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FYI: Our guest in this special bonus episode of The Long View podcast is Tim Buckley, chairman and CEO of the Vanguard Group, which manages over $5 trillion in assets globally. Tim took the helm at Vanguard in January 2018, succeeding Bill McNabb. Tim is a longtime Vanguard veteran, having joined the firm in 1991. Before assuming his current role, he served as Vanguard’s chief investment officer, head of its retail investor group, as well as its chief information officer. Regards, Ted https://www.morningstar.com/articles/930626/vanguards-buckley-theres-no-one-even-close-to-us.html
FYI: Many U.S. households find themselves in a fragile position financially, even in an economy with an unemployment rate near a 50-year low, according to a Federal Reserve survey. The Fed’s 2018 report on the economic well-being of households, published Thursday, indicated “most measures” of well-being and financial resilience “were similar to, or slightly better than, those in 2017.” The slight improvement coincided with a decline in the average unemployment rate to 3.9% last year, from 4.3% in 2017. Regards, Ted https://www.fa-mag.com/news/almost-40--of-americans-would-struggle-to-cover-a--400-emergency-45065.html?print
FYI: Portfolio manager responsibilities for six closed-end funds for which Symphony Asset Management serves as subadvisor have been updated. There will be no impact on the investment approach, investment strategies or any of the funds’ investment objectives or policies. Information on the portfolio management transition is outlined in the two tables below. Regards, Ted https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190523005362/en
Old Skeet's market barometer as of market close 5/23, based upon it's metrics, reflects that the S&P 500 Index is undervalued with a reading of 156. With this, I did a little buying yesterday in one of my global equity monthly distribution funds (EADIX) which has a yield of about 3.4%. As I write, it is off it's 52 week high by about eight percent.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4265929-corn-became-far-cheap Corn become far cheap Summary Corn followed the beans on trade news. Energy prices have been supportive of corn. Ethanol moved higher. The uncertainty of the 2019 crop year. CORN is an alternative to the futures market. Looking for more? I update all of my investing ideas and strategies to members of Hecht Commodity Report. Get started today » Anyone dipping into corn?
Looks like in 2013 when the fund left FMI it had nearly $730M in AUM...as of the 9/30/13 Quarterly Report anyway. In its early days as FMIOX, performance wise this fund was one of the very best mutual funds in its category. 1997=69.74%, 1998=35.46%, 1999=54.11%, 2000=23.41%, 2001=2.53%
The global currency fund (ICPHX) was interesting. It has been managed by Hassenstab (TBGAX) since 2001. Until mid 2016 it was known as Franklin Hard Currency Fund. https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/2016/04/april-1-2016/ https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/780379/000078037916000045/thcfdefinitiveproxystatement.htm That fund was designed as a hedge against a falling dollar. Which explains why, between 2011 and the end of 2015 its AUM dropped from around $700M to around $100M. Per Oct 31, 2015 annual report. The dollar was soaring over this period. U.S. Dollar Index - 43 Year Historical Chart So the fund was opened up to going both long and short against the dollar, and the fund changed its name. ISTM it became a way to access Hassentab's currency plays without the interest rate risk exposure of his bond funds. But at a high cost (ER). AUM continued to slide, now at $35M. So it's no surprise that this fund is being closed. All in all, a most unusual fund.
I held HIEMX until Jain left, invested in his new emerging market fund starting late 2017, and also have GSIHX which he subadvises for Goldman Sachs. Its not my only emerging market or intl, but his record is excellent, and is a long term hold for me.
FYI: Cash was the best-performing holding in many investors' portfolios last year--and in my model portfolios, too. Even as the U.S. stock market dropped 5% and the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index barely clung to a gain, investors in money market funds and other cash products pocketed yields of as much as 2%. And because cash investments don't lose value, cash investors didn't experience the net asset value shrinkage that many bond investors ran into last year. But despite its heroic showing in 2018, has cash delivered as a diversifier for stocks over longer time frames? Not as much as Treasury bonds or the Aggregate Index have, based on a follow-up look at data depicting the correlations between stocks and various other asset classes. Regards, Ted https://www.morningstar.com/articles/930643/cash-core-and-coreplus-bond-funds-and-other-meh-di.html
Our hosting provider has informed us that the will be performing maintenance on our server. They expect the server to be offline for about 30 minutes, beginning ... oh very soon (Between 10:00 pm and 1:00 am Eastern on 5/22). Thanks for your patience! chip
