Eating their own cooking I think Ed's argument might reflect his work with folks whose annual compensation runs into the tens of millions. For most of us, a $20,000,000 payday is hypothetical; for some in the upper tier of the investment industry, that amount can be quickly followed by a list of names.
The SEC's (antiquated) insider investment ranges top out at $100,000 for directors (some of whom "earn" $300,000+ for their part-time job) and $1,000,000 for managers (some of whom earn, through salary, bonuses, and equity stakes in their firms, tens of millions). With a million dollar investment in their fund, an exceptional year might add $100,000 to their net wealth - i.e., the market plus 1000 bps - or might detract a similar amount.
And really, how consequential do you suppose that is? And really, how do you suppose the star manager's time gets allocated between the $100 million of personal money in his private partnerships, venture capital investments and his derivatives account versus the $1 million in his mutual fund?
So the policy with many small equity firms is, you need to have 100% of your equity investments in your employers products. Alternately, some require 100% of investable liquid wealth. Some require all employees, including clerical, to invest and then offer bonuses on the form of fund shares. I've spoken with a lot of managers over the years and I've yet to hear of a stupid policy; that is, Seafarer does not require their employees to invest exclusively in emerging markets which would be disastrous both for the employee and for the adviser, who'd find it impossible to attract talent.
msf is certainly right about the symbolic importance of such policies. It's sometimes referred to as "the Caesar's wife" problem: it's not enough that you be blameless, you must be known to be blameless. Many of the advisers (i.e., the presidents of firms) I've spoken with are spectacularly dense on all symbolic matters, they persist with the "our job is to invest and let the results speak for themselves." (Fools. There are 8000+ options, each chirping out "look at me," and they think investors will automatically here the $100 million fund's voice clear and sweet about the tumult.)
Had I mentioned that I just spent the better part of an hour at the gym lifting heavy pieces of metal? Hmmm ... perhaps I need a longer cool-down period.
David
Putting Faith In Investing: Amana Mutual Funds The U.S., unlike the rest of the developed world, has almost no options for faithful Muslim investors. I think I've found three active fund family (Amana, Arabesque, Azzard) but no ETFs or index funds. iShares MSCI World Islamic ETF (ISWD) and iShares MSCI USA Islamic ETF (ISUS) are available to folks in the EU, but not here so far as I can tell. Javelin Dow Jones Islamic Market International Index Fund (JVS) reportedly launched in the US about nine years ago, but I can't even find record of it as the SEC.
Something like 3-4 million Americans are Muslim and many are likely MINO (Muslim in Name Only, rather like the lapsed Lutherans and casual Catholics around me), so it might be too much of a niche market (and too hard to cultivate) to attract many issuers.
David
Is the time right for this stopped-watch fun, HSGFX In answer to your original question about HSGFX you could have tripled your money over the last 10 years with an investment instead in PRPFX assuming you have the mindset of forever pending gloom & doom. I would/could never take a meaningful position in either of these funds to make it worth my time but I see that folks do.
Vanguard Convertible Securities Fund to liquidate Convertibles are a unique class, and with the portfolio manager leaving, it makes sense to liquidate if Vanguard had their confidence mainly with the manager that retired. I hold FISCX, a convertible fund,now closed, it was available at Fidelity as a no load ntf fund when I bought it. It actually made money in 2018, and was attracting more money than usual and I suspect it closed to stop the flows coming in. Seems convertibles can be a wild ride at times, but I have been in and out of convertibles periodicaaly over the last 20 years, this one seems to be managed nicely.
Is the time right for this stopped-watch fun, HSGFX Yes he did lose in 2008. Without looking it up I kind of remember he lost 6%'ish when the market was down 30'something %. But now you can forever say Hussman in 2018 made 13% when the overall market lost money :)
Hey, I've been a big critic of this guy for years and I don't think by any means this fund is a good long term holding. Just giving credit where credit is due.
Suggestions on international funds or ETFs Foreign stock funds have been dead money in my portfolio for many years. My funds all have relatively good long-term returns compared to comparable funds, but foreign stocks in general have sucked for the past decade or longer. That said, I recently rebalanced my portfolio, adding to my foreign funds under the premise that sooner or later they will outperform US stocks.
My funds (in various IRA and 401k) accounts include ARTKX, MAPIX, SFGIX, PSILX and a total international index fund. However, it’s hard for me to recommend any of them because the returns have all been so terrible in recent years.
Is the time right for this stopped-watch fun, HSGFX Even a stopped watch is correct twice in 24 hours. Hussman (HSGFX) after 9 years of missing the bull market completely is finally right. I never thought I'd find myself complementing this fund, but it goes to show every manager has his day in the sun. Hussman's fund was up +13.1% over the last 3 months of the year!
Anyone think it could be a short term buy to get through a bear market, possibly a recession? Crazy thought?
It's Time for a Change A couple interesting excerpts I took away from the article (some may not like the 1st one, but I totally agree with Madell even if it hurts short-term:
Should The Fed Have Raised Rates?
It would have been a bad precedent to halt restoring normalcy just to sooth stock market investors. Likewise, the Fed wouldn't want to give the appearance of being pressured by the President. Given that the Fed is supposed to be a totally independent body, recent Presidents have rarely publically tried to influence it, and so the Chairperson said, totally properly, they would not be influenced by "politics."
Bull or Bear? What to Do as We Enter 2019?
I personally am not selling any stocks, having done so already for the last several years. I believe in the adage - sell stocks when prices are high, and by the same token, buy when prices are low. While prices are lower than they have been for a while, they are not low enough for me to be tempted to buy.
The Breakfast Briefing: Stocks Open 2019 With A Tumble Over Weak Chinese Data
It's Time for a Change http://funds-newsletter.com/jan19-newsletter/jan19.htmBy Tom Madell
Down through almost 20
years, my Newsletter has tried to be about just one main thing: helping readers pick the best mutual funds, and more recently, ETFs. I have tried to avoid detailed discussion of economics, and have usually been leery of making market predictions. But all efforts to steer investors toward what I concluded were likely the best investments and fund categories to select for the next several
years were, in reality, implicit predictions.
Suggestions on international funds or ETFs I recently sold off several funds, including Harbor International, that I had held for a number of years. I'm looking to identify a couple of new funds to provide diversified international exposure. I've done a fair amount of research on FMI International and that is likely to be one of the funds I choose. I'd value recommendations from folks on the board on other international funds or ETFs that I should consider. Thanks and happy New Year!
