FYI: Wall Street indexes were trading higher on Monday and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit records as a global cyber attack boosted technology stocks and a rise in oil prices lifted energy stocks.
Oil hit its highest in more than three weeks after top exporters Saudi Arabia and Russia said supply cuts needed to last into 2018, a step toward extending an OPEC-led deal to support prices for longer than originally agreed.
Regards,
Ted
Bloomberg:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-14/sentiment-takes-hit-from-economic-data-missiles-markets-wrap
Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks-idUSKCN18B1D1
MarketWatch:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-poised-for-higher-open-as-saudi-russia-surprise-lifts-oil-prices-2017-05-15/print
IBD:
http://www.investors.com/market-trend/stock-market-today/stocks-rumble-to-a-bullish-close-ibd-50-names-outperform/
CNBC:
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/15/us-markets.html
AP:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FINANCIAL_MARKETS_ASOL-?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Bloomberg Evening Briefing:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-15/your-evening-briefing-j2qjgzdt
WSJ: Market At A Glance;
http://markets.wsj.com/us
SPDR's Sector Tracker:
http://www.sectorspdr.com/sectorspdr/tools/sector-tracker
SPDR's Bloomberg Sector Performance Pie Chart:
https://www.bloomberg.com/markets/sectors
Current Futures: Positive
http://finviz.com/futures.ashx

I heard James management speak to a group of RIAs in late 2007. The person told us they (James) were fairly confident a massive selloff was in the offing. Interesting that he said they were doing nothing to the portfolio despite their strong conviction of a 50-60% drawdown in the S&P 500. The fund held up reasonably well despite the lack of conviction in their own conviction. It always stuck with me. Their allocation has barely changed over the years, remaining about 50% in stocks and 50% in bonds and cash. Also interesting is the fund's mostly mid-cap value tilt. I compare it to WHGIX, VBINX. We use WHGIX as an actively-managed, low-risk hold in conservative accounts.

FYI: Some mutual funds are harder to judge than others because they have no obvious benchmark to measure them against. But we found a way to evaluate the performance of one such fund, the $80 billion Franklin Income fund (FKINX), by creating a portfolio of exchange-traded funds to act as a benchmark.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-closer-look-at-a-popular-fund-for-yield-1494209100
M* Snapshot FKINX:
http://beta.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/fkinx/quote.html
Lipper Snapshot FKINX
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/fund/fkinx
FKINX Is Ranked #18 In The (A 30%-50% E) Fund DCategory By U.S/ News & World Report:
http://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/allocation-30-to-50-equity/franklin-income-fund/fkinx

When this fund opened in 2015, I said I didn't see how Brown Capital could succeed with an international small cap fund, especially given the same managers' tepid performance in the Brown large cap international (BCIIX) fund. However, BCSVX has really taken off in the past year. Maybe they will be a contender. Those MFOers who've loved BCSIX, myself included, might be tempted.

I agree with Crash (and Bee) that PRIDX seems like a solid, stable fund for long term investing.
I hadn't taken a close look at VINEX in a few years (it had a pretty long poor stretch prior to 2013), but seems to have regained its luster - despite what M* thinks (Neutral rating). As I recall, it was much more value leaning many years ago.
If you're looking for boutique funds, QUSIX (Pear Tree Polaris Foreign Small Cap) has a fine long term record with managers that have been there for nearly a decade. Really low turnover, a healthy dollop of EM (18%), neither concentrated nor spread thin (74 holdings, 13% in top 5). Smaller cap than many of the other funds mentioned. Also value-oriented, which is a bit different than most.
A boutique fund on the growth side that pops out on a screen (don't know much about it) is TCMPX (AMG TimeSquare Int'l Small Cap). Been around four years, low AUM, great returns (and high Sharpe ratio, along with PRIDX and ISMIX).
(M* shows only 161 funds with mid or small cap portfolios that are international; only 158 if one excludes global funds. Rule out the obvious duds and regional funds you may not want, and the pool becomes small enough that one could almost research each one in detail.)

willmatt
GLRBX was profiled in the August 2015 Commentary
http://www.mutualfundobserver.com/2015/08/james-balanced-golden-rainbow-fund-glrbxglrix-august-2015/

ISMIX was searchable on M* (I'm assuming ISMRX is just another share class)...seems
Two choices I like:
VINEX...Vanguard, Solid
PRIDX (breakdown from @crash)...TRPrice, Solid
Japan 21.8%
United Kingdom 12.8%
China 8.4%
Germany 4.4%
India 4.2%
South Korea 3.9%
Spain 3.7%
Italy 3.5%
France 3.5%
Sweden 3.4%
Other Considerations:
HJPSX (100% SC Japan)...great performance at a price (high ER)
DFUKX (Sorry I didn't mean to swear) United Kingdom SC
MSMLX (Asia SC - 40% developed, 60% emerging)
Performance Chart comparing ISMRX:

Holy cow, @bee. That Hennessey fund is quite a find!

This headline was just too absurd to pass up.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-12/there-are-now-more-indexes-than-stocks

ISMIX was searchable on M* (I'm assuming ISMRX is just another share class)...good choice
Two choices I like:
VINEX...Vanguard, Solid
PRIDX (breakdown from @crash)...TRPrice, Solid
Japan 21.8%
United Kingdom 12.8%
China 8.4%
Germany 4.4%
India 4.2%
South Korea 3.9%
Spain 3.7%
Italy 3.5%
France 3.5%
Sweden 3.4%
Other Considerations:
HJPSX (100% SC Japan)...great performance at a price (high ER)
DFUKX (Sorry I didn't mean to swear) United Kingdom SC
MSMLX (Asia SC - 40% developed, 60% emerging)
Performance Chart comparing ISMRX:

I found that my premise was off. VIGRX (VIVAX) tracks the CRSP US Large Cap Growth (Value) Index, not the S&P 500 Growth (Value) Index. Vanguard does have ETFs and institutional mutual funds that track the S&P 500 Growth and Value indexes, however.

@rforno: Upon further review, you might be thinking of his appearance on 9/12/14.
Regards,
Ted

I'm not doing timing, and regardless, the arguable appeal of the RG_ set is that they are the opposite of megacap, being equal weighting of the SP500.
RPG wins over the last decade, while MGV lags even SP500. Interesting.
Over 5y it's RPV, with all the others bunched.
So maybe a timing strategy would be the way to go. If only we knew how to do that.
Over its last 4.5y, CAPE beats all.
For all these spans, the performance of the two MG_ is inferior.

Emerging market has done even better this year; YTD return is over 2X that of the S&P 500.

I couldn't access the article at this time, so I don't know what was discussed or compared.
A general overview comparing SPY and IEV for the past 3 years.
SPY = +33.8%
IEV = -1.9%
Note: SPY is about +7.4% YTD and IEV is about +15.5% YTD.
So, yes; there was more value at a given point.
ALSO keep in mind that after the market melt; the U.S. moved into quantitative money easing while the ECB maintained an austerity mode is may still be about 3 years behind the money curve. In addition, the structure of the ECB and Eurozone is not as is the Federal Reserve system here.
http://stockcharts.com/freecharts/perf.php?SPY,IEV&n=758&O=011000
Regards,
Catch

VF, it seems to me that if you have a 50-50 mix of VIVAX and VIGRX, your results would be about the same as 100% in VFINX. I just looked a the 3-month total returns of VIVAX, VFINX, and VIGRX. They are 0.88%, 3.73%, and 6.85%, respectively. This isn't rigorous mathematically, but (0.88%+6.85%)/2 = 3.87%, close to 3.73%. The 1-, 6-, and 12-month returns work out similarly. I got my data from StockCharts.com.

Yeah. Actually they were a little with the 2 funds. So potentially, if you increase/reduce allocations across the 2 you could improve on the results. In theory.
Also unless I'm mistaken both of the value and growth indices have some overlap in the holdings. Each of them has 300 stocks vs S&P 500. I could be wrong, but I seem to recall this is the case.
The funny thing is both individual indices are market cap weighted. So if "value" is going down, you are actually not purchasing "value" because you will still buy more of the stocks that are going down less. Similarly, if "value" is going up, you are buying more expensive stocks when you invest in that index. Either way it is about momentum. So now I'm wondering if you could just pick either of the two and just buy and sell. Which makes it like any other security. No point trying to beat the s&p 500 index. You have reduced the problem to market timing an individual index/fund.

Hi @Ted, Congrat's on #15,000 links.
DEQAX is one of Old_Skeet's fund holdings found in my global growth & income sleeve. As a matter of fact it was one of the few all equity funds that I recently added to and increased my position in as I sold off some of my fund holding in the growth area of my portfolio moving dollars towards my summer asset allocation. Most of the sale proceeds went into hybrid funds with the residual going to the cash area. As noted above there were a few exceptions.
Another fine Dreyfus fund that I like but no longer own is PGROX.

FYI: (Click On Article title At Top Of Google Search) "A Different Perspective on Global Income"
As a teen, Nick Clay earned money painting landscapes and selling them to American tourists from a store in London’s Covent Garden. He toyed with going to art school but decided it would be more financially prudent to study economics and philosophy at the University of Leeds. Although economics helped him launch his investment career, critical thinking and logic are the basis for most of the work he does today.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/#q=A+Different+Perspective+on+Global+Income
M* Snapshot DEQAX:
http://www.morningstar.com/funds/XNAS/DEQAX/quote.html
Lipper Snapshot DEQAX:
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/fund/deqax
DEQAX Ranks #36 In The (WS) Fund Category By U.S. News & World Report:
http://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/world-stock/dreyfus-global-equity-income-fund/deqax

On the heels of David's appraisal of PRSNX (TRP Global Multi-Sector Bond) in April---because Morningstar had "orphaned" it--- I note that Morningstar has taken one of its 5 stars. Now a 4-star fund. Do I care? No. Still holding it, and still quite satisfied with it. Did M'star catch wind of David's words...? ;)

It appears worthwhile to track RPG vs RPV vs SP500 over various intervals the last 11y, since the RP_ inception. (Growth wins over that span.)
Being equal-weight, they also beat the cited Vanguard ones over the 11y span.
I did not check shorter spans in detail, though it looks as though the Vanguard ones outperform for some and maybe most spans.
Then compare all with CAPE, the last 4.5y of its existence.

VF, it seems to me that if you have a 50-50 mix of VIVAX and VIGRX, your results would be about the same as 100% in VFINX. I just looked a the 3-month total returns of VIVAX, VFINX, and VIGRX. They are 0.88%, 3.73%, and 6.85%, respectively. This isn't rigorous mathematically, but (0.88%+6.85%)/2 = 3.87%, close to 3.73%. The 1-, 6-, and 12-month returns work out similarly. I got my data from StockCharts.com.