@msf Thanks, as always, for the excellent info. You may have saved me some aggravation/consternation trying to change things. I'll do a little Googling.
As I paid the first three on the regular schedule and the third one is already scheduled, I will do some research on the situation. No biggie, as I made other tax adjustments this year, like having my wife pay some tax from her SS. The last three years have been transitional. And, in truth, these cap gains are not anything new on an annual basis.
@rforno Good point!

I am planning now to up my January estimated tax payment to avoid a penalty, as I liquidated an inherited IRA this year also
The IRS doesn't look favorably on unequal, backloaded payments. Though it's always happy to get its money early if one wants to frontload estimated payments.
Hopefully it won't care and you might wait and see. Or you could file a Form 2210 Schedule AI. The AI is for "annualized income". It's a way to tell the IRS that you made timely estimates - paying larger quarterly estimates when you had larger quarterly income.
"If you’ve already filed and received a penalty, you can amend your return by filing Form 2210 with Schedule AI and potentially reduce or eliminate that penalty."
https://www.jessupwealthmanagement.com/blog/tax-series-part-one-irs-form-2210-the-key-to-managing-fluctuating-income
The schedule is tedious because you need to look through your records to break your income up into quarters. I did this in a few years when I had outsized income, usually in the last quarter.
"Quarter" doesn't actually mean three month periods. For this purpose, a "quarter" means Jan-Mar, Apr-May, June-Aug, Sept-Dec.
https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-2210

I let go of my small caps 3-4 years ago, before their outsized LT performance reverted to mean. I held my mid caps a bit longer, and finally let them go for the same reasons. I had OTCFX and RPMGX for decades.
I will need to see a track record of momentum to get back into either. FOMO is not going to draw me in. I am even avoiding extended market index funds, at this point.

The name rings a very faint bell. Don't know why.
I'd never seen a fund with a M* risk score over 100 (i.e. beyond awful) until now. And bottom quintile 5 and 10 year returns. How did it possibly manage a +0.31 Sharpe ratio over 5 and 10 years?
With just $90M AUM, merging it into an existing, parallel (and just as small) ETF looks like a last gasp effort at gathering assets. Why not just shut down a fund this small, with a 1* rating, a negative (AI generated) M* medalist grade, Lipper ratings of 1 (out of 5) in total return, consistent return, and preservation?
Perhaps it would be better to just throw in the towel. (You knew that was coming :-))

@msf said, "I've always been somewhat underweighted in large caps (futilely fighting the tape)" Yeah. That goes double here.
I think a collection of small and / or mid caps is a good idea for a small portion of one's portfolio today. My BARF basket has 10 (individual stock) holdings and comprises 7% of the portfolio. I'd venture to say that 7 or 8 of those fall in the small to mid cap area. Individually, scary. But as a collection not hard to ride.
Perhaps noteworthy - James Stack, whom I subscribe to & read (InvesTech Research), recently recommended to his readers a small allocation to TRMCX. I say "noteworthy" because having read him for years I cannot remember his embracing any OEF. He's pretty much adhered to ETFs.

This is another subject that needs attention.
Are MC a better choice than LC? As usual, it depends.
Would you hold MC for the next several decades? Probably not.
Would you hold them sometimes? Of course.
So, it's a timing problem based on active investment, finding better categories, and switching.
The next level is finding great risk/reward funds regardless of categories.
If I invested in stocks, I would look at ALT fund like QLENX or TIBIX. This has been my style for over 25 years.
Basically, why act too early and risk missing significant performance? You need to see clear evidence that one fund or category is outperforming another before making a move.
BTW, I never owned a MC fund.

The iShares S&P 500 ex S&P 100 ETf (XOEF) seeks to track the investment results of an index
composed of the large capitalization U.S. equities within the S&P 500 Index excluding companies
within the S&P 100 Index.
This newer ETf could be an option for investors who wish to avoid the largest stocks in the S&P 500
while seeking a mid-cap tilt.
M* shows an average market cap of $56.37 billion and their Style Box indicates that 60% of the portfolio
is in mid-cap stocks (12/18/2025).
Edit/Add: I opted to go the S&P index route years ago and own IVOO (S&P 400)
and VTMSX (S&P 600, tax-managed). I previously held various S&P 500 index funds.
Most of my funds, however, are actively managed.

I've always been somewhat underweighted in large caps (futilely fighting the tape). In recent years I've maintained my md cap weighting but reduced small caps, shifting some of their weight to large caps (growing more cautious as one ages). Though still keeping the faith in mid caps.
Interesting statistic - "According to Morningstar's classification, the top 70% of the total U.S. market capitalization is categorized as large-cap, the next 20% is considered mid-cap, and the subsequent 7% falls under the small-cap category. [9.5% in 'extended small cap'] This allocation method offers a dynamic view, considering the overall market landscape."
https://www.vaneck.com/us/en/blogs/moat-investing/understanding-market-capitalization/
In comparison, the S&P 500 covers 80% of the market. That means that a portion of this index reaches into what M* would call mid cap. Alternatively, the M* large cap boxes contain a smaller portion of the total market ("just" 70%) than one might think.
You can see evidence of this by comparing performance of M* US extended small cap index (iShares M* small cap ISCB), M* US mid cap index (iShares M* mid cap ISMB), and M* US large cap index (using Vanguard Megacap MGC - largest 70% - as proxy for M* index), with SPY.
Portfolio Visualizer comparison
The larger you go, the greater the return over the past ten years, the lower the volatility, the better the risk/reward ratio. Interestingly, the S&P 500, even though it includes some "mid caps" has superior best and worst years (compared with megacaps) and a lower max drawdown. That suggests that there might actually be something to this midcap stuff. At least as a diversifier.

Mid-cap growth may present one of few viable vehicles. Tough to compete with large cap tech and the Mag 7 concentration.
We stay out of the smaller cap for several years. Perhaps oversea is no where as concentrated in US.

Held in a taxable account (D'oh!) my VPCCX has been a tax headache for years.

"... the market has been driven to record height levels this year by retail investors, not institutional investors, who are sitting mostly on the sidelines according to Business Insider and Vanda Research, with the latter reporting that cumulative retail net purchases of stocks and ETFs hit the highest level in the first six months for 2025 in at least the past 10 years."
If true, that raises serious concern. Years ago it was often said that retail investors were usually "the last in and the last out." - meaning they tended to buy at tops and sell near bottoms.
Rieder and Faber discuss seasonal patterns a little bit at the start of the interview I linked elsewhere. They seem to find them both real and non-sensical. But Rieder does mention a flood of new money coming in in January among other factors that tend to bolster markets. In addition, some portfolio managers decide to lock in a good annual return by selling high-flyers in December.

Over the many years of our investing I tried small caps a couple of times, but never managed to do much in that arena.

And the GREAT thing was that they work on very low voltages, so no more getting zapped by 300 volts or so when working on these circuits.
In my last twenty years as a radio tech for SF 911 I was one of only two (out of 15 or so), that was able to work on the few remaining tube-type transmitters that we still had. None of the younger techs had any idea how those "tube things" worked.

GSR of 60 was considered stable for a long time and it fluctuated widely around that for years. Once it broke away, some thought it would never return. But we are almost there.

Howdy folks,
Silver just pasted $67 with gold at $4359. The GSR is around 65 to 1.
Here are a couple of articles from Kitco, one by a bull and one by a TA bear.
https://www.kitco.com/news/article/2025-12-17/gold-silver-soars-record-high-safe-haven-bids
https://www.kitco.com/news/article/2025-12-16/gold-and-silver-appear-be-entering-final-act-2026-years-long-bear-market
TA may apply to gold but I don't feel as much to silver. Silver is riding the Fundamentals expressed by industrial demand and central bank debasement trades. That said, there is a LOT of speculation and conspiracy thinking circulating. I actually am not a conspiracy type. Feh. The market is like going to a casino. The house has an edge. Deal with it. In the market, any market, a person with the ability of manipulating it in their favor . . . will. Learned that reading Jesse Livermore. However, currently the conspiracy theories are insane.
Comex is running out of physical silver and in order not to default will change the rules in a way similar to what they did to the Hunt Bros. Trading restrictions, etc. Mexico has taken control of silver exports. China imposes export controls Jan 1. Last month we declared silver a strategic mineral. Comex will greatly depress the paper price of silver, while the world price for physical silver continues to soar. This is the end of both Comex and paper bullion pricing. Lastly, this is the end to fiat currencies around the world. We do know for a fact that much of the world no longer trusts us as much and are reducing their holdings of dollars and replacing them with various and sundry instruments . . . some percentage of which are PMs.
Pick your poison but dear God do your homework. BTW, I'm still stacking. And WETF you do, please don't sell.
and so it goes,
peace,
rono

My concern, at this time, is that tariffs are especially hard on small caps. I exited my long term small cap positions a few years ago. I also dropped my mid cap exposure not long after.

Yardeni is similar to Prof Sigel
Siegel basically has 2 long term opinions
1) Mr. Siegel is stocks perma bull. He has 2 main predictions annually: stocks will make money next year.
2) Stocks will make more than bonds.
The above is not a brain surgery, just common sense BUT NOTHING MUCH because
1) The SP500 was up over 80% in the last 40 years. He has no clue what % the SP500 will go up or what years will go down. Generic 10% range predictions don't mean much
2) Of course, stocks will make more than bonds, they have that for decades, especially when the 10 year treasury went to 0.5% in 2020...duh.
Stocks:
As expected, Siegel was wrong every down year
1) 03/2001 (link): about stocks "they are probably a better bet now than they were a year ago. You can buy them at cheaper prices.” FD: from 03/2001 to 09/2002, which is about 1.5 years, the SP500 lost over 22%, see (link)
2) 2008 (link) "I think the stock market will have another winning year in 2008." FD: The SP500 fell more than 50% and finish 2008 at -37%.
3) 2018 (link): U.S. equities will end the year with gains of as much as 10%. FD: the SP500 was negative at -4.5%.
4) 2019(link) "Jeremy Siegel says stocks could rally between 5 and 15 percent in the new year." FD: the SP500 made 31.5% more than double of what Siegel predicted.

Of the US equity funds I track, SPY is 30th YTD. It has really fallen off the pace recently. QQQ is #8.
Records look better on baseball cards.

Are you suggesting that the SP500 must be the best index for 1 week,and 1-6 months.
It is one of the best indexes to buy and hold for years.
Are there many investors who would complain about making 15+% in any year.
BTW, if switching categories work for you. It's great.

Not that investing markets 'grifting' is new; but that the 'connections' are different this time. One may find forward valuations to continue to be out of 'norms'. We've used a variety of technical indicators over the years; as well as the 'smell/sentiment' of things for investing. As long as the front running/insider information continues to provide large profits, the markets may continue to seem 'out of control'. It's when the music stops for the 'musical chairs' that remains the tough spot to discover.
The below is an AI sort for a variety of search terms regarding grifting and the markets. I've chosen this overview. Some of the descriptions can be placed into the grifter schemes that have been hatched this year, and continue now.
My inflated 2 cents worth,
Catch
Grifters and powerful financial actors have historically manipulated global stock markets by exploiting speculative manias, technological gaps, and regulatory loopholes. In 2025, these dynamics are increasingly driven by rapid news cycles and advanced trading technologies.
Common Methods of Market Manipulation
Pump and Dump Schemes: Promoters inflate the price of a stock through false or misleading positive statements to sell their cheaply purchased stock at a higher price.
Insider Trading: Trading based on material, non-public information, often involving high-level corporate or political figures.
Financial Legerdemain: Using complex accounting or misdirection to hide a company's true financial state, similar to a magician's sleight of hand.
Exploitative Technology: Utilizing high-frequency trading (HFT) and "dark pools" to gain millisecond advantages over retail investors, which some critics describe as a "rigged" system.
Social Media Gamification: Transforming independent market participants into coordinated "gangs" that can be easily manipulated by viral misinformation.
Influence of Powerful Actors
Political Leaders: Global markets in 2025 show extreme sensitivity to political rhetoric. For example, comments on trade policies or tariffs can cause massive instant fluctuations in worldwide indices.
Large Institutional Players: Firms like Vanguard, BlackRock, and Goldman Sachs hold significant portions of global equity, and their shifts in "risk appetite" can trigger massive global sell-offs.
Historical and Contemporary Parallels
The 1901 Boom: Early 20th-century promoters legally took massive cuts (up to 40%) from stock offerings, a template for modern "bull market grift".
The Dot-Com and Crypto Eras: Cycles of "greed and fear" consistently produce frauds like Enron or modern unregulated crypto Ponzi schemes that collapse when liquidity dries up.
Current Concentration: As of late 2025, the top 1% of households control approximately 50% of all US household equity, illustrating a structural accretion of wealth that grifters often exploit by targeting the "gap" between classes.

I have no personal knowledge here, but I can affirm that for many years the UT plan has been favorably mentioned on MFO by a number of posters.