Hello
Joined fundalarm after finding website information on Kiplinger's when started investing in 2007. Met many old friends here [too many to name here]. I did learnt great amount of information. I appreciate many great investors/masters/gurus here whom taught me great amount of investing wealth and kearnt many important lessons regarding investments. My old tsp portfoliowas once all in G fund/now it is completelydifference and well diversed.
Sad things are many folks also has left (either retired and no longer desire to contribute or have gone to heaven -we do pray for them). We did loose many but slso gained many new friends
Imho it is a great site to discuss new investments ideas [mf stocks etf cef commodity products etc]
Many willing to give advice if you give respect/ civilized and ideas posting neutral thoughtful questions about investments. .without hitting each other with biases and political issues. I learnt over the years that the more you read the less you know compared to masters of investors here.
Thank you all for keeping MFO one of best sites we keep coming back too [especially if we have massive downturns recession heavy bear markets when you will see many new posts/what to do/heavy fleeing ideas blood baths/and comforting MFO members]
Please do consider continue contributing to Mr Snowball to keep site running [he will surely appreciate quarterly checks]
The monthly MF reads are exceptional/excellence readings...
I am sorry if I did hit any nerve[s] previously. Will be very Mindful careful postings moving forward
Thank Mr Snowball/Moderator to keep site running...we appreciate all you do and limitless energy/being fair neutral minded/heavy work and dedication toward MFO.
Kind regards
johnN
We did held JAOSX early 2007 but sold that lemon later after taking heavy loss...lesson learnt

Here's a taste dating back to 2001:
web.archive.org/web/20011205080443/http://64.45.57.12/wwwboard/wwwboard.html

Thanks @bee. I would never in a million years remembered till I saw it in your link. Back in those days I was Dateliner. Those were the days and datelining was the closest thing ever to a free lunch on Wall Street.

Checked out his funds. Stoopid share classes. Eeny, meeny, miney, moe. Seems he's lost his mojo from earlier years. I've only looked at Morningstar, but the ratings are not just mediocre, but actually bad.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/investors-face-a-scary-out-of-whack-scenario-just-look-at-this-chart-2020-07-12
Investors face ‘a scary, out-of-whack’ scenario — just look at this chart
‘Just as these stocks pulled up the entire market, they can pull down the entire market by their sheer weight’
Where we're headed, nobody knows.
AAPL
+0.24%
MSFT
-0.30%
AMZN
+0.54%
GOOG
+2.03%
FB
+0.23%
DJIA
+1.43%
If it weren’t for the “Giant 5,” your money would have been better off sitting in cash than the stock market over the past few years, according to Wolf Richter of the Wolf Street blog.
The Giant with moderate gains recently,
Interesting chart
Wondering if tech downfalls soon follow

Anyone else pondering this risk?

Yes. I’ve pondered it since roughly November 9, 2016. But I ponder a whole lot of things. Folks ponder all sorts of solutions to vexing issues. So the options Larry tossed out are no doubt being considered by some. He left out shifting to foreign equities / currencies which some (self included) have also pursued.
Gold often reacts to fear, Some of the run-up in price from around $1500 to today’s $1800 over the past 2 years has likely been influenced by the fear Larry voiced. But gold is an extremely thin market. Easy for the big players to manipulate. And it can turn on a dime. Just when you think you understand why it’s behaving the way it is, it will turn on you and make you an idiot. I think it will continue moving higher the next several months or longer and draw in a lot of new (unsuspecting) money. But as demonstrated back in March, it’s fully capable of falling 15-20% in a matter of days and taking down the miners along with it. And in a real bear market, it can be a “white knuckle” ride you won’t soon forget.
Here’s a vexing dilemma. Say you buy those hedges which are rising (and have been for some time) out of political anxiety. Then, surprisingly, the perceived “problem“ fails to materialize (crisis averted). What do you think is going to happen to the value of those hedges? While theoretically cash can’t fall in (nominal) value, should other alternatives (like equities) surge ahead while you’re sitting in cash you have, effectively, held a losing position. All motion is relative. :)

I found it years ago via a M* forum mention or ten. I became a regular poster here 2 years ago when M* forums went to hell with the software update and (at the time, what seemed to be) heavy-handed moderation. I'd *heard* about it for years but wasn't a big MF investor so I never joined up, or I'd have been here in the mid-00s or earlier.
I am VERY VERY impressed and appreciative of David's monthly commentaries and the (mostly) quality discussion that takes place in the forums.

@Old_Skeet: SHE was just repeating long discredited anti-Democratic blather. Forbes, that well-known anti-capitalist organ of the Democratic Party, has a different take. Some excerpts from a Forbes article on the subject:

Looking at ... total returns for the S&P 500 during presidencies since 1929, it is clear that U.S. stock returns have been much better when a Democrat was the president; however, it would be a mistake to conclude that stock returns were higher because a Democrat held the presidency.
There is no conclusive evidence suggesting the president’s party has any statistically significant impact on U.S. equity market returns. Intuitively this makes sense, because stock returns are influenced by a myriad of factors such as valuations, corporate profits, business cycles, monetary policy, etc. In addition, the increasingly global economy (the S&P 500 generates more than 50% of revenues outside the U.S.) makes the actions of a single government less important.
The stock market is a complex adaptive system in which cause and effect are not easy to link. Market movements, particularly over short periods such as a presidential term (yes, four years is a short-term investment period), are random.

But a word from the White House: This is just more PHONY FAKE NEWS from Forbe's with their long history of promoting left-wing hate-America HOAXES. They should go back wherever they came from since they obviously don't like it here.
@Old_Skeet- I was afraid that you might be uncomfortable with the actual facts as mentioned by Forbes, so I included a softened-down Trumpian rant to make you feel a little more at home.

@johnN: Having spent my last twenty years of employment as a radio tech for San Francisco's 911 I'd really like to hear the details of 911 "not showing up", John. Or is this just more of your usual line of BS?

Hi Dennis- I first heard of Fund Alarm from a complimentary article in the WSJ many years ago. @Mark tried to blackball me but I got in anyway. :)
Add- Our Dean of Discipline, @David_Snowball, assures me that at the rate my behavior is improving I may get off probation in three or four years. Hope springs eternal!

I shouldn’t respond — I think it could be messy with both parties suing different states for irregularities but things will be resolved before Jan 20, 2021. If by chance that is not the case the 20th amendment offers some clues.
Section 1
The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.
Section 3
If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/business/stocks-after-coronavirus-investors.html?auth=login-google
Stocks That Could Thrive in a Post-Pandemic World
Life will return to ‘normal,’ but not entirely. Here are some suggestions for investing in a changed world.
/When facing a crisis as dire as the coronavirus pandemic, it’s natural to think that everything will change utterly and forever by the time it’s over. But people are resilient creatures of habit, so many aspects of life will return to what used to pass for “normal.”
But not all of them. Some are bound to be lastingly altered, and the changes may not be the ones that have been bet on, like less air travel and more spending in search of wonder drugs.
Many trends that were already in place, the virus has pulled forward by five years,” he said, including a shift in shopping and entertainment to the home from outside, and a greater appreciation for remote familial and professional interactions. Although the investment opportunities in these areas have been well flagged, he said, they may have more room to run./

I own a small cap (BOSOX) and a mid cap (WAMFX) from Boston/Walden. I didn't have to spend 100K to get in through my Vanguard IRA. The fees are reasonable. And the yearly turnover is less than 25%.
I also own PARMX, the Parnassus mid cap.
I have looked at large caps. But I don't want one that invests in Amazon. I'm a sucker for value investing. So maybe Parnassus Endevor (PARWX) -- though I don't care for the high turnover.
I'll see where they're at in a couple of years.

I've owned Parnassus Core Equity Institutional (PRILX) in my HSA for several years. The fund's performance (especially during downturns), low costs (for an active fund), and experienced long-term management team influenced my investment decision. ESG characteristics were not my primary focus although I certainly appreciate companies that behave responsibly in the environmental and social realms.

Equity performance has shifted in last several years as growth out-perform value style. This year the difference is even bigger.
YTD: Vanguard Growth index, 17.2% versus Vanguard Value index, -15.0%.
Prior to the pandemic, FANNG stocks heavily dominate the indices. Even though US is not yet official in recession, few stocks are showing decent earning and many retract their earning forecast. Time like this is similar to the time period prior to the 2000 dot-com bubble. Growth stocks way out-perform value stocks for several years, then came the crash. Value stocks held up better from 2000-2002 until market recovered. Can this repeat again?
FMIJX held high quality stocks but I believe it is slowing environment that steered away from these stocks. Still believe FMI stock picking skills but perhaps bad timing. For now the change to VWILX has been good sofar.

A previous thread got me thinking, anyone investing in ESG funds, ETFs, or in stocks (based primarily on ESG criteria)?
New Labor Department Guidance Takes Aim at ESG Investing
Back in the early 90s, the funds, I was aware of, were Pax World (which I invested in), Calvert Socially Conscious (?), & Parnassus fund. There might have been others, but I forget. Performance over several years in Pax World was so-so and I decided I would invest for return & donate to causes that I felt would make an impact instead.
In 2018, I revisited the socially conscious investing arena & found it had actually morphed into ESG funds.
As noted in a Rekenthaler column link (provided by @msf in the previous link):
The Department of Labor Attempts to Throttle ESG Investing

As I wrote last month, a key difference between ESG and its predecessor, "socially conscious investing," is that socially conscious managers implicitly admitted that their strategies might reduce their returns, while ESG investors do not. Socially conscious investors used negative screens to eliminate stocks that violated their beliefs. In contrast, ESG investors seek positive attributes, which they claim will make their companies better investments.

Though to be honest, I don't recall seeing that in the Pax World literature!
I found the Brown Advisory website to have thoughtful insights & information available & decided to invest in BIAWX at the time.
This is their 2019 Impact Report
Today BIAWX is my largest equity holding.
I would consider Parnassus funds as well. They've been consistent, around a long time, & their website also provides a ton of information in this area.
Parnassus
BIAWX & PRILX have both been competitive:
Portfolio Visualizer
I would have thought that there might be a lot of overlap in their holdings but there wasn't. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Danaher, & Verisk Analytics make up about 20% for each but are otherwise not.
As the ESG arena flourishes, I am also skeptical in the metrics used to quantify companies & funds.
Take Tesla (TSLA), electric cars, renewable energy, & Elon Musk.
Without evidence, Musk blames ‘false positives’ for surge in coronavirus cases
Any thoughts?

Interesting tread here for sure. I left FMI funds several years ago to other options perhaps better suit my purpose. FMIJX holds high quality stocks but the growth oriented stocks seem to do better in today environment as value stocks have lagged badly. Swapped FMIJX for Vanguard International Growth, VHIGX several years ago - much better.

I also swapped FMIJX for VG International Growth (VWILX) a little over a year ago. The poor FMIJX performance this year really surprised me. FMI funds usually perform well during downturns.

Interesting tread here for sure. I left FMI funds several years ago to other options perhaps better suit my purpose. FMIJX holds high quality stocks but the growth oriented stocks seem to do better in today environment as value stocks have lagged badly. Swapped FMIJX for Vanguard International Growth, VHIGX several years ago - much better. Also move part of SFGIX to Matthews Asia Asia Innovation, MATFX - so far so good. Will check out TMSRX - available as Transaction fee fund at Fidelity.
@MikeW, Interesting that ARTYX has 20% exposure to US - high growth stocks.

Thanks FD and Bee. For me its VWALX, have had it for years and no complaints. It seems all of our funds are relatively the same on performance and risk, give or take. Performance Trust muni has been on a role this year (PTIAX not to bad either) but longer term its in line with the others. NHMAX (which I also hold) has been good long term but having an off year (it happens).

Thanks @rsorden and @msf for the information. I could be wrong but I'm not sure risk versus reward is good for munis going forward for the reasons you guys mention.
In my opinion, Municipals, both local and state, will feel the ramifications of this recession for years to come. But the title of this post pretty much says it all. Good for a trader I guess but I've never been too good at that. I see myself more as an investor.

I'm always concerned but when I see an uptrend I invest until it's gone. Over the years I have learned that the "experts" can't predict the future and definitely not the coming weeks-months. After a big dive, bonds just like stocks usually come back. The Fed is also supporting several bond categories, including Munis.
How many times I have heard the experts are concerned about stocks and especially the top tech companies in the last 3 months? hundred times and QQQ keeps going up like crazy.