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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.
  • Fidelity - same day fund exchange restrictions and my experience
    Thank you Mark for this post information, and @yogibearbull for your added information, too. We've had accounts with Fido for 45 years, and the organization remains progressive and easy to deal with.
  • Roll Breakeven Yield
    ROLL BREAKEVEN YIELD
    What is the tradeoff between buying x-yr now and roll vs buying 2x-yr now?
    Yield for x-yr now = ix%
    Yield for 2x-yr now = i2x%
    Roll Breakeven Yield for x-yr in x years = iroll%
    The Roll Breakeven formula is:
    iroll = 2*i2x - ix
    Example: T-Bill 1-yr vs T-Note 2-yr, 6/11/23
    1-yr 5.17%
    2-yr 4.59%
    Roll Breakeven 4.01%
    So, if YOU think that 1-yr will be higher than 4.01% in 1 year, buy 1-yr T-Bill now and then roll; if YOU think that 1-yr will be lower than 4.01% in 1-yr, buy 2-yr T-Note now. So, YOU don't have to look for what the others in the media are saying.
    https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/thread/456/roll-breakeven-yield
  • Irrational Exuberance: AI Edition
    Water is the lifeblood for the western half of US. TSMC is following Intel who has built a plant in Phoenix many years ago. Clearly the management picked the location due to the largest $ and land granted by Arizona. Will see how this will plays out.
    Again, we are getting off track on the topic of AI. As I posted above, my comment was
    Another play in this AI space is the “picks and shovels” companies that enable this technologies. TSMC is the largest semiconductor foundries in the world in producing chipsets for many electronic devices including Apple. However, the geographical risk with China is causing many investors to pause.
    Hard to separate water issues from anything in Arizona.
    But to your second point, I wonder if the companies in the GRID etf are making a little money on all of this construction, and speculation. I find it hard to believe it's all due to infrastructure spending.
  • Irrational Exuberance: AI Edition
    The day last week it was reported that Phoenix may limit housing tract permitting, water ETFs (PHO and FIW) jumped. I have owned the latter through thick and thin since 2018. SPY has returned about 55% for those 5 years, while the two water funds have gained some 75%. CGW, however, has lagged SPY.
  • Irrational Exuberance: AI Edition

    ...
    One aspect of the CHIP Act is to bring manufacturing capabilities and capacities back to US. TSMC is on track to build a manufacturing plant in Phoenix, Az and another one in Germany. This will take several years to complete but it will stabilize the manufacturing capabilities in US and Western Europe.

    So we were out at a club last weekend and via some mutual, professional friends, we met and spoke at length to one of the many Project Managers at the AZ site. The man has been a PM all of his career and engaged in many national/international high $ and high profile construction projects.
    We asked him how things were progressing at the site.
    Um, OUCH!
    He related some stunning (and detailed) comments (that I won't detail here) about the company's lack of understanding and appreciation for the many layers of regulation, inspection and certification on US construction projects. For much of his time during the early stages of construction, he would get to the site, 'splain
    again why they need to adhere to this/that regulation, tell them to Just Do It, and then go home for the day. Next day, rinse and repeat. In his over 30 years as a PM, he stated he's never seen anything approaching the issues on this job.
    LOTS of other issues surround this project and they are being documented daily by local press, TV and the like. Online searches will easily locate many of the biggest issues.
    Maybe they should have teamed up with ASU. Stuff sprouts out of the ground when they're involved, or even in the neighborhood. Maybe Phoenix codes are rougher than Tempe's, maybe.
    I googled the TSMC project. Most of the stories revolved around serious cultural issues with the work force and the neighbors.
    Intel OTOH, meets child care challenge, teams up with Maricopa Community college to offer free training.
    Next thing you know Intel will be paying people to tear out the few remaining lawns and install water efficient toilets.
    Maybe they can get our two utilities to get modern on distributed solar.
    Axios has a good back-grounder on the Silicon Desert.
  • Fidelity - same day fund exchange restrictions and my experience
    Thanks for posting. It never even occurred to me you could do that type of intra-family exchange at Fido. And it is a pain when you sell a very large holding and then need to wait until the next day to access the proceeds and buy whatever it is you intended to. You’re trusting that prices won’t deviate too much overnight. Personally, I’m pleased to now own funds from about a dozen different families - a far cry from 2 years ago when most of it was with TRP. The 90% restriction? I’ve run into that a couple times elsewhere - once while at TRP.
    One question - Does Fido exempt you from paying a fee for placing that buy order with a rep? Or, does the fee apply perhaps to only stock purchases?
  • Irrational Exuberance: AI Edition
    Barron's had some recent stories on Colorado River situation.
    EMERGING MARKETS (4/3/23). To benefit from the US Chips and Science Act to promote domestic semi-CHIPS manufacturing, TSM (Taiwan) and INTC are building huge facilities near Phoenix, AZ. But chips manufacturing is very WATER-intensive and that is a scarce resource in AZ. Phoenix draws 40% of its water from the COLORADO RIVER that runs through 7 states, and AZ is the last one. Almost 70% of Colorado River water is used for farming. In a hyperbole, Kathryn SORENSEN, a former director of Phoenix Water Services, and now with Kyl Center (Arizona State U), said that the state’s water planning goes back “thousands of years”, so it can handle the water demands. https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/post/998/thread
    (If wondering why this US-related story is under the Emerging Markets, note the reference to TSM and Taiwan is part of most EM indexes; BTW, S Korea is considered EM by MSCI, but developed by FTSE)
    COVER STORY (8/29/22), “(ESG) Beyond Drought: The Coming WATER Shortage Is a Threat from Main Street to Wall Street”. Water shortages in CA and elsewhere have changed consumer behaviors, HOME lawns and plantings. Investors are paying more attention to water impacts/risks/metrics on portfolios and BUSINESSES (agriculture, apparel/fashion, energy, mining, semi chips, data centers, etc). The SEC will require climate risk disclosures by 2022 yearend. Only 3% of world’s water is FRESH, and 2.5% is locked up in glaciers, polar ice caps, atmosphere, soil, so only 0.5% of the water is fresh and readily available. Many companies are RECYCLING water for reuse or alternate uses. Number and durations of DROUGHTS are rising globally. Problems in the US are acute in Colorado River areas (with Lake Mead and Lake Powell below 30% capacity). Global water DEMAND will exceed supply by 40-56% by 2030. Many companies have to write off assets stranded/idled by water scarcity. https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/post/753/thread
  • Irrational Exuberance: AI Edition
    Water is the lifeblood for the western half of US. TSMC is following Intel who has built a plant in Phoenix many years ago. Clearly the management picked the location due to the largest $ and land granted by Arizona. Will see how this will plays out.
    Again, we are getting off track on the topic of AI. As I posted above, my comment was
    Another play in this AI space is the “picks and shovels” companies that enable this technologies. TSMC is the largest semiconductor foundries in the world in producing chipsets for many electronic devices including Apple. However, the geographical risk with China is causing many investors to pause.
  • Irrational Exuberance: AI Edition
    IMHO, I think picking Arizona as the manufacturing site is a mistake. Semiconductor manufacturing is a very water intensive process and the West is having severe water shortage in past decade.
    [snip]
    This should be a major concern. Forty million people depend on the Colorado River for water.
    An epic drought (23 years!) and historic mismanagement of water resources (Colorado River Compact, 1922)
    brought record low water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell last year.
    Link
  • Anybody Investing in bond funds?

    ...
    Dear stillers:
    1) Let me ask you an easy question. Why did you use 3 different names(stillers,Arriba, Albie) on different sites? Did you try to hide something?
    2) Why don't you try to register on BB as stillers? You have no chance with the moderator who knows you for years.
    BTW, the subject of this thread is bond, why not make comments on it?
    Ah, the classic FD/Red Party way: Deny Delay, Deflect.***
    (1) Ah, C'mom man! You've asked that questions several times and I've 'splained the answer to you, well, several times. Memory problems? Or just another example of the above***?
    Or, as Dan Rather once infamously stated, "No Mr (xxx), are you?"
    (2) The Moderator of that forum is a fellow Trumper of yours who has cut you unbelievable slack there since that forum started. Apparently you finally overstepped your bounds netting a 90-day ban, and now need to incessantly push your wares elsewhere for that stretch . (See just about every other forum you've ever participated on.)
    Aside, and "For kicks" as capecod used to say: Given my use of other names in the past, maybe I AM registered there and you just don't know it!
    (3) Well dummy, if you had read the whole thread, you'd have seen that I DID make comments about the OP topic long before you entered the thread post-BB ban.
  • Irrational Exuberance: AI Edition

    ...
    One aspect of the CHIP Act is to bring manufacturing capabilities and capacities back to US. TSMC is on track to build a manufacturing plant in Phoenix, Az and another one in Germany. This will take several years to complete but it will stabilize the manufacturing capabilities in US and Western Europe.
    So we were out at a club last weekend and via some mutual, professional friends, we met and spoke at length to one of the many Project Managers at the AZ site. The man has been a PM all of his career and engaged in many national/international high $ and high profile construction projects.
    We asked him how things were progressing at the site.
    Um, OUCH!
    He related some stunning (and detailed) comments (that I won't detail here) about the company's lack of understanding and appreciation for the many layers of regulation, inspection and certification on US construction projects. For much of his time during the early stages of construction, he would get to the site, 'splain again why they need to adhere to this/that regulation, tell them to Just Do It, and then go home for the day. Next day, rinse and repeat. In his over 30 years as a PM, he stated he's never seen anything approaching the issues on this job.
    LOTS of other issues surround this project and they are being documented daily by local press, TV and the like. Online searches will easily locate many of the biggest issues.
  • Anybody Investing in bond funds?
    Yogi: "FR/BL are great for rising rates. But when rates are steady or declining, they act just like risky short-term HY (FR/BL are low-rated). That party is/maybe ending soon too."
    There is always a risk/reward decision to be made in investing in bond oefs. FR/BL did very well for many years, in the last 10 years, when rates were flat and certainly not rising. As a junk bond category, (most BLs are B rated), I frequently used them in the past, as a "lower risk" option for junk bond investing. When I read the Feds intentions regarding rates, I am not struck with the impression that a rate drop, is very likely this calendar year. On the contrary, I see the Feds raising rates very gradually the rest of the year, and trying to find their happy place for a smooth landing, and trying to keep inflation under control. The beauty about Discussion Forums, regarding bonds, there is often varying opinions about what the market is presenting to an investor as an opportunity. At any rate, I thought this thread should have an option of actually discussing "Bonds", as an alternative to some of the other topics on this thread, that do not appear very constructive!
  • Irrational Exuberance: AI Edition
    There is lots of work to be done on the software side. It may take several more years of refinement before they will start be deploy. On the hardware front, NVIDIA and other gaming chipset manufacturers are the spotlight lately.
    Another play in this AI space is the “picks and shovels” companies that enable this technologies. TSMC is the largest semiconductor foundries in the world in producing chipsets for many electronic devices including Apple. However, the geographical risk with China is causing many investors to pause.
    One aspect of the CHIP Act is to bring manufacturing capabilities and capacities back to US. TSMC is on track to build a manufacturing plant in Phoenix, Az and another one in Germany. This will take several years to complete but it will stabilize the manufacturing capabilities in US and Western Europe.
  • Anybody Investing in bond funds?
    Hank: FD - Just a reaction to your use of “proprietary”. It sounds as if you can’t share your approach on a board dedicated to sharing and helping one another. But perhaps I misunderstood your intent. Sorry if I offended you.
    FD: I did share, read the link. The following is a main tech indicator I have used called, three line break. For over a year now, all my bond trades were in HY Munis using 2 out of the 3 funds each time (ORNAX,NHMAX,XXXXX). This (chart) shows how it works. Green bars=buy, Red bars=sell. This is a decent indicator that works with many bond funds. How and What else I do is proprietary, especially using mainly 2 funds. This is why I bought in the middle of last week.
    But, there is a change. The Fed fund rate, as we know it now, is stabilized at +-0.25% for the next several months. This means to me that finally, the risk of higher rates is lower, I can use other categories, and Multi is where I find unique funds. Munis were easier to predict with my trades and behave better than treasuries.
    I already posted that this time I bought NHMAX. This fund is usually the riskiest, the chance is for a better upside this time. As of April 30, it has an effective leverage of 27.3% per Nuveen site, there isn't other HY Muni OEF with such a leverage, unless I missed it.
    So, after more than a year trading only HY munis, this time NHMAX is only a small % of my portfolio, the other bond fund isn't.
    ========
    Dear stillers:
    1) Let me ask you an easy question. Why did you use 3 different names(stillers,Arriba, Albie) on different sites? Did you try to hide something?
    2) Why don't you try to register on BB as stillers? You have no chance with the moderator who knows you for years.
    BTW, the subject of this thread is bond, why not make comments on it?
  • Anybody Investing in bond funds?
    Curious, as I'm not as knowledgeable in the least bit on bonds as many of you are-with our large allocation to TRAIX/PRWCX and the significant holdings for a number of years of the fund in bank loan/floating rate bonds, how do these bonds typically react to a reduction of interest rates by the fed?
  • Anybody Investing in bond funds?
    And so it begins.
    Banned from BB for 90 days, he will need an alternate forum to many times, each and every day, spew his condescending, self-aggrandizing crap. And sadly for MFO posters, this will be his likely spot for the duration of his 90-day stretch.
    No surprise his likens himself via parallel acronym to his true god. Funny how he used to boastfully post daily about his god but has duly STFU about him over the past months/years as the buffoon charts paths to incarceration in multiple jurisdictions.
  • Anybody Investing in bond funds?
    Some people have T-DS and some have FD-DS.
    Hank, if you think that my system is too funny, I welcome you to dive a bit into it(link). Several did and doing very well. The whole idea is to find great risk/reward funds, small AUM is a plus, an uptrend is a must + owning only 2-3 funds. In the last several years it's mostly bond OEFs. These funds eventually get discovered. I held PIMIX for about 7-8 years, then came IOFIX. HY Munis have always been a part of it.
  • January MFO Ratings Posted
    @Charles, check out Barron's,
    TRADER. Stocks rose as the wall of worry faded away. The RALLY broadened beyond large-caps to small/mid-caps and cyclicals (financials, industrials). The SP500 was in a bear market for 248 days (Edit - the longest since 1948) and it may reach a new high that is +10% away. Of course, there are economic data, the FOMC meeting(s), and a possible recession along the way. Enjoy the rally while it lasts.
    https://www.barrons.com/articles/stock-market-gains-as-wall-of-worry-crumbles-what-happens-next-75e1dc1e?mod=past_editions
    You may be thinking of the time it took for the SP500 to recover fully, and that was about 5 years after the GFC; however, the allocation funds recovered much faster.
  • 15% “hit” to ADR dividend payment for “foreign tax”
    Appreciate those thoughts, @hank. Am I shooting myself in the foot? Maybe so... But the dividend, even after taxes, is lovely. And I have deliberately chosen NHYDY to be the stock I own in that investment sector: Aluminum and green energy. They even mine their own bauxite. Did a lot of homework on it. One of the biggest in the world. It's not at all in any financial pressure. They just bought back a lotta shares, last year. Taxes are not an issue for us, in our circumstances, though--- so it pinches when that happens, and there's no way to get it back on the 1040. Nothing to deduct it against, if you know what I mean. So I get credit for paying a bit of foreign tax. It's like a certificate hung on the wall telling me I'm a part-owner of the Green Bay Packers on account of my donation to the team in the lean years.
  • The Next Crisis Will Start With Empty Office Buildings
    @Anna : Is it possible that building didn't meet code requirements for assisted living ?
    No there was no problem that I know of. I knew someone whose relative lived in assisted living there for years. She finally died and I lost track of what happened after that. It was an old landmark hotel. At this time it has been modernized and converted back to a hotel. So whoever ran the assisted living facility must have sold it.