Top 20 Mutual Fund Companies By Assets: Graphic I don't tend to post much with respect to our actual investment funds, because of the perception at MFO that American Funds is a almost a pariah because of their front loads. We may be somewhat of an exception on that, as we haven't been subject to those "A" share loads for almost forty years now.
The ER at American is among the lowest, and the management style, with no emphasis on so-called "stars", suits us just fine. As the chart shows, American is just below Vanguard with respect to ER. If your investment at American is long-term, that ongoing low ER will eventually offset the load if you do have to pay it.
We keep about half of our investments at American, about one quarter at American Century, and the other quarter mostly at Schwab, where we take positions mostly based on information gleaned here at MFO. That Schwab bunch is certainly the most interesting to deal with, if not always fun to watch.
Top 20 Mutual Fund Companies By Assets: Graphic That's a pretty cool chart! I sometimes worry because TRP (where I invest) seems to be perpetually cranking out new funds - some very similar in nature. But looking at these "balloons" I think I understand why. They're struggling to stay large (and competitive) among some real giants.
Maybe I missed something. But to state "The best firms ... are American and Dodge and Cox" strikes me as somewhat presumptuous. For sure, D&C (where I have a little) has a lot to recommend it. They have some of the lowest ERs among the active managers. They're a privately held held firm. And have a great long-term record.
The one thing I'd caution against is that
tit-for-tat I think you'll find their equity and balanced funds are a bit more volatile than those of many peers. Don't know if this is (1) just part of their investment culture or (2) whether perhaps the mamouth size of their funds necessitates they stay pretty much fully invested in larger cap stocks and assume a longer-term time horizon. Probably both.
@bee - If you missed it, there's some discussion of DODGX in
@Ted's: "M*: 10 Funds That Beat the Market Over 15
Years" thread.
Regards
Would it be too much to ask...Requesting Mutual Fund Provide Dividend Alert Hi Bee, I thought Yahoo has a separate link that plots the "D" you mentioned. At least several years back they did. You may also want to try Google Finance.
Finally, I think M* alert subscriptions will alert you when distributions are made (not sure if they alert you BEFORE they are made). May not be what you want, but it's something.
Finally, not sure exactly as to what you are trying to find/analyse, but Yahoo also has dividend adjusted NAV numbers (again, at least they used to).
M*: 10 Funds That Beat the Market Over 15 Years @VF:
DODGX - Value of $100 on January 1, 2008December 31, 2008 -
$56.69 (loss of 43.31%)
December 31, 2009 -
$74.41 (gain of 31.27%)
December 31, 2010 -
$84.44 (gain of 13.48%)
December 31, 2011 -
$81.00 (loss of 4.08%)
December 31, 2012 -
$98.83 (gain of 22.01%)
December 31, 2013 - $138.34 (gain of 40.55%)
You'd
still be slightly behind 5
years after investing the initial amount. This assumes no custodial fees were paid from your invested amount over those
years. Had you paid such fees out of invested money, you'd be further behind. Waiting one additional year would have paid-off. The fund jumped 40.55% in 2013.
Top 20 Mutual Fund Companies By Assets: Graphic I have been invested for some years in DODIX. Recently I bought shares in DODLX. So far, so good.
M*: 10 Funds That Beat the Market Over 15 Years
M*: 10 Funds That Beat the Market Over 15 Years Lewis- With respect to your observations, that's pretty much why we've stayed with American Funds (for a major part of our fund exposure) for the best part of forty years now. Their funds are managed by committee, which tends to have an averaging effect, and allows for introduction of new viewpoints as the world churns. Usually no significant outperformance, but the slow and steady turtle works well too. (We haven't paid loads for "A" shares for almost 40 years.)
What If John Bogle Is Right About 4% Stock Returns?
M*: 10 Funds That Beat the Market Over 15 Years The only question that matters is will they beat the market over the next 15? How do you answer that? You have to ask are the conditions the same or at least similar to the ones that allowed the funds to beat the market the first time? Some of those condition questions can be answered and some can't. For instance, is the manager the same and is that manager as able bodied as he/she once was or has time dulled their edge somehow? Does the fund still invest in the same kinds of stocks as it once did or has asset boat caused style drift? Was it a certain style or strategy that was once in favor when this manager outperformed that is out of favor now and may never be in favor again? Was the outperformance just due to a few years of strong performance or to a consistent edge because if it was just a handful of banner years, that ourperformance may not come again? Is there a suitable succession plan in place for when this manager retires?
Those are the sorts of questions one must ask before choosing such a fund instead of an index fund.
M*: 10 Funds That Beat the Market Over 15 Years Is there a way to find out when M* made these funds "medalists"? I thought in their fund table they would have said how long the funds have been medalists.
Asking because I can look at the top funds for last 15 years year after year, make them ANALists, and then say I won!
Also, who will remember to wait 15 more years to see how these funds fared? No one. Unless of course they fare well, in which case M* surely will. But, wait. In another 15 years there would be more medalists. Nice gig, eh?
