Hi Guys,
How would you like your mutual fund fees to go to zero? I love it and suspect you would too. Some professors from Chicago think that is a near term likelihood. I hope so. Here is a Link to a recent article they published:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/next-stop-for-mutual-fund-fees-zero-1528652532
I'm sure it's a tough battle. However, money in my pockets is better than in their rich pockets.
Best Regards

FYI: .USG agreed to a $7 billion buyout from Germany's Knauf.
.Berkshire Hathaway is USG's biggest shareholder, with a 31 percent stake, and said in April it would vote against four
director nominees after the company rebuffed an earlier Knauf offer.
.Buffett has called drywall maker USG a "disappointing" investment because the gypsum business has struggled.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/11/warren-buffett-gets-closure-on-disappointing-usg-investment.html

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1103243/000141304218000161/momentumbond497cls.htm
497 1 momentumbond497cls.htm
The Momentum Bond Fund
A series of PFS Funds
Supplement dated June 8, 2018
to the Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information
each dated September 1, 2017
The Board of Trustees (the “Board”) of the PFS Funds (the “Trust”) has approved a Plan of Liquidation (the “Plan”) relating to The Momentum Bond Fund (the “Fund”), effective June 6, 2018. NWM Fund Group, LLC, the Fund’s investment adviser (the “Adviser”), recently completed a strategic review of the management and operations of the Fund and determined that it does not desire to continue to support the Fund and has recommended to the Board to approve the Plan. As a result, the Board has concluded that it is in the best interest of the shareholders to liquidate the Fund.
In connection with the proposed liquidation and dissolution of the Fund called for by the Plan, the Board has directed the Trust’s principal underwriter to cease offering shares of the Fund immediately as of the date of this Supplement. Shareholders may continue to reinvest dividends and distributions in the Fund or redeem their shares until the liquidation.
It is anticipated that the Fund will liquidate on or about June 29, 2018. Any remaining shareholders on the date of liquidation will receive a distribution of their remaining investment value in full liquidation of the Fund. If you have questions or need assistance, please contact your financial advisor directly or the Fund toll-free at 1-888-331-9609 or the Adviser at 1-707-252-1343.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR RETIREMENT PLAN INVESTORS
If you are a retirement plan investor, you should consult your tax advisor regarding the consequences of any redemption of Fund shares. If you receive a distribution from an Individual Retirement Account or a Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) IRA, you must roll the proceeds into another Individual Retirement Account within sixty (60) days of the date of the distribution in order to avoid having to include the distribution in your taxable income for the year. If you receive a distribution from a 403(b)(7) Custodian Account (Tax-Sheltered account) or a Keogh Account, you must roll the distribution into a similar type of retirement plan within sixty (60) days in order to avoid disqualification of your plan and the severe tax consequences that it can bring. If you are the trustee of a Qualified Retirement Plan, you may reinvest the money in any way permitted by the plan and trust agreement.
This Supplement, and the existing Prospectus dated September 1, 2017, provide relevant information for all shareholders and should be retained for future reference. Both the Prospectus and the Statement of Additional Information dated September 1, 2017 have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, are incorporated by reference, and can be obtained without charge by calling the Fund toll-free at 1-888-331-9609.

FYI: The main reason we employ a tactical investment approach alongside a balanced, strategic approach for our clients is that life is not lived in 20 year increments. We live in increments of days and weeks in real life, and when something is causing us pain, we feel it acutely, in the minutes and hours during which we experience it.
Regards,
Ted
http://thereformedbroker.com/2018/06/10/you-have-to-live-through-the-statistics/

All ratings have been updated on MFO Premium site, including MultiSearch, Great Owls, Fund Alarm (Three Alarm and Honor Roll), Averages, Correlation, Dashboard of Profiled Funds, and Fund Family Scorecard.
The site is now using the Lipper Global Data Feed, which will serve as basis for much expanded content, and it provides risk and performance metrics and a myriad of screening tools on all US Mutual Funds, ETFs, CEFs, and Insurance Funds.

Omitting one (unnecessary) sentence in the quoted passage brings out what I believe the passage is really saying. It than reads as follows:
"there is a large class of investors for whom long-dated Treasuries have an almost unique virtue. ... It consists of holders of other riskier assets, such as stocks, houses (real estate generally??) or high-yield corporate bonds, who wish to hedge against falling prices in the event of a recession."
Yes, longer dated bonds are often used by money managers to hedge risk from other types of assets because they tend to move inversely to those other assets. A high yield bond fund, for example, will sometimes hold long term Treasuries to help offset the risk from the junk they hold.
Other than that observation, I’d say your guess is as good as mine where the economy is heading and whether one will be happy 5-10 years out that they bought some long dated bonds today. (Wouldn’t be my choice.)

PIMIX is down 1.1% YTD and the unconstrainted fund, PFIUX has done better, up 1.2%. Next week the fed rate will likely be raised again. Not sure how the leveraged CEFs will do given there are several rounds of rate hikes are planned for the rest of the year.

While searching for an example sentence for backward action (something funny, preferrably), I came across the world oleaginous :
The oleaginous Mike Pence, with his talent for toadyism and appetite for obsequiousness, could, Trump knew, become America’s most repulsive public figure.
— George Will, The Washington Post, 9 May 2018 [they even share a similar tan...though Pence’s is less orange]
I know Will is a conservative.....but come on, this sentence contains “oleaginous,” “toadyism,” and a regular favorite of mine, “obsequiousness”! All it’s missing is “ubiquitous”

I suppose that this qualifies as a "Fund Discussion" as there are surely many funds which might provide such bonds.
There's a recent article in The Economist which has an interesting perspective on the subject. It suggests that "there is a large class of investors for whom long-dated Treasuries have an almost unique virtue. It may even include people who believe that 3% is far too low for a sensible long-term interest rate. It consists of holders of other riskier assets, such as stocks, houses (real estate generally??) or high-yield corporate bonds, who wish to hedge against falling prices in the event of a recession."
The article then mentions a few other more exotic possibilities, but goes on to say that"...buying Treasuries is less fiddly for no-nonsense investors. And this insurance policy pays 3% a year."
"Long-dated bonds offer the prospect of a bigger capital gain should recession strike." In the event of a recession and intervention by the Fed, "ten-year yields could plausibly fall to 1%, or so. Those who had bought at yields of 3% would secure a 17% capital gain. Not only would that cushion a fall in the price of stocks, it would provide the means to buy them while they are cheap."
I have to admit that I had never looked at this situation from that perspective, and I'd love to hear what anyone else on MFO has to say regarding this.

How about cash? Most portfolios have some of it! I'm currently at about 15% cash.

FYI: The five fund average return YTD= 9.012%
Regards,
Ted
MSOPX: 15.39%
TRBCX: 14.61%
QQQ: 12.63%
IVV: 4.64%
PONCX: (-1.61)%

The Nuveen fund's performance has been superior to Allianz lately. The Nuveen fund also has the advantage of having a lower cost (.95 vs 1.15). I wouldn't invest in either but within your 401k, you don't have much of a choice. So, superior performance at a lower cost, seems to be a win/win. Data was taken from Morningstar.

Does your 401k have small cap index fund?

Schwab has a minimum of $100 for DLCMX ntf.

Workplace 401 has a change in the works and i wanted to know the collectives thoughts. Swapping Allianz NFJ Small Cap Value PCVAX for Nuveen Small Cap Value FSCCX.

Here's the summary page of the latest (2017) Lazard levelized cost of energy study referred to in the article, which supports the thesis of the Barron's piece. More detail provided in tabs below the title line.

I guess that can be said for some other commodity funds as well because that is when I started to build my current position in PCLAX.
M* Snapshot PCLAX ...
http://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/pclax/quote.html
DBCMX min to invest 100K, YTD return 6.06%, 1 year retrun 27.13%, 3 year retrun 4.72% as of 6/8/18.
PCLAX min to invest 1K, YTD retrun 8.44%, 1 year retrun 31.49%, 3 year retrun 0.67% as of 6/8/18.
I my case ... It's what have you (the fund) done for me since I put my money to work just short of a year ago?

FYI: Lower costs for wind and solar power plus dramatic advances in battery storage technology are upending the electricity business.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.cetusnews.com/business/How-Batteries-Will-Change-the-Power-Business.S1pa1kKl7.html

I was considering selling some as I have some big bills due this fall, not for any other reason. But I may sell other things instead and pay the tax.
Anyway, it would have to do notably worse than SP500 for a good stretch of time for me to rethink. It remains 60% of our total.
I was comparing CAPE with many of the broad equity CEFs listed in someone's recent posting of https://seekingalpha.com/article/4180327-15-closed-end-funds-consistent-market-beaters-part-2 . CAPE outperforms the ones I checked (till I got bored) except for the last year, when many US equity bundlings have rocketed past it.
I wonder what CAPE's premium might be if it were not an etn....

@BenWP, what am I missing? Per M*, DSENX is not only holding it's own with S&P 500, but slightly ahead for the past YTD, 3M, 1M, 1W. It is way ahead YTD of maybe a more appropriate bench mark, LC value. I have 10% in DSENX. I don't see a reason to 2nd guess that at this point.