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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.
  • Mystified by this
    No, he wasn't wrong that time. I'm just thinking that the Hosers up North might have said: "Fine, you want her? Arrest her. We are not your lackeys." And they could extradite her to the USA. Instead, she was hung-up for several years, between Canadian and U.S. courts and deals and decisions.
  • November 2022 updates?
    FPA Queens Road Small Cap Value (QRSVX) is pretty much atop the pile, at least if you value long-term performance. Over 20 years it matches the S&P 500 with comparable volatility and a noticeably small maximum drawdown. Also, nice people.
  • Nontraded-Funds - NT-REITs, NT-BDCs, IFs
    I'm personally invested in interval funds NICHX and CELFX for what I believe are good risk adjusted returns. Currently evaluating CEDIX.
    ** Not investment advice by any means, buyer beware **
    Fwiw, I was fixated on ER's for more than 20 years and hewed to strict limits of 1.25% with very few exceptions over those years. However I'm now more focussed on strategy, pedigree and what's going to end up in my pocket compared to the alternatives. Not stating that cost controls aren't important and also not stating that my current view is right for everybody but in general while I believe cost should be a factor it should not be a means to automatically eliminate. The cost should be viewed along with other factors -- strategy, risk, etc.. I love Vanguard products and focus on cost but Vanguard funds don't always result in the highest(or safest) net returns
    Niche investment strategies and steady returns will command a fee premium, it is what it is.
  • Protect Your Income With Preferred Stocks
    johnN has been a poster at MFO for many years. He seems attracted by offerings that promise above average returns, but upon closer examination also have well above average risks. Not for the faint of heart. Perhaps the gains and losses of these types of things average out over long periods of time- we have no way of knowing.
  • Hotmail emails archive to computer hard drive.
    I have an old MSN email account newer (5 years) Hotmail account. Both can be accessed on Hotmail.com.
    Approximately 3 years ago, I started to receive these extortion emails at my MSN email (I never had a problem with my Hotmail account). I changed my password and notified the FBI. These extortion emails lasted about 1 month.
    While I rarely use my MSN email, I do receive a considerable amount of spam. The nature of the spam leads me to believe that it is a function of the extortion emails. I guess "they" figured if they could not get money from me, they would be a royal pain in the a**. This problem did not infect my PC with a virus or malware. I think that I had Windows Defender back then and a few years ago I added the free versions of Malwarebytes, Glary Utilities, and CCleaner.
  • BREIT vs SREIT - What Investors Should Know
    From the Hoya Capital blog:
    Blackstone Redemptions • Mixed Jobs Data • REIT M&A
    'Blog' reports are supposedly readable by anyone but just in case here's a snippet.
    "Real estate asset manager Blackstone (BX) was in focus today after its massive $70B nontraded REIT platform - BREIT - announced that it has begun limiting withdrawals after a wave of redemption requests that exceeded its monthly and quarterly limits. An issue that we predicted in our State of the REIT Nation Report last month, BREIT reported that its Net Asset Value has increased 9.3% this year through September 30 - claiming roughly 40% outperformance over the public REIT indexes despite paying "top-dollar" to acquire a half-dozen public REITs over the past two years whose closest public REIT peers are trading lower by an average of 30% this year. Naturally, investors have seized on the opportunity to redeem shares at these premium valuations. We've discussed the risks of non-traded REIT ("NTR") space across many reports over the past half-decade and continue to watch the area for signs of stress given their typically-high leverage and sensitivity to investor fund flows - which we expect could eventually become an area that's "ripe for picking" for the more conservatively-managed REITs."
  • How the Hospice Movement Became a For-Profit Hustle
    @LewisBraham
    I wasn't generalizing about health care unions, just reporting the fact that much of the opposition to the much needed merger of the two hospitals in a very small town ( big enough for only one, really) came from the nurse and hospital unions at the non Catholic hospital, as the prospective buyer did not plan on retaining union personnel.
    I know many examples of Unionized nurses standing up for patient safety and fighting for better staffing etc, but in this case the union did little to object in the past to years of mismanagement by the non profit administration, which is why a merger or sale was the only alternative to bankruptcy
    Equally at fault was the Catholic Bishop, who refused to allow the merger of the Catholic Hospital and the non-profit even after significant work arounds were developed to allow tubal ligations after caesarian sections to continue ( there were about 25 a year). This has been worked out in a variety of ways nationwide in other Catholic hospitals, but he canceled the deal because the sheets of the patients would have been intermingled with those of the "Faithful", as he put it.
    Consequently, both hospitals remained separate and desperate. Their bonds were selling for 50 cents on the dollar. One was driven into the arms of the hedge fund and the other taken over by a large Catholic hospital chain. Neither is doing well, as they continue to compete with each other for patients and reimbursements from commercial insurance companies who can play one off against the other on price alone.
  • How the Hospice Movement Became a For-Profit Hustle
    Years ago the biggest issue with non-profit hospitals was the insider dealing on the boards, esp the smaller ones. CEO puts buddy lawyer on board. He gets all the legal work and votes to increase CEO pay and benefits year after year after year. Same thing with local construction guy and accountant. Nobody cared that hospital lost money year after year after year. This is what drove the two non profit hospitals I worked at to near bankruptcy, forcing sale to Hedge Fund.
    A legitimate state government would have stepped in, but the Democrats were bought off by the employee unions to look the other way, until it was too late. Even then the Unions successfully got the Governor to block two proposed mergers to much better partners than the hedge fund that finally bought the hospital. Governor was quoted as saying to the CEO of Tenant Hospital Corporation at their only meeting "I don't like to talk to people like you, but they tell me I have to".
    Now almost all "Non-profits" are owned by massive chains that are in fact really profit companies. They just spend all the excess cash at the end of the year on something (CEO salaries first, of course) so they end up with only the minimal surplus allowed legally.
    I worked at the VA for ten years. It was far far worse with no incentive to spend money on better care at all until disasters were too obvious to overlook any more. Horrible post op infection rates because there were pigeon nests in the air intake of the OR. Wouldn't pay for new drugs because they were too expensive, etc etc.
    I don't know much a bout track record of European or Canadian systems, but the UK is a disaster.
    Recent data shows their target for beginning cancer therapy is 90 % within TWO MONTHS!
    They are currently at 60%. So almost half of newly diagnosed caner patients wait over two months to start treatment.
    UK per capita health care expenses are LT 50% of the US, which of course is the highest in the world.
  • Steady rising yields in CDs and treasuries
    If Banks perceive that interest rates will drop at some point within the next few years, they will not offer up higher rate CDs with a long duration (over 30 mos). These last few expected rate hikes would not affect that outlook.
    Hope I am wrong there, but that's what the recent activity has been showing.
  • TRP: Active Funds Outperformed Passive Peers
    T. Rowe Price released a research report claiming that, over the last 20 years, its actively managed funds have consistently outperformed passive peer funds – net of fees.
    https://www.troweprice.com/content/dam/trp-ecl/global/en/ipc/assets/us-retail-intermediary/2022/quarterly-updates/passive-peers-methodology-summary.pdf?van=performancestudy
  • Steady rising yields in CDs and treasuries
    At Fido, lucky to see 4.8% or 4.9% non-callable 3 year CDs. They go fast, if you can even catch them.
    Forget about getting much above 4% (non-callable) for any CDs dated longer than that.
    Banks have made the decision that rates will come down within the next few years. Which makes sense. They are going to protect themselves and their profits.
    This rate cycle has peaked for 3 yr CDs (and longer).
  • Jerome Powell Signals Fed Prepared to Slow Rate-Rise Pace in December
    For sure. I'm definitely getting the feeling that if you want to buy CDs (and of course, other bond-like instruments) with a decent rate (close to 5%) you're not going to find much going out more than a couple of years, and I shouldn't be surprised to see fewer of those as we go forward. That inverted yield curve is really wicked.
  • Carbon neutral fuels , how to invest ?
    I have dabbled in a few small companies but it is hard to 1) pick the correct technology and 2) even harder to predict it will work.
    There are many people, with much more engineering and scientific expertise that I have, spending their careers on this. For an example Google "Thunder Said Energy". Unfortunately their reports cost $500 each.
    I have instead been working on picking the best few Climate Change funds.
    Few have been around for very long, and the best may be GCCHX ( $5,000,000 minimum) but I would also look at
    NALFX GCEBX RKCIX HEOMX
    They are actively managed and cover a variety of climate change issues.
    Something else I am trying is Valueline has a monthly newsletter on "Climate Change " companies that is reasonably priced at $200 for two years
  • MAPIX downgrade: Morningstar.
    I abandoned MAPIX and Matthews a few years ago. Another star that went nova and then died.
  • Crypto investing coming to your 401(K) account
    With all due respect to Elizabeth Warren, Dick Durbin and Tina Smith, IMHO cryptocurrency is no more unsuitable today for employer-sponsored plans than it was a month ago. Their current letter is more or less a followup to a similar but more extensive letter sent by Senators Warren and Smith in May. That in turn came after DOL issued guidance on cryptocurrency in 401(k) plans in March, emphasizing its risks.
    Fidelity isn’t the first company to give 401(k) participants access to cryptocurrency assets. Another industry provider, ForUsAll Inc., has linked workers with cryptocurrency exchanges through brokerage windows for several years. Fidelity takes a different approach with its Digital Asset Accounts product, which doesn’t rely on outside exchanges or brokerage windows.
    Employee Benefit Plan Review, October 2022, Volume 76, Number 8, pages 16-19. CCH Incorporated.
    (Published before FTX's collapse)
    The genie has been out of the bottle since brokerage windows were allowed. Fidelity just provided another route to the same investments. That's not to say that plan sponsors have no responsibility for how those windows are used. The DOL guidance hints at that. Quoting again from CCH:
    DOL provides a clear and definite warning to plan fiduciaries:
    The plan fiduciaries responsible for overseeing such investment options or allowing such investments through brokerage windows should expect to be questioned about how they can square their actions with their duties of prudence and loyalty in light of the risks described above.
    While the focus of this guidance is on 401(k) plans, the DOL’s warnings also extend to plans and plan fiduciaries responsible for allowing cryptocurrency investments through self-directed brokerage windows.
    One way of addressing this is to set limits. As stated in the OP, Fidelity sets a 20% limit. So the 20% Bitcoin decline in value lamented in the senators' letter would have resulted in a 4% or less decline in a participant's plan value. Significant but not catastrophic. And ForUSAll sets an even tighter limit, just 5%.
    Finally, note that while some senators are advocating caution, others welcome wild west investing in retirement accounts.
    Update: A Partisan Divide

    The Department of Labor's cryptocurrency guidance has provoked contrasting responses on Capital [sic] Hill.

    On May 5, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. introduced legislation that would prohibit the DOL from limiting the kinds of products workplace retirement savers can invest in through self-directed brokerage accounts.
    A day earlier, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., criticized Fidelity Investments for its decision to launch a new 401(k) cryptocurrency product, in a May 4 letter to Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson.
    https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/dol-guidance-could-crimp-401k-brokerage-windows.aspx (Limit 3 free articles per month)
  • Bruce Fund. BRUFX: holding lotsa cash
    Just out of curiosity, I ran a screener on MFO for funds with a manager tenure of >= 20 years, 20 year performance and SubType = US Equity
    Top of the pack is FDGRX with APR = 13.8
    FCNTX with APR = 11 comes in at #19
    Just one narrow angle on the data, not suggesting that FCNTX is not a great fund.
    ** Note that MFO data is updated monthly only so these stats are for end of month October 2022.
  • Bruce Fund. BRUFX: holding lotsa cash
    Giroux makes big high conviction bets but his long term track record is pretty strong. I don't think Giroux performance(or most long tenured managers) can be judged by any time period less than 3 years.
    Always a risk of a long term performance going off the rails though -- Exhibit A: Berkowitz.
  • Bruce Fund. BRUFX: holding lotsa cash
    Giroux does openly assert that his strategy is to maximize profit while allowing for only about 2/3 of the average market volatility, generally. I won't get into an analysis of the numbers you have both reported. I guess wifey and I hold the best of both worlds, with these two. BRUFX and PRWCX. But it's foolish under our current circumstances to add to them with new money. Not enough reportable income. If we did that, they would be non-deductible contributions, while also being tax-free upon withdrawal. I'm already withdrawing money annually from the IRA, and according to the ridiculously arcane and convoluted IRS formula, the tax-free, non-deductible portion is just a fraction of the full amount of my customary annual withdrawal. My tax guy understands it.
    "Hello, IRS? I'm holding $5,000 in my T-IRA which is non-taxable and non-deductible from several years ago, before realizing that it is counter-productive to deposit $$$ into a T-IRA when there's no deduction to be had.
    Why don't I just withdraw that $5000 in one lump, and be done with it?"
    IRS: "Sorry. No. THAT would make TOO MUCH SENSE! We can't have THAT!"
  • Latest memo from Howard Marks.
    Looking at last few years of distributions, another distro in 2022 is possible but I'm basing this purely on the pattern of prior distros.