Jason Zweig: Are Index Funds Eating The World ? I wonder how many people believe the statement in the article: "[index funds] own[] essentially all the stocks or bonds in a market basket all the time."
Index funds tracking indexes that are limited to large, liquid securities do tend to use full replication. But even funds with massive AUMs like VTSMX use sampling to deal with smaller issues. Then there are commodity index funds that use derivatives, currency hedged index funds, enhanced index funds, etc.
Vanguard: "[We] vote to the sole benefit of our mutual-fund shareholders."
Been there, done that.
http://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/28910/lewis-braham-vanguard-s-climate-change-dismissalFor those who think that Vanguard should not be "hugging trees" but should be paying attention to basic dollars and cents, there's Vanguard's voting record on compensation:
- Vanguard supporting CEO compensation plans in 97% of votes (
Bloomberg, 2016)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-17/vanguard-blackrock-seen-seldom-challenging-companies-on-ceo-pay (97% of votes for CEO pay - 2016 report)
- Vanguard tops list of excessive CEO pay enablers (
AFSCME study, 2011)
Ultimately, though, I feel that the problem in holding corporate management accountable is not limited to index funds. Fund management companies either care about how companies are run or they don't. If they do, they'll act accordingly regardless of how they own stocks in companies (actively or passively).
Market pricing is another question. There, ISTM that Bogle is right - until index funds own virtually the whole market, it's not a problem. Index funds may be somewhat like market orders in that they must accept whatever's out there. But limit orders would still control pricing. So long as there were enough limit orders that the "collective wisdom of the marketplace" could come through, the actual percentage of index ownership wouldn't matter.
What Grade Does Your State's 529 Plan Get? We've invested in Utah's 529 for ten years. A 50/50 split between VITPX and VBMPX .
Combined annualized total return = 6.4% per year.
What Grade Does Your State's 529 Plan Get?
SCMFX and SEEDX - Rethinking Decision @davidmoran No, not all gold related; but it sure has helped YTD, eh?
@Junkster You're still covered with your prior assumption of PRPFX. It's having a "day in sun" from the choices in place at this time. Most of us here all have our "geez" moments about the ones that got away. Multiply by years of investing and the positive compound returns, over and over; and one could buy their own private island or whatever, eh?
PRPFX =
5 year return rate at 1.1%
Most here understand the market cycle sector benefits or downfalls of this type of fund.
Looking at the composition (below link); one finds gold in various forms, real estate and appears to be long term gov't. bonds; among other.
I'll pick a few simple and readily available choices if one really had their act together at the start of 2016 to look like the smartest one around for many miles. 'Course these may all go into the ground within the next year and cause one to look like a real buy and hold dumbbell, too.
YTD's for the following:
---GDXJ = +13
5.2%
---GDX = +98.1%
---GLD = +24.2%
---EDV = +24.1%
---IYR = +11.2%
---LQD = +10.4%
Hey, make your own list based upon what you find in PRPFX, but don't forget to sell at the proper time to lock the profits.
PRPFX
composition.
@VintageFreak Apologizes for perverting your original questions.
Take care,
Catch
A Good Time For REITS "Demand for REIT stocks and REIT exchange-traded funds will likely increase, if only from passive index funds that are linked to the S&P 500. The financial sector will drop to about a 12.7% weighting in the S&P 500 from 15.7%."
I'm not sure I understand how this would happen. Shouldn't any passive index fund linked to the S&P 500 already have all those stocks? It seems like the massive amounts of money in passive investments shouldn't change much and that any new demand might be more likely to come from active funds or individual investors who start paying more specific attention to real estate.
The BESPOKE Report — 8/26/16: ETF Asset Class Performance Matrix: Week, MTD & YTD FYI: Below is an updated look at our asset class performance matrix using key ETFs traded on US exchanges. For each ETF, we show its performance this past week, month-to-date, and year-to-date. As one might be able to surmise, there really hasn’t been much in the way of major moves this month across the spectrum of our Asset Class Matrix. In fact, just eleven of the
58 ETFs shown are up or down more than 2%. Two of the biggest losers this month have been Telecom Services (-7.6%) and Utilities (-
5.7%). These are generally considered ‘safe’ areas of the market, but ironically enough, have been some of the most volatile in a month lacking any volatility at all. On the upside, oil is up over 12%, and along with it, the Energy sector ETF is up just under 3%.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.bespokepremium.com/bespoke-report/the-bespoke-report-82616/
SCMFX and SEEDX - Rethinking Decision jeez, PRPFX significantly better ytd than PRWCX or 50-50 DSENX and PONDX, whoa. All cuz gold?
SCMFX and SEEDX - Rethinking Decision SCMFX What is there to like about a fund that has significantly underperformed its category YTD, 1 Yr, 3 YR, and 5 Yr ?? SEEDX isn't much better. One common refrain (excuse) when investors hold underperforming funds is it's for diversification purposes. However, in the spirit of fair disclosure I use to rag on holders of PRPFX a dog of a dog the past many years and now look how superbly it has performed this year. So what do I know? Not much - which is about as much as all the so-called experts out there.
‘the biggest bond bubble’ ever
‘the biggest bond bubble’ ever Tell me! I'm currently muttering to myself about Gilead. I think that I'll wait until that hits 57¢ along with REXX before buying more.
‘the biggest bond bubble’ ever Well,
somebody's been buying for the last couple of years. Is all of that
you, David?
