little5bee said: "I wonder if the outperformance is from buying distressed funds..."
I don't have a clue what the manager's secret sauce is, but SVARX's "outperformance" since its inception in 2013 seems to indicate that he knows what he is doing. Besides, he has over $1 million of his own money in the fund.
M* ranks the fund #1 in the "non-traditional" bond category for 1, 3 and 5 years, and MFO gave it a "Golden Owl" and put it on its Honor Roll.
During the past 5 years, its largest monthly loss was 1.28% in May of 2019, and during last year's market crash, SVARX actually gained 0.97% in February and lost only 0.92% in March. With a pleasing standard deviation of 5.36% and an excellent Sortino ratio of 4.94, what's not to like?
The fund has certainly made me good money and I will, of course, keep a close eye on it. If the manager should loose his Midas touch at some point, I will not hesitate to press the sell button.
Good luck,
Fred

So, I write an article: Facts about the 9 favorite vegetable plants, planted by Midwestern families, in summer gardens.
I finish my article with: I don’t know what you might want to do with mixing or matching these vegetables for recipes in cooking, as you'll have to make that choice.
Did my title mislead the reader? I don't think so. I never suggested from the title that I was going to do anything but provide some data points about the vegetables; not suggest cooking recipes.
I found Mr. Carlson's data points of interest and will presume they are accurate. I did not expect any suggestions as to where the markets are pointed, either up or down; or suggested actions for the retail investor.
@bee Thank you for your numerous links, charts and graphs; and comments over the years, since joining the new "MFO" in April, 2011; as member number 24.
Respectfully,
Catch

Here is a email that I received from T Rowe Price:
Important: T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth Fund and T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth ETF Portfolio Management Updates
We are writing to inform you that Larry Puglia portfolio manager of the US Large-Cap Core Growth Equity Strategy, including the T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth Fund, T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth Portfolio, and T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth ETF, intends to retire from portfolio management at the end of 2021. Effective October 1, 2021, Paul Greene, currently the associate portfolio manager of the US Large-Cap Core Growth Equity Strategy, will succeed Larry.
For the past 30 years, Larry has worked in the U.S. Equity Division at T. Rowe Price. He began his career as an analyst covering the financial services sector. He also ran the Financial Services Equity Strategy before incepting the US Large-Cap Core Growth Equity Strategy in 1993.
We are pleased that Paul has accepted this new role. This is a natural next step for Paul, who has 14 years of investment experience, all with T. Rowe Price. He has worked closely with Larry for years, and he is very familiar with the strategy’s investment approach and all of the holdings and sectors in the T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth Fund, T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth Portfolio, and T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth ETF. He has also been a member of the strategy’s Investment Advisory Committee since 2010.
Like Larry, Paul began his career at the firm as an analyst. Paul also took on portfolio management responsibilities, leading the Communications and Technology Equity Strategy for nearly seven years as well as serving as sector leader of our media/telecommunications team.
Thank you for the confidence that you have placed in T. Rowe Price.
Please click here to download a prospectus for the T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth Fund and T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth ETF.
All funds are subject to market risk, including the potential loss of principal.
This communication does not undertake to give investment advice in a fiduciary capacity. T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and/or its affiliates receive revenue from T. Rowe Price investment products and services.
T. Rowe Price Investment Services, Inc.
From Morningstar:
https://www.morningstar.com/articles/1019030/t-rowe-price-blue-chip-growths-manager-to-retire

T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth ETF
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1795351/000174177321000034/c497.htm
497 1 c497.htm
T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth ETF
Supplement to Prospectus Dated June 23, 2020
In section 1, the portfolio manager table under “Management” is supplemented as follows:
Effective October 1, 2021, Larry J. Puglia will step down as a portfolio manager and Chair of the fund’s Investment Advisory Committee. Paul D. Greene II will succeed Mr. Puglia to become portfolio manager of the fund and Chair of the fund’s Investment Advisory Committee. Mr. Greene joined T. Rowe Price in 2006.
In section 2, the disclosure under “Portfolio Management” is supplemented as follows:
Effective October 1, 2021, Larry J. Puglia will step down as a portfolio manager and Chair of the fund’s Investment Advisory Committee. Paul D. Greene II will succeed Mr. Puglia to become portfolio manager of the fund and Chair of the fund’s Investment Advisory Committee.
During the past five years, Mr. Greene has served as a portfolio manager for other
T. Rowe Price Funds and has assisted the portfolio manager in managing the fund since inception as an associate portfolio manager. He joined the Firm in 2006 and his investment experience dates from that time.
The date of this supplement is January 26, 2021.
ETF785-041 1/26/21

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/902259/000174177321000031/c497.htm
497 1 c497.htm
T. Rowe Price Funds
Supplement to the following Prospectuses, each as dated below (as supplemented):
May 1, 2020
T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth Portfolio
December 15, 2020
T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth Fund
In section 1, the portfolio manager table under “Management” is supplemented as follows:
Effective October 1, 2021, Larry J. Puglia will step down as a portfolio manager and Chair of the fund’s Investment Advisory Committee. Paul D. Greene II will succeed Mr. Puglia to become portfolio manager of the fund and Chair of the fund’s Investment Advisory Committee. Mr. Greene joined T. Rowe Price in 2006.
In section 2, the disclosure under “Portfolio Management” is supplemented as follows:
Effective October 1, 2021, Larry J. Puglia will step down as a portfolio manager and Chair of the fund’s Investment Advisory Committee. Paul D. Greene II will succeed Mr. Puglia to become portfolio manager of the fund and Chair of the fund’s Investment Advisory Committee.
During the past five years, Mr. Greene has served as a portfolio manager for other
T. Rowe Price Funds and has assisted the portfolio manager in managing the fund since January 1, 2020 as an associate portfolio manager. He joined the Firm in 2006 and his investment experience dates from that time.
The date of this supplement is January 26, 2021.
G24-041 1/26/21

@BenWP
Thank you for your GREAT additional detail - was not aware of some of it.
And yes, the decision between one of the MS WS funds and BGAFX was a tough one. All excellent funds. But I chose MIGPX over BGAFX probably due mostly to my greater familiarity, experience and trust in MS funds, but could have just as easily selected BGAFX. With the likelihood that I will want to continue increasing my foreign exposure this year/in the coming years, BGAFX will stay on my radar and will likely be the next add.
Bottom Line: It's great to have so many excellent choices in WS and Foreign funds these days, the best Foreign pure play of which I consider to be VWILX/VWIGX, a fund whose performance routinely provides upside surprises.

Not to worry, it was a great exercise for me to help insure that my personal take on both of these funds is correct. YMMV on that.
FWIW, as a bit of history, I owned MGGPX though much of its outperformance years, sold it around the time of the 2020 crash, and switched to MIGPX a bit later in 2020. Little did I know at the time what it was about to do. My primary reason for buying into MIGPX in lieu of MGGPX was their respective AUM and manager compositions.

Yes. FPA and Queens Road merged several years ago. Steve Scruggs has been running the small cap fund since 2002. While value funds have been out of favor versus growth, this small cap value fund still managed to gain a modest 13%.
This is one way to diversified away from the FANNG stocks.

It's not always easy to gauge a fund's style from its sectors, or its countries for that matter. For example, while companies in the financial sector tend to be value investments, that doesn't make something like Robinhood's anticipated IPO a value play.
In any case, according to the FSEAX's latest monthly fact sheet (Dec 31), just 9.19% of the portfolio is in financials, down from 11.07% at the end of November. In comparison, technology accounts for about 1/3 of the fund.
Zhao says that he has "reduced some positions ... that have done well and added to those that are more exposed to the value side [i.e. those that have not done well]. ... it only makes sense to take some profits off the table and begin to plan what might come next."
That sounds more like rebalancing than a change it target weighting. The interview is dated Oct 31. M*'s factor analysis based on the fund's Nov 30th portfolio shows the fund to be more toward the growth side of the value/growth spectrum than in any time over the past five years, and also more growth focused than the category average.
Regarding countries: FSEAX counts the 12% of its portfolio in Korea as EM. Most index providers consider Korea a developed country. MSCI is the laggard, still calling Korea an EM country - because the won isn't traded 24 hours/day, not because its gross national income is too low or its stock market too small (they're not).
Some investors posit that separate international funds are not needed because so many domestic countries derive much of their revenue globally. By that reasoning, what are we to say about TSMC (6% of the fund)? Is it really an EM company? Based in Taiwan, it gets 60% of its revenue from the US.
None of this is meant to suggest that FSEAX isn't good at what it does. Rather it's to suggest taking a closer look at this, or any fund, to understand what it's really doing.

@BenWP yes that caught my eye too in the fund. They're sector exposure is also very interesting with strong weightings in consumer cyclical, financials, and industrials. So it is more value oriented. I havent bought it yet but watching it. Another fund Im really intrigued by is MATFX. Pull it up on Morningstar and you'll see it scores in the top 10% for pretty much every period from 1 week through 5 years. Ive been following the manager for awhile now. Very sharp guy. This is a growth fund focused on disruption. At some point I'll buy one of these or add to FSEAX.

Grantham ties a close at hand deadline to his bubble call and warns more generally about future inflation:

‘We will have a few weeks of extra money and a few weeks of putting your last, desperate chips into the game, and then an even more spectacular bust…When you have reached this level of obvious super-enthusiasm, the bubble has always, without exception, broken in the next few months, not a few years.
“If you think you live in a world where output doesn’t matter and you can just create paper, sooner or later you’re going to do the impossible, and that is bring back inflation,” Grantham warned.

https://pionline.com/investing/grantham-warns-biden-stimulus-further-inflating-epic-bubble
https://marketwatch.com/story/stock-market-legend-sees-few-weeks-of-putting-your-last-desperate-chips-into-the-gamethen-pop-11611347617?siteid=yhoof2

Good point, @MikeW: the Matthews fund, MASGX, has done really well in recent years. Over a five-year span it is tied in total return with the Calvert ESG entry, CVMAX. MASGX made up a lot of ground in the past two years. One of the nice things about the Matthews fact sheets is that they tabulate the exposure of the fund to various countries while showing how the exposure differs from the benchmark. MASGX is underweight China and overweight India and Japan (which accounts for zero in the index). Someone here lamented the passing of the Matthews Asia value fund; was that a result of a manager departure?

WMICX may close at any time as AUM have grown significantly and its performance over the past several years have drawn investors' attention and money.

Thanks for sharing this @BenWP. I wasn't aware of this fund. Another one you might want to take a look at is Matthews Asia ESG. It has performed quite well over the past 1 and 3 years and has a nice balanced portfolio across sectors. A bit more value oriented than most other Asian funds.

@Observant1 et al
Relative to the thematics of the day.....
Through year end of 1987, Fidelity had 35 select/sector mutual funds; with several of these beginning life in 1981. Eight of the 35 were added in 1985, and another 12 were added in 1986.
As I noted previous in another thread, IMHO, thematic investing is not new for availability to the retail investor; but it has evolved. The sector funds became thematic etf's.
The Fido select funds started as and are mutual funds usually holding a large number of companies within. Etf's may also have a large number of holdings, but some are very focused, with 30 or so holdings.
Info only Sidenote: Fidelity unveiled same-day trading of its 31 Select/Sector Portfolio funds, which enabled investors to get quotes on an hourly basis and redeem or purchase shares between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. rather than waiting until after 4:00 p.m. to get a fund's closing net asset value. Later eliminated.
Amateur opinion: Yes, some of the numerous thematic, factor and flame thrower etf's that have come to market during the past several years will have problems and cause portfolio damage at some point. The best one can do with these investments is to fully understand the areas of investments and why you feel there is a positive path forward in a given sector for investment. Yes, there are some "dot.com" types out there that are not proven and without profit.
We've held two very narrow focused etf's; one which is no longer held, ZROZ, and the other still remains, BOTZ.
The 36 holdings within ZROZ, Pimco long term treasury(s) are rock solid holdings, but the etf can be as volatile as a narrow focused equity etf. Obviously, the etf performance is subject to long term interest rate fluctuations and what the bond players in this area perceive. BOTZ has about 39 holdings in the robotics area. We still have faith in this market area and the companies within the fund.
The fickle markets, trends and whatever else can and may have various unknown impacts in all of these areas.
We retail investors are an interesting group of thinkers, eh?
Take care,
Catch

I received that meesage too. This explained the challenge that @bee had earlier. COVID made everything much more difficult. DMV offices are slowly opening back up. Renewal was strictly done online with 10 years old photo.

I read the Bloomberg "Robinhood Army..." article.
When I hear about thematic ETFs, the word gimmick springs to mind.
Assets in thematic ETFs quadrupled in the past five years.
This probably will not end well for many investors.

What worked yesterday may not work going forward, until it does again, We invest in cycles and cycles trend up and down.

The most significant investing trends over the last 10 years can be summarized as follows…
1. Large Caps over Small Caps.
2. US over International.
3. Growth over Value.
4. Tech over Everything.
5. Long Duration over Short Duration (Yields Falling, Curve Flattening).
6. Stocks over Commodities.
7. When Covid-19 first hit the US last February and March, all of these pre-existing trends accelerated.

when-secular-trends-reverse/

A good background article, despite its date in 2018, can be found in this link to a NY Times article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/13/business/finding-emerging-markets-stocks-with-social-consciences.html
The Times article reviews many ESG strategies, including MFs, so I won’t repeat what is said there.
Inspired by a recent M* finding that ESG MFs and ETFs have been outperforming the indices against which they are measured, I took a closer look at a recommended ETF for broad EM coverage, namely IEMG, as well as two ETFs that have portfolios based on ESG principles. Nuveen (now owned by TIAA, which has offered a Social Choice balanced fund for many years) offers NUEM, an EM ESG fund using its proprietary index. Two other choices in this area are XTrackers EMSG and a 2020 addition to the mix, iShares LDEM. Both of the latter funds eliminate some companies based on the business (tobacco, alcohol, gambling, etc.) and then they apply ESG screens to the remaining MSCI EM stocks to eliminate bad governance, pollution, corruption, and so forth.
NUEM and EMSG have long enough track records to make comparisons possible. Since the lows of world markets in March, 2020, all EM funds have shot up. However, as predicted by the theorists and researchers, companies with higher ESG scores, including in this case EM companies, did outperform an index of unscreened firms. I lean towards NUEM because I know TIAA’s record in ESG investing. They may have a “secret sauce,” and were I looking to expand my EM allocation, this is where the money would go. If the theory is correct, long-term results should achieve similar outperformance.

Yes, it is indeed an expensive moment to invest. Can't get past that fact. It's always hanging there, behind us, in the background. For myself, I'm glad I already did the work of streamlining and consolidating my portfolio, preparing for retirement. What I hold now, I hold in bigger amounts than two years ago. So, all of them are high-conviction bets. I've reduced foreign equity to 9-10%. If I decide to add to the foreign stuff, it will be in PRGSX. That's apart from a segregated few thousand dollars in an account dedicated to my wife's interests. HGGIX.