If I read another headline about the latest "undiscovered safe" stock or fund with a yield of 10% I will throw up.
All you have to do is look at ATT. What good was the 6% dividend when the stock is down 20 to 30% in the last 3 to 5 years?

Sector and style focus explain the bulk of returns, generally speaking. The ARK complex were top performers in the past few years before the downturn, and they were on top of all the "greats," like the Baron funds. When the "growthier" sector/style cratered they all did, though to a lesser extent compared to the ARK funds. I hold MGGPX (10yr 5 star MS, now 4 star MS). It correlates pretty closely with ARKW at least on a daily basis. My conclusion is that Ms. Wood was a better stock picker, by far, and not her fault that some bid those pics to the moon when her sector and style focus was in favor. But that which goes up 157% in a year can also drop 55%, predictable actually. You can decide which is the better fund. https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/fund-performance?s=y&symbol=MGGPX&benchmark=ARKW

@Old_Joe, These are long dated bonds and you are buying at a premium to par. I would make sure that you have call protection. Given these are issued in 1998, I am taking a wild guess that there might be a make whole provision; otherwise, the company would have called during pre-Max crash years when interest rates were low and the company's credit rating was much higher.

SA is offering 1 yr Premium membership for $15 per month. I find myself shut out of articles on the site I might want to read, and one of my fund managers posts his updates there to my chagrin. I am thinking of cutting loose an aggressive growth stock letter I have read for several years. The only other service I pay for is M* Premium. If MFO people subscribe to SA I would appreciate their opinions.

Hopefully we aren't going full-on "Carter malaise" for the next few years. But can we expect an immediate rebound if only some sectors have taken a beating? The disparity is quite large.
Value has been trumped by Growth for many years, and perhaps there is some payback here. High-dividend equity has been a good place to be so far YTD (as interest rates rise).
I would like to see the pain extend across the spectrum a bit more before calling Uncle. Even defensive sectors should get their due in a Bear market.
YEAR TO DATE RELATIVE PERFORMANCE
+37.3% Energy
-1.8 Basic Materials
-2.8 Utilities
-8.1 Consumer Defensive
-12.0 Healthcare
-12.2 Financial
-16.1 Industrials
-19.8 Real Estate
-28.1 Communication Services
-29.4 Tech
-33.7 Consumer Cyclical

Aside from Cathie Wood in particular, you'll have to pardon my skepticism about AI potential in general. Not that work in the field doesn't lead to significant developments, but that it has a history of repeatedly overpromising and underdelivering. Perhaps she could learn from history, or is this time different?
From the initial boom cycle ("good old fashioned artificial intelligence") to the second boom cycle (expert systems, specialized applications), to the current boom cycle, the field has left a trail of Broken Promises and Empty Threats
https://www.technologystories.org/ai-evolution/

From a piece yesterday in MIT Technology Review:

Earlier this month, DeepMind [s subsidiary of Alphabet (GOOGL)] presented a new “generalist” AI model called Gato. ...
One of DeepMind’s top researchers and a coauthor of the Gato paper, Nando de Freitas, couldn’t contain his excitement. “The game is over!” he tweeted, suggesting that there is now a clear path from Gato to artificial general intelligence, or AGI, a vague concept of human- or superhuman-level AI. ...
Unsurprisingly, de Freitas’s announcement triggered breathless press coverage that DeepMind is “on the verge” of human-level artificial intelligence. This is not the first time hype has outstripped reality. ...
Some technologists, including some at DeepMind, think that one day humans will develop “broader” AI systems that will be able to function as well as or even better than humans. Though some call this artificial general intelligence, others say it is like "belief in magic.“ Many top researchers, such as Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun, question whether it is even possible at all.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/05/23/1052627/deepmind-gato-ai-model-hype/
A quote that helps put this hype in historical (and hysterical) perspective:

In 1970 Marvin Minsky told Life Magazine, “from three to eight years we will have a machine with the general intelligence of an average human being.”

https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/history-artificial-intelligence/

Messianism at its worst:
https://twitter.com/CathieDWood/status/1528179451070230530?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4513814-one-tweet-ark-innovation-etf-has-become-uninvestable

Cathie Wood
@CathieDWood
.@ARKInvest
must share more of our research about #artificialgeneralintelligence (AGI) and how it is likely to transform the way the world works. Within 6-12 years, breakthroughs in AGI could a accelerate growth in GDP from 3-5% per year to 30-50% per year. New DNA will win!

crash I just bought my first CD at Fidelity- new issue Goldman Sachs 3% yield maturity date of 5/2025. I'd rather get 3% for 3 years than deal with bond fund chaos. I'll have to ask Fidelity how to buy CD's priced on the secondary market since that requires limit orders !

I used to invest in BUFBX. It’s always been overweight energy, at least in recent history, as well as value stocks. Thus it hasn’t performed well in recent years until recently, as growth stocks have tumbled and energy boomed.

Hello Crash. Other than Equities? That is the question this year. Positions I held last year. SJNK…. PFXF. VWEHX. SCHP. PRFRX. IUSB. Since my Equity allocation is way smaller my need to do something with “the rest “ is greater. For me losing money on the safe side of the portfolio is almost unacceptable. 0.00 year to date is looking better than I would have thought. You can’t fight the river.

As ever, my timing is impeccable when it comes to making changes or buying new stuff. I'm down, YTD by -14%. That really smells. So.... your equity slot is smaller than your bonds. The standard wisdom is not holding up. Bonds are not a safe haven in this downturn. So, I'm thinking that it's not a bad idea to reduce cost basis and grow yield, with bonds being beat-up so badly. Most of them, anyhow. There's nowhere to run. Cash won't give you any dividends. I've seen advice which would direct us into dividend-paying equities, rather than bonds. PRDGX is down -15% ytd, but that just means this may very well be a great entry-point. And it throws off quarterly dividends. Over 3 and 5 and 10 and 15 years, it looks damn good. I'm not in it just because it's full of companies I love to hate.
Otherwise..... I see a 3% CD at NAVY FCU if you qualify for membership. And for political reasons, I can't recommend Israel Bonds, but their rates are often attractive. Never a default. I made good money on one of their 10-year zero-coupon bonds, years ago.
https://www.navyfederal.org/checking-savings/savings/certificates.html
A quick glance, and I see 4.17% on a 10-year bond. And 3.4% for 3 years..... And it's in DOLLARS, not shekels.
https://www.israelbonds.com/Offerings-Rates/Current-Rates.aspx
"Break a leg."

@msf- Hello there. How interesting that you mentioned the Home Savings / WaMu / JPMorgan Chase transition: there is a large building exactly one block from our home which has in fact housed two of our checking and savings accounts through all three of those transitions in succession.
Yes, that building does in fact house a good-sized deposit box room, and for almost fifty years we have enjoyed a free safe deposit box in association with our checking account, in which we typically have around 50k. (I know that's ridiculous, but income piles up there faster than it can be easily redeployed, especially in the last few years where nothing is paying any interest anywhere.)
The point here is that JP Morgan Chase has had the use of a lot of our money for a very long time. And now, not satisfied with that, they have decided to charge for the safe deposit box. Strike one.
Regardless of the fact that our joint ownership checking account and another savings account are in the names of both my wife and myself, JP Morgan Chase has maintained that it is so difficult to allow both of us electronic access that evidently incredible amounts of paperwork would be required to allow such access. Therefore only I am allowed to have access. Strike two.
That bank also has at various times arbitrarily informed me that i needed to have a new password in order to access the account information. OK, that's pretty standard, but: where previously I could access that information from identical computers running identical software at either our SF home or at our Russian River weekend place they no longer allow me access from the Russian River computer unless they send me a new code via telephone- not via email. The catch? The only telephone number that they will send the secret code word to is... yes... the San Francisco phone number. Strike three.
OK, for a workaround Schwab, among many other financial institutions, offers a very convenient "consolidated" financial presentation, where Schwab gathers information from all of our mutual funds and other banks. That worked great, since all that I really need is a general overview of the account amounts. A couple of weeks ago, guess what? No info update from JP Morgan Chase: "they no longer participate in this program". Strike four.
At this point the only thing keeping us there is the anticipated hassle to redirect our SS and pension deposits. I'm sure that's not going to be any fun, especially since we are very leery about close contact inside buildings due to potential Covid exposure.
It's not as if we don't have a lot of other options to Morgan Chase- Schwab's bank is half a block away from JP Morgan, and we also have accounts at First Republic bank, also close and where the BS is minimal and the service is exceptional.

After I posted my query, trading volume did step up. When CAPE (now CAPD) began trading a few years ago, watching the volume was like waiting for grass seed to sprout. Now it trades robustly. On another thread, I commented on anemic volume of shares in HAPY. That’s still true. Bid and ask prices often are far apart and can lag the market. I am really surprised at the number of transparent and semi-transparent, apparently active, ETFs on offer these days. It’s surprising because an article I read this AM said most ETF volume are goes into passive strategies.

It looks like Fidelity is phasing out dedicated advisors in its Private Client Group services, much as Vanguard phased out dedicated advisors in its Flagship services.
If you think you have a dedicated Fidelity advisor, check your web page. Vanguard and Fidelity used to show an advisor on your "home" page. That has vanished. Fidelity's statements used to give the advisor's name. That's gone as well.
FWIW, Schwab appears to still assign higher value customers dedicated "financial consultants". See the question "How am I assigned to a Financial Consultant?" on this Schwab page.
As I tried explaining in this thread, these are not fiduciaries providing advice in your best interest. Schwab writes that "Their compensation is structured to help limit conflict of interest." Nevertheless those conflicts remain; their compensation is based in part on how much they sell ("Net New Assets to Schwab").
Years ago, Fidelity called this person your "account executive" before changing the title to "financial consultant". Now it doesn't call this person anything; the role seems to have disappeared.

BUFBX / BUFIX is classified as Allocation 85%+ equity (it had 97.26% equity on 3/31/22, Fact Sheet) and is self-benchmarked to 100% equity R3000. It has a huge overweight in energy at 24.8% (3/31/22 Fact Sheet), the only sector that is doing well now. It is unclear if this energy overweight is recent or if it always had this. It has done well in 2021 and 2022YTD, but not so well in other years. I have used the Fact Sheet data referred to by @Derf as M* has only 12/31/21 data.
It is not a typical allocation/balanced fund as understood here. M* shows equity % range over 5 years as 87.5-98.44%, so it has that "flexibility" at rather high equity %.
https://buffalofunds.com/wp-content/uploads/Buffalo-Flexible-Income-Fund-Fact-Sheet-1Q22.pdf

Good Morning Class,
Just wondering...and to be clear I have no position in HSGFX Hussy, and returns over the past 10+ years have been turrible as Chuck Broccoli, I mean Barkley would say....last 3 years have been ok.
Pondering: I believe we are about to see who are the "Big Boys" running these funds...kinda easy to go with the flow when the Central Banks have pumped in over $30 Trillion or whatever it is over the past 12-14 years....investing geniouses all...let's see who the fund champs are looking backwards from 3 years out...
Kinda like having Daddy bank roll you...easier to get thru life when you have the wind at your back.
Let's see what happens now, let's see how the "experts" etc do now...crazy...I was listening to Josh Brown's Compound Show Podcast yesterday and his guest said that everything is sped up...kind of alluding to we have this big downdraft, flush, then we start going up again. I'm sure that guy is a lot smarter than me but it struck me as an odd comment.
This fiasco in Ukraine has a long way to go to play out....knock on effects will be long and impactful...kooky decisions made in Washington DC now will have long term negative effects...so much overstocking of made in Chi com junk....inflation is not going away any time soon, crypto fan boys getting their arse handed to them...won't mention ARKK.
I'm not convinced this is a quick flush and then we bounce back up...could be a Jimmy Carter like malaise lasting several years.
Good Luck to All,
Baseball Fan

I'm not writing this based on the first half of 2022 but I have been researching ETF's more and more (many thanks to this Board) and revisiting my current MF's. I own SCHD and it's hard to find a LCV MF that beats it performance-wise and consistent returns make it a great fit!
I'm looking closely at TRBCX and HCAIX...I worked for Prudential (Asset Management) for years so I know the portfolio and team very well. TRBCX has struggled a bit (pre-2022) and has recent PM change which always sets off my 'watch list' alarms.
I am considering SCHG...market cap weighted, low fees and beats my current funds handily on all time periods. Any input or if anyone owns the ETF, I appreciate any comments.
Thanks

See Comments I posted under "Rally soon" from Bespoke. Even in 2008 SP500 didn't go over 8 loosing weeks in a row.
But I don't think anything has been "fixed" and accepting the various measures of how high valuations were ( ie Hussy) this can clearly go on longer. Any bounce is likely to a a "dead cat" just to lure suckers back in.
I would not commit any funds that I needed to use in the next five years. I am sure some people are "trading" the swings but not me

I had a new metal roof put on last year for about $20K. USAA raised my replacement value about 30K and yes, the premimum zooooomed. I thought a metal roof should have lowered my cost due to better fire protection.

Fire hazard has expand west of the Rockies in recent years. Many residential houses in Pacific Northwest are now built with metal roofs and concrete siding (Hardie board). Building codes for new construction is changing and so does the construction cost. Not surprise that insurance premium keeps on rising regardless what you have done to the property to migrate the risk.

Not a fan of managed futures which are generally tied to commodities. My fav over the years was MBXIX, which did great in 2008-09 (similar strategy before fund launched) but cratered with the COVID dip while other strategies outperformed. My only MF play these days is an ETF just for the heck of it, KMLM, if you're going to go in, might as well go all in!

HSGFX, negative returns in 8 of the past 10 years since 2012, including a run of 6 consecutive negative years....give me some of that.