I'd rather have GLRBX, EXDAX or BERIX (taking the negative years as they come).

RE: "The U.S. dollar is soaring and deflation fears are mounting. Stock benchmarks are swinging wildly as global growth fears rise." ... Charles Dickens might love this. "Swinging wildly" has a nice ring. But, is this kind of hype typical of Fidelity's communications with their investors? I hope not. (Perhaps that's the reason I don't own any of their funds.)
Yes - there's some underlying truth to each point. The dollar has been very strong (sometimes seen as a positive) due to the improving condition of the U.S. economy relative to much of the world and expectations interest rates will be rising here. However, the recent 9% retrenchment in the S&P doesn't even qualify as a normal "correction" under the generally accepted definition of 10% or more. Repeat: Not even a "correction" by standard definition. ... So, another 9% off relatively soon wouldn't surprise me. Nor is it in itself cause for alarm. That's what stock markets do - and have historically done. They rise and fall.
As guardians of their investors' money, Fidelity owes it to them to shoot straight. Skip the hyperbole. Tell them that valuations are stretched in many markets and they shouldn't expect the kind of stock market gains going forward they've seen over the past 5 years. Caution them about the significant dangers bonds face should rates rise. Point out market sectors where valuations look most attractive. Talk about the virtues of rebalancing periodically for most investors. Above all else, remind them that equity investing is for the long term as measured in years - not day to day or weekly.

Hi, Rono, I too have my rollover IRA at TRP. PRWCX is my core holding, but it closed to new investors at the end of June. I believe TRP may make an exception for IRA rollovers. Doesn't hurt to ask if you like the fund. I have done well by it. PRWCX was also the core holding in my TRP 401k for the past few years. I'm 61 now and retired last year. Happy investing!

@Vert.
It's because of the way they handled ICMYX.
They merged it into ICMUX this past January and touted the reduction in fee.
ICMUX, which only dates back about 4 years, is a Great Owl Fund.
Top quintile performer. Max drawdown only -1.4% (September 2011).
Folks on the board have compared it to David Sherman's conservative funds (RPHYX and RSIVX).
All good right?
Except ICMYX was actually the oldest share class with about 7 years performance.
And, it contained performance for a steady-eddy income fund that would be disconcerting for very conservative investors.
It drew down -14.6% in November 2008.
Here's current performance snap shot from their website:

Note the inception date of Intrepid Income. Performance before August 2010 does not appear, since it was in the different share class.
To their credit, they do show the earlier quarterly performance in the fund's summary prospectus.
But most fund screening tools and performance plotters (eg. M*) will just not pick this up.
As if the poor performance never happened.
I think it's borderline non-disclosure, calling into question the firm's integrity. So, hard for me to recommend.
Maybe this stuff is common practice and I'm being too critical.
Just does not seem right.

FYI: The past 10 years of market history has been interesting, to put it mildly.
Regards,
Ted
http://investorplace.com/2014/10/mutual-funds-10-years-positive-returns/print

Good to hear from ya @rono.
Having the account in the brokerage was a great move. I don't know much about TRP except that they are a good company to deal with. Your asset allocation figures are a good starting point and I'm sure you will adjust as time and circumstance permit. As for international equities, I personally like 30-40% of the equity portion in international. That would include emerging markets albeit at a small portion of that. You mentioned Matthews Asia. MPACX would be a good general pick. Their Pacific Tiger fund could fit within the EM portion. I really like MAINX for a small part of your fixed income portion.
I was in a similar position several years ago. I ended up picking an asset allocation fund of funds as my core holding and then branching off of that. In our older years simplicity can be a great thing.
Think about having ten percent of your portfolio as play or speculative. You could invest in some individual stocks or ETFs that you feel might go up.
I'm sure you will get plenty of advice here.
All the best, John.

Hi folks,
Just looking for your goodly wisdom. I'm retired and have a middle six figure 457 account (state gov't) that I just rolled into an IRA at Price (brokerage account). Took care of it online and over the phone in about an hour. Check's in the mail to me to forward. And yes, it's made out to them in my name.
I wee bit of background. 66 and retired. Active investor for 30 years (e. g. I was buying with my retirement account on Black Friday; I moved all the cash and bonds in both my wife and my retirement accounts into equities when the first Gulf War broke out; I went bullish on gold and silver in 2002 and hit my first homerun with Silver Weaton SLW.) Note that I am a momentum investor as compared to buy & hold.
I've got a DB pension and social security, no debt and wifey is about the same.
Some of this IRA I plan to spend wantonly and with great abandon. Some I plan to leave to my estate. Some I'll play with for giggles. What I need to do is to protect and safeguard the majority while covering myself against most economic probabilities. If we start with the traditional allocation it would be something like 34/56/10 - equities, bonds, cash. If I include a speculation fund, let's call it 30/50/10/10.
What percentage of int'l in each category?
What equity funds to consider?
What bond funds to consider?
What external funds to consider? (i.e. this is a Brokerage account so I could buy a Matthews Asian fund if I wanted).
Any and all suggestions are most welcome.
and so it goes,
peace,
rono

FYI: When the stock market is falling, mutual funds with low beta — sensitivity to movements in the benchmark index — should do better, right?
Not necessarily. Funds with the lowest 3-year beta have generated a variety of returns in the past three years and over shorter terms
Regards,
Ted
http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=MTg1NjQ0OTI=
Enlarged Graphic: http://news.investors.com/photopopup.aspx?path=WMUTpent101614.gif&docId=722014&xmpSource=&width=1000&height=1152&caption=&id=721922

Dow futures down 178.
A few years back I had a friend who rode the train from Albany to Seattle. Their ticket was cheap but they didn't have a sleeper. I couldn't do that. They also brought a lot of food on board they had gotten previously. They are one meal each day from the train service so as to have one hot meal.
First thing we did after picking them up at the station was go to a restaurant for a big meal.

Basically, you had generation one of L/S funds where managers often seemed to feel required to have a bunch of longs and a bunch of shorts. Either the funds didn't do that much of anything or didn't do that well. Then you started to have funds able to dial up and down risk more significantly and able to actually participate more in the markets. Now people are upset when the markets are down 7% or so and the funds were not able to move in a week or two.
They're not hedge funds, if you think they are going to dramatically change their holdings in a week's time, you're going to be disappointed. L/S funds are not going to shield you from every move lower in a market. If the market moves lower over months and over the course of 6-9 months they pull a "it's bad, not our fault market sucks", then yeah, that's a problem.
Funds like Pimco's All Asset/All Authority are upsetting because they're too conservative until they're not. People act like the manager of ARIVX is an evil lunatic for holding near 75% cash until this happens and the fund is suddenly near the very top of its category YTD and MTD and now I'll guess people are probably scrambling back into it. If things suddenly change for the better, those people will be all upset again.
Pimco Managed Futures has done astonishingly well. I can guarantee you that there will be a period where it's positioned wrong and people will be upset and dump it. That said, I remain rather fascinated by a managed futures mutual fund that is doing better than some managed futures hedge funds. It is also ahead of its category average by about 11%.

I have FVALX which does not call itself a hedged equity fund but does same thing in times manager deems bad. Needless to say M* classifies it as L/s. What a joke.

Doing better than Hussman, with a much simpler strategy that likely leads to far less costs for shareholders - it's what I've thought Hussman should be doing for a few years now: if you're that bearish, stop holding things like Panera and having a complex options hedging strategy and go to mostly cash and things like Walgreens.

Looks like they are all in. Not what I would have expected from a L/S fund.
http://portfolios.morningstar.com/fund/summary?t=RGHVX

Most L/S funds are heavily invested. People weren't happy with L/S funds that were basically close to market neutral, now you have ones that can be more long and .... most of them are.

FYI: There’s been a debate in recent years about whether target-date funds expose investors saving for retirement to too much risk at the point they are leaving the workforce.
Now Rob Arnott, a respected investor and researcher, is raising concerns about the aggressiveness of the target funds designed for the youngest workers.
Regards,
Ted
http://blogs.wsj.com/totalreturn/2014/10/15/target-funds-are-too-risky-for-youngest-workers-arnott/tab/print/?mg=blogs-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.wsj.com%2Ftotalreturn%2F2014%2F10%2F15%2Ftarget-funds-are-too-risky-for-youngest-workers-arnott%2Ftab%2Fprint&fpid=2,121

FYI: Among the hottest corners of the stock market in recent years have been energy focused master limited partnerships. But amid the recent tumult, MLPs have been one of the hardest hit corners of the market and it’s not entirely clear why.
One MLP specialist guesses that “newbie” investors in these complicated stocks are to blame.
Regards,
Ted
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/10/15/mlps-have-been-getting-crushed-blame-the-newbies/tab/print/

I rarely read the talking heads because (and you learn this after almost 50 years in the game) they know absolutely nothing more than me, you, or the man in the moon. They just understand the art of articulation combined with a little bit of knowledge. Too bad knowledge isn't a marker for being a successful trader/investor. I could only skim through the verbiage but as John Wayne alluded to before " new bull market in bonds" ????? Has this talking head been on vacation all year??? And a sea change???? Haven't Treasuries this year already been saying a sea change????
Now let's see if those intraday lows in the 10 year hold or now that the talking heads are believers that yields gradually begin to tick up.

Agree with Scott - who understands this stuff better than I do.
Don't know if anybody caught the expert on NBR last evening who thinks Saudi Arabia and other big Middle-East producers are dumping oil on the markets to force the higher cost U.S. fracking operations to become unprofitable and close down. Just one theory, but makes some sense to me.
Oil moves in large multi-year swings. So, I'd caution anyone against trying to make a quick dollar on it. But if you can wait a few years for your payout, I'm of the belief it's one of the better opportunities right now. Unfortunately, as equity prices collapse, energy and everything else will go down as well. (No place to run...No place to hide. Katie bar the door.)
(In terms of funds, most natural resource funds are heavily weighted towards oil and tend to move with it.)

FYI: Did you feel the economic weather change this week? The shift was subtle, like fall tippy-toeing in after a pleasant summer to surprise us, but I think we’ll look back and say this was the moment when that last grain of sand fell onto the sandpile, triggering many profound fingers of instability [1] in a pile that has long been close to collapse. This is the grain of sand that sets off those long chains of volatility that have been gathering for the last five years, waiting to surprise us with the suddenness and violence of the avalanche they unleash.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2014/10/sea-change/print/

Neutral "risk profile" years ( 2014 being one) have tended to be flat to slightly positive in aggregate. http://stockmarketmap.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/market-map-model-1-risk-profiles/
The statistical strength of a 4th qtr. rally unfolding would seem probable. http://stockmarketmap.wordpress.com/2014/09/15/market-map-update-09152014/
As for the "curators of financial content", we have a hard time believing that, from the tri weekly appearances on CNBC (representing expert views on everything from the Palestine conflict to bank bailouts ) to writing content about Ferraris and the music business, that they would be able to put in the time needed for deep quant research and advisory.

Thanks Old_Skeet for posting your moves and not after the fact. What you are doing is fine for an investor and over time will turn out profitable for you as it always has in the past. As a trader though, the first rule I learned as a teenager after "cut your losses and let your profits run" was to "never average down on a losing trade/position". Again, from what I have seen over the years, it's the small time investors that accumulate the wealth and not the small time traders. I just try to be an exception. The small time traders think that I am old fashioned because they foolishly believe trading mutual funds is for their grandfathers or grandmothers. In other words, they believe it's like watching paint dry. Instead they feverishly trade in and out like whirling dervishes be it futures, Forex, or individual equities trying to make a few hundred here or there. In the end though and over time for the vast majority of them it's just like they are spinning their wheels on their way to nowhere.

>>>It's been difficult lately, to take the long-term view. But that's my frame of reference. I've got the world covered, leaving out Latin America, deliberately..... I hate to see the numbers, the last several days. Maybe I should just go fishing and start to think again in terms of YEARS. "I love it when a plan comes together." ---George Peppard. <<<<
Max where have you been most of this year?? Missed your posts. Not sure George Peppard is someone to quote in a topic of taking the long term view as his lifetime was pretty short having passed away at only 66 years old.

Hi rjb112,
I rarely, if ever, post on Bond and fixed income issues because I consider myself rather naïve on these matters. I plead an embarrassing level of ignorance. Many MFO members are far better informed on this subject than I am, so I suggest you address your income questions to these fine folks.
Since you asked, and since I have been investing in various forms of the fixed income universe for decades, I will submit a few incomplete thoughts on bond/fixed income investing. As usual, I will document my thoughts with a couple of references.
Using a ship as an analogy, equities are the power-plant that drive the ship towards a target safe harbor. Fixed income and bond components serve as a rudder to more closely align the ship on the desired compass heading. The rudder does slow the ship a little.
Volatility is very acceptable when you are young and accumulating wealth, but losses its attractiveness when approaching retirement. Hence, I morphed from a heavily weighted equity portfolio a few years ago to a more neutral portfolio (50/50 mix) today.
When wisely assembled, a balanced portfolio can almost maintain the annual returns of an all equity portfolio while reducing volatility (standard deviation) by half. Volatility always functions to attenuate compound returns below annual return levels.
Bond diversification helps to reduce overall portfolio volatility just like equity category diversification does. The bond market offers about as many subcategories as does the equity marketplace. Just like equities, these bond subcategories deliver a random checkerboard of annual returns; so the bond segment of my portfolio has many components to smooth the journey. Here is a Link to a Vanguard Bond Table of Periodic Returns:
http://www.vanguard.com/jumppage/international/web/pdfs/INTLCCRD.pdf
Just like the famous Callan Periodic Table of Investment Returns, the annual fixed income rewards bounce all over the space. Predicting future winners is an impossible task, so diversification is a reasonable strategy.
Likewise, forecasting future inflation rates and interest rates is also hazardous business. History suggests that the best guess for interest rates 10 years from now is what the current value is.
I do believe that just like market professionals have improved their skill sets, so has the Federal Reserve. I don’t expect wild inflation rate changes like those recorded in the late 1970s. The Fed actions can not guarantee a “soft” landing, but I do believe that they have sufficient control and data to pilot the economy to a “softer” landing.
However, I do not fully trust my projection of a more stable interest rate environment. Therefore, the bond portion of my portfolio emphasizes short duration elements as well as TIP components. Once again, uncertainty pushes me in diversification’s direction.
Costs always matter. That’s especially the case when investing in bonds. Very, very few actively managed bond funds outdistance their passive rivals. Given today’s low interest rate environment, costs are extraordinarily critical. I control costs by doing most of my bond business with passive Vanguard products (exceptions included later). They have served me well.
Even given the present low interest rate levels, bonds are still an important segment of an individual’s portfolio. Vanguard has a nice recent report that illustrates this point. Here is its Link:
https://personal.vanguard.com/pdf/s704.pdf
When my portfolio was rather thin, I decided to diversify into the bond market by using Balanced mutual funds. I was lucky and selected some winners. After decades, I still own these funds. They are the exceptions I noted earlier. These are Dodge and Cox, Wellington, and Wellesley mutual funds. I report these merely for the record, and do not necessarily recommend them for anyone.
I hope this is a little helpful. Sorry for this unorganized post; it is a series of random, real-time thoughts on your question. I’m lazy and commit little time to the bond marketplace. Please consult with better informed MFOers on this topic.
Best Wishes.