Received this report this morning.
The Value fund looked to be purring along, although I don't happen to own.
On the other hand the SCV fund which I own seemed to be holding almost 20 % in short-term assets ! Also noted was performance with its bogie , 17 % VS 27 % Is it time to look else where or did transfer of management hurt in the short term, I'm thinking so !
Trying to stay Kool, Derf

How 10 of the world’s smartest investors can help you build your perfect portfolio
Is there a Perfect Portfolio for investors?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/how-10-of-the-worlds-smartest-investors-can-help-you-build-your-perfect-portfolio-11628177690
We posed this question to 10 of the most respected pioneers in the investment community. Six have Nobel Prizes in Economics: Harry Markowitz, the founder of Modern Portfolio Theory, the basis of the modern investment portfolio; his protégé William Sharpe, creator of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and the beta risk measure that changed how we think about risk and reward in the financial markets; Eugene Fama, who developed the Efficient Market Hypothesis; Myron Scholes and Robert Merton, two of the co-creators of the Black-Scholes/Merton option pricing model; and Robert Shiller, the behavioral economist whose work challenged the notion of market efficiency.
The other four are portfolio managers, investors and bestselling authors who have sold millions of investment books, including The Vanguard Group’s founder Jack Bogle; the “Bond Guru,” Marty Leibowitz; the “Wisest Man on Wall Street” and Greenwich Associates founder Charles Ellis; and the “Wizard of Wharton,” Jeremy Siegel.
Prob 90% spy 10% bnd
Hold and die
What is your perfect portfolio composition?

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/05/bitcoin-jpmorgan-led-by-jamie-dimon-quietly-unveils-access-to-a-half-dozen-crypto-funds.html
JPMorgan, led by bitcoin skeptic Jamie Dimon, quietly unveils access to a half-dozen crypto funds
KEY POINTS
On Thursday, financial advisors were allowed to begin placing private bank clients into a new bitcoin fund created with crypto firm NYDIG, according to people with knowledge of the move.Late last month, JPMorgan rolled out access to four funds from Grayscale Investments and one from Osprey Funds, according to the people.The sources declined to be identified speaking about the offerings, each citing an awkward fact: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has been one of Wall Street’s most outspoken skeptics of bitcoin and related digital assets.
Manager seen bitcoin is fraud, now open a half dozen cripto bicoin fund
If cannot beat them...join them

I purchased Baillie Gifford's 'The Emerging Markets Fund Instl' (BGEGX) from Fidelity on 01/02/2019.
The following Baillie Gifford funds (and possibly others) were available from Fidelity as of 01/31/2019:
International
EAFE Choice Fund
EAFE Fund Class I
EAFE Pure Fund
International Equity
Global Select Equity
Positive Change
Global Alpha Equity
Long Term Global
Emerging Markets
U.S. Equity Growth
Fidelity's 'Mutual Funds Research' tool did not include these Baillie Gifford funds one or two months later.
I assumed issues arose with the distribution agreement.

11:45 pm + M* portfolio still not up to date for 8/5

AndyJ -- you might now be able to get those Pimco institutional funds at Schwab with only a $2,500 minimum. That's the case for PIMIX, anyway.
I never "upgraded" my Vanguard mutual fund accounts to their awful, awful brokerage and continue to hold them as just funds.
I have three accounts at Vanguard, two of which are "sticky." Soon the proverbial straw will break the camel's back as to the third, however, and that account will join another at Schwab where at least the web platform has joined the 21st Century.
I read in the Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors that not only are many fleeing Vanguard due to service issues, the newsletter's editor is as well. Yes, Dan Wiener wrote that he moved some of his accounts elsewhere.
Vanguard is great at running mutual funds; they pretty much suck at everything else they do. Talk about a failure of leadership.

@sma3: Perhaps I am misreading or perhaps there is a typo. Why would difficulties at Schwab cause people to leave Vanguard?
In response to all the other recent contributions to this thread the short reply is:
"Yup."
A more detailed reply:
I began investing in a few Vanguard funds many decades ago, long before they had a brokerage. Jack Bogle was at the helm, Customer service was available by phone. A real person answered and no matter who I got at the other end that person was both articulate and well informed. They understood my questions and their replies were spot on.
The reason I invested in certain Vanguard funds was because of the excellence of the managers and an appropriate ratio of risk to return for my tolerance level. As time went on customer service got worse and worse. Eventually it became a negative quantity. No one was impolite, but incompetence was the norm. When it became impossible to directly invest in a Vanguard fund things got worse because an individual investor had to go through their clumsy poorly-run brokerage. Frankly I don't really see the point of using any brokerage for mutual funds (except in 401K where one has no choice) when one can invest directly with the fund. For individual bonds or stocks it's another story of course. But for funds it is so easy to get on the phone or the website or send an email to many or most mutual funds and get a quick and well-informed reply and pay no fee. That's been my experience anyway.

SO far so good with TMSRX but I didn't join the party until last fall.
I agree MERFX is disappointing, although I have owned it for years. This recent drawdown is one of the worst ever, especially in a rising market, and I really wonder if they are out over their skis.
While this loss ( 3-4% ) pales in comparison to some of the hits other alternative funds have suffered, I wonder if it is tie to sell. MERFX was supposed to provide a quiet 1-3% return without a lot of excitement
If the recent merger blowup was responsible, they must have had a large position

How to Be Proactive With Your Medicare Options:
planning-for-medicare

A very good piece that mentions many of the gotchas often omitted. For example, articles often note that HSA account money can be used to pay for Medicare premiums, but they don't clarify that one cannot use HSA money for Medigap premiums. This piece got it right.
This leads to a (weak) argument in favor of Medicare Advantage plans. MA plans can provide coverage (e.g. an out of pocket cap) similar to Medigap plans. And you can pay for their premiums with HSA money, unlike Medigap premiums.
There is a related gotcha that was omitted. You can only use money from your HSA to pay for Medicare premiums if you are over age 65. That may sound like a nobrainer, but you could have Medicare at an earlier age, or you might be paying your spouse's Medicare premiums while you yourself are still under age 65.
One detail that it got wrong is:

Unlike tax brackets, the [IRMAA] thresholds don’t automatically change with inflation.

But they do automatically change:

Starting on January 1, 2020, the threshold amounts will resume adjustment for inflation

20 CFR § 418.1105(c)
That comes from the ACA (which also suspended inflation adjustments for several years before 2020).

ISTM that it's fairly common for fund families to gradually make subsidiary names disappear, unless those names continue to retain significant value.
Nuveen acquired the investment management companies NWQ in 2002 and Santa Barbara in 2005. I don't know whether those names are well regarded by insiders, but I wouldn't say they are especially valuable as fund brands. Hence the deletion of NWQ and Santa Barbara from the fund names.
Anyone remember Nuveen Tradewinds? In contrast to the changes here, that vanishing act was as much a genuine internal restructuring as a name change.
https://www.morningstar.com/articles/541029/ill-winds-blow-at-tradewinds
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160516006657/en/NWQ-Investment-Management-Company-Accelerate-Growth-Global
TIAA (then TIAA-CREF) acquired Nuveen in 2014, but I still expect funds with those brands to stay around for a long time. They retain value as brands. Though I could certainly envision some realignment of the funds some time in the future.
For example TIAA might focus on equity funds while Nuveen concentrated on fixed income, or TIAA might focus on index and index-lite funds (funds with index and active sleeves) while Nuveen concentrated on more actively managed funds. Just a couple of possibilities based on these brands' connotations.
https://www.dowjones.com/scoops/tiaa-cref-buy-nuveen-investments-6-25-billion-including-debt-companies-say/

Covid era price surges and ebbs (AHE = average hourly earnings).....

The Higher You Climb

A recent survey from T. Rowe Price finds that health care costs are the top spending concern of retirees. This comes as no surprise as some studies predict that a 65-year-old couple may need up to $400,000 to cover health care costs in retirement. But these estimates don’t provide an accurate picture of what most retirees will encounter.
Such daunting numbers give an impression that it will be difficult for most retirees to afford health care in retirement. We believe that planning for health care costs in retirement can be made simpler by using the available assets and income retirees have. But we need to approach calculating health care costs differently.
When trying to plan for future health care expenses in retirement, consider these three things:

TRPrice Study:
https://troweprice.com/breaking-down-health-care-expenses-in-retirement

@davidmoran

So what's the point of going beyond SP500?

When it come to Large Cap Equity exposure, an S&P 500 index is a great choice. Many LC funds are nothing more than closet index funds with a much higher ER. Some LC managers differentiate themselves. It's important to have good reasons to own a LC fund because beating the index is a pretty high bar.
At times, Mid/Small/Micro Cap periodically out perform VONE, VFINX and VOO. Two fund I own that persistently out perform are T Rowe Price's PRNHX and Primcap's POAGX. Does owning a percentage of these funds in your portfolio add alpha? So far so good.
Here's a historical comparison of VFINX, PRNHX, and POAGX:
Comparing S&P 500 to Other Cap weighted Funds
I am guilty of owning sector funds that historically have better upside and downside capture than the index. These funds typically make more when the market is up and lose less when the market sells off.
This capture data can be found under the "risk tab" on the M* website. For example here's PRMTX's Capture data:
Here's the link to M* risk tab for PRMTX
morningstar.com/funds/xnas/prmtx/risk

Here's a Chart and table (linked below) that shows S&P 500 sector performance over the last 14 years.
novelinvestor.com/sector-performance

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/05/biden-pushes-for-evs-to-make-up-40percent-or-more-of-us-auto-sales-by-2030.html
President Joe Biden will set a new national target on Thursday for the adoption of electric vehicles, calling for them to represent half of all new auto sales by 2030, according to senior administration officials.
I'm curious if anyone knows of a fund or funds that are taking a large stake in the upcoming growth in electric vehicles, the infrastructure needed to support these vehicles and anything else in regards to what seems to be a large growth sector in the coming years. All I can think of is Tesla and other automakers who are moving into the EV space.
Thanks in advance for any and all replies!

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1013881/000119312521237128/d209278d497.htm
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1041673/000119312521237141/d207659d497.htm
(see tables)

I believe that you can buy the fund through Fidelity BUT.....
There is a transaction fee and this alert on the Fidelity site:
"Please call a Fidelity Representative at 1-800-544-6666 to buy this fund."
At least that's the info I received when I searched the fund. Also search (research) the fund by its name and not its ticker symbol. For whatever reason Fidelity acts like it's nonexistent if you use the latter.

@Mav123. I like the Exponential Moving Average (EMA) idea. Will add to list. Should not take too long. If you are a subscriber (or become one) I'll add a month to your subscription for the suggestion. Our custom for good feedback!

Perfect, thank you, Charles. Would users be able to apply/use any (custom) EMA period, hopefully 3 at a time (3 EMA periods at the same time)?

interesting...noticed the ticker symbol for my prior link above didn't match up with BGHIX even though the name appeared on the surface to be correct.
Then read this report that indicates managers and investment strategies will remain unchanged: Diamond Hill High Yield Fund
And found this website that includes ticker symbol BGHIX for BrandywineGLOBAL - High Yield
Fund. (There was a slightly different name with a second Global following the dash symbol that was included in the incorrect link previously posted.....)

Brandywine Global is an investment management company. It provides management services to institutions and high net worth individuals. Its website speaks of investment strategies, not of funds. Looking for funds there would be like going to the Wellington Management site looking information on the Wellington fund (VWELX). It isn't there.
Brandywine Global has been owned by Legg Mason for decades. BrandywineGLOBAL (sic) Funds is a brand name created by Legg Mason for funds it launched and were subadvised by Brandywine Global. It is only a brand name; the funds were always part of Legg Mason.
When Franklin Templeton acquired Legg Mason last year, it acquired all the variously branded funds and management company subsidiaries including Royce, Clearbridge, Western Asset, etc.
I posted more complete information on the Brandywine brand, the BrandywineGlobal brand, and the Friess Brandywine brand here. They're all completely different families.
What is hard, is logging in to a legacy fund account that was acquired by Smith Barney (then a Travelers subsidiary), saw management firm changed to Salomon Smith Barney, became a Citicorp subsidiary when Travelers and Citicorp merged (and rebranded the investment management company Smith Barney), was acquired by Legg Mason, was rebranded Legg Mason Partners with management by Clearbridge, was subsequently rebranded Legg Mason Clearbridge, then had the fund renamed (still branded Legg Mason Clearbridge), and then was rebranded Clearbridge (dropping the Legg Mason moniker).
Then Franklin acquired Legg Mason and the old website login redirected you to an transitional login page (branded Franklin Templeton); one still cannot log in directly at F-T.
And you think you've got it hard :-)