Feb 14, 2020 , Reuters Feb 14 (Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway:
* BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY TAKES SHARE STAKE OF 18.9 MILLION SHARES IN KROGER- SEC FILING
* BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY UPS SHARE STAKE IN GENERAL MOTORS CO BY 3.8% TO 75.0 MILLION SHARES - SEC FILING
* BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY UPS SHARE STAKE IN RH BY 41.4% TO 1.7 MILLION SHARES
* BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY UPS SHARE STAKE IN OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM CORP BY 153.5% TO 18.9 MILLION SHARES
* BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC - CHANGE IN HOLDINGS ARE AS OF DECEMBER 31, 2019

@joe74 posted some of what I was constructing below, though I may still be filling in a little:
"other EM debt local currency funds". Is either fund primarily invested in unhedged, locally denominated debt?
Vanguard says of its fund that "the majority of bonds are expected to be invested in in U.S. dollar-denominated bonds or hedged back to the U.S. dollar. "
Meanwhile, until this month, Matthews benchmarked MAINX against the Markit iBoxx Asian Local Bond Index. According to the fund prospectus, Mathews just changed the fund's benchmark to 50% of this index, and 50% of J.P. Morgan Asia Credit Index, which is dollar-denominated. That seems to suggest that the fund had been invested primarily in local currency bonds but has recently moved closer to a 50/50 mix (currently 54% in US dollars).
With international investments, currency movements can play such a large role in performance that much of the difference between funds can be explained by this alone. I'm not saying that's the case here. Rather the suggestion that these are local currency funds invites checking further into how accurate that is.
Other notable differences:
Vanguard is virtually all sovereign debt; Matthews is 20%. (From M*'s new portfolio pages for the funds.)
Most of the Matthews fund is invested in east/southeast Asia, with the remainder (19%) in south Asia (India, Sri Lanka), while little of Vanguard's fund is in either east/southeast Asia (5% in Indonesia, 2% in China) or south Asia (1% in India). The little exposure that Vanguard has in Asia comes from central Asia (a couple of "stans"), and from the Asian countries of the Middle East (Saudia Arabia, Bahrain, etc.). Very different regions.
Maybe Vanguard alters its mix depending on the investment climate, or maybe these are geographically complementary funds.
A quick check of (semi) annual reports suggests that the Vanguard fund has had consistently little interest in east/southeast/south Asia aside from Indonesia (4% - 8%).
March 31, 2016 report
Sept 30, 2016 report
March 31, 2017
Sept 30, 2017 report
March 31, 2018 report
Sept 30, 2018 report
March 31, 2019 report
Sept 30, 2019 report

As to buying gold bullion, in my example; non-numismatic, as with American Gold Eagle or Canadian Maple Leaf, 1 oz.
One of the lowest cost Canadian Maple Leaf 1 oz, .999 bullion coins that I may purchase today (Feb. 16, 2020) has a 4.29% premium over the gold spot price. With the assumption that one may anticipate a 2-5% premium to buy and the same going into the sell side; a bullion purchase should have these numbers in mind.
To me, the equivalent is a load to buy/sell a mutual fund/etf.
Assuming whatever performance with a fund over a 10 year or whatever period, and using the above percentage range for bullion buy/sell using 4% for easy numbers; one would be buying a fund at a 4% premium and selling at a 4% discount. Front and back load city, eh?
Have a good remainder.

+1 Thank you very much.

I've always thought the PM/gold miner funds were a way to speculate, not to invest long term, but that bias is likely because I've been burned in the past. I've sworn off that group forever. I guess you could say the same for gold ETFs but they are a much tamer play, which is why I bought the ETF IAU back in Dec. '18 and have added as the trend-up persists.
For me gold has been a bet on economic and political uncertainty which I think will play out to even a greater extent for the next few years if not the next decade.

The cost of the Premium version of Morningstar is $169. The regular version is free.
What specifically as a mutual fund and ETF investor benefits me with the premium version?

I don't know exactly which benefits are included with Morningstar Premium membership since I've never been a member. You may want to check if your local library system offers Morningstar Investment Research Center online. This tool provides access to Mutual Fund Analyst Reports and to several monthly newsletters (Dividend Investor, Fund Investor, Stock Investor, ETF Investor).

Hi sir @Mark.... probably speculations and maybe a hobby...one colleague at work just like rono had many physical gold bars and coins, he states he like to look at them time to time and bring to nearby bullions to trade...another colleague has lots old guns pistols from WWII (Japanese german) he says will go in 10 yrs but we never know
Probably good to have all above_ gold bullions /gold etf /bonds stocks funds /real estates +reits

https://www.investopedia.com/news/black-swan-investors-lose-big-stocks-thrive/
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/these-3-words-describe-one-black-swan-investors-approach-to-managing-his-5-billion-fund-through-a-market-crash-2020-02-13?siteid=rss&rss=1
Its very difficult to be more than 50% right w market timings...I think just go with the waves probably best ways forward

https://www.livetradingnews.com/buying-gold-physical-vs-etfs-166650.html
Buying Gold: Physical Vs ETFs
$XAU $GLD
/Gold has been valued as a currency, commodity and investment for thousands of years, and is popular among today’s investors because it can be used as a hedge against currency devaluation, inflation, or deflation, and due to its ability to provide a “safe haven” during times of economic uncertainty./
https://online.kitco.com/gold?gclid=Cj0KCQiA7aPyBRChARIsAJfWCgIAJ71kPYDhuMpYaDN6Yk-clmZWEYxJG86zPFSdi7achTpU0kstTf0aAoyIEALw_wcB
Just go to the nearest gold billions and buy ur physical golds

Many predictions made by market prognosticators are inaccurate. Unfortunately, many investors have short memories. https://rpseawright.wordpress.com/2020/01/02/forecasting-follies-2020/

@Observant1 I had the same thought...

Matthews Asia offers a range of Asian-focused funds. It appears that the company has prioritized asset accumulation since they currently have 17 different strategies. How will this proliferation of funds benefit Matthews Asia investors?
P.S. - I've previously owned Matthews Pacific Tiger Fund and Matthews Asia Dividend Fund.

Target-Date funds may be a good option for investors. Some important considerations: 1) mutual fund company; 2) fund fees; 3) glide-path. Target-Date funds can be easier to use compared to other fund categories. They tend to have higher investor returns - performance of the average dollar in a fund over a certain time period after taking cash flows into account. The annual "Mind the Gap" studies published by Morningstar provide additional context.

It’s not hard to access the story incognito. If you have the Duck Go browser downloaded on your device it will get you in. Re TRP: They were #20 in the main ranking of fund houses (for 2919). Following those overall rankings (about 55) they provided additional (smaller) sub-sets of rankings, (tax free bonds, etc.) Frankly, it wasn’t worth my time to dig into all that.
One year performance is just that. May or may not be representative of the firm’s quality. I think front-office interaction can say a lot about the depth and quality of a company. I owned some Strong funds in the late 90s. There were ominous signs in dealing with them (like nastiness from phone reps and confirmed trades not being executed for several days or not at all) that caused me to bail out early - about a year before the scandal broke. And, they continued to boast some pretty hot funds during that time - even though the old man was later found to have had his fingers in the til. So the small stuff like that can say a lot. In the case of T Rowe, they tend to be a bit more cautious on average with your money than many. I expect they’d rank a bit higher than last year during a down year, or even a “more average” up year.
D&C wasn't among the top 55 from what I could tell. Yet they were favorably mentioned in the accompanying narrative. Likely, they stood out in one or more of the sub-sets I alluded to. Like the Kipplingers listings earlier this year, the Barron’s ranking amounted to good “financial porn”. No harm in looking at it. But I thought that for a low budget publication, Kipplingers had the better story.
EDIT: There are 5 and 10 year rankings underneath the feature story. TRP did substantially better on those. #4 and #5 for 5 and 10 year periods respectively.

MAINX I track this one, and babysit some money for friends. I put them into this one, since 2010. It's 4.98% of their stuff. For 2019, divs averaged out to 3.7 cents/month per share. I own other funds that are doing less well than that. Name changed, to "Matthews Total Return" bond fund. Current yield is 3.99, call it 4%. Up 13% in 2019. Up 1.62% YTD. The fund will turn 10 years old very soon. Teresa Kong still at the helm. With this selection, I don't have to say, on behalf of those friends: "I coulda been a contender!"

The cost of the Premium version of Morningstar is $169. The regular version is free.
What specifically as a mutual fund and ETF investor benefits me with the premium version?

This is a pretty good recurring once a decade article "why can't Warren beat the SP500" article, similar to 2000. I do think he could do several things better ( like buy back more shares if he can't find an "elephant")
On the other hand, having owned BRK.B since 1999, I do think Warren has done a lot of things well. Of most importance he has brought in new and younger mangers to do things ( buy Apple) he seemed unable to consider.
I have never understood why if he cannot find large companies to buy in toto, he doesn't put more money into other stocks, especially good companies that trip up.
The stock will probably pop when he dies in anticipation of a dividend or larger buybacks.
Most of his dramatic market beating achievements were after the 1974 bear market when he established his KO AMP and other large positions.
He can rebound quickly after dramatic declines as he has the money and the stomach to jump in.
As a long term investment, with a diverse revenue stream, it is a not a bad place to be, but I would not bet the farm. On the other hand, it is not likely to drop 30% overnight on an earnings miss.

Vanguard #10 TRP #20 AKRE Primecap not ranked because
"To qualify for this ranking, firms must offer at least three active mutual funds or actively run exchange-traded funds in Lipper’s general U.S. stock category; one in world equity; and one mixed-asset—such as a balanced or allocation fund. They also need to offer at least two taxable bond funds and one national tax-exempt bond fund. All funds must have a track record of at least one year"
These rankings have made little sense for years. If you do not use a "Supermarket" and stay with one firm maybe if that firms lags for years you might switch.
I assume Barron's continues to do this to appeal to institutional investors and retirement plans who can point to the fund families they use relative ranking to their client
It is far more helpful to compare funds to each other is a single class, along with risk statistics and ratios etc, ie at MFO Premium

Here is a follow-up article:
https://citywireusa.com/professional-buyer/news/fpa-international-equity-team-set-to-join-polar-capital/a1323652

Feb 14th Episode: