FYI: These funds allow investors to set aside money for a future charitable gift, but get the tax deduction immediately.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-are-donor-advised-funds-1512356401

Junkster's Forum Comment
Here is looking at you @MikeM.
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Re: Bond OEFs - what now
Junkster 11-02-2017, 11:05 AM | Post #3880685 |
0
>>>> FD says "Most of my money is in 3 horses PIMIX,IOFIX and NHMAX(switched from PHMIX was luck or skill??). IOFIX last jump was 8/22, are we going to see the next one this month? let's see if the pattern will continue.<<<<<<
Hope you are right about IOFIX FD. My problem is when a pattern becomes too well known and predictable....... Last year it had a big jump on September 30 and then it wasn't until February 24 of this year for the next one. Plus AUM which have grown dramatically may impact the pattern. But I will stay put with IOFIX for awhile. Pimco's Mark Kiesel said just the other day that non agencies are mispriced and " are among the few bonds that have price upside"
I've found a newer fund and a mini IOFIX I haven't seen mentioned anywhere. It's not available in all states and I contacted them to have it blue skied in my home state of KY which takes but a few weeks. I went through that process with SPFRX when it was a young fund back in 2015. Regardless, looking forward to 2018 and seeing where the momentum will be. Junk corporates are so unloved because of valuations they may surprise. Or maybe bank loans because we may have more aggressive rate hikes.
Will check back in next year. After this post immediately deleting all my trading and investing forums. Winter off trail hiking is just around the corner. At 70 years old hanging out on forums has lost much of its appeal. Good luck to everyone.

@VintageFreak
This fund has been in my portfolio since 2015. Watching to see what happens with current fund management and holdings makes sense. Polen Capital executes a specific process. The remaining managers know that process. The firm has been putting some focus into international investing in recent years. I'll hold on to see how things go in 2018. Given the low turnover rate and small number of holdings, I don't expect there will be any rapid decline in performance over the short term due to the management change. So, I don't feel a need to make a rushed decision.

Thanks, Ted.
Thanks, too, for the heads-up on the Steadman Funds. He really was a visionary (how many people would devote a fund to ocean nodule mining ... oh, wait! The same folks who'd imagine a fund devoted to 3D printing!) and a crackpot.
I think the bitcoin piece was worth writing, and might be worth reading. It's easy for most of us to shake our heads, mumble about tulip bulbs and move on. It's likely important, though, to anticipate how we might be affected by the securitization of bitcoin speculation: that is, what happens when average investors are tempted into moving parts of actual portfolios in ETFs tied to bitcoin derivatives? What happens when institutional investors follow the same path? It now looks like the window for answering such questions is no more than 18 months and might well be "sometime in 2018".
It's interesting to watch the evolution of Rondure and the continued strength of their partner, Grandeur Peak. They do offer some credibility for the case that (a) true talent is rare and (b) true talent exists.
I'm a bit sad that the team at Sentinel Balanced wasn't transferred to Touchstone Balanced; I have a nice "left behind by Morningstar" profile of the fund written, and was just waiting for the transition of ownership to close before sharing it. It may turn out to be a fine new fund, but it really becomes a new fund now rather than a star in the shadows. The equity sleeve seems more promising than the income sleeve, so we'll wait and watch. The Small Cap and International funds, though, seem worth more immediate attention.
More than a bit sad at the closure of the Croft funds. Good people and a good longer term record who seem to have been undone by this last, least rational phase (umm, the long-term average p/e in the stock market is about 15, the average p/e for our more conservative slice - large cap value funds - today is 23).
And really quite sad about losing the Amazon relationship. In round figures, that's $7000/year that just vanished. If we move to their Amazon Smiles program instead, those same purchases would net us a cool $550 instead. And we're not signing-on to commercial clutter in what I think of as "the last quiet spot" on the web. Nuts.
Ed continues to think interesting thoughts, and listening to people that most of us miss. Charles continues rewiring the system behind the scenes. Chip continues to make it all appear, and appear effortless. I'm deeply grateful to them all.
And to you.
David

FYI: Do some months have significantly different market returns than others?
This calculator uses sixty-odd years of S&P 500 data to let you see for yourself. Select a month; the calculator will show you its good and bad years and overall return, for the years from 1950 until recently.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.moneychimp.com/features/monthly_returns.htm
CXO Advisory Trading Calendar: December
https://www.cxoadvisory.com/trading-calendar/december/

If one insists on going this dividend payment route then you might want to look at VYM where you can up the yield by 0.50% and cut your expense ratio from 0.35% down to 0.08%.

Still buy corp bonds - recently bought macys and Hughes satellite system both > 5.7% yield. Still have and added to PFF ..

@Mark: Link this at 4:50 AM this morning. Scroll Down
Regards,
Ted :)

I believe the equity market can act as its own re-balancing mechanism. Market price conditions change "moment by moment". When you are in the accumulation stage of life you might dollar cost average (dca) into these price conditions and in a sense your "dca" helps you re-balance into the market's price. Dca into investments over a long time horizons (many overbought and oversold changes) usually provide a positive return on investment. This might be considered a component of a re-balancing growth strategy.
When you move from the Accumulation (growth) Stage to the Distribution Stage, re-balancing is often impacted by the spending ("distribution of cash") of your portfolio. Re-balancing as a result of spending comes in many forms - retirement income, RMDs, one time tuition payments, wedding costs, house buying, and divorce to name a few. Most of these involve raising cash from your invested investments.
Raising cash in a portfolio is somewhat a kin to running a farm. Equities are the cows, the hens, the crops. The bonds are the working capital needed to run the farm- the fertilizers, the machinery, the outbuilding, the land, the service costs, etc. Think of cash as the profits from the corn, the hay, the eggs the milk. When a cow needs to be milked...milk it. When the field needs to be hayed, "make hay when the sun shines". Harvesting is part of farm's life and I believe it should also be a dynamic part of a portfolio's inner workings with respect to the cash needs (financial goals) of the portfolio.
Another take on re-balancing:
Using @Catch22 portfolio (50% FCNTX and 50% PIMIX) this farm has hired hands (Danoff and Ivascyn) who help manage the production and the operation of the farm separately. You need to roll up your sleeves and coordinate how these two managers are "running" your farm and "re-balance" their efforts. If your are young and your goal is long term growth, buy more FCNTX, but remember that you may need more land, more equipment, more fertilizer...so also buy some PIMIX. In a growth portfolio (with no need for short term cash) I would own enough PIMIX to cover the downside risks (Maximum Draw Down or MAXDD) of FCNTX. So every dollar you spend for future growth of FCNTX, an additional amount (in MAXDD percent) should be directed at PIMIX to hedge FCNTX's MaxDD risk. This will allow you to not sell FCNTX at the wrong time (in case you did need cash), but might even provide an opportunity to buy more FCNTX during oversold times.
For me, I gauge "overbought and oversold" using my portfolios holdings. I use PIMIX as my "risk off" portfolio indicator comparing it to my "risk on" investments, in this case FCNTX. "Overbought and oversold" conditions of FCNTX are compared against the performance of PIMIX dynamically. . In other words I use PIMIX to tell me when FCNTX is over or under performing PIMIX. Also, using @Old_Skeet's upper bands as a re-balancing trigger (+20% gain on the upside for FCNTX compared to PIMIX) - sell FCNTX and move proceeds (re-balance back into) PIMIX. Conversely, a (-10 percent loss of FCNTX compared to PIMIX) - sell PIMIX and buy (re-balance) into FCNTX
We can hire a manager to do this for us with hybrid/allocation/glide path retirement funds or we can "farm" a portfolio ourselves with individual securities (stocks or bonds) or with additional hired hands (stock or bond mutual fund managers). Either way, we still need to identify a strategy to deal with the spending dynamic and determine how that spending impacts portfolio re-balancing as we move through the distribution stage of life.

I have the feeling of deja vu with Lewis' article. Had it appeared somewhere else before?
In any case, this fall M* ran a series of five columns on donor advised funds: intro, one each on Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, then a comparison.
Is a Donor-Advised Fund Right for You?
How Does Fidelity Charitable's Investment Menu Stack Up? (previously linked by Ted)
A Closer Look at Schwab's Donor-Advised Fund
Under the Hood at Vanguard Charitable
5 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Donor-Advised Fund
There's a very detailed/lengthy 2015 Kitces column, previously linked by heezsafe in this MFO thread.
https://www.kitces.com/blog/rules-strategies-and-tactics-when-using-donor-advised-funds-for-charitable-giving/
One curious gotcha is that you cannot use these funds to receive your IRA RMD (i.e. they cannot accept qualified charitable distributions).

Interesting discussion and yet no love for IOFCX or SEMPX. Hmmm. To be honest I get my bond exposure from PDI & PCI but they both violate msf' no leverage rule.

Yup, I don't even screen for leveraged closed end funds. (We each have our personal blind spots.) Your funds may be excellent - I've never checked.
A couple of other blind spots of mine - loads and high cost bond funds. Well, high cost anything, but especially when it comes to bonds. For those reasons, I haven't looked at IOFCX. Perhaps I can offer a suggestion about the load problem. Instead of buying level load C shares, you should be able to buy IOFAX A shares NTF at Schwab, and get rid of 0.75% in 12b-1 fees.
Schwab page for A shares.
I hadn't looked at SEMPX for a different reason. I prefer to delegate some asset management to my fund managers. So I don't explicitly seek out junk (I'm happy using multisector funds for that). I took a quick look now - virtually all MBS, potentially leveraged, low grade junk (single B average). Yikes! Definitely not my cup of tea, but it seems to work for you. Everyone builds their portfolio differently.

The barometer report.
This week saw Old_Skeet's market barometer finish the week with a reading of 140 indicating the S&P 500 Index is overvalued. A reading one point lower and the Index would fall into the overbought area. Generally, a lower reading indicates there is less investment value over a higher reading. Based upon a seasonal investment strategy I am overweight equities at this time over what my equity weighting matrix calls for by about 5%.
Also, at this time, the barometer is not finding any of the major sectors within the Index to be undervalued or oversold from a technical score perspective. With this, I am still with my cash build mode within my portfolio where most of my mutual fund distributions are taken in cash. This in of itself will be a rebalance of sorts as a good number of mutual funds will be making their annual capital gains distributions in December. With this, I'm expecting my allocation in cash to rise and my allocation in equities to fall. Come the end of December or the first part of January I may do some buying. Currently, I'm thinking in the hybrid fund area and looking at convertibles and multialternative funds.
In addition, you might find my comments and those made by others of interest in the thread linked below which centers around methods used to rebalance a portfolio.
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/36992/ping-old-skeet-5-rebalancing-bands-for-your-fund-portfolio#latest
Have a great week and thanks for stopping by and reading.
Old_Skeet

FYI: Lead manager Ryan Caldwell uses quant models to allocate the go-anywhere Chiron Capital Allocation Fund.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&amp;ei=GXkiWsipEqHH_QaxrrXIDQ&amp;q=Barron's+A+Fund+for+All+Seasons&amp;oq=Barron's+A+Fund+for+All+Seasons&amp;gs_l=psy-ab.3...3247.10560.0.11798.10.10.0.0.0.0.110.789.9j1.10.0....0...1.1j2.64.psy-ab..0.9.678...0j46j0i131k1j0i46k1.0.ZQxygfB-cpk
M* Snapshot CCAPX:
http://www.morningstar.com/funds/XNAS/CCAPX/quote.html
Lipper Snapshot CCAPX:
https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/fund/ccapx
CCAPX Is Unranked In The (WA) Fund Category By U.S. News & World Report:
https://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/world-allocation/chiron-capital-allocation-fund/ccapx

FYI: (Click On Article Title At Top Of Google Search)
Donor-advised funds—offered by Fidelity, Charles Schwab, and Vanguard-allow investors to take more control of their philanthropic giving.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&amp;ei=Xn0iWu-fH86F_Qbsi7PYCw&amp;q=Barron's++How+Smart+Investors+Give+to+Charity&amp;oq=Barron's++How+Smart+Investors+Give+to+Charity&amp;gs_l=psy-ab.3...3521.9498.0.11088.11.11.0.0.0.0.98.819.11.11.0....0...1.1j2.64.psy-ab..0.10.720...0j46j0i131k1j0i46k1.0.w8it6kqOJ30

Hi @Catch22,
Thanks for the question.
Q: What would I personally do?
A: Rebalance, if I wanted to follow the discipline. Beyond this, if I was in the accumulation phase of investing I'd widen the rebalance channel from 5% to 10% perhaps even 20%. If I was in the distribution phase of investing I'd rebalance and follow the strategy. Another thing one might consider is a lower limit rebalance at 5% and an upper limit rebalance at 10% (possibly 20%) on the equity side. In this way you buy the pullback and let the winners run longer than normal.
Currently, for me, within my own portfolio I an overweight equity based upon what my equity weighting matrix is calling for by about five percent. This is based mostly upon a seasonal investment strategy where I generally overweight equities during the fall and winter and begin to lighten up come spring (rebalance). During the summer I generally follow a neutral weighting position. The matrix is driven by my market barometer. In addition, my normal equity allocation ranges from 45% to 55%. Currently, I am at 51% to 52% range as determined by a recent Morningstar Instant Xray analysis putting me somewhere between a 4% to 5% overweight over the matrix's reccomended allocation.
In rebalancing, you are most likely booking profit making unrealized gains realized. In this way, they are less likely to get vaporized in severe market downdrafts. This raise the question. Would you rather pay taxes on your gains (if warranted) or see these unrealized gains get vaporized in severe market declines and downdrafts. I'm of the camp pay the tax (if necessary) and rebalance ... harvest some of the gains along the way and don't let them get vaporized in stock market downdrafts.
The barometer, which follows certain metrics of the S&P 500 Index, as of Friday December 1st market close scored the Index as overvalued and not far from an overbought reading.
In addition, I think @davidrmoran made some good comments about this as well (goals, greed, needs and risk tolerance).
Skeet

In these vehicles $10k has gone to ~$42k and $26.5k since you bought, so yeah, take your equivalent of $7k or a bit more from Contra and put it into Pimco.
OR ...
It depends on your goals and discipline and tenets. Are you a strict (re)balancer? Do you like / are you willing to let things that have done well run?
Most important, what are your needs and horizon? I mean, many of us run into this all the time. I myself would probably leave all alone if you do not need the money for several years. But that is the aggressive / greed of another speaking. Otoh, if you need some of this in less than, I dunno, 3-4-5y, then yeah, rebalance to Pimco. How important is 50-50 to you ?

Hi @Old_Skeet
So, I purchased FCNTX and PIMIX , March 17, 2009; 50% of a total portfolio into each.
What would one do, especially after Feb. 2013 when Fido Contra really started to walk upward and away from PIMIX?
Would one sell pieces of FCNTX and buy more PIMIX to maintain this upper and lower limit ranges to attempt to maintain a 50/50 mix?
The last assumption is that I definitely want to keep both funds, as I had already been a long time investor and fan of management with FCNTX and am most pleased with PIMIX as a bond balance to a strong growth fund.
Assume all monies are IRA; so taxes are not part of the transactions.
http://stockcharts.com/freecharts/perf.php?FCNTX,PIMIX&n=2194&O=011000
Thanks,
Catch

Hi @bee,
Thanks for posting the article.
What you have read is just one person's take on a five percent rebalance threshold.
My take is somewhat different. And, I'll explain. Take a 50/50 portfolio with a total value of $100,000. This would equate to $50,000 in equity and $50,000 in fixed. 5% of $50,000 is $2,500. This puts the upper limit at $52,500 and the lower limit at $47,500 and if valuations for the respective area goes above (or below) a rebalance is warranted in this example. Natually, other factors might also be considered such as (but not limited to) seasonal strategies.

Update:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/890540/000113542817001085/frost-allocation-funds-497.txt
497
1
frost-allocation-funds-497.txt
THE ADVISORS' INNER CIRCLE FUND II (THE "TRUST")
FROST CONSERVATIVE ALLOCATION FUND
FROST MODERATE ALLOCATION FUND
FROST AGGRESSIVE ALLOCATION FUND (THE "FUNDS")
SUPPLEMENT DATED DECEMBER 1, 2017 TO THE
INSTITUTIONAL CLASS SHARES PROSPECTUS AND THE INVESTOR CLASS SHARES PROSPECTUS,
EACH DATED NOVEMBER 28, 2017 (THE "PROSPECTUSES") AND THE STATEMENT OF
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, DATED NOVEMBER 28, 2017 (THE "SAI")
THIS SUPPLEMENT PROVIDES NEW AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BEYOND THAT CONTAINED IN
THE PROSPECTUSES AND SAI, AND SHOULD BE READ IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE
PROSPECTUSES AND SAI.
The Board of Trustees of the Trust, at the recommendation of Frost Investment
Advisors, LLC (the "Adviser"), the investment adviser of the Funds, has approved
a plan of liquidation providing for the liquidation of each Fund's assets and
the distribution of the net proceeds pro rata to the Fund's shareholders. In
connection therewith, the Funds are closed to new investments. The Funds are
expected to cease operations and liquidate on or about December 22, 2017 (the
"Liquidation Date").
Prior to the Liquidation Date, shareholders may redeem (sell) their shares in
the manner described in the "How to Redeem Fund Shares" section of each
Prospectus. For those Fund shareholders that do not redeem (sell) their shares
prior to the Liquidation Date, the Funds will distribute to each such
shareholder, on or promptly after the Liquidation Date, a liquidating cash
distribution equal in value to the shareholder's interest in the net assets of
the Funds as of the Liquidation Date.
In anticipation of the liquidation of the Funds, the Adviser may manage each
Fund in a manner intended to facilitate its orderly liquidation, such as by
holding cash or making investments in other highly liquid assets. As a result,
during this time, all or a portion of each Fund may not be invested in a manner
consistent with its stated investment strategies, which may prevent the Fund
from achieving its investment objective.
The liquidation distribution amounts will include any accrued income and capital
gains, will be treated as a payment in exchange for shares and will generally be
a taxable event. You should consult your personal tax advisor concerning your
particular tax situation. Shareholders remaining in a Fund on the Liquidation
Date will not be charged any transaction fees by the Fund. However, the net
asset value of each Fund on the Liquidation Date will reflect costs of
liquidating the Fund.
PLEASE RETAIN THIS SUPPLEMENT FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.
FIA-SK-046-0100