Currently, due to high equity valuations, my portfolio's limited equity exposure is confined to these three defensive funds: CTFAX, JHQAX and VWINX. For the bond portion I use CLMAX, NVHAX and RCTIX, along with the bond-like alternative fund ARBIX. The rest of my portfolio, roughly 15%, is in cash and may find a temporary home in SH, the inverse equity ETF, during the next market crash.
Since my retirement, I have found the advice of another poster always very helpful: "I don't really need a lot more money - but I certainly don't want to lose a lot. I need to remind myself to err on the side of caution."
In the current market environment, I am quite satisfied if my annual total return is within a range of 4 to 6%.
Good luck, and many thanks to Lynn Bolin for his valuable contributions.
Fred

Was looking for a HY bond fund that had held up decently ("defensive?") in 1Q 2020. Found EIXIX with a 5.5% SEC Yield. $2,500 min at VGD (TF). May be my newest addition.
Looked at GAVAX, gave up quickly on that. Sold my SWAN and DRSK. Not sure that TMSRX is going to be a keeper.
Holding onto my ARBIX and HRSAX.
Recently bought some SVARX and SFHYX (Fido).
Will keep adding to CTFAX (a keeper).
Hiding out in various bond funds (DAAIX, EXCPX, PEGAX, FPFIX, MWFSX, etc) in the hopes equities peel back. Won't hold my breath, though.
Merger arb is stalling a bit this month, but that sleeve will remain (BALPX, MERFX, HMEAX) intact.
Still liking HEGD, just wish average daily volume would increase. Will add here.
D-E-F-E-N-S-E

derf I was looking for a fund, to invest idle cash, with limited correlation to the stock and bond markets. ARBOX has a 1,000 minimum and didn't require 25k like ARBIX. By investing now, I wished to get in the fund before it closed,etc, as Schwab is notorious for listing funds as open to existing shareholders, restricted, or available for institutional customers only. My annual rate of return goal for idle cash is 50 basis points(Marcus money fund pays this) so if this fund only returns 100 or 200 basis points annually, I'm ok with that.

Hi @Rickrmf,
I have put a lot of time into analyzing defensive funds. My ranking system is based on seven factors applied equally to every fund. After the article last month I now apply the seven factors differently to Mixed-Asset Funds, Uncorreclated Funds, and the remainder of the stock and funds. I also apply them differently to funds by MFO Risk levels. For example, I do want good performance for the Mixed Asset Funds and Uncorrelated Funds, but momentum is not a determining factor in finding these funds.
Combining these funds can reduce volatility. You asked about GAVIX/GAVIX. It is one of my poorer performing funds in the short term but not the long term. That is the benefit of combing uncorrelated funds. Some will be up while others are down so that they do not all rise and fall at the same time. I thought about selling GAVIX, but now classify it is as an uncorrelated fund and am content with it.
I also own COTZX/CTFAX, DIVO, ARBIX and TMSRX. You may also want to look at CDC which I also classify as an uncorrelated fund. I am working on an August article which covers this topic.
We may well be in a year like 1998 or 2007 with good recent performance. However, Federal Debt to GDP is almost as high at during WWII. The federal deficit is also high. The rise in asset prices is due more to massive stimulus than growth. Even conservative Vanguard is estimating very low growth over the next decade due to high valuations.
For the past 120 years the stock market has returned 6.8% plus inflation. Limiting downside risk in this environment is likely to lead to outperformance as it did following 1998 and 2007. Stimulus has also inflated expectations. Notice how Mr. Buffett always seems to be sitting on cash when the bear market arrives.
Regards, Lynn Bolin

@Rickrmf - I don’t know anything about ARBIX (but that’s never stopped me from voicing an opinion).
M* doesn’t appear to have a rating for it
It scores very well on Lipper. Be aware their “rating” is actually a reflection of recent performance.
- Performance 4/5
- Total Return 4/5
- Capital Preservation 5/5
(Lipper does knock it down on expenses giving it just 1/5 in that area.)
What I think is significant is that the “chainsaw gang” over at Max Funds
rates it fairly highly by their standards:
Good +74/100
What’s really “wild” IMHO is that if you click the “Holdings” tab at Lipper you’ll see that ARBIX has a negative 50% weighting in stocks. That’s some shorting. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

Great point. The FAANG stocks (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google (Alphabet)) have dominated the broader US index for the past 10 years while the value stocks trailed by sizable margin until late 2020.
As @hank suggested above, it would be a good idea to review the top 10 holdings in each funds in your portfolio on a regular basis. Case in point, the value oriented Wellington fund, VWELX, now holds: Alphabet Inc, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple among the top 10 holdings per 5/31/2021 reporting. The fund is now categorized as blend according to M*. In the same period, Wellesley Income, VWINX holds more the traditional financial, pharma and consumer staples stocks. Also Global Wellington holds only Microsoft as #4 position. Likely I will move fund away from Wellington.

Here's a more detailed history of AMG:
https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/13/Affiliated-Managers-Group-Inc.html
Until I checked, I also thought: "Affiliates operate independently" and "AMG invests in independent investment managers and allows them to remain independent". But it surely can't be coincidence that a large number of AMG branded funds had complete management changes and sometimes radical objective changes in or around March.

AMG is not as hands-off as I once thought.
The firm replaced third-party subadvisors on thirteen mutual funds earlier this year as part of a broad strategy change. AMG's affiliates will now manage $5B in assets previously subadvised by these third parties.
"'Over the past two years, we have evolved our global distribution resources and clarified our strategy for the benefit of our affiliates,’ said AMG president and chief executive Jay Horgen. ‘Focusing our US wealth platform exclusively on in-demand strategies from our affiliates will ensure that clients are choosing from highly differentiated products.'"
Citywire
AMG Fund Updates

Lots of ways to slice and dice this one. I did some revamping recently. (Same funds / different way of viewing) - Risk Assets (equity-centric & commodity related) are targeted at 35% of portfolio. Alternatives & Fixed Income are each targeted at 32.5%.
Truly “defensive” to me would be the fixed income portion. Despite all the talk about rising rates, a diversified income approach concentrated in short to intermediate duration bonds (and maybe some TIPS) stands to loose less during a time of market duress than either equities or alternatives.
However, @Rickrmf is asking, I suspect, more about the alternative type funds and @Derf seems to confirm that. A lot of people seem to view TMSRX as an “everything or nothing” option. What I do within the alternative sleeve is mandate that at least 40% be in TMSRX. The remaining 60% (or less) is split between PRPFX (which I’ve held for many years) and Invesco’s ABRZX.
Surprisingly, TMSRX has been around for 3 years already! So throwing together TMSRX’s 3-year performance of 6% at a 40% weighting and than adding equal portions of PRPFX (12.9% for 3 years) and ABRZX (8% for 3 years) I get something in the vicinity of an 8.7% average for the 3 alternative funds working together over the past 3 years. One can look at returns for PRPFX and ABRZX farther out than 3 years, of course, if they wish.
Like I said earlier, alternatives aren’t necessarily risk-free. But over time they should prove more stable than equity-centric or 60/40 funds. Of course, their return over longer periods should also be lower.
Footnote: I was curious how my tracking fund PRSIX stacks up against that 8.7% return for the alternatives.
PRSIX: 3 years +9.5% // 5 years + 8.78% // 10 years +7.7% (close)

hank +1

Thanks to Charles Lynn Bolin for his attention over the past year+ to screening and using defensive funds to better position portfolios for this high valuation/low interest rate environment. I’m curious if he and/or others who may have added defensive funds over the past year think of their performance, and what you may have learned. Here are funds I’ve selected a year ago for my defensive sleeve, with some thoughts/questions. Thanks in advance for sharing. I do swap funds occasionally, and slowly, but prefer a more Buy and Hold approach.
CTFAX: I bought it when it was positioned more aggressively, now it is almost a cash sub. Very pleased.
GAVAX: I bought it for its very compelling risk stats. It seems to be rate sensitive? performance so-so. Thoughts currently?
SWAN: It proved itself to me in the downturns. Recent performance has been better, concerned with rate sensitivity with all its Treasuries. I don’t think it should categorized with equities, although it does capture a portion of the S&P returns.
TRSMX: Steady alt, like its safety. Considering adding another alt fund, ARBIX?
I cap my % in any one fund to 10%, so there is some diversification in this sleeve as well. I also have GIBLX as a high quality ballast bond fund, which is rate sensitive. Not sure I might trade for another in the defensive sleeve and continue reducing my bond holdings.
I do hold 40% in equity sleeve, which I reduced from 60% to further position defensively. I am investing for growth, not income, but am considering DIVO, HNDL, JEPI others for their risk/reward profiles…just not sure how to consider these in terms of portfolio allocation, perhaps income bond sleeve (even though income would be reinvested)?
Thanks in advance for sharing,
Rick

Here's a more detailed history of AMG:
https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/13/Affiliated-Managers-Group-Inc.html
Until I checked, I also thought: "Affiliates operate independently" and "AMG invests in independent investment managers and allows them to remain independent". But it surely can't be coincidence that a large number of AMG branded funds had complete management changes and sometimes radical objective changes in or around March.
M* (human) analysis of parent AMG, Nov 2020: While AMG's stronger affiliates have held up relatively well, net outflows have caused the firm and its affiliates to liquidate or merge subscale offerings, including AMG GW&K US Small Cap Growth and AMG River Road Dividend All Cap Value. In another instance, affiliate Chicago Equity Partners shuttered its business entirely, spurring a subadvisor and name change on AMG GW&K Global Allocation. Recent challenges in AMG's quantitative offerings have contributed most substantially to outflows, with shops such as AQR suffering the most.
Here's AMG's current 55 fund lineup. Lots of recent "independent" changes this year. Maybe it's a one-off and AMG is done tinkering for awhile. (See more under Brandywine below.)
https://www.amgfunds.com/products.html
M* (automated) individual fund analyses:
Beutel Goodman funds
ADBLX (formerly AMG Managers DoubleLIne CorePlus Bond Fund, formerly ASTON/DoubleLine Core Plus Fixed Income Fund) - Although this strategy was incepted in July 2011, its listed management team turned over completely two months ago. Therefore, the fund’s historical team data is largely no longer applicable, as it’s not representative of the current strategy.
APINX (formerly AMG Managers Pictet Int'l, formerly ASTON/Pictet Int'l) - Although this strategy was incepted in April 2014, its listed management team turned over completely two months ago ...
Brandywine funds(Proxy Statement, April 2021): The proposed changes for the Funds, which have been approved by the Board of Trustees, are part of a strategic repositioning of the AMG Funds complex for greater alignment with AMG, in which each fund not currently subadvised by an AMG Affiliate will be transitioned to an AMG Affiliate subadviser ...
BRWIX (formerly Brandwine fund) - Even though this strategy’s track record dates back to December 1985, there has been a high degree of turnover on the management side recently, resulting in a thorough overhaul of its listed team two months ago. Therefore, the fund’s historical team data is largely no longer applicable.
BLUEX (formerly Brandywine Blue) - This strategy underwent a complete overhaul of its listed management team two months ago. And even though their record dates back to January 1991, it's difficult to analyze the new team until they spend more time on the strategy.
GW&K funds
MGFIX (formerly AMG Managers Loomis Sayles Bond) - Even though this strategy’s track record dates back to June 1984, there has been a high degree of turnover on the management side recently, resulting in a complete overhaul of its listed team two months ago ...
MBEAX (formerly AMG Chicago Equity Partners Balanced) - The team that took over this fund in April 2020 lacks proven expertise in several elements of this strategy.
MGGBX (formerly Managers Global Income Opportunity) - Even though this strategy’s track record dates back to March 1994, there has been a high degree of turnover on the management side recently, resulting in a complete overhaul of its listed team five months ago ...
MECAX (formerly Managers Cadence Emerging Companies) - This strategy underwent a total overhaul of its listed management team seven months ago. And even though their record dates back to June 1993, it's difficult to analyze the new team until they spend more time on the strategy.
SKSEX (formerly Skyline Special Equities) - Although this strategy was incepted in April 1987, its listed management team turned over completely five months ago. ...
ASCTX (formerly ASTON/Silvercrest Small Cap) - This strategy underwent a total overhaul of its listed management team two months ago. And even though their record dates back to December 2011, it's difficult to analyze the new team until they spend more time on the strategy.
ACWDX (formerly AMG Managers LMCG Small Cap Growth, formerly ASTON Small Cap Growth, formerly ASTON/Crosswind Small Cap Growth) - Even though this strategy’s track record dates back to November 2010, there has been a high degree of turnover on the management side recently, resulting in a complete overhaul of its listed team two months ago. ...
Harding Loevner - majority owned by AMG, this family has been unscathed.
(Managers) Montag & Caldwell
MCTFX (formerly AMG Managers Montag & Caldwell Growth Fund, formerly ASTON/Montag & Caldwell Growth fund) - This strategy underwent a total overhaul of its listed management team two months ago. And even though their record dates back to November 1994, it's difficult to analyze the new team until they spend more time on the strategy.
Pantheon - CEF, accredited investors only, acquired by AMG in 2010, not worth further investigation
Renaissance - some funds liquidated: AMG Renaissance Int'l Equity RIEIX (2018), Masters Renaissance Large Cap Equity (2006)
MLRTX - in 2017, AMG merged its AMG Managers Cadence Capital Appreciation Fund MPRFX into this fund.
River Road funds
FQUAX (formerly AMG FQ Long-Short Equity, formerly AMG FQ U.S. Equity) - This strategy underwent a total overhaul of its listed management team two months ago. And even though their record dates back to August 1992, it's difficult to analyze the new team until they spend more time on the strategy.
CHTTX (formerly AMG Managers Fairpointe Mid Cap, formerly ASTON/Fairpointe Mid Cap) - Although this strategy was incepted in September 1994, its listed management team turned over completely two months ago ...
TimesSquare - majority owned by AMG since 2004, this family has been unscathed
Tweedy Browne - majority owned by AMG since 1997, this family has been unscathed. Oddly, AMG lists only one of its funds, TBGVX, in its list of current offerings.
Veritas funds
MGSEX (formerly Managers Special Equity) - This strategy underwent a total overhaul of its listed management team two months ago. And even though their record dates back to June 1984, it's difficult to analyze the new team until they spend more time on the strategy.
MMCFX (formerly AMG Managers Emerging Opp) - [M* human analysis] AMG Managers Emerging Opportunities will soon undergo a complete overhaul under a new subadvisor, changing from a U.S. microcap fund to a China fund. ... As of May 21, 2021, AMG is replacing this fund's three current subadvisors with Veritas Asset Management, a London-based global investing boutique majority-owned by AMG.
MFQAX (formerly AMG FQ Tax-Managed U.S. Equity, formerly First Quadrant Tax-Managed Equity) - Although this strategy was incepted in December 2000, its listed management team turned over completely zero months ago ....
BLUEX - see under Brandywine, above.
Yacktman funds - unscathed

Re - The Amazon Customers Don’t See
It’s the July 4th holiday and a USPS driver just delivered a $10 package to my doorstep. I already knew that Amazon contracts with the USPS for deliveries on Sundays. But making non-critical federal employees work on the July 4 holiday somehow seems beyond the pale.

@Observant1 Thanks! I own PARWX and am pleased with the PM's Billy Hwan management of the fund since Jerome Dodson stopped running it. Hwan has added more holdings, reduced fund concentration, and lowered volatility. My spouse owns the ESG BIAWX, about which David and I have written, and so we're well invested there.

If you own (popular) PRWCX, the two largest equity holdings are Microsoft and Amazon. Those two, along with Alphabet (#5), comprise 9.1% of the fund’s holdings according to Lipper. Just for comparison, I looked at value oriented DODGX. Only one of the tech giants appears in its top ten (Alphabet #5 at 3.3%).
There’s a tendency to judge a fund by its past performance - particularly the 3, 5 and 10 year numbers. I do that to some extent myself. But in trying to assemble a diversified portfolio that will stand up under various types of market stress, it’s a good idea to “drill down” and consider the stocks you are really purchasing when you buy a fund. Looking “under the hood” is another way of putting it.

The article takes a contrarian approach. Their underlying premise is that they see a dangerously narrow concentration of only a few tech giants in the S&P. So, the idea behind the piece is to find funds that have little or no exposure to the five tech giants.
I was able to excerpt a few passages from the lead-in to the story that might shed more light on the story and funds she picked. I’d never invest in specific products of any kind simply because Barron’s featured them. There’s an element of “fluff” and the elicitation of “eye-balls” in most of the feature stories - especially pertaining to actively managed funds, I think. That’s not to say Barron’s doesn’t do a fine job raising important issues for investors to think about.
“The S&P 500 is generally considered to be the best proxy for the U.S. stock market. It represents about 80% of all U.S. stocks, and it is capitalization-weighted, just like the market itself. That means the largest stocks make up a bigger portion of the index. Today, the five largest companies— Apple (ticker: AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon.com (AMZN), Facebook (FB), and Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL)—make up 22% of the S&P 500.
“That isn’t diversified. Putting more than a fifth of your assets into five stocks isn’t diversification—and putting more than a fifth of your assets into five technology stocks is even less so. This isn’t a new phenomenon, and Barron’s has warned about the risks the tech megacaps pose to many portfolios, especially the $4.6 trillion that sits in S&P index funds. But the Big Five are showing some early signs of weakness, and those risks may be coming to bear soon, says Barron’s associate editor Reshma Kapadia.
“So what’s an investor to do? Reshma has you covered: She found five actively managed mutual funds that own none or very little of the tech megacaps. And while that has hurt recent performance, these funds have terrific long-term track records and could serve as a good hedge if the giants start to stumble.”
Excerpted from current issue of Barron’s - July 2021

@Dennis,
Thanks for bringing this planned acquistion to our attention!
Jerome Dodson retired from active management last year and the Parnassus sale allows him to cash out.
Since ESG funds are currently popular, this may have been an an opportune time to sell the firm.
Being a PRILX shareholder, I'm glad that Todd Ahlsten and Ben Allen will remain with the firm.
AMG provides support services to acquired mutual fund companies but otherwise allows them to operate with great autonomy.
Here's the AMG business description from an M* Equity Analyst Report dated 04/06/2021.
"Affiliated Managers Group offers investment strategies
to investors through its network of affiliates. The firm
typically buys a majority interest in small to midsize
boutique asset managers, receiving a fixed percentage
of revenue from these firms in return. Affiliates operate
independently, with AMG providing strategic,
operational, and technology support, as well as global
distribution. At the end of 2020, AMG's affiliate network-
-which includes firms like AQR Capital Management,
BPEA and Pantheon in alternative assets and other
products (which accounted for 30% of AUM), Artemis,
Genesis, Harding Loevner, and Tweedy Browne in global
equities (39%) and Frontier, River Road, and Yacktman in
U.S. equities (14%)--had $716.2 billion in managed
assets."

From the article’s comments:
Alejandro M
11 hours ago
A quote from the article:
"She found five actively managed mutual funds that own none or very little of the tech megacaps. And while that has hurt recent performance, these funds have terrific long-term track records and could serve as a good hedge if the giants start to stumble."
If you click on the link to her picks, you get the funds below. Let's mine the data & compare their performance to the QQQ index fund:
Fund YTD 1 yr 2 yr 3yr 5yr 10 yr
QQQ 14.3% 42% 92% 108% 233% 528%
AMCPX 10.5 27 34 30 66 116
AKREX 15.7 28 45 77 160 385
JENSX 12.3 23 23 28 59 118
POGRX 17.6 28 27 25 93 201
CAMOX 19.3 42 37 26 32 53
VS
SPY 15.9 39 48 60 107 229
The numbers speak for themselves. The funds not only underperformed recently but for the past 10 yrs. The risk is grossly underperforming the unmanaged QQQ & S&P 500 index funds. If you own the funds recommended your probably not a happy camper knowing this data. Follow the data points.

AMG is effectively a holding company. You may be familiar with at least a few of their funds, e.g. YACKX, TCMPX (mentioned by a few posters here as recently as 2020), BRWIX (formerly Brandywine), MGSEX (" Effective March 19, 2021, AMG Managers Special Equity Fund ... changed its name[] to AMG Veritas Asia Pacific Fund"), etc.
Though as noted with that last fund, AMG seems to have recently overhauled a few Managers Funds. And while one can ignore the earlier name change of BRWIX, M* observed that the entire management team was just replaced in March rendering its past history meaningless.
https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/series?sc=companyseries&type=N-PX&company=AMG

Thanks for the information! Try this link in a private window in Mozilla/Firefox/
https://www.barrons.com/articles/amg-to-buy-parnassus-51625420672

Complete text of article from Barron's: Affiliated Managers Group, the big holding company for asset managers, has agreed to buy Parnassus Investments, the socially responsible investment firm, for $600 million, according to a person knowledgeable about the transaction.
The move demonstrates the popularity of environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, investing. In recent years, Parnassus, based in San Francisco, has grown swiftly as the vogue for sustainable investing strengthened and as the firm developed a reputation for reliably good performance. It has five mutual funds, all fossil-fuel free.
Sustainable investing, also known as ESG investing, has been a huge and steady trend in recent years. In 2020, nearly a quarter of all fund flows went into sustainable funds. That could gain strength as U.S. retirement plans open up to sustainable investing.
About a third of the $51.4 trillion of U.S. assets under management is sustainably managed, according to US SIF, the trade group for the sustainable-investment industry. Indeed, a survey by investment manager Schroders found that 69% of retirement-plan participants said they would or might increase their overall contribution rate if their plan offered ESG options.
Both Parnassus and AMG (ticker: AMG) declined to comment or confirm the terms of the transaction. The transaction is subject to the agreement of Parnassus fund shareholders.
Parnassus is approximately 35% owned by its employees and 65% by the founder, Jerome Dodson, and his family. It oversees $47 billion. AMG invests in independent investment managers and allows them to remain independent while providing capital, distribution, and other capabilities to affiliates such as AQR Capital Management and Yacktman Asset Management. It has roughly $720 billion in assets under management.
In recent years, some of the most venerable names in U.S. sustainable investing have been purchased by larger entities. Calvert Research & Management was acquired by Eaton Vance in 2016, which in turn was bought by Morgan Stanley (MS) this year. In 2018, Pax World Management was acquired by Impax Asset Management (IPX.London). Trillium Asset Management was purchased last year by Australian financial services company Perpetual. This year, AMG bought 15% of Boston Common Partners, while Boston Common’s management team and principals retained 85%.
AMG has agreed to pay Parnassus $400 million in cash on closing and an additional $200 million one year later. There is an additional performance fee, according to the person familiar with the transaction. As part of the transaction, Parnassus CEO Ben Allen and chief investment officer Todd Ahlsten, both longtime employees, are signing contracts to remain with the firm. Ahlsten is also a member of the Barron’s Roundtable.
Founder Dodson, 78, a longtime star investor, stepped back last year, leaving Parnassus Endeavor Fund (PARWX) and the funds’ board of trustees. Dodson founded Parnassus in 1984 with $350,000 from friends and family.
Write to Leslie P. Norton at [email protected]