FYI: (If link doesn't work, Google This Floating-Rate Fund Rises To The Top)
American Beacon’s Sound Point Floating Rate Income fund takes an unusual approach to investing in bonds that will protect investors from rising rates.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.barrons.com/articles/this-floating-rate-fund-rises-to-the-top-1531510823
M* Snapshot SOUAX:
https://www.morningstar.com/funds/XNAS/SOUAX/quote.html

FYI: (If link doesn't work. Google 2018 Mid-Year Roundtable: Good News For Stockpickers)
The broad market could struggle in the second half, but our investment experts see plenty of bargains in energy, media, retailing, and tech.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.barrons.com/articles/2018-mid-year-roundtable-good-news-for-stockpickers-1531516079

what is risk parity ?

I just stay with PRWCX even though it has been closed to new investors for some time. BTW it has been doing well among the asset allocation funds this year.

It’s hard for me to explain that fund’s success against similar funds. I’ve puzzled over it for years. Defies all logic. Keep expecting it to “fall off the wagon” some year - but it never does. :)
Own a modest chunk of the fund and have been a big fan of TRP for the 25 years I’ve with them ...
Still puzzling ...

Pretty much agree with @Catch22 ’s graphic illustration and @MikeM ‘s wry humor. :)
Well, here we are half way into the year and HSGFX is having one of it’s “better” years with a gain of +1.12% while sporting a 1.3% ER - which ain’t exactly cheap. Over 10 years the fund is still down around 6.5% annually. There must be some cash equivalency instruments that would have matched that 1.2% YTD for lower ER - but with less excitement.
Catch is correct that there’s a tradeoff between risk exposure and return. All depends on one’s situation. Don’t know if the board still draws youngsters in their early cumulative years (ages 20-40). Haven’t heard from them lately. But those folks having a 40-60 year investment time horizon should be all or nearly 100% in low-fee aggressive growth funds. For those of us over 70 and well into retirement & drawdown it’s a bit more complicated.
One added thought: If you consider balanced funds to be among your more risky assets, than there may be a bit of room for some of the more exotic hedge-like instruments for added diversification - allowing for the fact that, as Mike says, they’re high fee vehicles. I’ve got a small foothold in Price’s new TMSRX which certainly looks like a hedge fund on paper. Yet Price bills it as an “income” fund. Their definition agrees with its placement on their risk/return spectrum where it’s listed as comparable to old faithful RPSIX for anticipated risk/return. I’m currently “underwhelmed” by TMSRX’s performance - but, to its credit, it often runs opposite stocks, rising on down days for equities also moving in the reverse direction on up days. Anxious to read their first fund report which hasn’t been released yet.

Geez, today; more than ever, one can build their own (risk parity), eh?
Build your own "risk parity" is readily available via etf's or managed funds, if one chooses to be fully aggressive via whichever.
What ya want ??? ETF category list
From a male perspective, what one builds depends how much exposure to one's gonads on a chopping block is "enough".
'Course, you may want to have your own benchmark, yes?
I'll offer only these two that travel the 50-70% equity/bond mix:
--- FBALX with a 15 year annualized total return of 8.4%
--- FPURX with a 15 year annualized total return of 8.1%
what is risk parity ?
In the end (choose your own time frame), one will have their very good and mediocre performance years. Being in the right place at the right time with particular holdings, lends to the good and bad periods.
Sidenote: This house could have obtained a much larger return in the few years after the market melt, if we'd only known the market burn was really finished, well except for the ongoing burn(s) in Europe. But, we also escaped the market melt; so our base money starting point was higher than those who sold too much near the bottoms.
Good fortune with your ongoing, being in the right place at the right time with your investments; as well as attempting to determine what a reversion to the mean really is today.
Regards,
Catch

FYI: Ray Dalio may be slowing down, but the investment strategy he popularized is just getting started.
Bloomberg News reported recently that Dalio, founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates LP, will spread the firm’s ownership among more employees and give them a say about management and governance.
Dalio founded Bridgewater in 1975, but he will most likely be remembered for the All Weather fund the firm launched more than two decades later in 1996. That fund was the first to offer a strategy that has come to be known as “risk parity.”
Investors may not yet be familiar with risk parity, but that’s about to change. Putnam Investments introduced a risk parity mutual fund last year. Robo-adviser Wealthfront Inc. launched one this year and added it in February to accounts with more than $100,000 in taxable assets, raking in $780 million for the fund so far, according to Morningstar. More funds are likely to follow.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-07-11/ray-dalio-s-risk-parity-strategy-comes-to-the-masses

I don't think Vintage Freak had any bad intentions when he used the word "shyster." I know the word can have negative ethnic connotations, but sometimes you can tell by context whether someone is being nasty or not. The fighting here seems like a big to-do over nothing. Moreover, there has been some debate about the etymology of the word and whether it was ever meant to be offensive originally: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shyster
Ironically, Minerd is actually a devout Christian: podbay.fm/show/728070854/e/1388697240

Anyhow, MRESX: Look at those dividends. I'd want to hold something that would give me a more reliable, predictable div. Never had any luck with R.E. funds, anyhow. Any R.E. I currently own is decided upon by my fund managers. Currently, it's just 2.85% of all my stocks.

Count me as among the ignorant who might have used “shyster” innocently. (But I’ve committed much bigger blunders along life’s way). Fortunately, the law makes clear distinctions in guilt based on intent, and I firmly believe there was no intent here to insult anyone or any group. I do like being made aware of the sensitivities of different religions, social groups, nationalities, sexual orientations, etc. Once aware of those sensitivities, I try very hard to respect them.
I remember when as a young lad I thought the Confederate flag a stately symbol. Displaying it in southern states 50-60 years ago was seen as a tribute to loved ones lost in battle and a symbol of one’s love for his homeland, Over time the connotations thus associated changed drastically (Language is a living organism - and symbols are a form of language.) So when I see some jerk driving around in northern Michigan today flying a couple confederate flags from his Harley or high-lift PU, I know darned well it isn’t intended as a tribute to a fallen loved one or as a loving symbol of his homeland. It’s a despicable display of hate and a needless provocation. Such is the state of man.

@larryB, is this the connotation you are refering to, anti-semetic? I thought the word was just a reference to a shady lawyer and generalized for anyone else who fit that bill. Frankly I had no idea it had an anti-semetic reference to it (I would bet most people don't). I don't take shame for not knowing the reference, but now that I do, I for one will not use this phrase again. Thanks.
Is 'Shyster' Anti-Semitic?
https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/almID/900005387204/?slreturn=20180612171637

Yes, this is an investment area; and you already have money invested in this area if you have any broad based equity holdings.
A little something for your curious brain cells.
https://www.citylab.com/life/2018/07/americas-new-robot-geography/564155/

I've periodically noted here regarding bond yields and the yield curve of U.S. Treasury issues.
The curve continues to flatten among 30, 10 and 5 year issues.
This morning, reflecting some of yesterdays actions find 10 basis points between the 30 and 10 year, and 11 basis points between the 10 and 5 year issues.
---
30 year at 2.95%
10 year at 2.85%
5 year at 2.74%
As this time is different remains, since the market melt of almost 10 years ago; does the yield curve spread still provide meaningful indicators. One must think so, yes?
Big money is apparently still supporting long term bonds.....the pension funds, etc.; whomever is buying.
Well, just a blip of what is visible in part of the bond arena.
Take care,
Catch

I disagree vehimently with the thesis here. Perhaps it’s because I remember back a decade ago when the prevailing question on financial discussion boards wasn’t “Why do people hold so much cash?” but rather “Are money market funds safe enough to invest in?” I’m afraid current investment climate affects our perceptions of what’s safe / appropriate for different individuals and what is not.
Here’s an interesting line: “If a client has US$100 million, why would they need US$15 million or US$20 million in cash?” Bailin asks. “They should have it fully invested ....
I’d turn that question around and ask: “If an investor has $100 million, why would he/she expose that nice fortune to any market risk at all?”

Here's the full thread ...
https://twitter.com/svrnco/status/1010309418905407490

FYI: Most investors have way too much cash. Wealthy investors really have too much.
This is a phenomenon Citi Private Bank’s David Bailin has observed whether the markets are soaring, stumbling, or stagnant.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.barrons.com/articles/what-to-do-with-excess-cash-1531249298

@LewisBraham
One aspect that continues since the global equity mini-melt at the end of January; is that there remains a lot of down and up range, with buys and sells, in many sectors.
Without data available for an inside view, I can only speculate that machines are trading within ranges of overbought and oversold based upon, say; 6 months of backward data points. If 50% of this activity is machine programmed trading another substantial percentage will be the follow along human traders using their own tools of judgement for buy and sell points. Those who are very good at this type of trading will actually be able to sit atop their money in place of a chair.
My 2 cents worth.
Catch

Thanks, Charles, for finding this comment. I don't quite understand what Mr Lee is trying to say but I do share in his pain.

It's painful to see $QMNIX, $QSPIX and $QLEIX get crushed over the past couple of months. Seems like they got caught up in the massive short squeeze.

— Samuel Lee (@svrnco)

June 22, 2018

It's painful to see $QMNIX, $QSPIX and $QLEIX get crushed over the past couple of months. Seems like they got caught up in the massive short squeeze.

— Samuel Lee (@svrnco)

June 22, 2018

Grandeur Peak, recommended strongly by David (and Sam), continues to be an MFO Top Fund Family. All seven of its funds have beaten their peers handsomely since launch. Its two open funds, Global Stalwarts (GGSOX) and International Stalwarts (GISYX), have done particularly well this past year. That said, all seven are experiencing five months of drawdown.

Sorting through old basement boxes I came across my IRS returns as an adolescent, prepared by my father, from the early 1960s.
Along with W2s from the Balsams Resort ($450 for the summer) and International Harvester ($1k. other summers) were schedule lists of modest stock and fund holdings, Transcontinental Gas Pipeline, Draper (not Labs), Ryder (not trucks), and Ford, ... and also Mass. Investment Growth and Fidelity Trend funds, both extant.
So I went and plotted those two mutual funds from ~1959 to present, and observed how the $50 then would (reinvested, which we did not do so much) be ~$11k-$40k today.