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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.
  • Boring Cash Alternatives & NFCU Special IRA CD 3% APY
    Corporate money market accounts used to be more common, but many shut down a few years ago. GE Interest Plus was one such account.
    Dominion Energy is a holding company rated BBB and these unsecured notes are junior to all notes and other liabilities of its subsidiaries. I'm not suggesting that this account cannot serve a useful purpose; just be aware of the risks.
    Here's an old WSJ article (2004) on this type of account:
    Corporate Money Funds Offer An Alternative Savings Method
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB107464416174007045
    The reason you might want one is simple: the rate of return can run as high as 2.6%, compared with returns of less than 1% on most similar saving vehicles. ...
    These products are well-liked by companies because they help them diversify their lender base ...
    Like all things in investing, increased reward is always burdened by an increase in risk -- and corporate money-market accounts aren't any different. On the surface, they're like any other savings account: You can withdraw money whenever you choose, write checks and -- in some cases -- even pay bills online.
    But with a corporate money-market account, your savings go toward funding bonds issued by the company -- and therein lies the risk. By taking this route, you're essentially investing in that company's corporate debt. That means you have to be entirely comfortable with one company's ability to pay its bills ...
    The best way to determine the risk of a corporate money-market account is to review the company's corporate-debt rating. Corporate-debt ratings describe companies' creditworthiness and are provided by ratings companies such as Standard & Poor's, Moody's Corp. and Fitch Ratings.
    DERI Prospectus:
    https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/715957/000119312519094557/d929220d424b5.htm
    Dominion Energy credit ratings:
    https://investors.dominionenergy.com/fixed-income/dominion-energy/default.aspx
    msf in Fund Discussions
  • AAA longer duration bonds a bit better, U.S.T. issues, March 20, Friday PM close, watching.....
    Hi Sir
    Maybe down 4-5% today at end close...we probably stay volatile like this until few more weeks until they have good data from covid19. so far 31 deaths past few weeks [much less prevalence then flu but much more lethal I suppose.]
    Don't really know if it will down another 20-30s% until we are done
    There are no safe place to go presently maybe except CDs/Cash. US-T yield is so low right now not a good place to buy
    I was very surprised at Mama's fidelity port 55s% bonds 45% stocks down only 2% year total return
    johnN johnN in Fund Discussions
  • Harvard Indirectly Holds Nearly $100,000 Worth of Stocks in Tobacco Companies
    Not to the subject, and @davidrmoran is more aware of this; but Harvard is closing it's doors as of March 15. All students to vacate as they would at the end of term. Pack it up and leave, no exceptions.
    So, the "smoke them if you've got them" doesn't mean much right now from an investment perspective, eh?
    catch22 catch22 in Fund Discussions
  • T. Rowe Price Institutional Africa & Middle East Fund to liquidate
    https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/852254/000174177320000504/c497.htm
    497 1 c497.htm IAM STICKER
    T. Rowe Price Institutional Africa & Middle East Fund
    Supplement to Prospectus and Summary Prospectus Dated March 1, 2020
    At a Board meeting held on March 9, 2020, the fund’s Board of Directors approved the closure and liquidation of the fund. The closure and liquidation are expected to occur on May 8, 2020 (“Liquidation Date”). Prior to the Liquidation Date, the assets of the fund will be liquidated at the discretion of the fund’s portfolio management and the fund will cease to pursue its investment objective. In anticipation of the closure and liquidation, effective April 27, 2020, the fund will be closed to new investors or existing shareholders to purchase Fund shares. At any time prior to the termination, we welcome you to exchange your shares of the fund for the same class of shares of another T. Rowe Price fund. After the fund is closed and liquidated, the fund will no longer be offered to shareholders for purchase.
    The date of this supplement is March 11, 2020.
    E171-041 3/11/20
    TheShadow TheShadow in Fund Discussions
  • Boring Cash Alternatives & NFCU Special IRA CD 3% APY
    Dominion Energy Reliability Investment (DERI)
    Dominion Energy Reliability Investment (DERI) is an investment product backed by Dominion Energy. Under this program, Dominion Energy borrows directly from investors and, in return, they receive a competitive floating interest rate and easy access to their money.
    pays 2.45%, 2.70% for >$50k
    Works like money market, not FDIC, can access/redeem your funds at any time via phone call or writing a check against your funds
    online access, can link bank accounts
    Best,
    Baseball Fan
    Baseball_Fan in Fund Discussions
  • Dodge and Cox
    D&C have good funds but many of them are riskier and it shows at market stress such as 2008 and many times when stocks go down at least 10%. This is why when volatility increases, such as the last 3 years, their funds lag.
    I have never owned their funds because I found better choices.
    DODBX-->I used to own PRWCX. In the last 3-5 years, DODBX ranks in its category at 90 and 50. 90 means it's in the bottom 10%. JABAX is much better too.
    DODIX-->is probably their best fund but I still owned PIMIX for several years, I know, it's not the same category. DODIX is really Multi sector light and why yesterday it lost -1% while most core plus did better.
    DODGX--->SP500(VFIAX/VFINX) has better performance for 5-10-15 years. This is PorVis(link) for 15 years that shows that SP500 had better performance, SD, Sortino.
    DODFX has a negative performance for 3-5 years and ranks in its category at 77,78 which is pretty bad. Very easy to find better funds such as AFCNX.
    D&C funds have low expenses which is nice but only one part of the puzzle.
    While I agree performance is only one piece of the puzzle, it's not reasonable to compare a value shop like D&C (DODFX) to a growth shop like AC (AFCNX). Growth has been a major tailwind for folks like American Century, WCM, etc.
    JoJo26 in Fund Discussions
  • Old_Skeet's Market Barometer ... Spring & Summer Reporting ... and, My Positioning
    Morn'in @Old_Skeet
    In tabulating my portfolio's asset allocation yesterday evening I noticed that my income funds were down while my equity funds were up. What's this saying?
    My view: As I noted in a previous post.
    While equity had an up day (March 10), most investment grade bonds took a break. While most U.S. gov't. issues are "holding", corporate bonds are not and had another substantial down day on Monday. I see this as investors not having to sell bonds for whatever reason, but a continued rotation away from corporate bonds; and also a rotation into longer duration. These bond types have more potential to be impacted to the negative as corporate earnings are likely to continue downward in the current COVID-19 market.
    Overall, I also expect equity-income funds to continue to struggle IF corporation earnings remain negatively impacted. A double whammy of falling equity prices and a downgrade of their quasi investment grade bonds. Plain vanilla active managed bond funds are being whipsawed, too; from a very active bond market, where corporate bonds are being whacked and if there is not a big enough percentage of AAA gov't. bonds in a fund, the corp. bond side is impacting this funds to the negative.
    The below list is from March 7, but the LQD has continued to move downward from this date. From March 4, last Wednesday; through yesterday, Tuesday, March 10; the general range for corporate "investment grade" bonds is: -3 through -4%. Whatever quality of IG corp. bonds that are held within any particular fund you hold, will be reflected. Digging into the quality of bond holdings within any of your funds will help identify why some are behaving in a particular fashion. Example: Ford Motor Co. has a large holding of BBB rated bonds in their debt issuance. This credit quality is borderline and may be downgraded as needed by S&P or Moody's, based upon forward prospects for the company's profitability.
    --- A quick look at S&P's bond rating guide:
    "AAA" and "AA" (high credit quality) and "A" and "BBB" (medium credit quality) are considered investment grade. Credit ratings for bonds below these designations ("BB," "B," "CCC," etc.) are considered low credit quality, and are commonly referred to as "junk bonds."
    Week / YTD
    --- MINT = -.02%/+.5% (Pimco Enhanced short maturity)
    --- SHY = +.7%/+2.2% (1-3 yr bills)
    --- IEI = +1.6%/+5.4% (3-7 yr notes)
    --- IEF = +2.8%/+9.5% (7-10 yr notes)
    --- TLT = +7.5%/+23.5% (20+ Yr UST Bond
    --- EDV = +10%/+31.4% (Vanguard extended duration gov't)
    --- ZROZ = +10.6%/+35% (UST., AAA, long duration zero coupon bonds)
    ***Other:
    --- LQD = +1.85%/+5.5% (corp. bonds)
    --- TIP =+2.1%/+5.2% (UST., inflation bonds, mixed duration)
    --- LTPZ = +7.1%/+17.9% (UST, long duration TIPs bonds)
    Enough from me, and hopefully not too clunky from a fast write.
    Take care,
    Catch
    catch22 catch22 in Other Investing
  • Old_Skeet's Market Barometer ... Spring & Summer Reporting ... and, My Positioning
    In tabulating my portfolio's asset allocation yesterday evening I noticed that my income funds were down while my equity funds were up. What's this saying? For me, it means some investors are having to sell bonds to cover their margin calls and/or perhaps some investors are now starting to move money back into stocks and leave bonds. For this past week I have favored equity income over fixed income and did a little equity buying reducing cash by 1% and raising my equities by 1%. This puts me back to my neutral equity allocation of 40%. This now leaves me somewhere close to 19% cash, 41% income and 40% equity within my asset allocation. In addition, my portfolio generates a good bit of income with an annual distribution yield of about 5%. This gives me the flexability to invest this income generation as I feel warranted (or take it to my pocket if needed).
    FWIW: I have been a buyer of equities at the 8%, 13% and 19% decline marks. My next buy step is targeted to take place, should the 500 Index move into bear market territory, somewhere between a decline of -20% to -25%. In addition, when the equity markets turn upwards I'll most likely buy during the upswing.
    Old_Skeet in Other Investing
  • Boring Cash Alternatives & NFCU Special IRA CD 3% APY
    3% sounds good. I was earlier touting NFCU's 3.5% CD, but the amount you're allowed to deposit is small: $3,000.00.
    That was the CD that originally got me to look at & join Navy Federal. Not only is that amount very small but comes with a qualifying requirement of a direct deposit (which I didn't really notice beforehand).
    zenbrew zenbrew in Fund Discussions
  • Boring Cash Alternatives & NFCU Special IRA CD 3% APY
    3% sounds good. I was earlier touting NFCU's 3.5% CD, but the amount you're allowed to deposit is small: $3,000.00.
    Crash Crash in Fund Discussions
  • Boring Cash Alternatives & NFCU Special IRA CD 3% APY
    Have been using ETFs such as MINT & NEAR for cash substitutes for years though after this past Monday, I'm not so sure. They have always been fairly stable. At one point Monday, NEAR fell by over 4%. It was down for over several hours by over 2%. Though by the end of the day, things evened out & was only down by about .24%. Not sure what computer algorithm had that jumping like that. Maybe this has happened before though I'm not typically around my computer watching intra-daily pricing.
    Fortunately I was already in the process of moving money over to Navy Federal into this IRA CD. It's a 37 month CD with a 3% APY. $50 minimum to open. $150,000 maximum which you can fund at any time in that period. You do have to be a Navy Federal Credit union member. Talking to a representative, their board typically meets at the end of the month & sets their rates in the first week of the month though they can potentially change things at any time. This time period works well for myself & when I'll need the money. Schwab at this time has 3 yr CDs at 1%. It took about a week & a half to transfer assets from Schwab to Navy Federal. The downside- totally boring. No drama.
    https://www.navyfederal.org/products-services/checking-savings/certificates-rates.php
    zenbrew zenbrew in Fund Discussions
  • Oakmark Funds - and Alternative suggestion(s) ?
    <<i>blockquote class="Quote" rel="VintageFreak">This is what is going to happen. As soon as you sell Oakmark funds, they will start outperforming.
    IMO stop worrying about beating the market, category or being performance leader. Focus on WHEN to buy before WHAT to buy.
    If you ever think an actively managed fund is not working for you, look for an index fund. In this case you can look at VBINX instead of OAKBX.
    For the record, I own OAKBX. I also own VWELX. Now if you look out 5 years, VWELX outperforms VBINX, otherwise VBINX edges out VWELX for shorted periods. Bottom line, you are not going to know which fund is going to outperform OAKBX over the next 5 years.
    Oh, I don't doubt the notion of a turnaround like that ' as soon as i sell' : ) - I mean, this very afternoon, while pondering a sell order on OAKEX - I happened to flip on CNBC today and out of the entire universe of possible fund mgrs - and someone I've NEVER seen interviewed on FI-Media EVER, there's Oakmark Manager David Herro at 3:30 LOL. And I don't 'watch' CNBC much other than occasionally checking indexes. I totally get where you are coming from on this. That said I may hang on to OAKIX - but OAKEX i is spotty and quite disappointing over a 5 year timeframe at this point with 98% of funds outperforming. I don't think it's 'the right' fund as a core position for exposure to foreign/international - bit too concentrated/value oriented - so, still probably going to replace it - maybe with an index such as FNDC, EFAV IEFA... a few that've been mentioned as a possible substitution by a Schwab CFP I chat with from time to time.
    mikes425 in Fund Discussions
  • Bond mutual funds analysis act 2 !!
    >> I sold ... PINCX ... BCOIX
    >> I bought PINCX+BCOIX earlier last week
    short-term-trading penalties / fees ?

    PAID $49.95 ST for PINCX. Paid nothing for BCOIX. Made thousands :-)
    I don't pay for buying Inst shares, selling doesn't have any fees. Many times I don't pay for ST penalties either. I have a special arrangement.
    how nice for you
    davidrmoran davidrmoran in Fund Discussions
  • Oakmark Funds - and Alternative suggestion(s) ?
    This is what is going to happen. As soon as you sell Oakmark funds, they will start outperforming.
    IMO stop worrying about beating the market, category or being performance leader. Focus on WHEN to buy before WHAT to buy.
    If you ever think an actively managed fund is not working for you, look for an index fund. In this case you can look at VBINX instead of OAKBX.
    For the record, I own OAKBX. I also own VWELX. Now if you look out 5 years, VWELX outperforms VBINX, otherwise VBINX edges out VWELX for shorted periods. Bottom line, you are not going to know which fund is going to outperform OAKBX over the next 5 years.
    VintageFreak VintageFreak in Fund Discussions
  • Oakmark Funds - and Alternative suggestion(s) ?
    I had OAKIX in an IRA and after a good 15-20 years got tired of its performance and swapped it for more VTSAX and never looked back (it wasn't a large amount). I've posted before that upon recs here and other research, I've channeled my int'l holdings into MGGPX and VWIGX and content with that. Good luck!
    Starchild Starchild in Fund Discussions
  • Oakmark Funds - and Alternative suggestion(s) ?
    VLAAX

    \\ Not familiar with the VL option you mention.

    VLAAX
    be sure to use MFOP
    Ok thanks. But as a diversifier in substitution for a foreign /international sector position...? Isn't VL a broad spectrum balanced fund?

    by VL I meant Value Line
    davidrmoran davidrmoran in Fund Discussions
  • funds that are holding up in bad markets, thriving in good
    I'm always curious to learn and, in particular, learn about who's managing well across different environments since those strike me as candidates for long term holdings (though certainly not sure things). I ran a quick screen at Morningstar looking for funds that have top 15% returns over the past month (through 3/9/2020) and over the past three years as well.
    Here's the code: fund / category / 4 week percentile rank / 36 month percentile rank / 36 month APR. In each category I took the fund with the lowest combined rank: a fund in the 1st percentile and 4th percentile would beat out a fund in the 5th percentile and 1st percentile (total 5 versus total 6). With more time, I would have done something more sophisticated.
    Columbia Thermostat / 15-30% equity / 3 / 2 / 7.2%.
    Madison Conservative Allocation / 30-50% equity / 1 / 9 / 5.3%.
    Walden Balanced / 50-85% equity / 9 / 3 / 6.5%
    PIMCO Stocks Plus Long Duration / 85%+ equity / 1 / 1/ 20%
    ATAC Rotation / tactical allocation / 1 / 2/ 10.8%
    Voya Global Perspectives / world allocation / 7 / 2 / 5.6%
    iShares Edge MSCI Minimum Volatility USA / large blend / 4 / 1/ 10.9%
    Akre Focus / large growth / 1 / 3 / 18.5%
    BMO Low Volatility Equity / large value / 1 / 1 / 7.3%
    ABR Dynamic Blend Equity & Volatility / long-short equity / 1 / 1/ 10.5%. Ummm ... up 20% in the past four weeks?
    Infinity Q Diversified Alpha / multi-alternative / 1 / 2 / 7.7%
    Government Street Mid-Cap / midcap blend / 5 / 2/ 6.6%
    T Rowe Price New Horizons / midcap growth / 1 / 2 / 18.2%
    Virtus KAR Mid-Cap Growth / midcap growth / 2 / 1 / 21.2%
    Jensen Quality Value / midcap value / 3 / 2 / 4.0%. A sad reflection on the state of value investing
    Calvert Small-Cap / small blend / 5 / 3 / 3.3%
    Wasatch Ultra Growth / small growth / 5 / 2 / 21.3%
    Camelot Excalibur Small Cap / small value / 1 / 5 / -0.4%. Eeek.
    The ABR fund invests in the S&P500, VIX futures and cash. In low vol markets, it increases equity and in high vol markets, it increases exposure to the VIX. Expensive but it's sort of worked.
    Akre is amazing. New Horizons, likewise. Columbia Thermostat keeps cropping up. Government Street Mid-Cap is tiny but excellent. The Virtus KAR folks are mostly closed, mostly really good.
    Just some thoughts on what's been working a bit.
    David
    David_Snowball in Fund Discussions
  • Dodge and Cox
    "This is why when volatility increases, such as the last 3 years, their funds lag."
    Volatility decreased for DODFX and in foreign markets.
    Std dev Jan 2014 - Jan 2017
    DODFX: 14.81%
    EFV: 12.97% (iShares MSCI EAFE Value, used as proxy for foreign large cap value market)
    VEU: 12.58% (Vanguard FTSE All-World, ex-US, used as proxy for foreign market)
    Std dev Jan 2017 - Jan 2020
    DODFX: 14.13%
    EFV: 12.12%
    VEU: 11.80%
    msf in Fund Discussions
  • Dodge and Cox
    D&C have good funds but many of them are riskier and it shows at market stress such as 2008 and many times when stocks go down at least 10%. This is why when volatility increases, such as the last 3 years, their funds lag.
    I have never owned their funds because I found better choices.
    DODBX-->I used to own PRWCX. In the last 3-5 years, DODBX ranks in its category at 90 and 50. 90 means it's in the bottom 10%. JABAX is much better too.
    DODIX-->is probably their best fund but I still owned PIMIX for several years, I know, it's not the same category. DODIX is really Multi sector light and why yesterday it lost -1% while most core plus did better.
    DODGX--->SP500(VFIAX/VFINX) has better performance for 5-10-15 years. This is PorVis(link) for 15 years that shows that SP500 had better performance, SD, Sortino.
    DODFX has a negative performance for 3-5 years and ranks in its category at 77,78 which is pretty bad. Very easy to find better funds such as AFCNX.
    D&C funds have low expenses which is nice but only one part of the puzzle.
    FD1000 in Fund Discussions
  • Bond mutual funds analysis act 2 !!
    At Schwab, you enter the trade and before the "PLACE ORDER" it will tell you
    DHEIX isn't available - only to institutions.
    DHEAX-free to buy, min $2500, 90 days early redemption fee at $49.95
    JMISX (Inst share)-it's free to buy(unique, not at Fidelity), $100 min, 90 days early fee at $49.95
    JMUTX-free to buy, min $2500, 90 days early redemption fee at $49.95
    FD1000 in Fund Discussions