I am grateful for learning about mutual thrifts from reading one of Peter Lynch's books many years ago. He listed a large number of these thrifts (usually savings and loans) in his book. I was also able to identify around 100 more on my own, and as a result I went on a mission of becoming a depositor/part owner of several thrifts that eventually went public, offering their depositors the opportunity to participate in their IPOs. I never lost money on any of these IPOs. Thank you, Peter Lynch. (Unfortunately, this game has essentially run its course now that only a handful have not gone public.)

I have watched FPFIX since inception. It is available through Schwab for $100k in taxable accounts, but you can get it for $5000 in IRAs. It is a nontraditional bond oef, and is from a company that has a heavy emphasis on "absolute" return objectives. The ER is pretty much in line with most nontraditional bond oefs, although higher than I would prefer to pay. I would prefer a nontraditional bond oef that pays a little higher yield, but it is a little too early in its history to draw too many conclusions about how this fund will perform. For me, I will wait and watch, and form my opinions a little later, after I have seen more performance to evaluate.

Unless you own higher % in stocks I don't see the reason to own very low SD bond funds. The following is a simple example based on several funds mentioned in this thread.
Looking at short-term duration Muni funds NVHAX,BTMIX,VMPAX,ORSTX. For 3 year performance, Portfolio Visualizer (link) shows that NVHAX performance is 2-3 times better and it's SD=1.5 was worth it and why NVHAX Sharpe ratio + Sortino are much better.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/t-rowe-1-trillion-answer-100007947.html
T. Rowe’s $1 Trillion Answer to Claims Stock-Picking Is Dead
Bloomberg) -- Stock pickers may be under siege after decades of ruling Wall Street, but not every old-school champion of active mutual funds is losing ground to cheaper rivals tracking indexes.

@bee, Thank you. Matthew McLennan and Ed Hyman's interview was particularly informative. McLennan's First Eagle Global fund, SGIIX, is doing well this year with YTD return 19.8% while holding 14% cash.

I missed much of this conversation--had a family Christmas gathering tonight. I just started posting on this forum, after years of posting on M*. This thread is very much in line with two recent threads I started at M*, in which I used the same posting name. I made a post at M* that I was going to start posting on the MFO forum, and invited others to join me, including Gary1952 and Craignw. MikeM asked what OEF stands for--Open End Fund. Craignw, nice to see you posting here and hope ZEOIX works well for you. Mona, thanks for the kind words. For those who do not know me, I look forward to getting to know each of you, and look forward exchanging ideas and sharing information.

I cut my gold investment, IAU, in half in early November. Mainly because rate hikes were being placed on hold and it felt like a recession was now pushed further in the future. I bought in Dec. '18 because of political turmoil, rising rates and the possibility of a major pull back in equities. I'm watching for the next sign of upward movement in gold to increase my stake again. I think when equities correct at some point, maybe in early 2020 gold may move again.
I guess I've never heard the term gold stocks before, but I won't touch the miners. To volatile for this guy, but my hats off to those who know how to play them.

The following 2 great funds SEMMX+DHEIX invest mainly in securitized bonds (just like FPFIX) + ST duration + have better performance + better risk attributes. See this (link) results since the inception of FPFIX

Hi,dtconroe
Back in late November 2018, you spoke about several funds, of which ZEOIX was one. Usually high yield is too volatile for my investing choices. I researched this fund and found it to be in my wheel house after all. I bought 5000 shares in November of 2018. It has posted a return of 5.33% ytd. The fund has a low volatility with a duration of 0.88 years. My nav in the fund is up since purchase, with a nice monthly yield.....thank you for the heads up on this fund.
craignw

Recently issued prospectus:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/924727/000110465919075560/a19-25191_4497.htm
supplement:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/924727/000110465919075557/a19-25191_1497.htm

One issue I am evaluating is how much, and what kind, of bond oefs, I want to hold in my taxable account. I have held BTMIX for all of 2019, and it had a good year, but it averages below 3% total return over its history. I have generally wanted funds in my taxable account, with an average total return history of over 3%. Both BTMIX and DBLSX can have TR years of over 3%, but they usually revert back to their "safe" but lower TR. I have held NVHAX periodically in the past, but it is more volatile and risky than BTMIX. I have a few shares of SEMMX in my taxable account, and it has a history of averaging close to 5% over it history. SEMMX is not tax efficient, so if I increased it in my taxable account, I would restrict the portfolio percentage in a smaller amount. Another fund I do not hold, but interests me, is ZEOIX. In my taxable account, I prefer to hold several different kind of bond oefs, for some diversification benefits. Holding a Muni fund, a nontraditional bond fund, a short term bond fund, and a short duration HY bond fund, would be a nice, but low risk diversification mix. Any thoughts on the benefits of holding a diverse array of bond oefs in your taxable account?

Summary Prospectus filing:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1023391/000089418919008614/fmiinternationalfundii-cur.htm

December 20th Show:

@hank - is this the one
One of the greatest hedge fund managers ever says he couldn’t have been more wrong this year
The article contains links to the full Bloomberg interview.

Nice post @davfor - I was thinking of doing the same the evening before your post went up just based on how my balanced funds, along with few I don’t own, have done this year. But your colorful and complete graph tells the whole story.
Aside from small amounts in some specialty funds, my equity exposure is thru balanced type funds: PRWCX +24.5%. The other two, RPGAX and DODBX are up close to 20%. My benchmark, 40/60 TRRIX, is a real surprise. Up nearly 16%. I’ll refrain from posting personal performance data, other than to restate as said previously, that most years I tend to track TRRIX quite closely. Those who are into tech and equity-centric funds have done better. But I won’t look a gift-horse in the mouth either.
Last year was a downer for most of us. As far as 2020? Might as well throw darts blindfolded. Who really knows? What is a bit uncommon, I think, is that bonds have held up reasonably well in this still very low rate environment. Nat. resources also seem to be coming around at long last. I guess I agree with Stanley Druckenmiller that equities are in some sort of bubble, but that this could last for years or even decades more - so he stays invested. Good Druckenmiller interview on Bloomberg last week. Tried to link the clip but couldn’t make it work.
:) @Mark has just posted the Druckenmiller article & video below. The cool thing about Stanley is that his dead-pan delivery would easily qualify him for a slot on late-night comedy TV should he decide some day to get out of the investment business.
Thanks @Mark

I don’t make predictions about the markets or pay attention to those made by others. The returns in 2019 have surprised me, but I’m always surprised by particularly good years. I disagree with the characterization of 2019 as the best year ever, but certainly hasn’t been the best for my portfolio. For example, returns in 2009 were much better for me. I’ve been investing for more than 30 years and there have been many years during that period with comparable or better returns.

Hi dtconroe
I find your posts informative and helpful on another site. I am 63 recently retired and not collecting social security or any pension. I have moved to a very conservative portfolio with the definite emphasis on principal preservation also. I will probably take a small pension and my social security at 65 or 66. I am at approx 21% Cash,cds...,20% balanced funds(vwiax,fbalx,vbiax...), 20% equities (fskax,vcsax,vimax...),20% bond funds mostly with pimco (pttrx,pigix,pmzix...)12% Pimix, 7% short term (vfsux). I am willing to forego larger gains and am content with the lower yields and less principal risk. I am mostly in taxable accounts and not tax efficient . I don't feel very knowledgeable when I read posts by others and have and will continue to plod along. I have done pretty well by just being in the market, knowing I have not maximized returns. I am looking to invest some from the cash account and was looking at IISIX also. I know it has been talked about on the other site I follow that you post on also . I am trying to get where a market downturn won't effect anything I do. Worse case scenario I will just put more in vwiax or vwiux.

Looks like INVESCO produces a lot of junk. Wonder how much of a haircut the investors in these funds is going to get. That's the story I am interested in. Bet it doesn't make print!!!

Haircut? I’d rather doubt that. Reason for the closings is duplication of offerings with Oppenheimer, with whom they’ve recently merged. In addition, they’re being squeezed by larger better players in the market, and so looking to cut costs.
A lot of junk? Some have suggested that. I really don’t know. I’ve long clung to a few A shares at Oppenheimer I purchased directly for an IRA at a much less experienced age (around 1995). There were things to like and things to dislike at Oppenheimer. But I always found something to invest in there that provoked my interest. In particular, there were some niche funds (like a gold fund) that TRP has yet to offer.
I’m staggered by how much larger the selection is at Invesco. Who needs 50-100 new funds to digest at my age? There is a lot of duplication with Oppenheimer - a reason for the shuttering of many funds. At a glance they have a similarity high fee structure to what Oppenheimer had. I’ve been under the impression they are London based, but a quick check tonight revealed that they are headquartered in Atlanta GA. Part of my invested assets will be coming out of there in 2020 (wherever they are).

”I took a sneak peak (TMSRX) at Marketwatch ... Looking at 4/th Qter. 2018 shows app. 7% drop.”

I’m not sure what the above is a reference to. If @Derf means TMSRX lost 7% from its inception 2/23/18 to year’s end, that sounds about right. ‘18 was nasty for most everything. And right out of the gate a fund’s liable to do anything. But if he means the fund fell 7% in the 4th quarter, I’ve checked with M* and found that it fell only 3.34% during Quarter 4, 2018. It’s hard to get reliable performance data on such a new fund. So I plotted its course from 10/1/18 until 12/31/18 using M*’s on-site tool. A $10,000 investment in TMSRX on 10/1 was worth slightly less than $9700 at year’s end. I was able to obtain more easily the Quarter 4 performance data (from Zack’s) for OAKBX, a balanced fund I owned up until the end of 2018. During Quarter 4, 2018, OAKBX fell 9.25%.
I don’t think this makes the case either way as to whether someone should own the fund. Just wanted to make sure Derf and I were looking at the same figures and time-frame for TMSRX. Glad some folks found @bee’s thread interesting or helpful.

There seems to be little rhyme or reason as to which funds within a family are sold NTF at a given brokerage.
Fidelity displays Advisor class shares for a couple of TRP funds on its retail site. Still, they're only accessible through Fidelity® Wealth Services, and carry a TF: PRITX / PAITX, PRTAX / PATAX.
The difference between the classes is a 12b-1 fee created to pay for the platform or advisor. A few fund other families do something like this with N (retail) and I (institutional) shares. TCW goes so far as to make both classes available with the same minimum purchase, so you choose whether to pay a transaction fee for the same fund. See, e.g. TGFNX / TGCFX.
Consider a fund like JECAX. NTF at Schwab and TDAmeritrade, but sold with a load at Fidelity, even though Fidelity waives the load on A shares for most of JP Morgan funds.
Way back in the dark ages, when it was hard to find a free checking account, I was able to purchase a T. Rowe Price Advisor class fund NTF at Citicorp Investment Services. I figured that the extra 12b-1 fee amounted to just a few dollars and it was a cheap way to qualify for free checking. I've long since moved the position to T. Rowe Price, where they did a tax-free conversion to Investor class shares.