What are your suggestions for short-term bond funds and high-quality intermediate bond funds?

As always, age, risk tolerance, sources of income, needs and other factors need to be taken into consideration. I’ll assume poster in near or in retirement. Umm ... I’ve probably got bonds coming out of my ears when considering all the balanced, hybrid and multi-income funds like RPSIX I own.
Right now I’m looking for safe shelter from a possible avalanche in equities. Not a prediction. Just a concern. So, contrary to all the advice out there from people smarter than me, I’ve been adding to PRGMX (ginnie mae) in dabs and dribbles - including today. While I fully expect to lose some $$ on this position going forward, I consider it one form of insurance against a recession and / or rout in the equity side. What I’m buying here is high grade govt. backed debt from a top money manager (albeit at inflated prices). And were equities to tumble and bonds rise, I’d exit that position rapidly. Not exactly “short term”. Effective duration in the 4-5 year range. More like intermediate I guess.
I generally don’t like to post trades. But am trying to address the question as fully as I can.

Jan. 31 through 06 Feb, '18.
SFGIX -3.38%
PRIJX -3.76% (I do not own this guy.)
Did SFGIX do its job of reducing losses in a downward-stretch?
...And from a different planet, my domestic small caps in VSCIX were down by -4.45% in the same period.

Although SFGIX is listed as a Diversified Emerging Markets fund, it holds about 55% in emerging markets with the rest categorized as developed markets. IMHO, it's not a true emerging markets fund with little more than half exposure. PRIJX, however, holds about 72% in emerging markets with the rest in developed markets. This could explain in part the reason for the greater downswing for PRIJX. To me, SFGIX is sort of a back end way of dipping into emerging markets without REALLY getting full exposure to it. I own the fund myself, just to clarify.

I think this is splitting hairs a bit.

Country Diversification Top 5
VEIVX
China 32.6%
Taiwan 14.4%
India 11.8%
South Africa 7.9%
Brazil 7.7%
SFGIX
China/Hong Kong 19%
South Korea 18%
Taiwan 11%
India 10%
Brazil 10%
Is South Korea an emerging market?
Is Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund, also a "Diversified Emerging Markets Fund", a true emerging markets fund?
Mona

Not splitting hairs at all; just looking at the facts as shown on *M. The MSCI EM benchmark is 70 EM and 30 DM. Currently, Foster is below that benchmark at 55 EM, hence the possible reason for lower volatility. I believe @BobC mentioned this very issue in July.

If we stick to @Crash's original question and not try and give our reasons for why or how it's different than other EM funds (it of course is - it's suppose to be), there is no splitting hairs.
I believe SFGIX gives good risk adjusted return. That's Foster's mandate. How the management team achieves that has been well described by Foster (see the MFO profile below). So back to crash's question,

Did SFGIX do its job of reducing losses in a downward-stretch?

Heck yeah - so far.
David writes some great fund profiles. The description he wrote in 2013 and updated in 2015 on SFGIX tells exactly how this fund gives great risk adjusted return. And it seems to work as evidence from the last week of market turmoil.
For an older guy like myself heading into retirement who is some what risk adverse, it is a perfect way to "back-end" EM exposure.
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/?s=sfgix

Jan. 31 through 06 Feb, '18.
SFGIX -3.38%
PRIJX -3.76% (I do not own this guy.)
Did SFGIX do its job of reducing losses in a downward-stretch?
...And from a different planet, my domestic small caps in VSCIX were down by -4.45% in the same period.

Although SFGIX is listed as a Diversified Emerging Markets fund, it holds about 55% in emerging markets with the rest categorized as developed markets. IMHO, it's not a true emerging markets fund with little more than half exposure. PRIJX, however, holds about 72% in emerging markets with the rest in developed markets. This could explain in part the reason for the greater downswing for PRIJX. To me, SFGIX is sort of a back end way of dipping into emerging markets without REALLY getting full exposure to it. I own the fund myself, just to clarify.

I think this is splitting hairs a bit.
Country Diversification Top 5
VEIVX
China 32.6%
Taiwan 14.4%
India 11.8%
South Africa 7.9%
Brazil 7.7%
SFGIX
China/Hong Kong 19%
South Korea 18%
Taiwan 11%
India 10%
Brazil 10%
Is South Korea an emerging market?
Is Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund, also a "Diversified Emerging Markets Fund", a true emerging markets fund?
Mona

Jan. 31 through 06 Feb, '18.
SFGIX -3.38%
PRIJX -3.76% (I do not own this guy.)
Did SFGIX do its job of reducing losses in a downward-stretch?
...And from a different planet, my domestic small caps in VSCIX were down by -4.45% in the same period.

Although SFGIX is listed as a Diversified Emerging Markets fund, it holds about 55% in emerging markets with the rest categorized as developed markets. IMHO, it's not a true emerging markets fund with little more than half exposure. PRIJX, however, holds about 72% in emerging markets with the rest in developed markets. This could explain in part the reason for the greater downswing for PRIJX. To me, SFGIX is sort of a back end way of dipping into emerging markets without REALLY getting full exposure to it. I own the fund myself, just to clarify.

I see SFGIX has dropped 4.76% from 1/31 to 2/7. I see PRIJX dropped 5.74% in the same time range. SFGIX dropped 17% less than PRIJX. You decide.
I'll edit and throw in another comparison. Schwab's emerging market ETF, SCHE, has dropped 6.9% from 1/31 to 2/7. SFGIX has dropped 31% less than that index ETF.

Jan. 31 through 06 Feb, '18.
SFGIX -3.38%
PRIJX -3.76% (I do not own this guy.)
Did SFGIX do its job of reducing losses in a downward-stretch?
...And from a different planet, my domestic small caps in VSCIX were down by -4.45% in the same period.

need more details on your objectives. Parking some money to prevent losses? Do you need the income? How much?
Most people expect a bond fund to provide ballast and sorta go up when the market goes down. Or at least not loose a full year's income.
Unfortunately with interest rates at these levels, the obvious direction of bond prices is down.
Look and see what many of the "intermediate" bond funds did in the last couple of weeks when the stock market tanked. DODIX lost .6% or almost 25% of the yearly dividend in less than 3 weeks.
3 month CDs pay 1.4% You may be a lot happier in April going this route. I think it may be risky to think intermediate bonds will do anything than loose less than equities at this point.

My, oh, My....................................got their "options based trading" stuff caught in the wringer, one may presume. I do believe they're broke, eh?
Feb. 6 = -56%
M* performance below:
http://performance.morningstar.com/fund/performance-return.action?t=LJMIX&region=usa&culture=en_US

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1552947/000158064218000690/ljmpresgrwth497s.htm
497 1 ljmpresgrwth497s.htm 497
LJM PRESERVATION AND GROWTH FUND
Class A LJMAX
Class C LJMCX
Class I LJMIX
A Series of Two Roads Shared Trust
Supplement dated February 7, 2018 to the Prospectus dated February 28, 2017
__________________________________________
THIS SUPPLEMENT CONTAINS NEW AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BEYOND THAT CONTAINED IN THE PROSPECTUS AND SHOULD BE READ IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE PROSPECTUS.
Effective February 7, 2018, the LJM Preservation and Growth Fund (the “Fund”) is closed to all new investments, with the exception of dividend reinvestments, and the Fund's transfer agent will not accept orders for purchases of additional shares of the Fund, either from current Fund shareholders or from new investors.
Effective February 7, 2018, the Fund has elected not to impose the Fund’s redemption fee on any redemptions of Fund shares until further notice.

The IRS has never said what funds might constitute substantially identically securities (and thus trigger a wash sale).
I'd wager it's fair to say that the vast majority of people ("experts" if you wish) agree with McGowan that swapping an actively managed fund for an index fund or different actively managed fund would be safe. There's less of a consensus on swapping index funds.
Even swaps of index funds tracking the same index might not trigger a wash sale. (IMHO it's not worth the risk.) Different funds may use different sampling techniques, resulting in different market exposures and thus not constitute substantially identical securities. This may be especially true with bond funds or with funds having a bit of "wiggle room" in how they track their indexes.
Coming from the opposite direction, one might regard two index funds that track different indexes of the same market segment as substantially identical (since the investment exposure could be viewed as substantially identical). For example, IWV (R3K - 97% market coverage) vs. WINDX (W5K).
The 30/60 day rule is that you have a wash sale if you purchase a substantially identical security within 30 days of the loss sale. That's 30 days before the sale to 30 days after the sale, inclusive. So if you repurchase within that 61 day window, you've got a wash sale.
It's always puzzled me why fund investors would think about repurchasing the same fund 31 days after having put the proceeds into a substitute fund. If you put the the money in the substitute fund (here, DODIX), you do it in anticipation of the fund appreciating. So after taking a loss, you're going to turn around right away and recognize a short term gain? What's the point in that?
If you're figuring that you're not going to make (much) money on the replacement fund, then why invest in it for 31 days? You don't expect to gain, so you're just putting your money at risk.
I'd rather buy a replacement fund that I like and want to keep.

"As long as the shadow price remains in the range of $0.9950-1.1050, the money market funds can price their portfolio at a stable $1 NAV per share."
Whoops. $1.0050. Which is the whole point of the article (i.e. watch that the NAV of MMFs stay within half a penny of a buck.)

This may help get my question answered...
https://finance.zacks.com/substantially-identical-mutual-funds-5850.html Avoiding a Wash Sale
An article by Lee C. McGowan, CFP in the Journal for Financial Planning gives some guidelines concerning replacement mutual funds and the substantially equal restriction. The article suggest that the following transactions should not trigger a wash sale: Selling an index fund and buying an actively managed fund. Selling an actively managed fund and buying an index fund. Selling an index fund and buying an index fund tracking a different stock index. Selling an actively managed fund and buying a fund managed by a different fund company and manager.

@Bobpa: Short and Intermediate Bond Fund rankings from U.S. News & World Report.
Regards,
Ted
75 Short-Term Bond Funds:
https://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/rankings/short-term-bond
139 Intermediate Bond Funds
https://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/rankings/intermediate-term-bond

I'll speculate than if there continues to be about "10,000" baby boomers per day retiring; and a wild guess that if only 1/3 of them had a 401k/403b/457 plans; and that the majority of them perform an IRA rollover, then I will also speculate that they choose not to or don't have access to some of the funds available to them prior......some rotation of types of investments post-retirement will take place, by chance, by choice, by force or by advisor.
An example of an excellent active managed fund, which is closed; is FDGRX . However, this fund remains open to new money within many Fidelity operated company retirement accounts. The question remains going forward is if there will be more "outbound" money, versus "inbound" money in company retirement accounts going forward until the last of the boomers retire in 2029.
Note: other share classes of such a fund may vary among retirement plans.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2010/12/29/baby-boomers-retire/
Take care,
Catch

FYI: Investors continue to dump higher-priced funds in favor of lower-priced fare--not only in U.S. stock categories, but in foreign-stock and bond categories, too.
That's one takeaway from the results of our survey of individual funds that investors sold in 2017. (Last week we covered the top 25 funds they've been buying.) The good news for active funds was that the 2017 outflow was minimal compared with previous years, though, said Alina Lamy, a senior analyst in Morningstar's Quantitative Research Group
Regards,
Ted
http://www.morningstar.com/articles/845735/25-funds-investors-dumped-in-2017.print.html

@ Crash & MFO Members: Just as a frame of reference, EWJ was down -(4.73)% yesterday, -(8.20 since 1/26, and -(0.93)5 YTD.
Regards,
Ted

Direxion has an interesting history. As Potomac Funds, they originally offered 1.25x leveraged funds, and made a fair case for them. They also explained why higher leverage doesn't work well - because of rapidly growing costs of leverage as the multiplier increases, and because of the harmful interaction between multipliers and compounding (with ups and downs in daily prices).
Here's what they used to offer:
https://denvertradinggroup.com/wp-content/uploads/dtg-platinum/Trading/125approach.pdf
If you wanted a leveraged product, these struck me as rather sensible. Which of course meant that they didn't sell. So in 2006 they abandoned their reasoning and principles, and sought to market the most highly leveraged funds available. First to offer 2.5x in 2006, and 3x in 2008.

I just looked. Nikkei was at a high on 22 January. Through yesterday, 05 Feb, Nikkei is down from that "top" by -10.42%. Makes me salivate re: TRP PRJPX.