MainStay name to change on numerous funds Consider yourself fortunate that you haven't been doing this for fifty
years (or have you?)
My father purchased shares of "One William Street" back when mutual funds issued certificates (image below not his certificate)

This was originally a fund run by Lehman. Subsequent owners due to mergers, sales of investment units, etc. were Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb Inc, Shearson Lehman Brothers, Shearson Lehman Hutton,

Salomon Brothers, Salamon Smith Barney (under Travelers, then Citicorp), Smith Barney (under Citicorp),

Legg Mason, and now Franklin Templeton.
Fund family/fund name changes didn't always coincide with parent changes (as with Mainstay changing to NY Life).
Fund names evolved from One William Street to Salomon Brothers Investors Fund, Salomon Brothers Investors Value Fund, Legg Mason Partners Investors Value Fund, Legg Mason Clearbridge Investors Value Fund, Legg Mason Clearbridge Large Cap Value Fund, Clearbridge Large Cap Value Fund. (The three Legg Mason names were in a span of just four
years: 2009-2013.)
Alas, same as it ever was. Yes, most of it is nonsense - the name changes, the mergers, the ads.
I wrote a more detailed description of this fund's evolution a decade ago:
https://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/comment/21862/#Comment_21862
on the failure of focus IIRC, when I read
Random Walk back in the 80's, Malakiel was saying you could build a diversified portfolio with 20-30 Stocks. He might have changed that over the
years.
After poking around on the internet, it seems many people agree.
Anyway, seems to me a concentrated, or focused, fund is something heavily weighted to one, maybe two, ideas. And you can have that problem no matter how many stocks are in the portfolio.
Given the number of examples in the OP, we could be dealing with random chance.
on the failure of focus @mskursh.
"... the surviving focus/select funds that exist today or have long track records are standing on the corpses of many that have gone extinct..."
ouch.
"Standing on the shoulders of giants" is a metaphor I've embraced for
years.
But corpses?
Never heard that before.
But maybe I should have.
Buy Sell Why: ad infinitum. @BaluBalu / I’m just touchy. Sorry.
I don’t buy the turnaround story. What turnaround? LOL. The stock got overpriced a few
years ago when consumer staples were hot as investments. Topped out over $135 in January 2022 and then began falling, dipping briefly below $100 about 5 or 6 weeks ago. Adding to the decline has been a very hot dollar which has appreciated for
years now against the
franc and other global currencies.
If someone isn’t interested in taking a gambit on currencies they should avoid buying foreign stocks unless there’s some currency hedging. Also hurting has been the fear among investors “weight-loss” drugs will reduce the value of food companies. Perhaps well placed. But this misses that NSRGY is much larger than food, being in many consumer staples like pet food, bottled waters, cosmetics.
List of Nestlie brandsI bought in at around $102 a month or so ago. Sold at $105.54 10-12 days back. Jumped in at $105.62 this morning. My cash is mostly in a TOD account. Buying something in an IRA requires selling another security first. So, I really don’t have the luxury of sitting on a limit order for long because the security I sold might go out of reach. To me, whether I have 5% sitting in NSRGY or in an intermediate-long duration bond fund is of little consequence. If anything, a 10-year duration bond fund is probably more volatile than this stock and with a more limited return potential.
Happy investing!
How many funds is the right number? The answer - 11 (prime number).
Why stop at 11, 13, 17, and 19 are also prime numbers.
But I like your Prime thing and why I have used 2,3 in the last several
years and 5 for many
years.
Buy Sell Why: ad infinitum. @BenWP, I like
this site for descriptions of ETF's. Since XMMO runs on specific rules I would think it would only need competent attendants.
Nota bene: It has only been running on these rules for five
years.
I always check the "comps" on ETF's at
this site.
You are correct about recent performance. It's a little too bumpy for me for the IRA. I don't feel the need in the taxable since I was able to get into VSMIX.
Buy Sell Why: ad infinitum. @WABAC and
@BaluBalu: re: XMHQ.
For some reason I spotted XMMO, the Invesco MC momentum fund, dancing across the bottom of my TV screen. This fund has been outperforming for nearly three
years, catching and passing XMHQ this year. M* cites 136% turnover and a current allocation of 42% to industrials, a large over weight. The frequent trading has not been reflected in increased distributions in the last couple of
years, a problem we've noted with XMHQ.
When I try on M* to find out who the managers are, at least the ones responsible for every-day matters, Invesco lists 4 people who are also responsible for just about every equity ETF that Invesco sponsors. I wonder how the "real" managers determine what stocks are candidates for inclusion.
Buy Sell Why: ad infinitum. Thanks,
@hank. Very generous of you.
Is P/E 22 the new P/E 12! Seems like everything worth owning these days is P/E 20+.
If it is a turnaround story, P/E is likely to be high and I can overlook P/E.
Mark Schneider has been there for 7
years. I am surprised he has not turned the ship around. He did a great job at Fresenius (my client many moons ago).
I did not think any company could be a bigger mess than GE (of course, until I saw BA). Larry took over GE only in 2018 and it probably took him 4
years to turn that lump of coal into a diamond.
I am a sucker for turnaround stories. I have to learn more about NSRGY story: what is the trigger and the time frame for the trigger. If you happen to have the answers, please share.
I do not have access to Barrons.
I just took an initial position to do more research.
Edit: do you hold your position in a taxable account to make use of the foreign tax credit of withholding taxes on dividends?
on the failure of focus Concentration by itself doesn't work. I have been using concentration + momentum + best risk/reward funds + being in the right wide-range categories.
Since I started in 1995, there have been three long term cycles
1995-2000 + 2010-2020 = US Large cap tilting growth
2000-2010 = US Value, some small cap and some international
BTW, I changed the number of funds from 5 (2000-2018) to only 2-3 since retirement in 2018 because I can only find very limited great ideas.
You can read how I did it (
here).
When Rebalancing Creates Higher Returns—and When It Doesn’t I think that most investors would generate similar to better results over time by using up to 5-7 funds, mostly indexes, hardly trade, and rebalance...all based on their goals, style and risk tolerance.
I never believed in any of the above, which is why I became a trader in 2000, when the stock market started to go down. It worked really well for me, using wide range categories
Another observation: markets have long cycles where 1-3 categories are above the rest, so why rebalance?
I started investing in 1995 based on the following:.
1995-2000: US LC tilting growth.
2000-2010: US Value+SC, and international. SPY+QQQ lost money for 10 years.
2010-2024: US LC tilting growth. Since 2018, I'm mostly in bond OEFs.