FYI: Exchange-traded funds that invest in companies around the world shed almost $20 billion in assets, the biggest monthly outflows in history, said Matt Bartolini, head of Americas research for State Street Corp.’s ETF business. Global stock markets fell after President Trump intensified trade battles with China and Mexico, leaving investors with few palatable options beyond seeking refuge in the safest bonds.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.wsj.com/articles/investors-took-may-vacation-from-stock-funds-11559671991?mod=md_mf_news

FYI: After a decade of low interest rates, investment income is still difficult to come by. The S&P 500 offers a dividend yield that hovers near 2%. The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond offers investors less than 3% in annual interest.
But closed-end funds can offer juiced investment yields to investors through a number of their structural attributes. In these vehicles, asset classes like tax-free municipal bonds may yield over 5% annually. Taxable bonds and dividend-paying stocks may offer yields over 7%.
According to Closed-End Fund Advisors, a fee-based RIA in Richmond, Va., the average closed-end fund was up 11.8% in the first quarter of 2019 (it fell 8.7% in the fourth quarter of 2018). The average equity closed-end fund in the first quarter was up 14.8%, besting the S&P 500’s
Regards,
Ted
https://www.fa-mag.com/news/income-opportunities-are-open-in-closed-end-funds-44997.html?print
M* Snapshot EXG:
https://www.morningstar.com/cefs/xnys/exg/quote.html
M* Snapshot TY:
https://www.morningstar.com/cefs/XNYS/TY/quote.html
M* Snapshot FAX:
https://www.morningstar.com/cefs/xase/fax/quote.html

Update:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/926678/000089418919003465/brandes06032019497e1.htm
497 1 brandes06032019497e1.htm BRANDES VALUE NEXTSHARES 497E
BRANDES VALUE NEXTSHARES
(The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC - BVNSC)
__________________________________________________________
Supplement dated June 3, 2019 to
Prospectus dated January 31, 2019
______________________________________________________________________
On May 29, 2019, Brandes Investment Trust announced that Brandes Investment Partners, L.P., the Advisor to the Brandes Value NextShares (the “NextShares Fund”), has recommended, and the Board of Trustees of Brandes Investment Trust has approved, the liquidation and termination of the NextShares Fund (the “Liquidation”). The Advisor’s recommendation was primarily based on the fact that the Advisor does not anticipate that the NextShares Fund will experience meaningful growth in the foreseeable future. The Liquidation is expected to occur on June 28, 2019. As a result, the Advisor and the Board believe that the Liquidation of the Fund is in the best interests of shareholders.
Shares of the NextShares Fund are listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”). At the request of Nasdaq, the NextShares Fund has agreed to modify the timing of events related to the Liquidation. Accordingly, as of the close of business on June 27, 2019, the following will occur: (1) the NextShares Fund will no longer accept orders for new creation units; and (2) trading in shares of the NextShares Fund will be halted. In addition, effective immediately, the Advisor will begin an orderly transition of the NextShares Fund’s portfolio securities to cash and cash equivalents and the NextShares Fund will cease investing in assets in accordance with its stated investment objective and policies.
Prior to the close of business on June 27, 2019, shareholders may only be able to sell their shares to certain broker-dealers, and there is no assurance that there will be a market for the NextShares Fund’s shares during that time period. Customary brokerage charges may apply to such transactions.
On or about June 28, 2019, the NextShares Fund will liquidate its assets and distribute cash pro rata to all remaining shareholders. These distributions are taxable events. Shareholders should contact their tax adviser to discuss the income tax consequences of the Liquidation. In addition, these payments to shareholders will include accrued capital gains and dividends, if any. As calculated on June 28, 2019, the NextShares Fund’s net asset value will reflect the costs of closing the NextShares Fund. Once the distributions are complete, the NextShares Fund will terminate.
Please contact the NextShares Fund at (800) 395-3807 if you have questions.
Please retain this Supplement with the Prospectus.

One can purchase the institutional class shares TIBIX with a $2500 min, albeit with a transaction fee, in Fidelity IRA accounts.
TIBIX is available with a $100K min (and transaction fee) in all types of accounts at Vanguard.

FYI: Ben Kirby, a co-manager of the Thornburg Investment Income Builder fund, says that only two parts of the market look attractive these days: short-term credit and dividend-paying stocks.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury Note was recently yielding 2.17%, not far above the S&P 500’s average dividend yield of about 2%. Consider that the two-year note was recently at around 2%, so investors are picking up almost as much yield there as they would holding a 10-year note.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.barrons.com/articles/buying-short-term-bonds-dividend-stocks-51559336308?refsec=income-investing
M* Snapshot TIBAX:
https://www.morningstar.com/funds/XNAS/TIBAX/quote.html
Lipper Snapshot TIBAX:
https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/fund/tibax
TIBAX Is Ranked #1 In The (WA) Fund Category By U.S. News & world Report:
https://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/world-allocation/thornburg-investment-income-builder-fund/tibax

I'm not clear on your objectives here - dialing down risk by shifting from equities to bonds with a less aggressive hybrid fund, while simultaneously dialing up risk by shifting from MMF to an intermediate term bond fund (ftbfx thread). As I noted in that thread, bonds may be overpriced now.
With respect to MBEAX, I almost always use VWELX as my gold standard. If I'm looking at funds in the moderate allocation space, I want to hear a reason why another fund is considered better for a portfolio. For example, it might have less risk. Here though, despite MBEAX's higher allocation to bonds (50% vs. 40% for VWELX), M* rates the risk level of two funds average over the past three and five years.
MBEAX's performance has been either top quartile or bottom quartile in eight of the last ten calendar years, plus 2019 YTD. Except for 2009 and 2010, VWELX has been in the top two quintiles (40th percentile or better) every calendar year in the past decade, and 2019 YTD also. The more erratic relative performance of MBEAX could be indicative of a unique or at least distinctive strategy, or of a fund thrashing around in search of a theme. It would be worth looking into the explanation.
Since you're looking into bond funds, and BTBFX looks like a fine aggressive allocation fund, you might dial back your risk by selling some of the BTBFX and buying a good bond fund to adjust to your new target allocation instead of doing a straight swap into a moderate allocation fund.

I'm not sure the timing is great (bonds have had a great short term run, as the 10 year has dropped in yield from around 2.75% in late January to 2.14% today). That said, it seems like a solid long term holding.
https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/interest-rates/pages/TextView.aspx?data=yieldYear&year=2019
Moderate expenses for a bond fund, core plus (so it won't shy away from a slug of junk bonds when appropriate), and somewhat remarkably for Fidelity, fairly stable management. I like the fact that it's doing well without overloading on MBSs. It matches the market (but not the category) there, using VBTIX as a reference.
Another core plus bond fund worth a close look is BCOIX. Similar profile, very low turnover, great bond fund company, lower cost, slightly better performance. $25K min. For less, there's the investor class shares BCOSX, with an added 12b-1 fee (all in, still just 0.10% more expensive than FTBFX).

You can see a link to my previous post at Morningstar.

I don't see any reason to own this fund. YTD over 8% is impressive but I would not buy a bond fund that made over 5% in one day (that was at the end of 01/2019). This is a red flag. If I want to Multi sector funds see the following
Suppose I wanted to hold several bond OEFs without much trading. I searched at Schwab the following
Taxable Bond;
Morningstar Category: Intermediate Core Bond, Multisector Bond, Nontraditional Bond, Ultrashort Bond;
Morningstar Overall: 4 Stars, 5 Stars;
Standard Deviation: Less than or equal to 3.6;
Total Return (3 Month): Greater than or equal to 2; Average Annual Return (3 Year): Greater than or equal to 5; Average Annual Return (1 Year): Greater than or equal to 4.5; This criteria is to ensure a fund with good performance for 3-12-36 months to cover ST+LT performance.
Fees/Loads: OneSource Funds (no-load, no transaction fee); Open to New Investors: Yes
The following are pretty good choices I can live with (select 4-5 funds from the following VCFAX+PIMIX+JMUTX+PUCZX+JGIAX+IOFIX).

@msf,
I stand corrected; I should have said that it was not exactly the same, but has the same manager as RPHYX and similar investment philosophy.
I found the summary prospectus from the Crossingbridge Funds website. Institutional class is $250k; individual class is $2,500. Have not been able to find the regular individual class application on their website.
https://www.crossingbridgefunds.com/assets/fund/CrossingBridge_SummaryProspectus.pdf

My apologies. Normally I take note of funds that are still open via direct purchase (e.g. VWELX), but I completely missed this one. I can't even make the excuse that, well, it had been completely closed but subsequently partially reopened. The policy @TheShadow quoted has been in effect since the first day (April 5, 2017) that it partially closed.
RPHYX is definitely open if you are willing to go through the transfer agent (i.e. buy directly from the fund).
Edit: Regarding CBLDX - interesting way to get access to the same lead manager as RPHYX in another short term high yield fund. (Crossingbridge is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cohanzick Management, which manages RPHYX.)
From its prospectus, it doesn't appear to be using the same approach as RPHYX (e.g. buying orphaned securities). Though from its very short average maturity (3/8 years), it's hard to imagine what else it could be holding. It seems to have taken on more credit risk than RPHYX (M* saying its average credit rating is B, vs. BB for RPHYX), while going even shorter than RPHYX.
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/2012/01/riverpark-short-term-high-yield-fund-rphyx-july-2011/
As with Zeo, CBLDX is not available NTF. Also, it seems to require a $250K min (there's a ticker for investor class shares, but the prospectus says this isn't offered for sale). If you're going that high, you might look at RPHIX ($100K min).

Thanks guys. I had big positions in RPHYX until the fed raising cycle started in earnest. When you could get no risk 2.5%, it just didn't make sense to go for a risky 2.75-3.25%. I left a couple of stub positions so that I could contribute when the time comes.
Now that the fed may be on the verge of reversing course, RPHYX strategies may make sense again.

I thought RPHYX was open on a limited basis?
From the 1/28/19 summary prospectus,
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1494928/000139834419001751/fp0038745_497k.htm
The Fund is currently available for sale on a limited basis. The following groups will be permitted to purchase Fund shares:
1.Shareholders of record of the Fund as of April 5, 2017 (although if a shareholder closes all accounts in the Fund, additional investment in the Fund from that shareholder may not be accepted) may continue to purchase additional shares in their existing Fund accounts either directly from the Fund or through a financial intermediary and may continue to reinvest dividends or capital gains distributions from shares owned in the Fund;
2.New shareholders may open Fund accounts and purchase directly from the Fund (i.e. not through a financial intermediary); and
3.Members of the Board of Trustees of RiverPark Funds Trust, persons affiliated with RiverPark Advisors, LLC or Cohanzick Management, LLC and their immediate families will be able to purchase shares of the Fund and establish new accounts.
The Fund may from time to time, in its sole discretion, limit the types of investors permitted to open new accounts, limit new purchases or otherwise modify the above policy at any time on a case-by-case basis.
I do not want to discourage/disappoint prospective investors who want to invest in the fund.
Also, you may want to look at Crossingbridge Funds. They have a similar type of fund,
CrossingBridge Low Duration High Yield Fund. Investor class is available for $2,500 initial investment. The Fund is managed by Portfolio Managers, David Sherman and Michael De Kler.
From the Crossingbridge Funds website for the Low Duration High Yield Fund:
The strategy focuses on purchasing high yield debt with an expected effective maturity of 3 years or less and a weighted average investment horizon of 0.75-2 years. Our goal is to limit credit risk and interest rate risk.

I'm going to guess that you're talking about buying the Zeo funds at Fidelity or Schwab, where the transaction fee to buy a fund is $49.95. Elsewhere it ranges from $0 (direct investment or Vanguard (Flagship level only), to midlevel, e.g. Interactive Brokers ($14.95) and Vanguard ($20), to the $50 range (TDAmeritrade charges $49.99, not $49.95).
http://www.zeo.com/documents/Latest/ZEOIX.Platforms.pdf
Schwab and Fidelity charge $49.95.
While it is true that Schwab and Fidelity charge $49.95 to establish a position (which you could also do by buying direct and then transferring shares to the brokerage), they charge nothing to sell. Also, Fidelity lets you buy additional shares for $5/purchase if you use their automated investment service. If you're using the brokerage for stashing cash for several months, that may be a reasonable price for the convenience. If you're dollar cost averaging say, $2K or less per month, at Schwab you can spread that out as $99 daily purchases and pay no fee. (Schwab doesn't charge for purchases of under $100).
As to why Zeo doesn't make its funds available NTF, here's a typical disclosure from Fidelity:

For funds participating in the NTF program, Fidelity receives compensation that can typically range from 0 to 50 basis points based on the average daily balance. As of 12/31/2011, 96% of the mutual funds currently in the NTF program are in the 35–40 basis point range.

When the brokerage services the account, the distributor saves some money, but nowhere near 40 basis points. ZEOIX spends a total of 27 basis points on "other expenses", and much of that would remain after outsourcing the servicing to Fidelity. They could cover the extra, say, 30 basis points by adding a 0.25% 12b-1 fee and charging that to everyone, including those who were buying the fund direct from the transfer agent.
RPHYX seems to have a unique strategy, but if you don't already hold a position, it's closed. And as you observed, ZEOIX is a TF fund. If you're willing to go slightly longer with duration (still under 1 year) and consequently slightly higher volatility (thus somewhat at odds with the idea of a fund that shouldn't lose for more than a month or so), you might take a look at SSTHX. Load waived and NTF at Schwab and Fidelity, somewhat lower ER than the other funds. My guess is that the 1* rating (vs. the 2* for the other funds) is due to the slightly higher volatility.

wanted to start a positon but don't want to pay a $49.95 fee......why don't they go NTF? I have to pay $50 every time I want to dollar cost avg?
If fed about to cut, is it time to run back into RPHYX?

!@#$^&* BONDS !@##$^&^&*
After watching What TIPS wont do, I'm wondering if my investment in VTIPX is completely misplaced. I thought I was diversifying, but now I'm not sure. It's also the only way I own bonds outright other than funds like RPHYX and my balanced holdings.
The reason I went for the short-term version few years back was under the assumption since interest rates have nowhere to go but up and inflation couldn't possibly stay so low for so long, I decided VTIPX would be a better investment than VIPSX and I could have some of my cash earn some income because Bank Savings Accounts weren't, and for the most part still don't yield much interest.
At this time Marcus gives 2.25% interest. WTF I am still doing holding (the bag?) with VTIPX, given it would seem Fed is done raising interest rates. Appreciate if people who hang out with 007 can shed some light, because right not I'm effing shaken, not stirred, not to mention VIPSX did not end up being dangerous as was expected by experts few years back and VTIPX was supposed to be the way to invest in inflation protection securities.

Thx
From. Newmax
DFA Real Estate Securities I (DFREX) has a one-year return of 21.65%. Its biggest holding is American Tower (AMT)/
Neuberger Berman Real Estate (NREAX) has a one-year return of 20.72%. Its biggest holding is also American Tower (AMT).
Principal Real Estate Securities (PRRAX) has a one-year return of 20.25%. Its biggest holding is Prologis (PLD).
Cohen & Steers Real Estate Securities (CSEIX) has a one-year return of 19.98%. Its biggest holding is Equinix (EQIX).
DWS RREEF Real Estate Securities (RRRAX) has a one-year return of 19.54%. Its biggest holding is Simon Property Group (SPG).
Read Newsmax: Barron's: 5 REITs for Income Investors to Consider
Important: Find Out Your True Retirement Date in Minutes Online! Go Here Now

Thx sir @_old_skeet
For me keep investing w 80/20 distribution until 62 yo then change to ~60/40 and slowly to 50/50 (adjust as needed) there after

Interesting stuff. Charles reflects at length on the lessons of the Morningstar conference and the fund families he found most compelling. Ed gets pretty specific about advice for long-term investors. We talk a bit about the new Zeo and Cannabis funds; update you on INDEX, the S&P 500 equal weight index fund that shouldn't be able to outperform its cheaper competitor, but does; and a talk with Paul Privitera about an active ETF that balances bank loans and high-yield bonds.
Chip and I are about to head out for 11 days in the west of Ireland. The travel arrangements are ugly but the country's beautiful. Charles will watch over things while we're gone. Please don't give him a headache.
As ever,
David

Hi @Derf,
For me, I'm fully invested within my asset allocation of 20% cash, 40% income and 40% equity. Following my rebalance policy I can hold up to plus (or minus) two percent form the threshold weighting. With this, I can hold up to a 42% weighting in either my equity allocation or income allocation, or both, while letting cash float before having to do a forced rebalance. This means cash could fall to the 16% range, or below. For equities, I can tactically overweight by up to 5% from the 40% threshold, if felt warranted. So, cash could get as low as 13% and I still would be within my allocation guardrails.
Just this past week, I bought a little in one of my global equity funds that has a monthly distribution with a yield of 3.4%.
Remember, stocks usually go soft during the summer months. For me, being a long term investor and (if) wanting to add to my equity allocation I'd average in through the summer months. But, I'd also govern with caution and spread my buys out in a position cost average step buy approach based upon the price movement of the S&P 500 Index.
An example of my step buy approach would having me buying, from the recent high, at 2850, 2770, 2680, 2590, 2500, and so on and so forth. The deeper the Index falls, in retreat, I'd increase the amount of each step buy. The way I'd, most likely, step out of these positions would be to sell the 2500 step when the Index had moved upward reaching the 2680 mark. This would afford me about a 7% return for this step. Likewise, I'd step out of the 2590 position somewhere around the 2770 mark with a gain of just short of 7%. Through the years this is how I have managed my spiffs (special investment positions). Sometime I buy the equally weighted S&P 500 Index fund (VADAX) and sometimes I buy an equity mutual fund that has a good dividend yield such as EADIX or INUTX. Going the good dividend route pays me while I await the upward turn along with any capital appreciation that I would also make.
Remember, most A share funds can be exchanged into other A share funds through most mutual fund companies through a nav (net asset value) exchange program commission free. I'd did this many times moving between a bond mutual fund like (ABNDX) to an equity mutual fund like (AGTHX) and then back into a bond fund in the American Funds family for years without paying any commission for these exchanges whatsoever. This is one of the advantages of A share mutual funds that often times get overlooked by investors.