Let's not forget the 400 lights service at Lincoln Memorial. And the pandemic rages on.
https://npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/01/19/958449203/400-lights-for-400-000-dead-to-illuminate-lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool

Yes, it is indeed an expensive moment to invest. Can't get past that fact. It's always hanging there, behind us, in the background. For myself, I'm glad I already did the work of streamlining and consolidating my portfolio, preparing for retirement. What I hold now, I hold in bigger amounts than two years ago. So, all of them are high-conviction bets. I've reduced foreign equity to 9-10%. If I decide to add to the foreign stuff, it will be in PRGSX. That's apart from a segregated few thousand dollars in an account dedicated to my wife's interests. HGGIX.

I keep adding to TMSRX, HMEAX and FIKFX. That's the conservative plan for 2021. Mr. Market is more than nuts. The inmates have been running the asylum.

It makes sense to be cautious when high equity valuations are considered.
I rebalanced my portfolio in late 2020 / early 2021 to lessen risk.
The current conditions don't necessarily preclude the "U.S. Market" from performing well this year.
The state of the pandemic will be a major factor.
I guess we'll have to see how it goes...

Thanks for the info!
"The actively managed ETF will be separate from but have a similar strategy to that of the $16.0 billion Vanguard Ultra-Short-Term Bond Fund (Investor Shares: VUBFX; Admiral™ Shares: VUSFX) and will be managed by the same portfolio management team as the mutual fund."
"The ETF will use the same benchmark as the mutual fund, the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Treasury Bellwethers: 1 Year Index. It will target the same average duration — approximately 1 year."
I use VUSFX in lieu of cash.
The expense ratio for this new ETF is estimated to be identical to VUSFX.
For all intents and purpose, it appears that the two funds will be very similar.
Since Vanguard states: "The actively managed ETF will be separate from...",
the ETF will not be linked to the mutual fund.
I don't know if Vanguard's patent for a mutual fund/ETF hybrid applies to actively managed funds.

Here are some follow-up articles:
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vanguard-announces-plans-to-launch-ultra-short-bond-etf-301211134.html
https://investornews.vanguard/vanguard-plans-to-add-ultra-short-bond-etf-to-lineup/

What Management Changes Mean for Dodge & Cox Funds
Link

+1.

All MF's are NTF. No commission. I did not mention load. That is a separate item. In my account if you click on" research and tools", then click on mutual funds, a page appears where you choose( in small letters) the list you wish ,either load list, no load list or NTF funds. Clicking on the no load list brings up a page and at the bottom it notes there are 11090 funds on the list. My checks were free. My Fidelity and Firstrade checks both list UMB bank in Missouri. I did not look at the ATM cards.
If purchasing TF funds at Fidelity for $5 is by first setting up the account for recurrent purchases on a timed basis and then discontinuing this, I prefer just buying NTF without the extra work. There is no secure e-mail that i know of.
Again I have no connection to Firstrade. For those who are willing to deal with the negatives and fees are an issue with another company then this may be an option. I have had a good experience so far. Yours may be different. As I noted earlier, I buy load waived funds at Fidelity ,if need be. I think Fidelity is a great company and have had an account with them for at least 20 years. Due diligence as always before making any decisions.

The high turnover appears to be more for making profit than protecting against loss. For example:

A funds turnover ratio can vary and rise due to a plethora of causes. Pastor, Stambaugh, and Taylor (2016) suggest that turnover ratios are higher when the market environment falls within certain parameters. Their findings suggest that turnover ratios are higher in an environment where investor sentiment is high, stock volatility is high, and stock market liquidity is low. These market characteristics allow for more profitable opportunities for fund managers, as well as an increase in flows in to the funds as investor sentiment rises. These parameters are similar to that of the recovery period following the time period one which is the time period analyzed in the research by Li, Klein, and Zhao (2012) who find that the highest turnover ratios are found during the time following a financial crisis. Following a time when markets are severely down it is not unexpected that many old positions would be sold off in order to replace them with new more promising positions that arise as the market begins to see positive returns again.

https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=honorscollege_finance
SEC yield is based on the idea of constant yield to maturity. Think about a yield curve where 2 year bonds pay 2% to maturity and one year bonds pay 1%. If you buy a two year bond with 2% YTM, you're getting a total of 4% interest. After a year, the market says that it will pay 1% interest.
The price adjusts accordingly though effectively you're getting 3% for that first year and 1% for the second year. If a fund continually buys two year bonds and sells them off after a year, it achieves a 3% yield. That comes at a cost. The average maturity of that fund is 1.5 years (bonds are all between one and two years from maturity). If the fund held the bonds to maturity, the fund's average maturity would be one year. Shorter maturity and less risk.
Here's a brief paper explaining this phenomenon:
https://www.northerntrust.com/documents/commentary/investment-commentary/maturity-bond-funds-vs-individual-bonds.pdf

Impressive, in a negative sense. 10:30 EST on January 20th and Portfolio Manager is still showing the January 13th (sic) closing price of $93.27. (That was a 3¢ drop from Jan 12th.) Date/price from Yahoo finance.
But at least the portfolio manager gives you a share price. Accuracy? Timeliness? Who needs them?

Related Article:
theyre-on-fire/

A great chart to keep in mind...

https://ofdollarsanddata.com/10-investing-lessons-from-2020/

I'll first reiterate that if there's a specific fund that you want, there's a good chance that Firstrade has it with no brokerage-charged commission and that it may have a lower min than one would find elsewhere.
That said, there are a lot of other statements that seem to be misunderstandings or misleading; or I don't understand.
Every MF on the platform is NTF.
If NTF means "no commission", that's true. But if it means no fee including no load, that doesn't appear to be the case. (Note that load funds are generally commission-free everywhere even though you may still have to pay the load.)
Consider Praxis Genesis Growth Fund. It has only one share class, MGAFX. When I log in to Firstrade, go to the customer fund screener, check Fund Family (Praxis), and check Load Type (Load), this fund along with a few others shows up. (It does not show up if I select no load instead of load to screen.)
FWIW, it appears to be NTF (really NTF, i.e. load-waived) at TD Ameritrade.
Firstrade does sell this fund: I go to my mutual fund trading page (from the "Trading" drop down, select "Mutual Funds") and enter MGAFX. It says that at Firstrade the fund has a $1K min and three day settlement. Since I closed my account years ago I can't actually test a trade.
The site is quirky in that the M* info page shows the normal 50,000 minimum [for VWIAX] but on the buy ticket the minimums change to $500
Same as for me, so that's evidence that I'm looking at the same page when looking up VWIAX or MGAFX. Note that if one enters VWELX or VWENX one sees that Wellington is not open to new investors at Firstrade. But if you could open VWENX at Firstrade, you'd only need $500.
Old joke: Customer - the guy down the street is selling the same thing at half the price
Shopkeeper - why don't you go down the street and buy it there?
Customer - he doesn't have any left
after becoming a customer and opening an account (no minimum) that number became 11,090 no load NTF funds when you are signed into the site and click on the no load fund list and they are all listed as such.
Yet the customer screener shows "just" 9,903 no load share classes. In addition, it shows 6,316 load share classes. To borrow from Graeme Edge of the Moody Blues: which is right and which is an illusion?. Buffalo Springfield also comes to mind.
I re-balance twice yearly. Also I prefer to reapportion monthly dividends/gains to positions of my own choice based on the economy, my current financial and tax situation or cash needs. Typically I would do about 40 buys/sells a year. At Fidelity about $800-1000/yr
At Fidelity, I can add to a TF position for $5 and sell for $0. 20 buys and 20 sells would run me $100 bucks.
I'm glad you mentioned tax situation. Fidelity has had online cost basis services - specific lot identification and changing default disposal method - down pat for decades. These days, most other brokerages make it easy as well. All I've found so far at Firstrade is: "Please contact your broker if you wish to change the default tax-relief method for your account or specify different tax lots for liquidation".
https://www.firstrade.com/content/en-us/accounts/taxcenter/?h=costbasis
Though few in number, Firstrade does have some nickel and dime fees. It charges $15 (or $50) for check printing. It doesn't appear to provide ATM rebates and charges 3% for foreign transactions after the first one each month. (BTW, Fidelity's debit card is provided by PNC bank, not UMB.)
Lewis asked about security against hacking. A question worth thinking about considering that I was able to log in years after closing my account by just looking up my old login/passwd/pin in my home files. The system didn't suggest that I might want to change my password (no password aging).
It doesn't seem to offer two factor authentication, though it claims that a PIN constitutes "an additional factor". It does not.

there are three generally recognized factors for authentication: something you know (such as a password), something you have (such as a hardware token or cell phone), and something you are (such as your fingerprint). Two-factor means the system is using two of these options."

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/two-factor-authentication-who-has-it-and-how-to-set-it-up
As near as I can tell, Firstrade doesn't provide secure email.
https://www.firstrade.com/content/en-us/customerservice/contactus
(The internal contact page has a different URL but the same info.)
Firstrade does meet legal requirements on security but doesn't seem to go beyond that.

We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards to guard your personal information. We protect your account information by placing it on the secure portion of our website and use industrial strength firewalls and encryption technology to protect personal information on our computer systems.

https://www.firstrade.com/content/en-us/customerservice/onlinesecurity/onlineprotectionguarantee
Note that SIPC insurance (or excess insurance) only kicks in when a brokerage is in financial trouble or filing bankruptcy. It doesn't cover run of the mill hacking or identity theft.
Firstrade, as with other brokerages (e.g. Fidelity), guarantees to cover your direct losses. This guarantee "does not include any tax consequences, legal fees and expenses, or any consequential, lost opportunity, special, indirect, incidental, punitive, exemplary or non-monetary damages."

The amount of federal debt held by the public totals more than $21 trillion, magnitudes above the $5.3 trillion debt carried by the country in the fourth quarter of 2008. Almost $4 trillion was added to the debt following the Trump administration’s efforts on the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
But the former Fed chair commented that because of near-zero short-term interest rates, the total interest burden as a share of GDP is lower now than it was before the financial crisis in 2008.
It looks t me , a fine line to walk .
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/treasury-nominee-janet-yellen-outlines-priorities-under-biden-administration-185327249.html
Stay Safe, Derf

If the ACH transfer is initiated before 1pm then the funds are available almost immediately, at least that has been my experience. If after 1pm the funds are available the next day. Why. I am not sure. Possibly it is based on the amount of assets in the account. It was a surprise to me, as I expected a 5 day wait according to their information on the site. I have only bought MF's so far. I use other brokerages for my ETF,s etc. so far.

Just a note to alert those concerned: PRIDX
Using (premium!) Portfolio Manager, Morningstar STILL, at this hour, shows a loss per share today, 19th January, of 3 cents. But look instead at the "snapshot" view of the fund, and you'll see that the actual daily performance was +1.75%.
(The lovely geniuses in charge stopped offering hard-currency amounts in that space, long ago. Percentage is offered, only.) .....MARKETWATCH shows the per share rise in actual dollars and cents to be +$1.61. And that info is available FOR FREE.

I would like to know how I can find out how much leverage is used in a fund. I use the Schwab platform. Tkx!

Knowing already that it's highly leveraged--- according to this thread (SVARX), I see what Morningstar offers in terms of examining what's in the fund's portfolio. Under "other," there's a BIG chunk of stuff. It seems to me that "other" ought to be a catch-all for a small portion of miscellaneous stuff that can't be accounted for, otherwise. But SVARX shows 38.14% in "Other." weird. It's a backdoor way of seeing it. But I suppose that is what's going on there.

Dodge & Cox has a high manager retention rate and manager tenure is very high.
Many of its managers/analysts choose to work at the firm for most (if not all) of their careers.
Here are a few examples:
Charles Pohl - nearly 40 years
Dana Emery - since 1983
David Hoeft - since 1993
Bryan Cameron - 38 years