buy Sell Why: ad infinitum.
    FMIMX yahoo chart shows it at one year high !
    It's a little less high at the close of today's market. :)
    PE is at 13.68, book 2.36, price/cash 7.98, price/sales .84. Smids (which is the current weight,, rather than the category) have been out of fashion for a while. I think there's room to run a little bit.
    I have a long horizon in the taxable, which is heavily tilted to dividends at the moment. It's a little less flighty than recently added RWJ and SYLD. Sort of a boring match for SPGP, also recently added.
    I added FMIMX to the IRA on June 8. I might regret not adding it to the taxable sooner. We'll see how I feel 10 years from now.
    BTW, FMIMX has been an MFO Great Owl for at least 25 years, IIRC.
    WABAC WABAC in Fund Discussions
  • FD1000...3-Line Break
    @FD1000 I have been reading that you are a proponent of 3-line break. What is it telling you today regarding ORNAX and NHMAX? Please don't come back in three weeks and tell us what it told you on 7-14-23.

    mmm...so you want to learn but over the years you weren't so nice.

    Racq wants to learn too, and he has been very nice to you.
    No problem, Racq can contact me and I will be glad to explain it. You trashed me before too.
    FD1000 in Fund Discussions
  • Need a solid, good, consistent, un-flashy AA fund. (Closed thread.)
    @Crash , you've not noted:
    --- taxable account or Roth IRA ?
    Taxable. We intend to put his name as primary, and my wife as the other joint-owner. (She's 19 years younger than me. Like my dear son, she does not "grok" investing at all. But eventually, some things will move beyond my control. Eventually, EVERYTHING will move beyond my control.) A taxable account means no worries about running afoul of the splendid and gorgeous and marvelous IRA rules brought to you by the glorious IRS.
    --- If a taxable account, an ETF basically has no short/long taxable annual distributions; with the exception of possible dividends for tax reporting. While traditional mutual funds will have these taxable events every year. There are many very acceptable etf's that a 30 year old should be investing into, and the ER's are generally very low. 30 years old= growth, growth, growth.......ride out the machinations.
    I have made an executive decision, myself: no ETFs. I don't like the way they behave, somehow. I've owned and already sold two. No more ETFs.
    --- Roth IRA....course, no annual taxation, annual limit for 2023 is $6,500. ANYONE may provide the money to fund the account, as long as the owner 'HE' has taxable income that satisfies the funding limits for the year. We funded our daughter's ROTH when she had income for a given year, starting at age 14. She kept her income for her needs at the time.
    My son does not possess an "investing bone" in his body, anywhere. Does not want to even deal with the necessary papers. He's about as organized as his mother. Has no desire to do any investing homework or come up with a plan, or learn the admittedly abstruse, esoteric jargon. I've had some conversations with him about it, trying to simplify and break it all down, avoiding the whacked, specialized terminology. He flatly told me: "All I need is a single fund that I can hold for a long time, and just let it ride."
    --- Has your son viewed the Fido site? If so, what is his opinion? If he is comfortable with the site, will he not he be the one maintaining the investments/site when you can not longer perform this function?
    No, surely he's not seen the Fido website. He doesn't even know where to begin. Previously, I sent him MAPOX IRA paperwork, and he got entangled in it all and wasn't even sure where to fill out the forms. (I have since told him simply: Just look for the pages with blank spaces that tell you to provide X, Y and Z.) He is NOT dumb, just is the type who prefers to fly by the seat of his pants and eschews sorting, organizing, arranging----- or CLEANING HIS ROOM. LOL.
    He will surely not be active in monitoring his mutual fund. Truthfully, I suspect I will be contributing the lion's share of what goes into it. And after getting a dose of Fidelity's website, that mutual fund will not be a Fidelity fund. (I think I've all but decided on RPBAX. He's not even going to CARE which one we use.) He is cobbling together three jobs to make a living. Doing alright for himself, in that regard.
    A full world of investment choices with Fidelity.
    I provided a number of choices for a young niece and her mother.....
    A theme, yes, for a young person in particular; but also suitable in part for an older person, when adjusting some of the holdings positions by percentages. Redundancies with some holdings, yes. But, not a problem.
    The above 6 bar chart from Sept. 13, 2016 (inception date limitation)
    Using standard charting.
    Time frame of niece's investment period chart< (3 years)>
    'Course, this time frame includes the 2022 period of 'face slapping' until near the end of October when the equity and bond markets rotated towards a positive direction for performance. Generally, equity and bonds ranged down between -13 and -16% in 2022, including gains that started in October.
    Remain curious,
    Catch
    Your thorough and thoughtful response is a thing I'm grateful for, @catch22.
    Crash Crash in Fund Discussions
  • Need a solid, good, consistent, un-flashy AA fund. (Closed thread.)
    @Crash , you've not noted:
    --- taxable account or Roth IRA ?
    --- If a taxable account, an ETF basically has no short/long taxable annual distributions; with the exception of possible dividends for tax reporting. While traditional mutual funds will have these taxable events every year. There are many very acceptable etf's that a 30 year old should be investing into, and the ER's are generally very low. 30 years old= growth, growth, growth.......ride out the machinations.
    --- Roth IRA....course, no annual taxation, annual limit for 2023 is $6,500. ANYONE may provide the money to fund the account, as long as the owner 'HE' has taxable income that satisfies the funding limits for the year. We funded our daughter's ROTH when she had income for a given year, starting at age 14. She kept her income for her needs at the time.
    --- Has your son viewed the Fido site? If so, what is his opinion? If he is comfortable with the site, will he not he be the one maintaining the investments/site when you can not longer perform this function?
    A full world of investment choices with Fidelity.
    I provided a number of choices for a young niece and her mother using past performance numbers and what each investment was able to provide based upon their exposure in the investment world. The niece has many years in front of her for investing .
    They decided (the niece) to fund a Fido ROTH among six choices, mostly equally funded of:
    ---QQQ, etf
    --- BOTZ, etf (robotics +)
    --- FSMEX, medical tech. OR IHI etf, which about a twin for performance
    --- FHLC, etf, broad healthcare (some downside market protection)
    --- FTEC, etf, technology
    --- FBALX, a hard to beat for performance balanced fund, generally 70/30
    A theme, yes, for a young person in particular; but also suitable in part for an older person, when adjusting some of the holdings positions by percentages. Redundancies with some holdings, yes. But, not a problem.
    The above 6 bar chart from Sept. 13, 2016 (inception date limitation)
    Using standard charting.
    Time frame of niece's investment period chart< (3 years)>
    'Course, this time frame includes the 2022 period of 'face slapping' until near the end of October when the equity and bond markets rotated towards a positive direction for performance. Generally, equity and bonds ranged down between -13 and -16% in 2022, including gains that started in October.
    Remain curious,
    Catch
    catch22 catch22 in Fund Discussions
  • Need a solid, good, consistent, un-flashy AA fund. (Closed thread.)

    If a Vanguard fund will be considered, how about VWENX which has significantly outperformed VBIAX over the past 30 years.

    Another Vanguard AA fund option would be VGSTX
    bee bee in Fund Discussions
  • Anybody Investing in bond funds?
    ” … except for a short period last summer haven’t had any meaningful position in junk for several years.”
    Thanks for the reply @Junkster.
    Yeah, other than a bit in a short-intermediate term H/Y muni fund, I haven’t messed with junk in years.
    hank in Fund Discussions