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Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
  • Allocation funds
    Greetings, Y'all.
    I held FPACX in my portfolio from 2010 - or earlier - until the end of 2018.
    My reasons for dumping it were:
    1) fund should have been closed long ago. I got in when AUM was approx $8B. How in good conscience can a fund be kept open when the average cash stake was 20% or better most of the time? That much cash means there aren't many good deals out there, so why accept more cash?
    2) For an $8B fund with 20-30% of AUM in cash, what justifies an ER >= 1.00%.?Today AUM are 50% greater, so why has the ER increased instead of decreased?
    If you look at M* data, you'll see that over 15 years, FPACX is a middle-of-the-road fund. It maybe is in the second quartile on the 4-bar graph, and comes in around 50% in terms of fund rankings.
    If I remember correctly, prior to 2010, this fund was hot, and it wasn't large cap performance that made it hot. I thought it might have had good defensive characteristics, which is why I bought in. Sometime around that time, money started to pour in, AUM went way up, and people didn't care that the ER was where it was because the fund was still doing well.
    There are plenty of other funds out there - big and small - where I would put my money. I have both VWENX and VWIAX. If I didn't, I'd consider DODBX, ABALX - even if I had to pay the load -, and possibly MAPOX and FOBAX. I sold out my FOBAX two years ago, and have been regretting it ever since. I have not regretting selling FPACX and doubt that I ever will. YMMV.
  • Allocation funds
    hmm, M* from start of May 05 to date appears to show small but nontrivial outperformance the other way, $10k growing to $21,269 for VWELX vs $22,978 for JABAX. - ?
    Yes, Janus (the company, too, TBailey's penchant, then JCraig) has usually, albeit sometimes intermittently, leaned toward growth, as long as I have been involved with them, going back to Janus Fund. Not like VWELX and Romick and Oakmark. Indeed, you would think that FPURX (similar growth taste as JABAX) would be even better than it is, would you not?
    I don't know what it would take for Pinto and Fido (speaking v generally) to ever shift to value.
  • Allocation funds
    What pops out immediately from JABAX's portfolio is that its equity sleeve is large cap growth, and has been at least leaning that way for the past five years or longer. See here. We've been in a long period, virtually the whole tenure of MPinto, where growth has outperformed value.
    This raises the questions (1) whether its good performance has been due in part simply to this bias, and (2) whether this is where the manager is comfortable investing or whether he would shift to value (and under what conditions)?
    It's hard to answer #2. To address #1, I ran a quick analysis using Portfolio Visualizer.
    I ran back tests from May 2005 to the present, comparing JABAX with VWELX and with 60/40 mixes of VOOG & VBTLX (to check JABAX value add vs. index funds) and VOOV & VBTLX (for VWELX value add vs. index funds). Rebalanced quarterly.
    From best to worst annualized returns:
    VOOG/VBTLX: 10.43% (growth mix)
    VWELX: 9.74%
    JABAX: 9.32%
    VOOV/VBTLX: 8.36% (value mix)
  • Allocation funds
    Has anyone ever read profiles / analyses / interviews w MPinto, who has been doing really good things at JABAX for like 15y ?
  • Invesco liquidates several funds
    Yeah - Checking M* I get figures (for OSDAX) at or close to msf & Carew388. (1.78 @3 years and 1.33 @5). Sorry for the misstatement. Now, if somebody can explain to me how Lipper could screw up those numbers, I’d feel better. Have used the MW / Lipper data for years and never encountered a problem like that.
    As far as Invesco closing, I’m new there, having transferred in thru the merger with Oppenheimer. I’ve been critical of Oppenheimer for years, due to higher fees and their horrible ‘07-‘09 performance. But, as I said earlier, I’ve had a relatively small % of assets with them since around ‘95. I’ve always invested directly with the houses rather than thru a brokerage. Old school I guess. So yes, I’d miss them if they closed completely. I like and use 3 of their specialty funds. With those types of funds, the ability to move in and out nearly at will is helpful. That said, as I simplify things and move monies to TRP (a process already in progress) $$ will be coming out of Invesco.
  • Invesco liquidates several funds
    Legacy M* OSDAX purchase page (just Vanguard and JP Morgan carry the A shares)
    http://financials.morningstar.com/fund/purchase-info.html?t=OSDAX&region=usa&culture=en-US
    Legacy M* OSDAX performance page. Click on "Monthly" tab to get performance figures as of 8/31/19 (confirming carew388's numbers).
    http://performance.morningstar.com/fund/performance-return.action?t=OSDAX&region=usa&culture=en-US
    That latter page can be used to compare OSDAX with other funds. I input TRBUX and it gave 3 and 5 year annual returns of 2.37% and 1.78% also as of 8/31/19.
    Flipping back to the Daily tab, the TRBUX figures are 2.33% and 1.80%, confirming hank's figures for that fund (give or take a day).
    One can tell that Marketwatch (with Lipper data) has the wrong figures for OSDAX by checking the figures for OSDYX (the ERs are comparable, 0.25% for Y vs 0.33% for A). For the Y shares, Marketwatch reports 3 and 5 year annual returns of 1.85% and 1.4% respectively.
  • Invesco liquidates several funds
    I checked OSDAX summary prospectus at the Invesco website and as of 8/31/19 3 year rtn was 1.76 and 5 year rtn 1.30. Vanguard surprisingly was the only brokerage I found that offered the fund;it was unavailable at Fidelity,Schwab and E-Trade.
  • Allocation funds
    I generally suggest caution when evaluating a fund with recent poor performance. That recent performance distorts the longer term figures.
    Looking at IVWIX year by year, it's done acceptable or better most years. 2012 was a year like this one, 84th percentile then, 86th percentile YTD. M* writes that this fund lags in up markets such as 2012 and that would seem to apply to this year as well.
    Consistent with that, the fund currently holds over 30% in cash alone (almost no bonds), and 2/3 of its equity is abroad. That seems quite defensive, positioned for interest rate hikes and the US market peaking. In six months that may look very prescient or it may look somewhat foolish. Regardless, this seems to fit the fund's overall profile. This is not your typical world allocation fund and it doesn't seem to have changed its style recently.
    If you're looking for a pure stock fund, would you consider IVIQX? If not, then perhaps it's the managers' style that you don't like and not necessarily world allocation funds in general.
    With respect to domestic allocation funds, I usually start with VWELX as my benchmark. Is that a fund you would be happy with? If so, then again it may be the fund (FPACX) and not the category that troubles you.
    If in using separate stock and bond funds you'd have the same stock/bond mix as before, then you'd expect to do about the same as with allocation funds generally. Personally I prefer separate stock and bond funds, but I do keep eyeing Wellington. It's more a question of how one wants to manage one's portfolio than a question of performance.
  • Allocation funds
    Hi Art,
    Not that my 2 cents of thought is really worth 2 cents; but we departed away from all non-U.S. equity in May of 2016, with the exception of whatever may be held by a fund for some foreign exposure. To the best of my recall, we used the best turd in the global turd pile approach for this decision.
    Not that the funds you noted are sub-par, but that their investment areas may not be as favorable right now. No easy choices or decisions in the current markets conditions. Too many things going on all around the globe.
    I/we still hold this view; although there will always be exceptions in some foreign areas.
    I used FBALX for a moderate allocation (U.S. centric) compare in the below chart. This is not a fair comparison as to fund types, but represents the returns only for a view.The fund generally may have 5% or less of foreign equity exposure. Fund inception, Nov. 1986; with lifetime annualized total return of 9.18%.
    Chart of these funds, since 2008 IVWIX , FPACX , FBALX
    Are these holdings tax sheltered so that taxes would not be a problem with a sale? What would be the percent impact to the total holdings if you sold both?
    Take care,
    Catch
  • Allocation funds
    I have 2 allocation funds, IVWIX and FPACX. Both long term holds over 5 years Both funds are 30%+ cash/bonds. On down days they sometimes have worse performance than some of my all stock funds. I am not seeing the advantage of having an allocation fund, at least my 2 choices. 7 of my 11 funds had better performance today. FPACX is in the middle of the pack YTD and IVWIX is my worst performer YTD. 3 year returns are not much different. Buy/sell/hold these funds? What are your thoughts? I am thinking separate stock and bond funds.
  • BBH Core Select Fund to liquidate
    https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1342947/000089109219009814/e6667-497.htm
    497 1 e6667-497.htm FORM 497
    BBH TRUST
    BBH CORE SELECT
    CLASS N SHARES (BBTEX)
    RETAIL CLASS SHARES (BBTRX)
    SUPPLEMENT DATED SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 TO THE
    PROSPECTUS DATED FEBRUARY 28, 2019
    The following information supplements, and, to the extent inconsistent therewith, supersedes, certain information in the Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information.
    I. FUND LIQUIDATION
    On September 23, 2019, the Board of Trustees of BBH Trust (the “Trust”) approved a Plan of Liquidation for BBH Core Select (the “Fund”) pursuant to which the Fund will be liquidated (the “Liquidation”) on or about the earlier of (i) October 9, 2019 and (ii) the date in which all shareholders that are not affiliated with the Adviser have redeemed their respective shares in the Fund (the “Liquidation Date”). Shareholder approval of the Liquidation is not required.
    Beginning on September 23 through the Liquidation Date, the Fund may depart from its stated investment objective and policies as it liquidates holdings in preparation for the distribution of assets to investors. During this time, the Fund may hold more cash or cash equivalents than normal, which may prevent the Fund from meeting its stated investment objective. Shareholders of record as of the close of business on the Liquidation Date will receive their proportionate interest in all of the net assets of the Fund in complete cancellation and redemption of all the outstanding shares of the Fund. Payment will be made in accordance with instructions from each shareholder. If a shareholder has not provided instructions by the time proceeds are distributed, that shareholder’s liquidation proceeds shall be distributed based on the payment instructions on file for such shareholder with the Fund’s Transfer Agent. For those accounts with no bank instructions on file with the Fund’s Transfer Agent, the Transfer Agent shall issue a check.
    Shareholders of the Fund may redeem their investments as described in the Fund’s Prospectus prior to the Liquidation Date. Effective after market close on September 23, 2019, the Fund has waived the redemption fee for all redemptions.
    If the Fund has not received your redemption request or other instruction by the Liquidation Date, your shares will be redeemed on the Liquidation Date, and you will receive your proceeds from the Fund, subject to any required withholding.
    The Adviser will bear all expenses of the Liquidation to the extent such expenses are not part of the Fund’s normal and customary fees and operating expenses, which the Adviser has voluntarily agreed to limit to 0.80%. However, the Fund and its shareholders will bear transaction costs and any potential tax consequences associated with turnover of the Fund’s portfolio.
    The liquidation of the Fund, like any redemption of Fund shares, will constitute an event upon which a gain or loss may be recognized for state and federal income tax purposes, depending on the type of account and the adjusted cost basis of the investor’s shares. The tax year for the Fund will end on the Liquidation Date. Please contact your tax advisor to discuss the tax consequences to you of the liquidation.
    II. CLOSURE OF THE FUND TO PURCHASES
    Effective as of the close of business on September 20, 2019, BBH Core Select (the “Fund”) was closed to purchases of Fund shares, however, the Fund’s closure to purchases of Fund shares does not restrict any shareholders from redeeming shares of the Fund.
    The Fund’s ability to enforce the closure of the Fund to purchases with respect to certain retirement plan accounts and accounts held by financial intermediaries may vary depending on systems capabilities, applicable contractual and legal restrictions and cooperation of those retirement plans and intermediaries.
    Please contact the Fund at 1-800-575-1265 if you have any questions.
    PLEASE RETAIN THIS SUPPLEMENT FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.
    From BBH Funds website:
    https://www.bbhfunds.com/resource/blob/38882/fd1538e953c3b25cb9677cdad467b3ef/notice-to-shareholders---bbh-core-select-fund-liquidiation-data.pdf
    or
    https://www.bbhfunds.com/bbhfunds-en-us/our-funds/bbh-equity-funds/core-select-fund
    BBH Core Select Fund Liquidation
    Notice to Shareholders
    September 23, 2019
    Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Announces Liquidation of BBH Core Select
    BBH CORE SELECT CLASS N SHARES (BBTEX)
    BBH CORE SELECT RETAIL CLASS SHARES (BBTRX)
    At a meeting held on September 23, 2019, the Board of Trustees of BBH Trust adopted a Plan of Liquidation (the “Plan”) for BBH Core Select (the “Fund”) based on the recommendation of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. through its separately identifiable department (the “Adviser”), and in consideration of various factors, including the recent launch of BBH Select Series – Large Cap Fund, a fund with the same investment team and substantially similar investment strategy.
    As previously announced, the Fund closed to new investments effective as of the close of business on September 20, 2019. As outlined in the Plan, the Fund will make a final liquidating distribution to its remaining shareholders equal to each shareholder’s proportionate interest in the net assets of the Fund on or about October 9, 2019 (the “Liquidation Date”).
    In the period leading up to the Liquidation Date, the Adviser may manage the Fund in a manner intended to facilitate its orderly liquidation, such as by raising cash. During this time, all or a portion of the Fund may not be invested in a manner consistent with its stated investment strategies, which may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective.
    Shareholders have three options in advance of the Liquidation Date:
    (1) Redeem BBH Core Select shares;
    (2) Redeem BBH Core Select shares and purchase BBH Select Series-Large Cap Fund with the proceeds*; or
    (3) Take no action -- the Fund will redeem remaining shareholders on Liquidation Date.
    The Adviser will bear the expenses of the liquidation to the extent such expenses are not part of the Fund’s normal and customary fees and operating expenses, which the Adviser has voluntarily agreed to limit to 0.80%. The Fund has waived the redemption fee for all redemptions effective at market close on September 23, 2019.
    The liquidation of the Fund, like any redemption of Fund shares, will constitute an event upon which a gain or loss may be recognized for state and federal income tax purposes, depending on the type of account and the adjusted cost basis of the investor’s shares. To the extent that BBH Core Select Fund is required to provide any additional information, such information will be available via www.bbhfunds.com. Please contact your tax advisor to discuss the tax consequences to you of the liquidation.
    For additional details, please refer to the supplement dated September 23, 2019 to the BBH Core Select Prospectus dated February 28, 2019. If you have any questions or require any additional information regarding this announcement, please contact the Fund using the phone numbers or email addresses provided below:
    Financial Advisors/Institutional Investors: (800) 625-5759 - [email protected]
    Individual Investors: (800) 575-1265 - [email protected]
    -------------------------------------------------------
    * Direct Fund investors with accounts at ALPS Distributors, Inc. may request the redemption of the Fund and purchase of shares of BBH Select Series – Large Cap Fund or any other BBH Fund with the proceeds using the form available h­­­ere. Investors not holding the Fund directly may request the exchange be processed through the intermediary where their account is held.
    Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. (“BBH”), a New York limited partnership, was founded in 1818 and provides investment advice to the BBH Trust through a separately identifiable department (the “SID”). The SID is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. BBH acts as the Fund Administrator and is located at 140 Broadway, New York, NY 10005.
    Shares of the BBH Funds are distributed by ALPS Distributors, Inc.
    For more complete information, visit www.bbhfunds.com or contact your investment professional for prospectuses. You should consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before you invest. Information about these and other important subjects is in the fund's prospectus, which you should read carefully before investing.
    Securities products are subject to investment risks, including possible loss of the principal invested.
    NOT FDIC INSURED NO BANK GUARANTEE MAY LOSE VALUE
  • Weekly Stock Market Recap – Sep 22nd 2019
    FYI:
    Regards,
    Ted
    An incredibly non volatile week as indexes did next to nothing until Wednesday afternoon when the Federal Reserve delivered the much expected quarter rate cut. Markets rallied into the close Wednesday, flat lined yet again Thursday and then a small pullback Friday.
    While there was some worry about oil supply early in the week after an attack on Saudi facilities, much of that was washed away by mid week.
    As for the central bank:
    https://www.stocktrader.com/2019/09/22/weekly-stock-market-recap-sep-22nd-2019/
    No More Weekly Stock Market Recap:
    https://www.stocktrader.com/2019/08/28/stock-market-recaps-ending/
  • Invesco liquidates several funds
    Per Yahoo Finance BBBMX and TRBUX have better 3 and 5 year returns than OSDAX.
    I don’t know anything about BBBMX. But Lipper puts OSDAX solidly ahead of TRBUX for 3 and 5 years. (Neither has been around yet for 10 years.)
    3 years: OSDAX: 3.33% TRBUX: 2.32%
    5 years: OSDAX: 2.48% TRBUX: 1.80%
  • Invesco liquidates several funds
    @BenWP: Yes. In high school I had the 1977 Twins in a dice and player card league. Great offense and horrible pitching resulted in too many exciting/aggravating games!
  • Invesco liquidates several funds
    @carew388: Does you handle have something to do with 1977, Rod Carew's banner year?
  • How To Profit From The ‘Best Of Both Worlds’ In Stock Investing: (AFOIX)
    I just wasted a lot of time thanks to M*'s dropping of the "Purchase" tab for researching MFs. Going to both Schwab and TDA I found that AFOIX is available only to institutional investors at the former and not at all at the latter. My surfing to Alger finally got me the the symbol AFOZX, which is the share class for mere mortals. This mortal was interested in the fund, in part due to reading the MarketWatch piece on mid-caps linked above. Zhang spent 14 years in small and mid caps at Brown Capital before Alger hired her away in 2015. I can't think of a better place to train. Her Alger small-mid fund has been great. In any event, AFOZX is currently available NL but with the transaction fee at the two above brokerages, a deterrent for me. Maybe the fund will become NTF if it grows.
  • How To Profit From The ‘Best Of Both Worlds’ In Stock Investing: (AFOIX)
    FYI: After a 10-year rally for large-cap stocks, a way to diversify your investments and reduce short-term risk is to increase exposure to mid-cap shares.
    We recently discussed the long-term outperformance of value stocks and equally weighted index funds — two areas to consider if you wish to cut risk by diversifying beyond the market-capitalization-weighted S&P 500 Index SPX, -0.49%. (The S&P 500 isn’t as diversified as its name implies because the index’s five largest companies — Microsoft MSFT, -1.16%, Apple AAPL, -1.46%, Amazon AMZN, -1.50%, Alphabet GOOG, -0.71% GOOGL, -0.72% and Facebook FB, -0.11% — make up 17% of the market value.)
    Leaving cap-weighting aside, mid-cap stocks are often overlooked, despite good performance characteristics.
    Amy Zhang, who manages the Alger Small Cap Focus Fund AOFAX, -0.05% (which has had an incredible performance run) launched the Alger Mid-Cap Focus Fund AFOIX, -0.40% in June. In an interview at her office in New York, she said mid-cap stocks offered “the best of both worlds,” with quality “close to large-cap” stocks, while the group’s growth “is closer to small-cap.”
    She also discussed, below, three of the companies held by the Alger Mid-Cap Focus Fund.
    Regards,
    Ted
    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-to-profit-from-the-best-of-both-worlds-in-stock-investing-2019-09-20/print
    Alger Website:
    https://www.alger.com/Pages/Products.aspx?productCode=5040
  • Bonds 101 - 3 Best Investment for Passive Income 2020: Lazy Investor’s Guide
    https://incomebuddies.com/best-investment-for-passive-income/amp/
    3 Best Investment for Passive Income 2020: Lazy Investor’s Guide
    -Warren Buffett earns on average of USD$37 Million a day which is approx USD$428 per second. To put it into perspective, big time Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie made approx USD$28 million after entire year acting while Warren Buffett made USD$37 million in just one day siting in his chair reading.-
  • Blackstone's Byron Wien: 15 Percent Yearly Gains on S&P 500 to End Soon Read Newsmax: Newsmax.com -
    I agree that sometime in the next 10 years the market will gain only 5% and possibly lose up to 25% but its not clear how believing that will make me money or even save me some. Getting the level right is useless if you get the time wrong.
  • Blackstone's Byron Wien: 15 Percent Yearly Gains on S&P 500 to End Soon Read Newsmax: Newsmax.com -
    https://www.newsmax.com/t/newsmax/article/933604/16
    Blackstone's Byron Wien: 15 Percent Yearly Gains on S&P 500 to End Soon
    Investing guru Byron Wien warned savvy market watchers that he predicts the S&P 500 won’t be posting double-digit percentage gains in 2020 and beyond.