Doubleline Total Return fund has been shorten the duration of its holding in the past 12 months. With an AUM over $50B, it is a much more difficult task than $50M.
I think the hike will be small (25 base points) and incremental afterward. If the market cannot handle this level of rate hike, what does it says about the market itself?

FYI: The environment is in the spotlight, with the Paris climate talks in full swing. But investors in “green” exchange-traded funds have learned from experience that these funds have yet to establish a long-term footing.
There are all sorts of ETFs in this sector. Some focus on individual green technologies or market segments, while others take a broader view. As a group, however, they have mainly had a tough year. So far in 2015, through Nov. 30, some in the group were trading 15% to 22% lower.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.wsj.com/articles/green-etfs-struggle-thanks-to-fall-in-oil-price-1449460370

FYI: Investors know by now that it’s been a flat year for stocks. Just how flat?
So far this year, the S&P 500 has flip-flopped between positive and negative territory for the year a record 24 times, according to data compiled by Bespoke Investment Group. If the large-cap S&P index closes above 2058.9 on Thursday, that number would rise to 25 instances. It was flirting with that level in the early afternoon.
Regards,
Ted
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2015/12/10/stocks-see-record-flip-flopping-in-2015/tab/print/

@msf Yeah, I see what you mean. It all sounds so very reasonable, and yet there are so many phrases in the document that really chap my hide I eventually lost count of them. Geez, inflation on its own has achieved whatever they're trying to do with their "adjustments" so just leave well enough alone. Just leave it alone. I recently looked into a Regulation D investment and was surprised that the State of Nevada had its own restrictions, and what I would call "regulatory cautions," but nothing went beyond the pale. Frankly, I appreciated the formalized concern.
Too bad about the Third Avenue fund. I've had it on my watch list for some time and started watching it very closely this past Spring. Thomas LaPointe managed one of the first MFs I owned in the 1990s, the Columbia Conservative HY Fund, and managed it well, so I was hoping for success with this original idea for his sake. I think this fund was attacked by hedge fund shorting (I suspect iHeartCommunications, among others?). Although I thought he should have started lightening up on the distressed asset plays at the beginning of 2015, the present environment isn't exactly what one would consider The Perfect Storm--- something beyond his control had to have come along and pushed things over the edge, something that caused institutional money to bail on him in a big way.
See Ted's post for a more extensive update to the WSJ story as it was first released. It's pretty good.
For those invested in TFCVX (from the Third Avenue website):

There will be a conference call for shareholders with Thomas Lapointe, Lead Portfolio Manager, on Friday December 11, 2015 at 11:00 AM EST. Contact your relationship manager for the dial-in details and for more information.

The idea that net worth (or salary) can serve as a proxy for investing expertise is IMHO absurd. One can luck into money (win a lottery ticket). Even without that kind of luck, what is it that makes a surgeon (high income) any more knowledgeable about startup investing than someone who's bounced around from startup to startup?
This is why I feel that the whole concept of accredited investor is fatally flawed. Investors are accredited so that a company can sell stock to them without having to go the nuisance of filing disclosures. Who cares if the investor is being taken for a ride? Caveat emptor. The investor's rich - so surely he can watch out for himself, ask all the right questions to get at the information that would have been disclosed anyway?
This legislation seems like a reasonable step toward qualifying investors, rather than using wealth/income as a proxy. But it also strikes me as grandstanding. The SEC is already required to revisit accredited investor requirements every four years (Dodd Frank). It was in the process of doing so, with better insight. There was not a need for this blunt legislation.
Here's a nice summary of where the SEC was a few months ago, including some of the nuances of various proposals.
http://media.mcguirewoods.com/publications/2015/SEC-Considers-Updating-the-Accredited-Investor-Definition.pdf?utm_source=Mondaq&utm_medium=syndication&utm_campaign=View-Original

@Old_Joe
We might have more opportunities ahead !
House committee approves easing accredited-investor standard
Measure with bipartisan support would expand the kind of investors who can purchase unregistered securities
By Mark Schoeff Jr. | December 9, 2015 - 10:58 am EST
"We're trying to expand opportunities for Americans to participate in taking a risk but also engaging in the benefits of the upside using their knowledge, not only just a threshold that says you get to invest just because you have wealth," Mr. Schweikert said during debate on the bill Tuesday night.
As the committee advances the legislation, the SEC has indicated it will soon release a review of the accredited-investor standard.
Republicans have pushed to expand the accredited-investor parameters, asserting that doing so would help small business start-ups and other emerging investments raise capital.
http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20151209/FREE/151209918/house-committee-approves-easing-accredited-investor-standard?template=printart

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1031661/000093041315004707/c83245_497.htm
497 1 c83245_497.htm
Third Avenue Focused Credit Fund
Supplement dated December 10, 2015
to Prospectus dated March 1, 2015
Effective December 9, 2015, the following information supplements the Funds’ Prospectus dated March 1, 2015:
At the recommendation of Third Avenue Management LLC, the investment adviser to the Third Avenue Focused Credit Fund (the “Fund”), the Fund’s Board of Trustees approved a Plan of Liquidation for the Fund effective December 9, 2015. The Prospectus is revised to delete in their entirety all references to the Fund.

@MFO Members: Here is the Linkster's pecking order for the various S&P Sectors for 2016 !
Regards,
Ted
1. XLV
2. XLY
3. XLK
4. XLP
5. S&P 500 (SPY)
6. XLI
7. XLF
9. XLB
10.XLU

@BenWP No luck on the distributions but full speed ahead with asset growth !
Eventide Hires Ultra High Net Worth Sales Veteran as Head of Distribution
Marketwired
December 09, 2015: 08:30 AM ET
Eventide Funds (NASDAQ: ETGLX)(NASDAQ: ETNHX)(NASDAQ: ETNMX)(NASDAQ: ETAGX)(NASDAQ: ETAHX)(NASDAQ: ETAMX), a values-based mutual fund family, is pleased to announce that Jeff Cave will lead its sales and distribution efforts. As Head of Distribution, Mr. Cave will specifically lead sales and distribution to institutional channels and will continue to improve Eventide's quality of service to financial advisors and clients. Mr. Cave brings extensive experience from his prior role as an Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) Wealth Management Specialist for the Private Banking and Investment Group at Merrill Lynch.
"There is a significant and growing group of clients and advisors who want to connect means and meaning," said Mr. Cave. "I'm excited to now connect with advisors in all channels and to combine my passion for faith and finances on a full time basis. Eventide has created something very special, and I'm thrilled to be a part of this group of caring, thoughtful and very talented people who are working to make a difference in the growing movement of values-based investing."
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/11G075081-001.htm

Hi @TPS Transfer,
Yes, energy is currrently taking it on the chin and would be a contrarian move. I will not start to change much of anything until I begin to see some positive upward movement in the markets. Fourth Quarter 2015 reporting will, I believe, set the stage for much of 2016.
Currently, my current overweights are financials (+3%), communication services (+3%), Industrials (+1%), technology (+1%), consumer staples (+3%), healthcare (+3%) and utilities (+3%). Keep in mind my target weightings for the four minor sectors of materials, real estate, communication services and utilities is 5% each and my target weighting for the majority sectors of consumer cyclical, financial services, energy, industrials, technology, consumer defensive, and healthcare is 9% each. This leaves 17% that can be moved around, to overweight, from my target weightings.

When Trends Reverse
Posted on December 8, 2015 by David Ott Acropolis Investment Management
Some strategies, managed futures being the most obvious, are based exclusively on trend following and they really got hurt last Thursday.
Managed futures funds attempt to catch trends by buying what has gone up recently and selling short assets that have fallen recently. Going into the meeting, they were short euros and long German bonds (among other things) and were hit with a tough reversal.
The Newedge Trend Index, an equally weighted index of large managed futures managers, lost -3.66 percent on Thursday, wiping out all of the gains for that index for the year. http://www.newedge.com/en/newedge-indices/
Although we haven’t really invested in managed futures programs, we have been looking into them over the past several years.
We’re not opposed to managed futures and trend following, but we don’t feel like anyone understands them like traditional asset classes like stocks and bonds.
..there is good data on stocks and bonds that goes back to the 1800s for the US and many decades from countries all over the world.
As always, we’ll keep looking and learning, just like we did last Thursday.
http://acrinv.com/when-trends-reverse/

@ Junkster Somethings do repeat !
Meredith Whitney returns, this time managing money at an insurance company
She'll oversee a portfolio with money allocated to about eight managers, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and BlackRock Inc., Mr. Hutchings said. Its investments include U.S. and Asian stocks.
“Her task is to essentially manage the managers,” Mr. Hutchings said. “It's not S&P focused, it's a little more varied than that.”
http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20151208/FREE/151209922?template=printart
Also
Capitulation in high-yield ETFs?
Dec 9 2015, 15:21 ET | By: Stephen Alpher, SA News Editor [Contact this editor with comments or a news tip]
Tuesday's declines to multi-year lows were accompanied by record volume, with HYG trading 25M shares - more than doubling the high level mark hit during the 2013 "taper tantrum."
Volume in JNK was even higher at 34.8M shares as that ETF closed at its lowest price since 2009. The $11B fund also saw a one-day withdrawal of $452M on Monday.
The two rattled ETFs are getting a breather today, with HYG higher by 0.4% and JNK by 0.2%.
http://seekingalpha.com/news/2974726-capitulation-in-high-yield-etfs
JNK https://www.google.com/finance?q=JNK
HYG https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSEARCA:HYG&ei=JY9oVrnbE4m_mAHKp4_wBw

FYI: Jeffrey Gundlach, whose $51.3 billion DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund has outperformed 99% of peers over the past five years, said the Federal Reserve may come to regret raising U.S. interest rates amid signs of a fragile economy and a crumbling credit market.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20151209/FREE/151209917?template=printart

Eventide Healthcare & Life Sciences N ETNHX
Only real bright spot for me this year.Volatile with smaller companies.
http://eventidefunds.com/our-products/#!healthcare
As of September 30, 2015:

Collegium Pharmaceutical Inc (5.66%) Abuse-deterrant treatments for chronic pain
Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc (3.37%) Bringing treatments to market for debilitating genetic diseases
Neurocrine Biosciences Inc (3.25%) Innovative pharmaceuticals for diseases with high unmet needs
DBV Technologies (2.85%) Patient-friendly therapies for food and pediatric allergy patients
BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc (2.81%) Providing new therapeutics for severe or life-threatening diseases
Dyax Corp (2.68%) Treating hereditary angioedema and licensing phage display technology for research
Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc (2.64%) Treatments for thrombosis and other hematologic diseases
Kite Pharma Inc (2.59%) Clinical-stage therapies that harness patients’ immune systems to fight cancer
Bluebird Bio Inc (2.58%) New drugs for patients with severe genetic and orphan diseases
athenahealth Inc (2.57%) Cloud-based services for health records and medical practice management
Related
From WSJ Business
How Pfizer Set the Cost of Its New Drug at $9,850 a Month By Jonathan D. Rockoff
Updated Dec. 9, 2015 12:01 a.m. ET WSJ
Process of setting the price for breast-cancer treatment shows arcane art behind rising U.S. drug prices
At $11,000 a month, one official said the plan “would definitely require physicians to document medical necessity for Product X,” according to a person familiar with the surveys. It was the kind of paperwork obstacle Pfizer wanted to avoid.
Staff members put together a chart estimating the revenue and prescription numbers at various prices similar to those of the three drugs Pfizer had decided to use as benchmarks.
The chart showed a 25% drop in doctors’ willingness to prescribe the new drug if it cost more than $10,000 a month. This indicated Pfizer might collect higher returns by charging toward the lower end of its range.
Pfizer also had been talking with the Food and Drug Administration. The agency agreed in late 2014 to a speedy review, without waiting for results from an elaborate “Phase 3” clinical trial, so that patients with life-threatening conditions could get the drug earlier. This sped up the time to market by about two years.
Pfizer staff members staged two mock reviews by health-plan officials. The officials, who were paid for their time, sat around a conference table and simulated a day-long discussion of how to handle a drug such as this one.
Pfizer employees say the mock reviews supported a monthly price below $10,000. If it was higher, insurers could start requiring doctors to fill out paperwork justifying its use.
The staff felt they finally had it. When they met in November 2014 to nail down a price, they picked a figure just below the cutoff: $9,850 a month. This would be the list price, from which health insurers and pharmacy-benefit managers would negotiate discounts and rebates with Pfizer.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-art-of-setting-a-drug-price-1449628081

You might scan the original author's recent title list to get some perspective on him and how much weight to assign his forecasts.
David

Way ahead of you on his ilk and those in Vendorville. These dream merchants who "train" traders and pander trading courses and the like....... Ask them to validate themselves by providing a multi year real money track record of their own performance and you get 1001 reasons why that is not possible. The best marketing tool for the Dream Merchants would be a long term record of trading success with their own money. I can count on one hand those that fall into that category. The wild stories I could tell you about Vendorville and some very recognizable names that inhabit that sphere.
Edit: For purely selfish reasons would love to see an equity and junk bond market debacle. Another 2008 would suit me just fine, albeit markets rarely repeat in the exact same fashion.

@Old_Skeet
Consumer Discretionary Stocks Still Shine As Energy Stays Weak
By James Picerno | Dec 9, 2015 at 06:58 am EST The Capital Spectator

http://www.capitalspectator.com/consumer-discretionary-stocks-still-shine-as-energy-stays-weak/
From Ted's post today
Davis also suggests rebalancing toward unloved sectors, such as emerging markets.
Prudent investors are slightly contrarian at the margins, he said. "A value-based, long-term approach tends to go against short-term market momentum," he added.
http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=MjEwOTA2NDE=

You might scan the original author's recent title list to get some perspective on him and how much weight to assign his forecasts.
David

If one goes by a "traditional" definition of equity, or even balanced, this ain't it - adding up CLOs (20.5%), Non-Agency MBOs (16.5% + 11.4%), Treasuries (14.3%), Agency MBOs (5.9%), Short Term (4.1%), International debt (1.3%), Asset-Backed debt (0.6%) - the fund's debt investments is pushing 3/4 of assets.
But it's all a game of derivatives and shades of gray. How does one classify an ETN based on an equity index? Technically it is pure debt, but the behavior is pure equity (unless the issuer defaults). Equity-linked securities or equity-indexed annuities that guarantee no loss of principal are just options (to provide the equity growth) coupled with bonds (to provide the guarantee). No stocks there, either.
This looks similar, though more complex. (Hey, it's Gundlach.) It's supposed to behave like equities (per prospectus: "The Fund will normally use derivatives in an attempt to create an investment return approximating the Index return.")
I'll punt on a detailed analysis - trying to figure out precisely what bonds a fund holds is hard enough; reverse engineering derivatives to figure out what behaviour is being mimicked is best left to professionals.
My view on funds like these is that you can take them on blind faith (something I never recommend), you can rely on third party commentary (which includes how they classify a fund as well as more detailed comments), or you can pass.
What I didn't include was relying on how well the fund has tracked whatever it says it is tracking. Though a fund may have tracked its target well so far this does not address how it will respond to a rapid market move. Pure replication will track nearly perfectly, good sampling pretty well. Derivatives and alternative strategies? Don't know without understanding them.

Sound Point Floating Rate Fund (SPFLX)
The fund is in the process of reorganizing into the American Beacon family to be effected Friday. No distribution amounts yet -- only this -- and I'll try to update:
The dividend and distribution information will be available on our website, www.americanbeaconfunds.com, on December 22nd. The dates will be as follows:
Record Date December 21, 2015
Ex/Reinvest Date December 22, 2015
Payable Date December 23, 2015