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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.
  • prwcx expands # 'co-managers'
    "The Fund’s positive return streak and investment approach has been sustained over the years
    by several managers. Prior to Messrs. Arricale and Giroux, who became co-managers in July 2006,
    the Fund was managed by Stephen Boesel from August 2001 to June 2006
    and by Rich Howard from January 1989 to July 2001."

    I don't know who managed PRWCX from June 30, 1986 through December 1988.
    https://investors.troweprice.com/news-releases/news-release-details/t-rowe-price-capital-appreciation-fund-extends-unmatched
  • Schwab Transaction Fee Mutual Funds
    When I looked at VWINX=Vanguard Wellesley at Schwab, the Schwab site says up to $74.95
    I entered a buy for $10K for VWINX. The transaction says zero. Same for DODGX.
    I haven't used VG or D&C for decades. I can't remember one fund I was interested in the last 20 years that I paid $74.95.
    On the Schwab “Enter Order” page, there are two options under Transaction fee:
    Deduct fee from total
    Add fee to total
    The next “Verify Order” page shows a Transaction Fee of $0.00 but under the fund description next to Transaction Fee there is a “Yes”.
    When you click on “Place Order” the “Order Received" page properly accounts for the transaction fee.
    It’s just a poor implementation as the exact TF should be disclosed on the Verify Order page.
  • prwcx expands # 'co-managers'
    I thought it would be entertaining and potentially instructive to go over the list of talented managers who have run PRWCX since inception. While none attained the notoriety of Giroux, all excelled. If memory is correct Giroux came in about 15 years ago along with a co-manager of equal status. That lasted only a year or two. ISTM the fella’s name was Jeff Arackle or something similar. It later came out he had some serious personal issues (financial ?) but I can’t recall the nature of such.
    I even resorted to Bing’s AI asking about the history of managers for this fund. All AI could provide is this:
    Publicly available sources do not list any named individual managers prior to David Giroux (2006). Earlier reports consistently highlight Giroux as the first lead manager since founding. T. Rowe Price has not disclosed earlier stewardship or predecessor managers in public filings or press materials.”
    Surely AI isn’t providing a very intelligent answer! I’d also love to know how much the fund has grown in AUM under Giroux? I’d guess it’s doubled since he became co-manager - perhaps even adjusting for asset growth..
  • Schwab Transaction Fee Mutual Funds
    When I looked at VWINX=Vanguard Wellesley at Schwab, the Schwab site says up to $74.95
    I entered a buy for $10K for VWINX. The transaction says zero. Same for DODGX.
    I haven't used VG or D&C for decades. I can't remember one fund I was interested in the last 20 years that I paid $74.95.
  • Question about the "Eligible List" for American Funds Washington Mutual
    My parents have a slug of american funds in a capital group 403b. if I take their 25 years of investing in it and compare that to a risk adjust index portfolio its basically cost them about 100bps a year. some of that is because they are in R2 shares which are i think the most expensive share class. (they don't pay much in 403b fees so I assume thats the reason) When I ran it with F1 it was much closer.
  • Fears of a Wider Mid-East War are Growing ...
    Since the 80s, about 40 years, wars didn't influence the markets short-mid term, why would it happen now?
    The period of 2000-10 SPY lost close to 10% in 10 years, nothing to do with war.
    Several institutions suggest the next 10 year about 5-6% for stocks and 4-5% for bonds, that's great for my style of mostly unique bond funds. I will take 6% for the next 10 years.
    As I said before, no need to complicate things, just invest based on your age, goals, and style.
    The war started on June 13th, 10 days ago.
    SPY is up over 1%
    The iShares MSCI Israel ETF (EIS) is up 9.5%. Did anyone predict that?
  • T Rowe Price New Horizon management change
    https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/80248/000199937125007852/nhf-497_061725.htm
    497 1 nhf-497_061725.htm DEFINTIVE MATERIALS
    T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund
    Supplement to Prospectus and Summary Prospectus dated March 1, 2025
    In the Summary Prospectus and Section 1 of the Prospectus, the portfolio manager table under “Management” is supplemented as follows:
    Effective July 21, 2025, Shaun Michael Currie will join Joshua K. Spencer as the fund’s co-portfolio manager and cochair of the fund’s Investment Advisory Committee. Effective September 30, 2025, Mr. Spencer will step down from his role on the fund and, effective October 1, 2025, Mr. Currie will become the fund’s sole portfolio manager and sole chair of the fund’s Investment Advisory Committee. Mr. Currie joined T. Rowe Price in 2016.
    In Section 2 of the Prospectus, the disclosure under “Portfolio Management” is supplemented as follows:
    Effective July 21, 2025, Shaun Michael Currie will join Joshua K. Spencer as the fund’s co-portfolio manager and cochair of the fund’s Investment Advisory Committee. Effective September 30, 2025, Mr. Spencer will step down from his role on the fund and, effective October 1, 2025, Mr. Currie will become the fund’s sole portfolio manager and sole chair of the fund’s Investment Advisory Committee. Mr. Currie joined the Firm in 2016, and his investment experience dates from 2010. During the past five years, he has served as an equity research analyst and, beginning in 2023, as a portfolio manager and associate portfolio manager.
    The date of this supplement is June 17, 2025.
    F42-041 6/17/25
  • Zero coupon CDs
    I'm looking at CDs available at Schwab (login required)
    https://client.schwab.com/Areas/Trade/FixedIncomeSearch/FISearch.aspx/CDs
    I set no restrictions on the search (i.e. secondary market included), except for "best offer only" and maturities from 0 months to 30+ years. I then sorted on coupon (smallest first). There were no CDs with 0.00% coupons. The smallest coupon shown was 0.25%.
    When restricting to new issues, all of the CDs offered by Schwab are priced at 100 (par) and pay coupons a bit north of 4%. Many of the short term (12 months or less) CDs are shown by Schwab to pay their coupon "at maturity". As I explained above, you can call those zeros if you wish.
    To see the same thing at Vanguard, go to its fixed income search page (no login required) and click on the CD tab.
    https://fixed-income-trading.web.vanguard.com/
    Go to "advanced search" and for "payment frequency" select "interest at maturity". You may as well select the "new issue" checkbox as well.
    Vanguard reports 39 bank CDs that pay interest at maturity.
  • Zero coupon CDs
    If you include short term (1 year or less) zero coupon CDs, I used these when CD rates were better than T-bills (after tax).
    Assuming that you hold the CD to maturity, conceptually a zero coupon CD is no different from a CD that accrues interest but pays it all at maturity.
    For example, consider a 1 year CD with an APY of 4.0%. If you invest $1000, then at the end of the 12 months you get $1,040 including interest. The coupon (interest) frequency doesn't matter assuming you don't withdraw the interest. All that matters is that 4.0% APY. It's just as if you purchased a 1 year zero coupon CD with a face value of $1,040 at the discounted price of $1,000.
    ---
    For tax purposes, if a CD matures in 12 months or less, it does matter whether it pays interest periodically or just at maturity. You owe taxes on interest as it is paid, even if you reinvest. So it is preferable that the CD not pay accrued interest until maturity. It doesn't matter whether you call this a discounted zero coupon CD or simply a CD that pays interest at maturity.
    However, if a CD maturity is longer than a year (and it doesn't pay accrued interest more frequently than annually), then it is taxed as if it paid accrued interest yearly. Even if it doesn't pay out accrued interest until maturity.
    Short-Term: Interest earned on CDs with terms of one year or less is considered taxable income in the year that the CD interest is paid out.
    Long-Term: CDs with terms over a year are taxed as interest is earned over the CD term. Interest is considered taxable income in the year that you are legally entitled to it. For example, if you have a CD with a term of five years, you will owe tax on the interest paid in each of the years that you hold the CD before maturity.
    https://www.seattlebank.com/about/updates/updates-detail.html?cId=84542&title=understanding-tax-implications-of-certificates-of-deposit
    Zero coupon CDs, like zero coupon bonds, are taxed on their annual accrued interest (imputed interest, aka phantom income).
  • Question about the "Eligible List" for American Funds Washington Mutual
    Actually, some of the best return that we had over the years was in some American Funds international stock funds.
  • Question about the "Eligible List" for American Funds Washington Mutual
    With some 40 years of various American Funds I never really felt that anything that I saw was "imprudent" (as in shaky, thoughtless, or reckless). For sure not all that was offered turned out to be a winner for our situation at that specific point in time, but that's just part of the investment game.
  • Question about the "Eligible List" for American Funds Washington Mutual
    I've been looking through LC Bl funds that have done well over the past three years without having gorged on the Mag 7, while also having turned in good performances YTD. Ideally I'd also like them to have more than a smattering of foreign stocks (indicating more flexibility).
    If I use 20% Mag 7 as a threshold (as of a couple of weeks ago), AFIFX comes in well under the wire at 17.5%. And it typically holds over 15% foreign (per M* analysis); currently 16.5%. In contrast, AICFX misses the cut at 22.5% Mag 7 (about 30% more), and it holds just half as much in foreign stocks (8.6%).
    Oooh, that's the kind of screening I like. :)
    I also like to look at returns from 2022 and 2020.
    Are you using MFO premium to screen for the =< 20% for the Mag 7?
    BTW, my interest in the old Washington Mutual eligibility list was mostly historical curiosity. It's always interesting to look back at what people believed would be prudent.
  • Fears of a Wider Mid-East War are Growing ...
    Here's some info that I also posted over in the "OT thread"-
    This, from NPR:
    Satellites show damage to Iran's nuclear program, but experts say it's not destroyed
    U.S. officials say that strikes conducted on three key Iranian nuclear sites have devastated its nuclear program, but independent experts analyzing commercial satellite imagery say the nation's long-running nuclear enterprise is far from destroyed.
    "At the end of the day there are some really important things that haven't been hit," says Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, who tracks Iran's nuclear facilities. "If this ends here, it's a really incomplete strike."
    In particular Lewis says the strike doesn't seem to have touched Iran's stocks of highly enriched uranium: "Today, it still has that material and we still don't know where it is," he says.
    "I think you have to assume that significant amounts of this enriched uranium still exist, so this is not over by any means," agrees David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security, which has closely tracked Iran's nuclear program for years.
    The independent assessments stand in stark contrast to congratulatory statements from the Trump Administration in the wake of the strikes: "Iran's nuclear ambitions have been obliterated," Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said during a Pentagon press conference on Sunday. "The operation President Trump planned was bold and it was brilliant."
    Both Lewis and Albright say that the strikes themselves may well have been effective, although it is difficult to say for sure. Satellite imagery shows six deep holes in the ground around Fordo, and ashy debris over much of the site. Albright believes that bunker-busters were used to try and strike at the enrichment facility's ventilation system, along with the main hall where uranium-enriching centrifuges were kept.
    "I think the purpose of the attack was to take out centrifuges and infrastructure and they feel they accomplished that," Albright says.
    But as evidence that the strikes may have missed the uranium stocks, both Albright and Lewis point to commercial satellite imagery from the days before the strike. The images show trucks at two key sites — Isfahan and Fordo. The trucks appear to be sealing tunnels that serve as entrances to underground facilities used to store uranium, possibly in anticipation of an American attack.
    image
    Both experts believe Iranians could have also moved their enriched uranium out of the sites in the run-up to the U.S. strikes: "There were trucks seen in imagery apparently hauling stuff away," Albright says. "One would assume that any enriched uranium stocks were hauled away."
    The International Atomic Energy Agency had assessed that Iran has more than 400 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium 235 — enough for around ten bombs, according to independent experts. That 60% enriched uranium is carried in relatively small containers that could fit easily into cars, says Albright.
    Although Albright believes the program has been substantially set back, he thinks it could still be reconstituted. He says Iran may also have thousands of uranium-enriching centrifuges that were never installed in Natanz and Fordo. It might be possible to move the uranium to another, covert facility, where it could be enriched to the required 90% for a nuclear weapon in a relatively short period of time. Even then, Iran would have to take further steps to fashion the uranium into a weapon.
    "The program has been seriously set back, but there's a lot of odds and ends," Albright says. Ultimately he thinks the only way to truly end Iran's nuclear program is through additional nuclear inspections by international monitors and cooperation from the Iranian regime, probably though some kind of diplomatic agreement.
    Lewis agrees: "Even the most brilliant bombing campaign probably is not going to get us where we want to be," he says.
  • Question about the "Eligible List" for American Funds Washington Mutual
    I've been looking through LC Bl funds that have done well over the past three years without having gorged on the Mag 7, while also having turned in good performances YTD. Ideally I'd also like them to have more than a smattering of foreign stocks (indicating more flexibility).
    If I use 20% Mag 7 as a threshold (as of a couple of weeks ago), AFIFX comes in well under the wire at 17.5%. And it typically holds over 15% foreign (per M* analysis); currently 16.5%. In contrast, AICFX misses the cut at 22.5% Mag 7 (about 30% more), and it holds just half as much in foreign stocks (8.6%).
    Viewed up close, comparing these as two LC Bl funds, they appear substantially different. Pull back the lens and likely they will be seen to have converged over time. I agree that it does seem hard to tell the funds apart without a microscope.
    Regarding eligible lists, M* observes that a few years ago AICFX reduced its target yield, and consequently could add some more growth companies to its eligible list.
    These days, ISTM that many funds still use eligible lists, though they don't call it that. Rather, they say simply that they invest in S&P 500 stocks, or in R2K stocks, or whatever. They're just outsourcing the maintenance of their eligible lists. (Well, AF creates its funds eligible lists based on their funds' objectives, so they're more tailored.)
  • Question about the "Eligible List" for American Funds Washington Mutual

    The Legal List idea is kind of outdated now. It was replaced in most jurisdictions by the Prudent Investor Rule, especially after the Uniform Prudent Investor Act was adopted by most U.S. states starting in the 1990s. As Modern Portfolio Theory became more widely accepted, fund managers moved toward broader risk-adjusted return frameworks that include a wider variety of asset classes and sectors. Obviously, many funds still follow its the style, but most don’t really talk about it anymore in their marketing or official rules. One big exception is Washington Mutual Investors.
    as far as criteria the courts used, it was largely credit quality, dividend history, established blue chippiness, avoiding high risk (junk bonds, penny stocks), needed income focus and there were even industry and sector restrictions.

    Thank you for the detail. I now have some new search terms.
    In addition to a bazillion share classes, American Funds has a lot of strategies that seem very similar to each other.

    IMO it wasn't always this way. their size has almost created this predicament. There is very little you can do when you try and build a portfolio of a few hundred stocks and are over 100 billion in size.
    in the early 90's American Mutual was all Large Value stocks and about 15% bonds. Washington Mutual was 75/25 Large Value/Large Growth and Investment co of Am was a true Large blend. Meanwhile Growth Fund was largely a Midcap blend.
    They all still have mild differences and over long periods have slightly different outcomes but in the end its still hard to figure the difference.
    One thing I did find out was that Washington Mutual used to skip alcohol and tobacco stocks. They changed in 2022 because they didn't want to get crosswise with the anti-esg crowd.
    I'm looking for equity funds for the IRA for when I decide to get back into the market. The low r-square of 83 for AMFFX does catch my eye. The capture ratios are nothing to write home about, but it did better than a lot of funds in the 2022 interest-rate Osterizer.
    RMD's are still three years off. So I'm in no hurry.
  • Fears of a Wider Mid-East War are Growing ...
    I am taking the liberty of quoting excerpts from an excellent post by richardsok that appeared on the BIG BANG! Investors site:
    "Trump's penchant for crowing victory on TV last night was unfortunate. He preens and congratulates himself too early and too much -- a habit of his. He's attempting to show his attack was a pain-free surgical strike without consequences. In truth, the mullahs do NOT have to seek peace. They still have a hundred ways to strike back.... including terror, sleeper cells, mining Hormuz Straits, Jihad eruptions from sympathetic quarters, and small scale bio/chemical "events". The American public's patience for easy-to-start wars is notoriously brief; more so after initially promising disasters in Afganistan, Iraq, Lebanon in recent memory. By itself, air power has not had great historic success in ending wars -- merely prolonging them and making people more grimly determined.
    With our debt-growth trajectory already unsustainable, another war would be economically foolhardy for the US. There are more ways than military defeat to kill a great republic. Endless wars, crippling expense and financial collapse will do the trick too. Powell was exactly correct not to reduce interest rates the other day.
    Wars have ways of surprising us all. Three long years ago it was "Ukraine is doomed! Surrender! America's fault! Putin will unleash nukes if NATO aids Zelensky!" (The posts are still preserved here on BB, I hope.) Well, well, well. The "doomed" side is still grimly hanging on and striking back harder than ever.
    Wars end only when the LOSERS say they're over. Now we see how the mullahs respond."
  • Question about the "Eligible List" for American Funds Washington Mutual
    Maybe "widows and pensioners"?
    We had Washington Mutual and many other American Funds for many years- we largely built our present economic situation on American Funds. Worked for us.
    LOL give me a break, it's a Friday in summertime!
    I am also very heavy in AF equity funds for the long-haul and they've worked well for me, too.
  • Question about the "Eligible List" for American Funds Washington Mutual
    Maybe "widows and pensioners"?
    We had Washington Mutual and many other American Funds for many years- we largely built our present economic situation on American Funds. Worked for us.
  • Question about the "Eligible List" for American Funds Washington Mutual
    The prospectus states:
    The fund has Investment Standards originally based upon criteria established by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for determining eligibility under the Court’s Legal List procedure, which was in effect for many years. The fund has an “Eligible List” — based on the Investment Standards — of securities considered appropriate for a prudent investor seeking opportunities for income and growth of principal consistent with common stock investing.
    I am curious about the criteria used by the District Court when they were in effect. Google being what it is these days, I could spend a long time searching the internet for that answer. I am hoping someone here can please point me in the direction of more information on the topic, or otherwise provide it.
  • Fears of a Wider Mid-East War are Growing ...
    Definitely not advocating anything here but just thinking aloud...
    It seems to be coming down to the question of the underground centrifuge enrichment installation at Fordow. That might be disabled by the US with the 30,000 lb "bunker buster" bombs. Another option would be some sort of land-based assault operation by Israel.
    Iran might be severely weakened with respect to external operations right now, but isn't it likely that they would be able to make a land-based assault on Fordow so expensive in Israeli casualties as to be unacceptable?
    Unless some other state decides to ally itself militarily with Iran, isn't it just a matter of time until...
    • Israel gradually eliminates virtually all of Iran's long-range offensive capability?
    • Wouldn't that would remove major concern about Iran effectively retaliating against any state assisting Israel?
    • Wouldn't that pretty much allow the US to effectively take out Fordow without much fear of retaliation?
    I do prefer that Iran does not acquire atomic weapon capability, whatever it takes to accomplish that. Their widespread aggressive military conduct over the past twenty or so years, coupled with an inherently fanatic religious/political perspective makes their leaders unacceptably unstable and dangerous.
    I've not seen anything that suggests that the present U.S. administration was an active party or accomplice to Israel's "preemptive" attack on Iran. However I do believe that Netanyahu "played" Trump beautifully, guiding him and the U.S. to this almost inevitable very point.
    I do believe that with the possible exception of Korea, virtually every major military operation that the United States has engaged in after WW2 has been both unnecessary and morally and financially destructive to the United States. We have been financially weakened to the point where we no longer even have adequate reserve capacity to help defend Ukraine against the Russian aggression.
    The last thing that we need is another war. But Iran with atomic weapons? I don't think so.