Let's get this documented, so M* can see it once someone brings their attention to it:

David Iben who is the Portfolio Manager for Kopernik KGGIX/KGGAX is off to a rough start. Former manager of Nuveen Tradewinds Value Opportunities and had excellent returns.
YTD Down -15.37

I'm seeing this as YTD up 2.92% KGGAX

Gary, OJ here's a start: Frugal Man Donates Millions:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/05/us/vermont-frugal-man-donates-millions/index.html
M* discussion forum of topic:
http://socialize.morningstar.com/NewSocialize/forums/p/346310/3616294.aspx#3616294

That's my point. Not only is there more risk, but the yields are less than banks. Using David's ETFs as examples (SEC yield/trailing twelve month yield):
FLRN (0.50%, 0.53%), FLOT (0.46%, 0.44%), BSCF (0.48%, 0.88%), BOND (1.13%, 4.20%).
I can't really comment on the PIMCO ETF (given management change, given PIMCO's extensive use of derivatives, etc.), but the first two are about as expected. The third - the Guggenheim Bulletshares - raises an interesting possibility.
This is a series of target date corporate bond funds. The idea is that they track indexes of bonds through the bonds' maturities. Assuming the funds execute well (they replicate the performance of the indexes sometimes with actual replication of the portfolio, but sometimes with substitutions), there is a price phenomenon that one might take advantage of.
Think of an individual bond, two years to maturity, whose coupon equals the current market rate. (Trying to make things simple here.) After a year, it's a one year bond. Its coupon hasn't shrunk, but (assuming rate curves haven't moved), it is now paying above market interest, because one year bonds generally yield less than two year bonds.
So its price will have risen. It's now a discount bond. As it gets closer and closer to maturity, that discount may initially continue to increase, but will ultimately shrink and then vanish to zero at maturity. So there's a window where, just by aging, bonds increase in price.
It's often too costly to trade individual bonds to take advantage of this behavior, but not so for ETFs. One could buy a 2-3 year bullet ETF, and sell it in a year. One would invest at the going rate for 2 or 3 year bonds, and pick up price appreciation. That price appreciation would seem to cover or at least substantially mitigate price depreciation due to rising interest rates. (Here I'm assuming rates don't go up by more than 1/2% over a year, and the duration is 2-3 years.)
One other thing to note about these ETFs - as the bonds in the portfolio mature, the funds go to cash (which pays nothing). So they seem to be pretty useless in their final year, and that could affect their pricing in other years. I haven't thought this through yet.
This isn't quite a cash strategy, but seems like a way to take advantage not of the 2015 target ETF, but of the 2017 BSCH, with 1.18% SEC yield and 1.58% trailing twelve month. May still not be worth the risk, but it does seem to be a way to boost expected return above bank yields (1%) while mitigating interest rate risk with price appreciation.
Shorter term doesn't seem to pay off, and longer term seems to have too much interest rate risk (longer duration). If you believe fully in the efficient market, this strategy is already built into the pricing, and on a risk-adjusted basis, you'll break even.

FYI: (Click On Article Title At Top Of Google Search)
With banks shunning deposits and money markets facing new regulations, exchange-traded funds may be one answer to getting returns on liquidity.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&site=&source=hp&q=ETFs+as+a+Solution+for+Cash+barron's&oq=ETFs+as+a+Solution+for+Cash+barron's&gs_l=hp.3...5522.10242.0.10477.10.10.0.0.0.0.62.551.10.10.0.msedr...0...1c.1.62.hp..6.4.232.p-zIOcbrZM8

FYI: (Click On Atricle Title At Top Of Google Search)
Many dividend funds struggle to meet or exceed the yield on the S&P 500. Three that measure up.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&site=&source=hp&q=a+few+good+dividend+funds+barons&oq=a+few+good+dividend+funds+barons&gs_l=hp.3...1443.11768.0.12114.32.28.0.4.4.0.258.1787.27j0j1.28.0.msedr...0...1c.1.62.hp..9.23.1341.5h5x2vmmZpA

FYI: Another strong jobs report squeezed markets on Friday as traders read the fast pace of job creation as a signal that the Federal Reserve might soon start to tighten the spigot on easy-money policies. Here's what happened !
Regards,
Ted
http://blogs.barrons.com/focusonfunds/2015/03/06/big-winners-and-losers-in-the-markets-dollar-soars-bonds-beaten-down/tab/print/

@Mark...thanks for responding. Even with the trimming, AIG is still a 40% holding for FAIRX...I may have to suggest it be renamed F-AIG-X.
@David_Snowball...This M* "dual descriptor" reminds me of the oxymoron, "Jumbo Shrimp".
Should one be more impressed at the twinkle of the stars or the mettle of the medal?

Great sense of humor @bee.
BTW, I see AIG as a 47% holding of FAIRX, when you take the common stock plus the warrants
IIRC, at one point it was about 52% common stock plus warrants.

The difference in performance probably due to big difference in asset size. With only 15M in assets, it is very hard to ever get out of the wading pool into the swimming area. It's for the best; it just wasn't working for anyone involved.

Well, I know that it makes little sense, but I have to compare my mess portfolio to something, so I arbitrarily use the 500, striving for reduced volatility both up and down. Seemed to work OK today: 500 down 1.4%, our stuff down 0.8%. Solid red today, except for RPHYX, which stayed even. Good thing too, as there's a lot of cash stashed there.

Small and midcaps vs SP500 doesn't seem worth an article, value aside.

I follow about 50 open end bond funds of all stripes and colors and the only green today were PONDX and ANGLX - the latter having a banner year and with almost half in Non agency MBS.

Stone Harbor has a CEF (EDF) that yields 13.5% but has sucked worse (sucked + leverage.)
EDF vs HREDX
https://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=HREDX+Interactive#{"range":"5y","scale":"linear","comparisons":{"EDF":{"color":"#cc0000","weight":1}}}

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/793769/000119312515080388/d886018d497.htm
497 1 d886018d497.htm HARBOR FUNDS
LOGO
111 South Wacker Drive, 34th Floor
Chicago, IL 60606-4302
harborfunds.com
Supplement to Statement of Additional Information dated March 1, 2015
Harbor Emerging Markets Debt Fund
Harbor Funds’ Board of Trustees has determined to liquidate and dissolve Harbor Emerging Markets Debt Fund. The liquidation of the Fund is expected to occur on April 29, 2015. The liquidation proceeds will be distributed to any remaining shareholders of the Fund on the liquidation date.
Shareholders may exchange shares of the Fund for another Harbor fund, or redeem shares out of the Fund, in accordance with Harbor’s exchange and redemption policies as set forth in the Fund’s prospectus, until the date of the Fund’s liquidation.
Because the Fund will be liquidating, effective immediately a redemption fee will no longer be applied to the redemption of any shares out of the Fund.
In order to ready the Fund for liquidation, the Fund’s portfolio of investments will be transitioned prior to the planned liquidation date to one that consists of all or substantially all cash, cash equivalents and debt securities with remaining maturities of less than one year. As a result, shareholders should no longer expect that the Fund will seek to achieve its investment objective of maximizing total return.
Because the Fund will be liquidating, the Fund is now closed to new investors. The Fund will no longer accept additional investments from existing shareholders beginning on April 22, 2015.
Dated: March 6, 2015

FYI:
Regards,
Ted
WSJ Slant:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-stock-futures-flat-ahead-of-jobs-report-1425647474
Bloomberg Slant:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-06/u-s-stock-index-futures-little-changed-before-employment-report
Reuters Slant:
http://www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USL1N0W82BY20150306
MarketWatch Slant:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-close-sharply-lower-decline-for-second-straight-week-2015-03-06/print
WSJ Markets At A Glance:
http://markets.wsj.com/us
Sector Trackor:
http://www.sectorspdr.com/sectorspdr/tools/sector-tracker
Current futures:
http://finviz.com/futures.ashx

Hi Guys,
Generally, gaffs generate outcome gaps. We’re all painfully familiar with that investment world maxim.
We recognize that integrated over the entire marketplace, both individual and institutional investors must underperform market returns because of fees and cost leakage. From an individual investor perspective, a double whammy comes into play.
Not only does he absorb the return shortfalls (the first whammy) tied to underperforming active fund managers, he often contributes a second whammy himself by failing to even capture the already once attenuated returns earned by the funds he trades. He chooses to abandon ship with impeccably and predictably poor timing.
The typical investor is frequently labeled with faulty performance chasing. Morningstar’s Russell Kinnel has a likely alternate explanation: today’s investors are news chasing. We are captive to the 24/7 constant news cycle that prompts us to trade far too frequently, often with wealth compromising impacts. As investment timers, our composite track record just plain stinks. Sorry for that bluntness, but it is realistic.
Here’s a Link to a repeatedly updated “Mind the Gap” study by Morningstar’s Kinnel:
http://www.morningstar.com/advisor/t/88015528/mind-the-gap-2014.htm
Earlier versions of “Mind the Gap” studies covered different timeframes and differing period lengths with basically the same dismal trends. Changing losing behavior is a challenge for some folks, sadly, portfolio poor folks in the end.
The specific numbers change; the basic takeaway does not. In almost all fund categories and in almost all timeframes, the average amateur investor does not come close to securing market-like returns. The underperformance penalties are statistically significant and annually erode a portfolio’s net profits to a fraction of their potential. Kinnel’s work illustrates that finding.
The Kinnel studies are based directly on a huge body of empirical fund data. By itself, that constitutes a compelling argument for core Index investing. Kinnel arrives at that same conclusion. Vanguard has added to that argument with countless Monte Carlo-based analytical simulations. Here is the Link to that comprehensive analyses:
https://pressroom.vanguard.com/content/nonindexed/Quantifying_the_impact_of_chasing_fund_performance_July_2014.pdf
The Vanguard study too is grounded in the existing mutual fund database that is coupled to a set of simple trading rules. Certainly the stipulated rules govern the results, but they are logical and are a reasonable set that an investor might well accept and implement. It is somewhat surprising that both the Kinnel empirical work and the Vanguard Monte Carlo analyses collate so closely. They buttress each other. DALBAR reports similar results.
A wise old adage is that “if you find a problem, find a solution”. Investing advice need not be complicated to promote better outcomes. Indexing a portion of your portfolio, ignoring the daily news cycle, and staying the long-term course is simplicity itself. If applied, these commonsense steps could improve the investment returns of many folks. Of course, MFOers are excluded being immune to investing gaffs and return gaps. If only that were true!
But as Warren Buffett cautioned, “Investing is simple-but it is not easy”. Nothing worthwhile ever is.
Your comments on this matter are both encouraged and welcomed.
Best Regards.

@Bee - one report I read with respect to the AIG position is that between the stock + the warrants he doesn't want the issue to get to far beyond a 50% holding in the fund. FWIW that could have been the writer's/analyst's best guess.

M* seems to have a love / hate relationship with this fund. One Star yet gets a Silver badge. I wonder if there are any One Star / Gold funds out there?
FAIRX may soon be the first.
YTD, SHLD has had some surprising "ups"...19% since New Years Eve.
I believe this funds will raise or fall on its AIG bet.
AIG has a PE of just over 10.6, Price to book of 0.7 and some other impressive financials:

As of 8/2014, FAIRX sold 6M shares of AIG...has Bruce B. mention his reasons for reducing AIG by nearly 9%?

Do you think that the banking and loan industry will benefit? Maybe financial services will replace healthcare as the go to sector for 2015.

You know, I think for a number of reasons mortgages and loans will probably still not have the kind of demand that the industry would hope for, but I think if there was a noticeable and sustained move higher in rates that would likely get people who have been waiting around to move.
Rates have been low enough for long enough that perhaps some people interested in a loan have become complacent and have been waiting for even lower rates or they think rates aren't going anywhere.
I really don't have any interest in the financials from the standpoint of I don't think anyone truly has any real visibility. Several years after the financial crisis, the major banks are still fined for some bad deed at a rate that seems to be once every month or two.
If you look at the ten year, it wandered around the 1.50-1.70 neighborhood for 2012 into 2013, then in Spring of 2013, it ramped higher. Early this year, it fell back into that neighborhood again and bounced. Perhaps that area is/was the bottom?

@Junkster
Yes, as to the utilities, too. The broad index is -2% at 11am EST. 30 year Treasury about -3%.
Ya think we are only seeing some head fakes from the big money?
Lastly, knowing you watch this stuff, too............energy company misses 1st bond payment on 7 month old issue.
Regards,
Catch