The two funds I sold were held within my hybrid income sleeve. I'll be buying during the next pullback within this sleeve thus maintaing my allocation. If the pullback comes soon I'll be buying other funds after 31 days I may by back one of the ones sold. I have targeted some of this money to go into CTFAX. CTFAX positions based upon the movement of the S&P 500 Index.

Yes as you know I greatly appreciate your posts and you sharing your strategy. So Im assuming youre taking your equity position down a bit here with this rally. Are you creating a spif? I'm currently at about 50% equities now and dollar cost averaging back into the market. I was hoping it would break 2400 again so i could add more to equities but I think I'll get another chance with this market. I'm also evaluating a couple of bond funds

I'm an asset allocator. I'm working within the confines of my allocation of 15-40-45. So, yes to the question. We all have to govern as we feel best.

Hi guys. Pick a number for a low. Mine is 2000 for the S&P 500. With a 5 percent earnings yield equates to the Index's earnings being about $100. Currently S&P's projects earnings to be in the mid $130's thru summer. With a 5 percent earnings yield this puts the Index in the 2600 to 2700 range. As I write the Index is at 2580 range. BINGO. Sure it will move around some from here based upon the news.
I'm doing some tax loss selling today. This will raise my cash by about 5 percent. And, I will do some select buying mostly on the income side of my portfolio in the near term.

Other than DODIX, I would not own any other D&C funds. I got burned by DODGX during the financial crisis in 2008 and vowed never to return once I got to a point where I felt comfortable selling. IMHO, they are operating on their past reputation pre-2008. I'm not surprised to see DODGX and DODFX doing worse than their respective categories during this current mess. There are plenty of better alternatives, IMHO.

Well put and what I have been saying for years. I think maybe D&C managers are more comfortable investing in financial/banking stocks which were their biggest category and not realizing this category has been lagging the SP500 while the high tech is where you have all the value+growth.

@davidrmoran: har, imagine saying of FAIRX, CGMFX, or even FMAGX that they were operating on their pre 08 rep

I used to own FAIRX,OAKBX,SGENX for about 7-8 years until 2009. In these years when I own a very high % in stocks, it fit my criteria for good risk/reward funds. PV (link) I don't believe in investing based on prior reputation.

Hi @Bitzer. No worries on a hard time. I'm looking for my thoughts to be challenged :) and I appreciate all feedback. But what you said is exactly my point for possibly picking up a L/S fund now. "BTAL clobbered VTI in 2018, 2020". My crystal ball sees more downside in 2020 and maybe beyond, and that ball works 50% of the time!
I'm not looking for a long term holding here. I've always been an advocate against these funds long term (balanced funds will always win is my motto). I'm looking for something that holds up in a recession environment better that straight equities - VTI. I mentioned above, I think bonds are risky and corporate bonds may become even more so. Gold ETFs, "paper" as described by some, may also have more risk than I appreciated and I don't need another IOFAX surprise.
I don't plan to sell any equity funds. Probably to late for that. Just looking for diversification with possibly less risk than bonds and gold ETFs - during this upcoming recession.

With the S&P 500 coming off of the 2200 range towards the last part of March the trend is up. Now at the 2580 range as I write! I would not be surprised to see a near term upside to 2700 range. Perhaps, even 2800.
With a 5% earnings yield 2200 = $110 in earnings ... and, at 2800 = $140.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/05/stock-market-futures-open-to-close-news.html

I opened a position with ARTSX in my IRA, as I like its long and short-term performance. I'll probably add about $500 per month over the course of several months. Not in a hurry to dump a lot of money into this market for the time being.

@MikeM I guess I can rephrase that. I found the info on the fact sheet of the fund to give me what I needed to determine what the bond portfolio looked like. I then looked at the holdings of other funds and landed on the low duration fund.
I think my issue is the fund down a little more than than the s&p or large value and there seems to be the thought of something wrong with it when Mstar shows it is more volatile.
@Bitzer I agree with you but I am probably 50/50 or so not 90/10. I have been on the site since FundAlarm and I have gone through the list over the years and many funds are no longer around or sounded promising and just weren't. I guess just like the Spiva reports we are lucky to find any funds that consistently beat the benchmarks or at least do well on a risk adjusted basis. I started using mostly factor ETFs/Funds like DSEEX kind of is because of this.

Hi @MikeM
I'm a nope, too; with @Mark . Too many spinning wheels; and mood swings/whims of the managers must also be taken into account.
You can build your own long/short/neutral fund.
At times one of the choices will be "long", meaning a better return and at other periods the other choice will be "short", not performing as well. In either case, the anticipated blend return could keep you ahead and no less than "neutral", meaning "flat".
The two choices are AGG (mixed bonds) and QQQ (large cap growth). Below is the average return of both combined, with the assumption that annually one would have to rebalance to maintain a 50/50% mix. I picked these two for the long term data available, and QQQ in particular, as I maintain that large growth will still perform better going forward in the equity world.
YTD = -10.6% (to be determined, eh?)
1 year = +4.8%
3 year = +8.6%
5 year = +8%
10 year = +9.7%
15 year = +8.3%
Life = +5.6% (AGG incep. = Sept. 2003, QQQ incep = Mar. 1999)
Compare these returns to the time periods available for the funds you noted, and then make your choice.
Be well.
Catch

here is msf:
I was simply addressing the comment that the fund is opaque. Its practices and use of derivatives seem rather transparent (IMHO moreso than many funds); its bond holdings and the equity index it is tracking are not.

from FD1000:
DSEEX-First, managers invest in global bonds then, they look at 11 US stock sectors and select 5 undervalued sectors, then take 4 sectors out of 5 with the best momentum. They don't invest directly in the index but in a derivative that is similar to the index.
Basically, you get 200% investments for the price of 100%. You get real bonds + derivative of stock indexes.
To make even simpler, let's assume they invest in just one sector SPY and assume the bond portion makes 3-4% annually. It means, the performance will be SPY + 3-4% - (paying for derivatives).

long thread discussion, if anyone wants to get into the weeds of volatility and more (ah, those were the days):
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/comment/114551

In the early days of gold mining, doing laundry was outsourced to China, because outsourcing was less expensive. Plus ça change.

In order to wash your own clothes in San Francisco, you had to buy water, paying 25 cents for two buckets’ worth. Then, of course, it wasn’t manly to do your own laundry. So many men sent their dirty clothes to be laundered in China.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/02/12/days-gone-by-clothes-in-mid-1800s-san-francisco-cleaned-at-washer-womans-bay/

I have not been a proponent for these strategies, at least not as a long term strategy, but I'm considering selling a couple non-equity fund/ETF's and going that path with some money. Thought I'd reach out to see if anyone else is thinking similarly or has already done so. If so, what would be your suggested choices.
The basis for this is that I think we are in for a fairly long duration of economic whoa and we will be testing new lows in the market over the next year. That's my crystal ball. Some think the S&P 500 may not bottom until the 1500-1800 range. That's an additional drop of 30-40% from Fridays close. Maybe I'm just reacting to my morning coffee and Barron's paper but I certainly don't see a V shape recovery to this 'yet to be announced recession'.
In any case, I'm considering selling my gold ETF and a bond fund and putting that money into one or 2 of these funds. I did some initial research on Schwab and re-read a commentary David had here from Feb. 2019.
My short list:
- NCLIX
- GSSFX (TF at schwab)
- FVALX (TF at schwab)
- RLSFX
- MNWAX a very consistent though muted return trend up in all markets
- BTAL
I refuse to pay the TF so I guess 2 on my short list won't happen, sadly. I'm leaning to the last 2 on the list.

'Poorly performing, extra volatility, weak in downturn', these phrases make me think you guys should be glad not to be holding TILCX, for example. Much less an actual subpar fund. (Who thought it would be comparatively stronger in a downturn? It's not a balanced fund.) Until the middle of March DSE_X has tracked SP500 pretty closely, above it often but more recently below it. The last few weeks have been worse, no question, with the new bond problems which have surprised everyone.
I believe @msf more than once in the past has attempted savvy descriptions or perhaps informed speculations of the ingredients of the bond sauce.

at the fund there's an investor letter. he has a such a strict value bent that he STILL is @ 50% cash. So if it gets to his buy levels, I want to be in as many of those picks will be multibaggers.

Howdy folks,
@johnN, I've dealt with apmex.com for years for bullion although not exclusively. They're painless. To buy higher end coins, the clearing house is collectorscorner.com . These are mostly slabbed coins and you'll find the top 10-15 dealers listing their coins here. I'm very fortunate where I live here in mid Michigan because Liberty Coins is here and I've dealt with them for years. https://libertycoinservice.com/
Never, ever, ever buy anything off of TV. It's all marked up about 50% over common retail. Also, you CAN get some buys on Ebay but it's tough and you really have to shop and know your sellers.
good luck,
rono

Consider IHI as an alternative to FSMEX if an option for you. Similar performance YTD and better over 3 and 5 year periods (per Schwab data)

Hi sir @_rono
What websites do you buy/sell your coins
Friend told us to use, had great experience previously with apmex
https://www.apmex.com/sell-gold-sell-silver-overview
We still have ed gld but only 0.5% of portfolio
Thx

Hi @davfor First, thank you for the article post.
I have not read the write in full, but much had been discussed here; about forward impacts in so many areas. The economy will be damaged very deeply, just look around with what you know and understand about the state you reside. The cranial-rectal inversion syndrome crowd, for whatever reason, remain impaired with critical thinking. Data page (I'll try the full open link at the end, below my name. It will not link properly at this time when embedded) for the young who don't/didn't know better
and why I did and do still fear the number of retired snowbirds when they leave their southern nests and return to Michigan, let alone the young invincible and the southern states who refused to close the beaches, etc. The data related link in bold is for the danger that has already arrived regarding the young ones. Surely, they didn't THINK that they might be involved in the deaths of family members or friends who are more "at risk".
As to the adults with "the cranial-rectal inversion syndrome", well; so many of the older ones I know are not fixable; although some are beginning to "see the light". I/we use Facebook as linkage to our local school system. 'Course, we had to create a page/name; but there is nothing to see at the page........blank city. However, this allows me to visit other pages to read some posts (can't see everything without being a "friend"); but I see most of the posts and replies. Pretty sad bunch on the right side of the fence; folks I've know for decades. They're still posting about getting rid of Pelosi.....they have stopped the posts about COVID not being more of a problem than the common FLU. I emailed 5 of the people I've known for many years, ranging in age from 60-76. I noted to them that I know 3 of you were and/or are still smokers and that 2 of you have had mild heart conditions; and are you aware that if you contract the virus that your odds of surviving are very small. No replies yet.
A last note regarding Facebook pages I viewed this morning (April 5). A known (I know him) right winger placed a post (data source unknown, as is usual) stated that the virus "success" rate for recovery is 98.54%, "Why isn't this number being talked about on TV/media. Using a rounded figure of 330 million for U.S. population, his math works out to a death number of, 4,818,000. Geez.
AS to the adults who remain with the "cranial-rectal inversion syndrome" here's the game being played by Gov. Kemp of Georgia. The link has
multiple choices for reading....especially the Tybee Island Mayor.
Personal summary = We do our best here to stay out of harms way to avoid contracting the virus; and there remains so many dumb asses in the pathway to safety. I'd like to take them all to Detroit to help the paramedics and hospital staff. OH, and you want to wear a mask.......and you didn't bring your own........sorry, we're out of stock. Check Amazon.
Talk about part of our society being so screwed up in the brain cell area. I do believe they are in the land of OZ and I know which character they are.....
I'm done, I'm tired of writing about all of this.
Nap time is in my future.
Take care of you and yours,
Catch
https://t.co/3A3ePn9Vin" Click the map, enlarge and unmute on sound. About 1:15 minutes

@rono - who said "The private for profit health care system is imploding before our eyes." Honestly I can't say that's a bad thing. I remember going to the doctor as a kid up through going as a dad through maternity/childbirth. Appointment-treated-doctor sent invoice-patient paid. There was no mention of insurance, healthcare providers, in/out of network bullshit. It was like a trip to your auto mechanic or grocery store or hardware store or lumber yard, whatever. Now those bloodsuckers in the middle add in multiple layers of worthless nonsense and red tape voodoo that do nothing but gouge patients/clients and leave them in debt and despair. Honestly can anybody tell me WTF good they are?
What's worse, if I try to go to a doctor's office or a medical clinic with CASH, DOLLAR BILLS in my hand I get charged 1.5-2X the amount because I don't use the insurer's or their healthcare plans either in or out of network. Get back to me when you figure that one out would you please.
@JohnN - I sincerely hope that what you reported regarding slow/empty ER's is true. I have many friends (nurses/doctors/otherwise) in the field and they are not seeing that yet. Change would be welcome.