This does not bother me at all in terms of whether the guy is a competent and professional investment manager. One bad event in 1997? You're making many assumptions to say he "lied about it" over 20 years later. The charge was downgraded to a non-felony. The application in question asked for whether he was "charged" with a felony and he should have checked yes. I have a buddy (lawyer) who made the exact same mistake on his Fla. bar application. In his mind over 2 decades later he remembered the event and what the final result was, not the initial charge. The Fla bar tortured this guy mercilessly even though he was a practicing lawyer for years elsewhere with no issues.

You heard wrong. Y/Y inflation for 1952 (70 years ago) ranged from a high of 4.3% (Jan) to a low of 0.8% (Dec). Not a year of high inflation.
Y/Y inflation remained below 5% until the spring of 1969. The only double digit Y/Y figures come from 1974-1975 and 1979-1981, peaking at 14.8% in March 1980. I'm sure those periods ring economic bells for some people.
My data source is the Bureau of Labor Statistics: https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost
(Select "More Formatting Options", and then select the checkbox "12 month percent change")
What is your source?

Howdy folks,
@yogibearbull Yeppers, you are absolutely correct. Not only can there be issues with different rules for different countries, but bullion ETF are taxable as collectibles at 28%. This means you always keep these in either a deferred or tax exempt account.
I've owned CEF for years with no problems.
thanks,
rono

I understand this will be part of their just-launched Wealth Management Solutions Group which consolidates a bunch of related services.....
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/morningstar-plans-to-acquire-leveraged-commentary--data-301516351.html
CHICAGO and SEATTLE, April 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Morningstar Inc. (MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research (Nasdaq: MORN), has reached an agreement to acquire Leveraged Commentary & Data (LCD), a market leader in news, research, data, insights, and indexes for the leveraged finance market from S&P Global. The purchase price is up to $650 million in cash, comprised of $600 million at closing, subject to certain adjustments, and a contingent payment of up to $50 million six months after closing, upon the achievement of certain conditions related to the transition of LCD customer relationships.
LCD is the industry standard for leveraged loan data, news, analysis, and indexes, providing coverage across the full lifecycle of loans. The leveraged loan market data provider will integrate with Morningstar's PitchBook Platform, which delivers data, research, and technology covering the breadth of the private and public capital markets. This unique dataset combined with PitchBook's already robust data, insights, and technology will create a centralized platform for participants in the leveraged finance market.
< - >
The acquisition of LCD will complement PitchBook's robust product and research capabilities and provide coverage of every metric of the leveraged loan market, including structure, pricing, yield, volume, along with secondary market performance and LBO/private equity activity. LCD is the only provider of real-time coverage of the U.S. and European leveraged loan and high-yield bond markets, from deal inception through the trading life of the debt. It also provides growing coverage of investment grade bond issuance, distressed debt, corporate bankruptcies, middle market transactions and CLO/fundraising. Over 20 years, LCD has provided data on over 30,000 issuers and 85,000 transactions.
LCD has more than 500 leveraged loan indexes in the U.S. and Europe tracking performance, index characteristics, and risk measures comprised of over 1,800 loans. The S&P/LSTA Leveraged Loan Index—the flagship benchmark for this asset class—and related indexes will become part of the expanding fixed-income capabilities from Morningstar Indexes, one of the fastest-growing global index providers.
< - >

“Also, curious as to why all the attentionon Wood/Arkk...meself,”
Agree. The fund has ISTM received an inordinate amount of commentary in the media (and perhaps here). I guess the media likes bright and shiny objects - likes them even better after the gloss fades and they become objects of derision.
@Baseball_Fan ‘s comments spark a few additional questions …
(1) To what extent do CNBC & others allow ratings (ie advertising dollars) to affect what they cover and how they cover it? My uninformed guess is that ratings matter a great deal more than whether viewers’ pocketbooks are well served.
(2) To what extent is “salesmanship” important to running a fund?
(3) Is there something special about Wood’s demeanor / public persona that tends to attract some investors and/or foster a cult following?
These type of stocks offer little appeal to me. But were I to find a niche in my portfolio for them, I’d rather research 4 or 5 individual stocks on my own and invest small sums directly in them, figuring 1 or 2 will go bust, but 2 or 3 might prosper. The advantage is you are less at the mercy of fund flows than owning them through a fund. Individual investors are also more nimble ISTM than a manager of billions - able to get in and out of positions more quickly.
I think of the great investors / fund managers who inspired me over the years. Names like John Templeton, John Bogle or Michael Price. I see them shaking their heads at the Wood methodology and sales pitch.

Hey Team,
Hmm...interesting comments...couple thoughts...
- watched Josh Brown's Compound Show Podcast yesterday, (btw, great podcast, he brings on some heavy hitters, relevant, fresh thinking, not same ole, same ole, keeps it real, some f bombs etc), had Adam Parker (Trivariate Research, formerly Chief US Equity Strategist and Global Dir of Quantitative Research, Morgan Stanley) on, convo dabbled on going out on risk curve...Mr Parker mentions (paraphrasing) he'd rather go long some Biotech small/mid stocks and short the profitless software stocks"...don't recall if he positoned the convo as an alternate to the Wood/Ark, my interpretation was if he was to go very aggressive he'd rather do that....you'll have to listen for yourself.
Also, curious as to why all the attentionon Wood/Arkk...meself, if I was to "go for it", I'd rather invest with the Zevenberger growth funds...ZVNIX, ZVGNX (Genea fund)...they both smoke ARKK in the past 3 years...I think they seem more rational, don't come across as somewhat "kooky" (whatever that means these days)....been doing this agressive innovation investing thing for a while...why no one mention here?? Is it because polarizing figures like Wood get more eyeballs, invoke more emotion..?
Best Regards and Good Health to ALL,
Baseball Fan

“It is up to the investor to have at least some degree of knowledge what they are investing in (and some degree of knowledge about investing in general) … .”
The “Catch22” here - Most of us acquire that knowledge gradually over years of experience.
Oh … of course there are books on the subject.
One of the better arguments in favor of target date funds I’ve heard.

Regarding Puts & Calls, there is the Put/Call Ratio commented on by McClellan Financial:

When the market changes its mood, indicators can sometimes change theirs to match. That is the message of this week’s chart.
Traders and analysts have been watching the Put/Call Ratio ever since the late Martin Zweig first called attention to it decades ago. In his 1986 book Winning On Wall Street, Zweig described his research in the 1960s, digging through figures from the Securities and Exchange Commission going back as far as WWII, and noticing that “…when options investors got too optimistic - - buying lots of calls and shunning puts - - the stock market was generally heading for trouble. The reverse was also true.”
The persistent problem over the years has been in determining what constitutes “high” and “low” readings for the Put/Call Ratio. This task is best done in retrospect, but we have to analyze and trade in realtime. And that can be hard.

learning_center/weekly_chart/put_call_ratio_range_shift/

@BaluBalu
Fido hiring, a growth sign, eh? The times I've called over many years, if the CSR couldn't readily help; the proper person was sought. No problem with that. 'Course, the caller must have a properly framed question in the first place, to expect a proper answer.
Fidelity hiring

The intent of my post was to be helpful to this forum members and not to take shots at Fidelity or any other brokerage.
Re customer competence, in the past 3 yrs, I have lost count the number of times I had to educate Fidelity CSRs about investment products available on their platform and the services they offered; while in the prior 10 yrs, I had consistently received outstanding service. Now, I hardly transact at Fidelity just to avoid having to deal with their CSR. I just leave most of my cash allocation at Fidelity. I expected Fidelity to assign less trained (and sometimes unprofessional?) reps to smaller accounts before elevating them to their highest level accounts but it is possible Fidelity lost too many employees at every level. l shall let other devoted customers train Fidelity CSRs before I check back with Fidelity.

@BaluBalu
Fido hiring, a growth sign, eh? The times I've called over many years, if the CSR couldn't readily help; the proper person was sought. No problem with that. 'Course, the caller must have a properly framed question in the first place, to expect a proper answer.
Fidelity hiring

At one time the price of nat gas ran opposite that of crude oil on many days. That’s partially because the gas was a necessary (somewhat unwanted) byproduct of oil drilling / fracking and the market for gas was saturated - so they needed to sell it off cheaply. I don’t follow this closely, but suspect that’s no longer the case. A second reason gas may behave differently than crude is its use for air conditioning in warmer months.
Yep - I’ve watched oil prices since the gas lines of the 70s (of which I partook). No way I know of to forecast the price. Even T. Boone Pickens got it wrong near the end. He’d steadfastly predicted a rebound for years before he died. His forecast came to fruition too late to do him any good.
Reminds one of the old saw about “In the long run …” :)
BTW - Today’s (supposedly informed) pundits on Bloomberg don’t seem to think the Strategic Petroleum Reserve releases will have much long range impact on oil prices. Remains to be seen of course.

@Crash "I'd been wanting to hop on the Natgas gravy train, these days". Really
Good luck with the NG, Derf
P.S. My chuckle
for the day ! TUVM

A few years ago I thought Natgas would eventually be seen as a darling and bought ALOT (for me) and kept buying on the dips to a point where it became a bottomless pit. The whole energy sector was deemed "uninvestable." I eventually started selling on bounces and ended up with a substantial though tolerable loss. It was without question the worst and most prolonged and painful bear markets I have ever personally experienced (and this is from someone whose played around with gold minors for decades)!

Thanks for that information. Unfortunately, there are a couple of features at Fidelity that one can't be sure work without either trying them out or asking. One is buying a fund with a reduced min in an IRA, and then there's this one - automatic investing.
Automatic investing is the more obscure one. You don't need to already have money in a fund to check out the IRA min. But you do need to have money in a fund to test whether an automatic investment is accepted. Of course one can call and ask.
I have a fund there (in an IRA) that used to have a lower IRA min. If I sold it off now I could not get in again. And over the years, sometimes automatic investment worked, sometimes not. Things change and it can be hard to find out.

"For years, something strange kept happening on Wall Street.
Before a big shareholder could carry out plans to sell a slug of stock, the price dropped. It was as if other investors knew what was coming."
☞ Wall Street Journal Article

Nobody told me. ;)
I think that's the first time I've followed a WSJ link that wasn't behind a paywall.
Thanks for posting.

I think Mark's suggestion--BIAWX--is a good one. And VEIGX, despite its global focus, is shaping up to be an interesting ESG play. The absence of energy in 2022 is certainly affecting performance negatively, just as its absence for years prior to 2022 was beneficial.

ESGV ... well, except it's so comparable the chart lines are barely distinguishable, so maybe not something an investor dissatisfied w/ PRBLX would be interested in.
ESGV has enough volume now that it's fairly easy to trade, if that's a distinction that would make it more attractive versus PRBLX.
To Lewis's point, Parnassus dumped all fossil fuels some time ago. Although they've never had much in traditional energy directly, they did usually keep an exposure to nearly purely fossil-fired utilities. Two of those they'd held for years, I know very well, since they operate in my state: NWE and MDU.
I was never so happy with Parnassus when they sold; NWE in particular is right at the bottom of the list of regulated utilities to be admired. The guys (they're all male) in the corporate suite there have been trying to double down on coal and rip off ratepayers, while refusing to invest a single penny more in solar and wind, not to mention trying their best to destroy the solar home and business sub-economy.
Anyhow, the lack of fossil fuel investment is very likely a reason PRBLX doesn't look all that great ytd, given that traditional energy is the sector of the moment.

Per recent announcement, it looks like T is scheduled for a $0.2775 quarterly dividend, or 4.65% at current pricing. I'm also at a loss in my taxable account, but I'm not selling (yet) since I want the slug of Warner Bros. Discovery for my pain and suffering. T may do better as the more pure play telecom services provider. Either that, or they're first up in the tax loss selling derby. WBD may just be a winner in a few years.

Is there any way to know what will be the basis for AT&T shares after it spins off WBD in early April?
Will the AT&T shares give up some of their basis to form a basis for the newly acquired WBD shares?
I've read several articles about the details (e.g about .24 shares of the new company for each share of AT&T), but cannot find anything about the basis going forward. Most articles on this subject concentrate on differing opinions of the prospects for the two separate companies.
I have some shares received from my Dad -- they're under water.
I optimistically bought some AT&T shares myself a few years ago (nice dividend, right) -- they are under water.
Apparently I'll still have those same shares after the split. But will their basis be changed (no matter what I paid for them)? And I'll have some new shares of WBD -- what will their basis be (after all, I didn't directly pay anything for them)?
I'm tempted to harvest the tax loss (and avoid the hassle) by selling now. But I'd like a better handle on the post split situation.
But maybe this spinoff will "unleash" the Warner Media business and the new stock will soar! My experience with spinoffs has not been very good. Did anybody else get saddled with the SO spinoff Mirant (loaded up with debt and went bankrupt).
Thanks for any help or insight,
David

A CityWire article was posted several hours ago regarding former PM George Jikovski.
You may need to sign in or sign up to read the article in its entirety.
Excerpts below.
"‘After 15 years at Canyon Partners, George Jikovski, partner and manager of our River Canyon Total Return fund, is leaving the firm. We’re actively recruiting his replacement, and in the interim the fund will be managed by Todd Lemkin, our CIO, and Sam Reid, our top debt trader,’ the spokesperson said."
"Jikovski had run the fund since late December 2014, investing almost exclusively in securitized assets and posting a 5.6% annualized return through Friday. The Bloomberg US Aggregate, by contrast, delivered a 1.9% annualized return over that time."
"The fund under Jikovski also delivered some extra volatility, posting a 4.4% standard deviation of returns compared to 3.3% for the index, but its returns were so far ahead of the index that its Sharpe Ratio of 1.13 more than doubled the 0.51 reading of the index."
"More than half of the fund is in floating rate securities. The popularity of these assets for both their higher yield and their inflation protection has led to their being securitized in collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) in recent years."