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Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
  • What moves are you considering for 2022?
    Many fixed-income investments will face a very challenging environment in 2022.
    Starting bond yields are low and the Fed will cease QE before increasing short-term rates probably two or three times. Considering the market environment, I exchanged DODIX for the Stable Value Fund available in my 401(k). DODIX is a fine fund and I plan to reestablish a position at a later date.
  • What moves are you considering for 2022?
    @BenWP - Thank you for the interesting write-up on last year’s gems and clunkers. Nothing I owned “stunk up the joint” unless you count TMSRX - which couldn’t seem to get out of its own way. It’s been demoted from a 45-50% weighting inside my Alternative sleeve to a less impactful 25% at present. My 30% + allocation to fixed income didn’t shine - and surely hasn’t kept pace with inflation. But I expected that. In fact, I thought it would be worse. DODIX and DODLX both finished the year with losses under 1%. I will continue to hold both investment grade and more speculative grades of fixed income due to tolerance level and age.
    Agree with you … I expected more from RPGAX.
  • What moves are you considering for 2022?
    I’m also looking forward to reading @lynnbolin2021 . In fact I was reading his SA stories from last year including his best funds to own in 2021 to see how they fared. My favorite post of his was definitely … the Best No Load Funds at Fidelity. Some great posts and discussions came from that article. Here’s all of his on SA. https://seekingalpha.com/author/charles-bolin#regular_articles
    I know a lot is shared in fixed income and the like, but I appreciate the non retiree articles the most. I’m currently evaluating my small caps and International/Global funds these days. Always appreciate his articles and his use of MFO to design superior lists.
  • What moves are you considering for 2022?
    For sure, I am looking forward to your article in Seeking Alpha. I too is rebalancing $ among the defensive sectors from real estate and health care to utilities. I also will focus more on the total return from dividend funds/ETFs than bonds since not many bonds fared well in 2021.
  • What moves are you considering for 2022?
    While I don’t know what moves I may make for 2022, I have done a cursory review of what happened to my portfolio last year. Global growth stunk up the joint with MGGPX the worst offender with APFDX and ARTRX taking nose dives in the last few months of the year. Global allocation, as in RPGAX, was also a drag. Our biggest domestic growth fund, BIAWX, did fine, but trailed SPYG. TIEIX, the biggest position in the retirement account, outperformed the Nasdaq while rising 23%. EM was a bad joke, represented by ARTYX, who was shown the door a while back. Foreign large growth, PWJZX, was very volatile; up 13%, it failed to return even half of the S&P 500. I have more work to do on this long holiday weekend.
  • Climate change Investing -
    "Regulators are cracking down on many aspects of ESG investing with basic rules to make it easier to punish greenwashing, where the environmental credentials of an investment or activity are overstated, in a cross-border sector where investment is 'exploding'".
    Link
  • 2021 Year End Review Webinar
    On Tuesday, 4 January, we will be conducting our year-end webinar to review funds and the site. If you can make it, please join us. Register here for the morning session (11 a.m. Pacific) and/or here for the afternoon session (2 p.m. Pacific).
    Thank you!
    Will post charts and video shortly.
  • January MFO Ratings Posted
    Usually, I track maximum drawdown across market cycles or other periods of interest, but I found looking by calendar years fun.
    Most years, investors in the S&P 500 can expect drawdowns as much as 10%.
    More details here.
  • Climate change Investing -
    @BenWP- RE: "stampede to invest" - that is a direct quote from the Bloomberg article, not me . 1.5 Degrees is an Alliance Bernstein Private Placement fund.I am looking for similar vehicles.
    @LewisBraham. The article quoted 35 trillion moving into this space - though it reads like that might include all "ESG". Who are the leaders ?
  • What moves are you considering for 2022?
    @gmarceau : By loaded up ,from your post, more than 5% of your portfolio ?
    I bought a toe hold , less than 1% of my portfolio in GPGEX. It's nice to get in on the ground floor, but some worthy question have been ask about this new addition by the MFO community . The limited AUM was good news to hear.
    Enjoy the ride, Derf
    Hi Derf, yes much more than 5%, but the fund will probably have similar performance to the global reach, but the small asset base was the most attractive part.
    The one concern I had was that it’s a sort of a best ideas fund and those never become the top performer in any fund company’s roster.
    I saw it as a cheaper small micro global option, low AUM, set and forget. They’re growing the next generation at GP, so wouldn’t mind taking my mind off of a lot of my different funds.
  • What moves are you considering for 2022?
    My portfolio's value is near its all-time high.
    Due to age and circumstances, my primary strategic goal is to reduce equity risk.
    A secondary goal is to decrease interest-rate risk.
    Approximately 25% of the portfolio is currently allocated to fixed-income.
    My target fixed-income allocation is 30%.
    Today I executed the following transactions in my 401(k):
    Exchanged some of Vanguard 500 (CIT) for Wells Fargo Stable Value Fund
    Exchanged all of DODIX for Wells Fargo Stable Value Fund
    Next week I'll execute several trades in my Roth IRA to complete the rebalancing process.
  • What moves are you considering for 2022?
    @davidmoran: COWZ also uses free cash flow as the primary criterion to select the 100 stocks in its portfolio. DSTL and it are pretty well matched over a 2-yr period, while COWZ has done better this year.
  • Climate change Investing -
    I am interested in this space - Would love to get some input - specifically - the advantage or dis-advantage ( beside the cost ) of 1.5 Degrees- a long/short fund or alternatives in this space.
    https://info.bernstein.com/l/546252/2021-11-18/ykz3z
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-30/hurricane-force-gusts-fan-colorado-wildfires-force-evacuations
    1.5 Degrees aims to make high single digit returns by focusing on climate change opportunities and companies benefitting or losing out from events such as rising sea levels, shifting consumer preferences and increased greenhouse gas emissions, according to the document, which didn’t mention how much the strategy was seeking to raise.
    The fund joins a stampede among managers to integrate sustainability goals in their strategies as demand for such products booms. So-called environmental, social and governance investing has turned into a $35 trillion industry, providing a fertile ground for them to raise assets.
  • Just one day, but more "red" than I've seen for awhile.....
    The month of December has been a risk-off and risk-on scenarios where investors are trying to figure out how badly the market can be impacted by Omicron variant. It has been a risk-off scenario for the last weeks.
    This year uptick of infected cases exceeded last year's cases and the peak has yet to be reported. Hospitalization is dominated by the unvaccinated patients, >90%. Breakthrough cases are reported but these vaccinated (and boostered) patients are experiencing mild symptoms while being protected from serious hospitalization. We will see the peak of this wave several weeks after the New Year.
    Lockdown is unlikely to take place this time around. I expected the market will be volatile in the first part of 2022. So have a decent cash position may not be a good idea. Several fund managers who have done well in 2020's drawdown are all holding 10%+ cash.
  • Barry Ritholtz’s 12 Investing Tips
    +1 hank Currently, I'm averaging down on my ASML purchase at Fidelity. Fortunately, Fido allows purchase of fractional shares, so my total investment is only at $2,000 now, or about 2-3 shares !
  • Investment strategy for an 18 year old
    +1 hank Setting up a Fidelity brokerage account is the best way to go, in my opinion. You can access TRP funds plus buy Fidelity funds with no minimum required !
  • First Eagle Fund of America share class conversion
    https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/906352/000093041321002025/c102709_497.htm
    497 1 c102709_497.htm
    FIRST EAGLE FUNDS
    First Eagle Fund of America
    1345 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS
    NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10105
    (800) 334-2143
    SUPPLEMENT DATED DECEMBER 30, 2021
    TO SUMMARY PROSPECTUS, PROSPECTUS AND STATEMENT OF ADDITIONAL INFORMATION EACH DATED MARCH 1, 2021, AS SUPPLEMENTED
    This Supplement is intended to highlight certain changes to the Summary Prospectus, Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information each dated March 1, 2021, as supplemented. Please review these matters carefully.
    Conversion of Class Y Shares to Class A Shares for First Eagle Fund of America (the “Fund”)
    Effective on or about the close of business on February 28, 2022, all of the issued and outstanding Class Y shares of the Fund will be converted into Class A shares of the Fund with the same relative aggregate net asset value as the Class Y shares held immediately prior to the conversion. Class A shares of the Fund currently have the same net expense ratios, including the same distribution and service fees payable under the Fund’s 12b-1 plan, as the Class Y shares. No sales charge (load), fee or other charge will be imposed on the conversion. In addition, existing Class Y shareholders at the time of conversion will be able to purchase additional Class A shares of the Fund without a sales charge.
    Please refer to the Fund’s Prospectus for more information on Class A shares. The conversion is not expected to be a taxable event for federal income tax purposes and should not result in recognition of gain or loss by converting shareholders.
    Class Y shares of the Fund, which are currently closed to new investors subject to limited exceptions, will cease to be offered following the conversion.
    Effective upon the conversion, and except as indicated above, all references to Class Y shares of the Fund in the Fund’s Summary Prospectus, Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information are hereby deleted.
    * * * *
    The information in this Supplement modifies (and if inconsistent, replaces) information contained in the Fund’s Summary Prospectus, and First Eagle Funds’ Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information each dated March 1, 2021, as supplemented. Except as noted above, no other provisions of the Summary Prospectus, Prospectus or Statement of Additional Information are modified by this Supplement.
  • Just one day, but more "red" than I've seen for awhile.....
    Coincidence? Today Pres. Biden and Russian’s Vladimir Putin were scheduled to hold a telephone conference at 3:30 PM over the growing crisis atmosphere surrounding the Ukraine. Article
    Almost on-queue the equity markets rolled over beginning around 3:30. All 3 major indexes turned red after a strong showing most of the day. And gold popped by $12.00. (Miners are currently ahead by about 2% for the day.)
    Besides the risk of armed confrontation over the Ukraine there are many possible economic ramifications. Europe - particularly Germany - seems dependent on Russian natural gas for heating.
    Alternate theory - Bloomberg attributes the change in markets to falling cruise industry stocks based on the latest CDC directive.
    Here’s how the major indexes looked a few minutes before today’s close (on very thin trading):
    Dow 36,380.57 -108.06 -0.30%
    S&P 500 4,776.77 -16.29 -0.34%
    Nasdaq 15,733.95 -32.27 -0.20%
    GlobalDow 4,136.61 -8.22 -0.20%
    Gold 1,817.80 12.00 0.66%
    Oil 76.58 0.02 0.03%
    (From MarketWatch)