Just wondering. ... Is this a clone of their existing one (PRHYX) which has been closed for several years?

Thank you @bee. I will definitely check out visualize.
Of course, having no negative rolling 3 year returns is a far more stringent test than requiring to be whole again in 3 years.

Thanks @Bee. I don't readily see how to make the moving 3 and 5 years bar charts you made, but I will play with this site a little.

If I can't be whole again in 3 years, then I don't want to invest there.

@VintageFreak,
Historically none of your funds have ever experienced a negative 3 year rolling average.
GLRBX has data back to 1996:

OAKBX data goes back to 1998:

ICMBX has to shortest history going back to 2008:

A fund like VWINX has maintained stellar 3 yr rolling average results for over 30 years. I'll let the managers of this balance fund decide the blend of equities and bonds (percentages & types).

I was just trying to get an idea based on my time horizon. I do own some balanced funds (ICMBX, OAKBX, GLRBX) today but not adding to them, fearing the worst. Purchased some alternative funds instead like MASNX and WMCNX.
By making up scenario I described I was trying to figure when I can expect to be whole again. If I can't be whole again in 3 years, then I don't want to invest there. I'm contemplating just raising cash instead of adding to plain jane balanced funds.

@bee, so are we not supposed to underweight bonds now? i'm forever bond challenged. Is it possible to project with some level of certainty if interest rates went to 2% and then stayed around 2% for another 2 years, how will intermediate bonds perform?

@STB65, trying to predict entry and exit points had been the bane of my investing technique over the years. But the light bulb turned on and I believe I've learned my lesson.
I've borrowed the @Old_Skeet philosophy of having an investment range of 40-60% equity investment at all times (though not the folder idea or numerous funds). Selection of funds doesn't need to be perfect nor the # of funds IMO. Knowing that squelches my urge to buy the hot fund or sector that you will often see talked about here at MFO. I don't need a toe hold in this manager's new fund or that manager's new idea (or sales pitch) for alternative investing. I think @Junkster coined the phrase "group think funds" for that theme. Portfolio and fund consistency and staying invested long term in my view is much more important.
John's DCA suggestion is never a bad idea. Good luck in your decisions.

@Maurice,

I can tell you that I've held cash longer than I ever have, and it has been my biggest mistake of all the years that I've been investing.

Putting cash back to work is challenging.
One way would be to "dip your toe" into conservative allocation funds. Funds like HBLIX, CBUZX, DIFIX, VWINX might fit this category. Try to own funds that you're comfortable holding through thick and thin (7- 10 years). To deal with the "thin", calculate (best estimate) what your (1-3 year) distribution needs will be. Keep this part of your portfolio in "near cash" or "cash" investments.
This thread is full of choices and it takes some time to digest. Do some research, select your options, and segregate this (1-3 year) amount from the rest of your portfolio. Once you can fill your 1-3 year needs move further out on the risk/reward/time line.
Time often a forgotten investment consideration. Time helps build positions (by DCA), time helps to smooth out market volatility, time provides undervalued assets to be recognized and revalued. Time also provides a framework for investors to reallocate their portfolio.
Consider these time frames for your portfolio: 1-3 years, 3-7 years, and 7-10 years. Three "time categories" that each of your investments should fit in. The percentage that is dedicated to the three categories is based on age, need, resources, goals, and any other tangible reasons to put "saved money" in that category.
Approach your "saved money" from the standpoint of goals (what did you save it for in the first place). For me, this approach is goals based, time based, and creates a set rules I can follow (a plan). It's success is not guaranteed, but it helps me stay the course.

@STB65,
Have you considered dollar cost averaging that money in over 1-2 years? Then if we do get that decline you can take advantage of it.

While it's difficult to do so at my age, I'm watching Eric Cinnamond and reading his Absolute Value blog. So I'm taking profits and trying to make myself sell my losers (much more difficult). New money from my 403b sits there glaring at my failure to ride the bubble, and I worry about my "not so old" money, which is generally positive, although some of it took overlong to become so (but my idea of "new" is within the last 5 years). I did buy some XAR, due to some suggestions here.
This is an artificial market, driven by QE, and rates have to rise sometime. Yellen will be replaced by a compliant individual, but there is an increase or two in interest rates in the meantime.
If anyone knows when to step out of this market, they're much smarter than I. One also has to be able to predict crowd behavior, to get to the exits before they do; and some members of this crowd use megadata and computer arrays far beyond my ability, time or resources.
I haven't put my grandchildren's money in since I have to believe there's at least a 10% decline to come, but 20% seems possible.
As others have commented, one needs to buy when there is blood in the gutters (but, frankly, I doubt the Rothchilds were ever fully invested).
Must admit that I'm a long way from dog food for lunch (and, hey, the French eat horsemeat, so I hear), but I bet some of that Fancy Feast with a bit of onion and hot sauce would be mighty tasty. Unfortunately, it's not actually that cheap.

There is likely more to gain in coming years. Just don't see protectionism would derail the world's economy.

Would you recommend raising cash now in anticipation of picking up some bargains in the future? I think the period around the State of the Union will be a telling time. I also think that Trump's State of the Union speech will be one of the most watched in a long time ... no one can guess what he will say.

@MaryKay,
- First, stick to your long term plan whatever it is. Market timing is very tough to pull off.
- Second, if your plan allows for overweighting or underweighting equities, than I believe this is an appropriate time to be underweight (meaning a higher than usual cash level).
- I'd never try to base an investment decision on an anticipated speech, Federal Reserve meeting, Act of Congress, Supreme Court ruling or the like. Whenever I've anticipated one such outcome from such - the opposite usually occurred.
- Yes - I watch the political scene unfold with alarm. But this is not a political forum and there's little I can do to change the course of history anyway.
Like you, I suppose, I read a lot of financial press, consume David's monthly commentaries and listen to/watch a lot of Bloomberg. The warnings about valuations have been there for several years. But for every one like me, there's at least one other who will will tell you not to worry. That in the long run markets always go up. And the less attention you pay to the financial media the better off you are.(

Ignorance is bliss.) Then there are a "select" few who acknowledge that markets can fall precipitously - but who will claim they always know exactly when to bail (at the top of course).
So - Pick your poison. :)

Thank you for your reply. This bull market is getting to be an old one. I only raised the State of the union address because it might be the 'buy the rumor; sell the event' type of occurrence.

FYI: (Click On Article Title At Top Of Google Search)
Lisa A. Welch, the lead manager of the John Hancock Regional Bank fund, says that she received a fine education as an undergraduate and graduate student. But no textbook can prepare you for understanding the nitty-gritty of how banks really work as well as spending a dozen years at the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston and New York.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/#q=A+Regional+Bank+Fund+Favors+Small+Banks+barron's
M* Snapshot FRBAX:
http://www.morningstar.com/funds/XNAS/FRBAX/quote.html
Lipper Snapshot FRBAX:
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/Fund/FRBAX
FRBAX Ranks #2 In The (F) Fund Category By U.S. & World Report:
http://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/financial/jhancock-regional-bank-fund/frbax

Would you recommend raising cash now in anticipation of picking up some bargains in the future? I think the period around the State of the Union will be a telling time. I also think that Trump's State of the Union speech will be one of the most watched in a long time ... no one can guess what he will say.

@MaryKay,
- First, stick to your long term plan whatever it is. Market timing is very tough to pull off.
- Second, if your plan allows for overweighting or underweighting equities, than I believe this is an appropriate time to be underweight (meaning a higher than usual cash level).
- I'd never try to base an investment decision on an anticipated speech, Federal Reserve meeting, Act of Congress, Supreme Court ruling or the like. Whenever I've anticipated one such outcome from such - the opposite usually occurred.
- Yes - I watch the political scene unfold with alarm. But this is not a political forum and there's little I can do to change the course of history anyway.
Like you, I suppose, I read a lot of financial press, consume David's monthly commentaries and listen to/watch a lot of Bloomberg. The warnings about valuations have been there for several years. But for every one like me, there's at least one other who will will tell you not to worry. That in the long run markets always go up. And the less attention you pay to the financial media the better off you are.(Ignorance is bliss.) Then there are a "select" few who acknowledge that markets can fall precipitously - but who will claim they always know exactly when to bail (at the top of course).
So - Pick your poison. :)

@bee, you know hindsight is always 20-20. Who knows? After a fund does badly, then someone buys it and looks at it after 10 years, it might have outperformed all others of its ilk.
Some people just get lucky. Others don't even know what they are investing and don't care. And then there are some people who KNOW something most don't and only then invest in a fund that's done badly. We all like to think we are smart and belong to the last category.
So tell me now, who has had the cajones to invest in SEQUX? Wonder how many at M* own it. GOODX is another example. Some who might have bought at the lows might be feeling good about themselves.
So we went off topic a little bit. Coming back to point, some fund companies do persist with low asset funds. INTLX is another example at 5.2MM and I've own it for years.

As folks were debating the options for "cash alternative" funds, I thought I'd poke through the MFO Premium data to see what I could find. I wanted to see if there were funds with meaningful annual returns, at least by the standards of the "cash-like" part of a portion, that also had reassuringly limited downside.
I operationalized that desire at "annual returns over 2%" (because, really, 0.6% is close enough to zero that I'd rather put money in an insured savings account and not worry about it) and "a maximum drawdown of less than 2%" (which implies a worst-case recovery period of less than one year). I screened for the last five years worth of data, since many of the cash-alternative funds are relatively young.
I ended up with ten two-and-two funds. In each case I'll report the five-year returns and maximum drawdown over that period, then the actual time it took to recover from the max DD then, finally, the Sharpe ratio. Remember that the Sharpe isn't keyed to max DD or recovery, so those figure imperfectly reflect the Sharpe ratio.
RiverPark Short-Term High Yield (RPHIX): 3.1% annually, max DD of 0.5%, seven-month recovery, Sharpe 4.62. The fund is closed and has the highest Sharpe ratio of any fund in existence. Also one star from Morningstar.
SEI Opportunistic Income Fund (ENIAX, a great computer): 3.2% APR, max DD of 0.9%, nine-month recovery, Sharpe 2.65
Zeo Strategic Income (ZEOIX): 3.4% APR, max DD of 1.5%, five-month recovery, Sharpe 2.57
JPMorgan Limited Duration Bond (HLGFX): 2.3% APR, max DD of 0.6%, six-month recovery, Sharpe 2.42.
BlackRock Allocation Target Shares (BRASX): 2.5% APR, max DD of 1.4%, six-month recovery, Sharpe 2.20
Metropolitan West Strategic Income (MWSTX): 4.2% APR, max DD of 1.4%, six-month recovery, Sharpe 2.10
Transamerica Short-Term Bond (ITAAX): 2.5% APR, max DD of 1.0%, five-month recovery, Sharpe 2.10
SEI Enhanced Income Fund (SEEAX): 2.3% APR, max DD of 1.8%, 13-month recovery, Sharpe 1.90
Wells Fargo Short-Term High Yield Bond (SSTHX): 3.2% APR, 1.6% max DD, five-month recovery, Sharpe 1.75
Gabelli ABC (GABCX): 3.1% APR, 1.9% max DD, five-month recovery, Sharpe 1.52
For what interest that holds,
David

I agree, by the way. Getting active share data has been a damned iffy proposition; the only people willing to share the data are high AS managers and most of the academic stuff has been out-of-date by three years or more.

While VUBFX and VUSFX (Vanguard's version of Ultra Short bonds) are only two years old, they have been a little less volitial than TRBUX. yield is about the same but expenses a bit lower..Pretty close to cash for safety

My TIPs fund is not doing very well. What do recent performance look like (1-3 years
Performance for TIP is similarly nothing much (+2% fora year -2% for 6 months

My TIPs fund is not doing very well. What to recent performance look like (1-3 years