FYI: Warren Buffett paid tribute to fellow investing legend Jack Bogle, who died Wednesday at the age of 89.
"Jack did more for American investors as a whole than any individual I've known," Buffett told CNBC's Becky Quick. "A lot of Wall Street is devoted to charging a lot for nothing. He charged nothing to accomplish a huge amount."
Regards,
Ted
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/16/warren-buffett-says-jack-bogle-did-more-for-the-individual-investor-than-anyone-hes-ever-known.html

Thought I'd share. Back in my days in elemetary school we had a daily show and tell. Now, retired we still have a daily show and tell among some of my old classmates. So, here is my "show and tell" for the board.
In viewing Morningstar's Market Valuation Graph this morning (1/16/19) and converting its reading of 0.92 to Old_Skeet's market barometer scale I come up with a score of 162 for the graph indicating oversold. In compairson, Old_Skeet's barometer (which follows the S&P 500 Index) based upon its metrics has a reading of 156 which reflects that the Index is undervalued.
Have a great day ...
Old_Skeet

I've held 3-4 of their funds since they opened the shop. It went swimmingly until it no longer did. When their funds were outpacing the pack the boys from Utah looked like geniuses, making company visits where few venture, and seeming to have a great team. The last two shareholder letters paint a very different picture; there's talk of mistakes, the need to move personnel around, a recognition that no matter how great a company might appear to fund management, the market is cruel. I still ponder what a "guardian portfolio manager" ought to be doing with respect to the rest of his team. I'm holding for now, but I previously dumped a significant percentage of my foreign (over)exposure.
I think we all like honest and direct shareholder letters. The situation at GP reminds me of Bridgeway Funds, another small, independent company that had great numbers for several years. Bridegeway does good with its profits and seems to be a good place to work. John Montgomery writes fine analyses of his firm's fund performance. It really sounds good, but the performance of their small and micro-cap funds does not cut the mustard. Montgomery's first vehicle was BRUSX, a real winner for a long time. But in the last 10 years he's may behind his benchmark, losing an average of 3.58.% in the last 5 years, for example. Le marché est cruel.

@MFO Members: Mutual Fund investors best friend , sorry to hear the news !
Regards,
Ted
Vanguard Website:
https://pressroom.vanguard.com/news/Press-Release-Vanguard-Announces-Passing-Of-Founder-Jack-Bogle-011619.html

I was hoping he would reach a 100% bond allocation (equities = 100 - age). Sad to see him go.

@Derf - I've been using an electric Kenmore clothes dryer since 1976. Two years ago I had to replace the belt which spins the drum.
I also have a 24-yr old Kenmore washer still going strong.

John Bogle, who founded Vanguard and revolutionized retirement savings, dies at 89.
https://www.philly.com/business/a/john-bogle-dead-vanguard-obituary-20190116.html

She's got them bug-eyes... https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/maria-bartiromo-during-the-60th-anniversary-ball-of-the-year-gala-for-picture-id110217475

Section 22(d) of the 1940 Investment Company Act "generally prohibits the sale of mutual fund shares (i.e., redeemable shares) by a principal underwriter or dealer at any price other than the 'current public offering price described in the prospectus.' The public offering price of mutual fund shares consists of the net asset value per share, plus any applicable sales load."
http://www.klgates.com/files/Publication/72ff3c8d-880b-4da9-bd81-2729818b0fae/Presentation/PublicationAttachment/dd749ec9-4bac-4b79-bf7d-3322dcaa43d6/IM_Alert_01192017.pdf
In 2017, in response to the proposed DOL fiduciary rule and the emergence of "clean shares", the SEC clarified this section by stating that "different intermediaries may impose different sales loads."
(Same citation)
That allows different brokers to add different sales charges (loads), but the share price itself cannot be different (e.g. raised) from what is stated in the prospectus (i.e. NAV).
Perhaps a distinction without a difference (like gas stations offering cash discounts as opposed to adding credit card surcharges). Still, any surcharge must be called out as a load and not embedded in the price.
NTF supermarkets generally cover their costs with kickbacks from the funds (typically 0.40%/year), though some will happily sell you load funds with no commission and take a cut of that load.

Large retailer moving into financial services/products space. Where have I heard this before?
Oh yes, 1981, when the U.S.'s largest retailer (Amazon is currently only third), already owning an insurance company, acquired a financial services company. Most of its business came from selling mutual funds, MMFs, and CDs. At the time, it was looking forward to making even more money off a new fangled financial product called an eye-are-eh.
So how'd that work out with Sears, Dean Witter, Allstate, and Discover?
Of course there are many ways for a company to get into the mutual fund business besides this one and the couple mentioned in Investopedia. It could simply serve as the sales arm of an existing fund or family as Vanguard originally did when Bogle founded the company: provide administrative and distribution services for an existing company. Or it might function like Harbor, branding the funds and overseeing the management, but outsourcing the day-to-day management of all its funds to third party money managers.

FYI:
Regards,
Ted
https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/01/16/cashin-were-pushing-against-the-trading-range.html?&qsearchterm=Art Cashin

Caught the speculation on Bloomberg today. Nothing definite. But usually where there’s smoke there’s fire.
BY DANIEL LIBERTO Updated Jul 25, 2018
Excerpt:
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) has all the right tools in place to take the asset management industry by storm, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. In a research note, reported on by Bloomberg and Financial News, the investment manager said the Seattle-based company’s strong online presence and vast customer base, including 100 million-plus Amazon Prime subscribers, leaves it “well placed” to sell mutual funds to retail investors .....
Bernstein predicted that any move by Amazon to start selling funds would prove popular with its customers. The analysts noted that a large portion of the company’s Prime subscribers fit the same profile as mutual fund buyers and added that many of them have already thrown their support behind the idea, via a recent survey by online marketplace LendEDU.
https://www.investopedia.com/news/amazon-well-placed-disrupt-asset-management-industry-bernstein/

Is there anything in this short article that is correct?

Put simply, the R-class of mutual funds are available only through employment-based retirement accounts ... In other words, investors access R-class mutual funds through their employers or work arrangement. ,,, To qualify for Class R shares, you must have access to a 401(k), 457 or employer-sponsored 403(b) plan.

American Funds R-5 shares are available through individual (not employer sponsored) HSAs, e.g. The HSA Authority.
https://www.oldnational.com/thehsaauthority/individuals-employees/investment-services

mutual funds that charge loads are not allowed in employer-sponsored retirement plans

"Apart from fees charged for administration of the plan itself, there are three basic types of fees that may be charged in connection with investment options in a 401(k) plan. ...
Sales charges (also known as loads or commissions)."
From DOL (2013). Emphasis in original.

R-class shares were designed to allow securities firms to serve retirement planners without charging a load

Ironically, the fund cited in the piece, RGAAX, is the R-1 share class of an American Funds fund. AF R-1 shares are load shares. They charge 12b-1 fees of 1.00%. As a matter of law, any fund charging a 12b-1 fee in excess of 0.25% must be called a load fund. (The article also gets the ticker wrong; it gives a MMF ticker ending in XX.)

R shares still have fairly low expense ratios but tend to be costlier than index funds.

R shares can be index funds just as easily as they can be actively managed funds. Often, that makes them cheaper than sibling share classes of the same fund. For example, OGFAX (JP Morgan Equity Index R6) is the cheapest share class of this fund; at 0.04%, it costs just 1/5 as much as the institutional share class HLEIX.

FYI: Over at the Fox Business Network, believe it or not, there seems to be considerable schizophrenia when it comes to President Donald Trump.
There are the Lost Causes, such as Lou Dobbs, Stuart Varney, and Trish Regan, who are so pro-Trump on a daily basis that it’s hard to tell where the White House ends and their television studios on Sixth Avenue begin.
There are also those, such as Neil Cavuto, Liz Claman, and Charlie Gasparino, who do their best to steer clear of the president of the United States, and just try to report — wait for it — the business news of the day.
And then there is Maria Bartiromo.
In an era that seems to prefer affirmation over information, she may be in a class by herself. The Brooklyn-born-and-raised Bartiromo, who once dominated the lane reporting on the vicissitudes of the stock market, has been busy lately transforming herself into a Trump acolyte. People have noticed. “Is this a piece on how she’s totally changed?” asks one FBN devotee. “How she went from being the ‘Money Honey’ focused on business to crazy-slash-drinking-the-Trump-Kool-Aid?”
Regards,
Ted
https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1cq2nzw56k40k/Maria-Bartiromo-Was-a-Generational-Icon-for-Financial-Television-What-Happened

FYI: Sears Holdings Corp (SHLDQ.PK) Chairman Eddie Lampert prevailed in a bankruptcy auction for the U.S. department store chain with an improved takeover bid of roughly $5.2 billion, allowing the 126-year-old retailer to keep its doors open, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sears-bankruptcy-lampert/sears-chairman-prevails-in-bankruptcy-auction-for-retailer-with-5-2-billion-bid-sources-idUSKCN1PA0SW
WSJ Article:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/sears-to-stay-open-after-edward-lampert-prevails-in-bankruptcy-auction-11547636823?mod=hp_lead_pos1

FYI: Mutual funds have become a staple of the modern investor. If you have a 401(k) or employer-sponsored retirement account, you’ll want to learn more about the R-class shares of mutual funds.
Regards,
Ted
http://mutualfunds.com/education/learn-about-class-r-shares/

Is 2 weeks long enough to call it momentum ?

Well, the trend (momentum) I'm watching has been 6 weeks (since dec. 1st). I see by definition calling it a trend seems to fit. It's been a gradual increase of 6% over the past 6 weeks. Now, is the momentum sustainable is the real question. I'm really betting on the continuation or escalation of our political chaos I guess.That does seem sustainable :)

What are trends in data?
A pattern of gradual change in a condition, output, or process, or an average or general tendency of a series of data points to move in a certain direction over time, represented by a line or curve on a graph.

@MikeM,
FWIW - I compared Hussman’s HSGFX with the Oppenheimer gold fund I own.
10-year performance: HSGFX -5.02%. OPGSX +1.40
Based on that, you’d have been substantially better off in gold. Admittedly, he’s a pretty “low bar” to top. :)

FYI: When Janus Henderson Group Plc hired Bill Gross in 2014, it probably expected to quickly become a force in the active fixed-income mutual fund world. After all, Gross was named “Manager of the Decade” by Morningstar Inc. in 2010 for steering the Total Return Fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., which at one point amassed almost $300 billion of assets.
Instead, the Janus Henderson Global Unconstrained Bond Fund is looking more and more like a vanity project for Gross and potentially the last stop for the 74-year-old billionaire.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.fa-mag.com/news/bill-gross-s-vanity-fund-mostly-harms-himself-42755.html?print

@Hank, I agree with all you said. Not normal times.
I am playing a "gimmick" so to speak myself. I made a second momentum play in gold today, IAU. It has been trending up since Dec. 1st. It has paused slightly the past week or two, but there is a lot of political upheaval to come. I don't think we've seen anything yet! Gold may be the safe haven that will give back handily in a crisis. But, what do I know...