Barron’s Top Fund Families of 2019 It’s not hard to access the story incognito. If you have the Duck Go browser downloaded on your device it will get you in. Re TRP: They were #20 in the main ranking of fund houses (for 2919). Following those overall rankings (about 55) they provided additional (smaller) sub-sets of rankings, (tax free bonds, etc.) Frankly, it wasn’t worth my time to dig into all that.
One year performance is just that. May or may not be representative of the firm’s quality. I think front-office interaction can say a lot about the depth and quality of a company. I owned some Strong funds in the late 90s. There were ominous signs in dealing with them (like nastiness from phone reps and confirmed trades not being executed for several days or not at all) that caused me to bail out early - about a year before the scandal broke. And, they continued to boast some pretty hot funds during that time - even though the old man was later found to have had his fingers in the til. So the small stuff like that can say a lot. In the case of T Rowe, they tend to be a bit more cautious on average with your money than many. I expect they’d rank a bit higher than last year during a down year, or even a “more average” up year.
D&C wasn't among the top 55 from what I could tell. Yet they were favorably mentioned in the accompanying narrative. Likely, they stood out in one or more of the sub-sets I alluded to. Like the Kipplingers listings earlier this year, the Barron’s ranking amounted to good “financial porn”. No harm in looking at it. But I thought that for a low budget publication, Kipplingers had the better story.
EDIT: There are 5 and 10 year rankings underneath the feature story. TRP did substantially better on those. #4 and #5 for 5 and 10 year periods respectively.
Warren had a tough year — how might explain it? This is a pretty good recurring once a decade article "why can't Warren beat the SP500" article, similar to 2000. I do think he could do several things better ( like buy back more shares if he can't find an "elephant")
On the other hand, having owned BRK.B since 1999, I do think Warren has done a lot of things well. Of most importance he has brought in new and younger mangers to do things ( buy Apple) he seemed unable to consider.
I have never understood why if he cannot find large companies to buy in toto, he doesn't put more money into other stocks, especially good companies that trip up.
The stock will probably pop when he dies in anticipation of a dividend or larger buybacks.
Most of his dramatic market beating achievements were after the 1974 bear market when he established his KO AMP and other large positions.
He can rebound quickly after dramatic declines as he has the money and the stomach to jump in.
As a long term investment, with a diverse revenue stream, it is a not a bad place to be, but I would not bet the farm. On the other hand, it is not likely to drop 30% overnight on an earnings miss.
FPA International Value and World Value mutual funds.
Wealthtrack - Weekly Investment Show - with Consuelo Mack Feb 14th Episode:
Warren had a tough year — how might explain it? I wish investors were given an option to have their dividends reinvested on a tax-deferred basis into new shares instead of taking taxable dividends payments. Oh, I forgot, that would be a "gift for the millionaires and billionaires." It would also take away the one benefit of investing in Berkshire Hathaway instead of the S&P500 or TSM Index.
Why So Many Mutual Funds Can’t Beat the Indexes Why accept 6% TR on a managed fund at a high ER when twice that TR is available for .05% or less using index funds? I do pay 1.3% for superior managed performance for part of my portfolio.
Play Your Game...KKR's Market Prespective I like good news:
The good news is that, as we describe below in detail, we still see a lot of value in the “great unloved,” or the middle part of the market that actually looks attractively priced against today’s low interest rate backdrop, particularly if significant operational improvement can be implemented.
International Markets:
Non-U.S. markets are now cheap enough that, even with their flawed compositions (which is why we prefer Private Equity to Public Equity outside the U.S.; see below for details), they warrant investor attention for at least a cyclical “catch-up trade.” Also, central bank liquidity trends are now generally more in favor of international markets.
The Asian Millennial:
this year we want to allocate additional dollars to vehicles that are capturing the explosion in buying power that is being unleashed in Asia. By way of background, there are now a total of 826 million millennials in Asia, compared to 67 million in the United States. Because of this segment’s heft, total consumption in Asia actually passed that of Europe in 2011, and it is poised to exceed the U.S. by 2022. How should one invest behind this theme? See Section IV for more details, but personal financial services, healthcare services, wellness/beauty, healthier foods, and food safety should all be major long-term beneficiaries of the environment we are envisioning.
For your investing and reading pleasure:
https://kkr.com/global-perspectives/publications/play-your-gameWhere will growth be over the next
5-10 years?
https://screencast.com/t/CKZuBjabnHWa
Barron’s Top Fund Families of 2019 https://www.barrons.com/articles/top-fund-families-for-2020-barrons-annual-ranking-51581711228Barron’s Top Fund Families of 2019
Good years are great. Investors have reveled in more than a decade’s worth of markets marching higher in lockstep. Last year, the S&P
500 index returned 31%, international markets climbed more than 20%, corporate bonds soared 14%, and even Treasuries gained nearly 8%. That was certainly good news for index investors, who went along for the ride. But it’s a high bar for active managers, most of whom still struggle to beat their benchmarks.
VLAAX Whoever is responsible for bringing this to my attention, I thank you. Really good long-term record, and it's just on fire out of the gate in 2020. VLAAX Value Line Asset Allocation, in the 50-70% stocks category at Morningstar. One drawback: high Expense Ratio. But I've seen worse. Our plan is to put wife's old 403b in this fund, and not worry about it, forever. We just mailed the paperwork.
Bond Funds Are Hotter Than Tesla
Where To Invest $10,000 Right Now Here's something a little different!
Capital One is offering a cash bonus of $200 on their new 360 Performance Savings Account. Deposit $10,000 within 10 days of account opening and you will receive a $200 cash bonus into your account after 90 days.
The current APY for this account is 1.8%. With a $200 cash bonus on $10,000 that boosts the effective 12 month return to 3.8%. Not bad for an FDIC insured investment. I've already taken advantage of this offer. Here's the link:
https://www.capitalone.com/save1000/
Just received my $200 cash bonus after keeping $10,000 on deposit for 90 days. Well done Capital One! The APY for the period dropped from 1.8% to 1.7% but still a very nice 9.8% risk-free annualized return (bonus plus interest) for the 90 days.
Chase Bank is offering a $1
50 bonus on $10,000 with similar terms. You will lose the bonus if you close your account within 6 months, however.
https://accounts.chase.com/consumer/banking/online/seocombo
Rebalancing Your Portfolio Ya, this is a blatant come-on. Cripes. i am simply staying the course. Valuations and prices are just too rich these days. I'm near my self-proclaimed sweet-spot in terms of allocation. $100 per month is going into PTIAX automatically. Maybe I'll get to 60% in bonds in my NEXT lifetime? In the meantime, I am enjoying the rising market. 56 bonds, 36 stocks, 7 cash. And I like living HERE, as opposed to where I WAS. :)
Warren had a tough year — how might explain it? BEKA is trailing the SP
500(VFIAX) for 1-3-
5-10 years. See (
chart)
SP
500 has higher performance but also better SD, Sharpe and Sortino. See PortVis (
link).
