FYI: The annual investment showdown between America’s two wealthiest universities is becoming one-sided.
Regards,
Ted
http://online.wsj.com/articles/yales-endowment-tops-harvards-again-in-battle-of-investment-returns-1415048450

Ok If you really want to get Deep: http://seekingalpha.com/article/2501325-performance-how-do-i-measure-thee-let-me-count-the-ways?ifp=0&v=1415277900
mainly stock buying which your managers do for you, but applies

Sears considering forming REIT to help liquidity:
http://online.wsj.com/articles/sears-considering-forming-reit-to-boost-liquidity-1415362718
Same store sales down again but not quite as bad as expected. Says looking to push towards a smaller, "asset light, member-centric" company. Sees 3Q EBITDA neg $275-325M. Sears will continue operating in the stores in the spin-off. Sears up around 17.5% pre-market.
8:00 EST - Looking at the main behind the curtain at Sears (SHLD) and Belus Capital says, "It's apparent the operations remain in shambles and the need to raise cash to survive 2015 (with an intact share price) is a pressing matter." That as the company's 3Q net loss will be some $600M, versus $497M a year earlier, despite flat same-store sales. "This, in our opinion, reflects Sears' obsession with adhering to a 'membership' model where margin is given away but no annual dues are collected" like the wholesale-club operators. "

FYI: Just how active is the manager of your actively managed mutual fund? And how much does it matter?
A debate is on over the concept of “active share”—a measure of how much a portfolio’s stocks differ from those in its benchmark. The issue is whether it is a valid way to evaluate managers
Regards,
Ted
http://online.wsj.com/articles/why-a-busy-mutual-fund-manager-isnt-always-best-1415048459?tesla=y&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB11035627169406564433404580202251947039686.html&fpid=2,7,121,122,201,401,641,1009
Fidelity Study: https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060_www_fidelity_com/documents/leadership-series_active-share.pdf

The original fee charged by Schwab was somewhere around 25-30 basis points (I forget), and that was effectively "free" for new, small funds - because it would have cost them that much to manage the bookkeeping and distribution tasks themselves.
The article lists Janus as one of the families that are "prohibited from pricing their [directly sold] funds more cheaply even though it costs them less to service accounts held directly with them."
Bad example. If you buy directly from Janus, you get 'D' shares, which are cheaper than the 'T' shares sold through supermarkets. But Schwab et al. let Janus get away with this because Janus won't allow new shareholders to open an investment account directly with Janus. If you don't already have an account there, you're stuck with 'T' shares through a supermarket.
The actual rule, as I understand it, is that the cheapest open retail fund share class must be available NTF at the brokerage. This is a rule that originally only Schwab had. That's why you could get N&B's Investor class shares NTF at Schwab, but Fidelity (without this rule) only offered the slightly higher-priced Trust share class NTF (with its extra 0.10% 12b-1 fee).
The bottom line is that if you want the convenience of a supermarket, you'll either pay a transaction fee for it, or pay an ongoing fee which could easily cost you more. And if you buy direct, don't buy a fund that can be purchased NTF at a supermarket, because the higher fee is baked into your ER, even though you're not using the supermarket.

Goldman Sachs
https://assetmanagement.gs.com/bin/gsam/servlets/LiteratureViewerServlet?pdflink=/content/dam/gsam/pdfs/us/en/tax-information/2014/EI-51+Cap+Gains_Nov6.pdf&RequestURI=/content/gsam/us/en/advisors/fund-center/literature-and-forms/forms-and-tax-center.html
Eaton-Vance
http://funds.eatonvance.com/tax-information.php
Forward Funds
http://www.forwardinvesting.com/doc/?file=Forward-Funds-2014-Preliminary-Capital-Gain-Distributions.pdf
Gabelli Funds
http://www.gabelli.com/news/2014-estdivnotif.html
Voya
http://investments.voya.com/Investor/Products/Mutual-Funds/Tax-Center/General/2014-Estimated-Capital-Gain-Distributions.htm

FYI:Forbes has an excellent profile out on DoubleLine’s Jeffrey Gundlach. The entire piece is worth a read since Gundlach is not only one of the most respected investors out there today but he’s also very outspoken and entertaining.
There was one part of the interview that I thought was interesting as it relates to the finance industry. Gundlach was describing Jeffrey Sherman, his 37 year-old protégé at DoubleLine:
Regards,
Ted
http://awealthofcommonsense.com/secret-sauce-investment-business/
MFO Board Member johnN was right on top of this ! "King Me"
http://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/16775/king-me#latest

From linked article:
"The rub with Sears remains that the retail operations are difficult for the average investor to separate from the valuation of the assets that go far beyond the real estate holdings. Investor after investor proclaims the company worthless due to a lack of profits from the retail operation, but the company has a vast array of assets worth billions upon billions that are hidden."
and,
"Simon Property owns or has an interest in 324 retail properties comprising 241 million square feet. The stock is valued at an incredible $46 billion, further providing reason why Bruce Berkowitz and the Fairholme Fund invested so heavily in Sears. Note that Sears has roughly 250 million square feet of real estate. In addition, Simon Property has over $22 billion in debt while Sears has the real estate assets virtually unencumbered."
finally,
"Lampert never had a sole focus to turn around the stores; instead he hoped to develop an online presence, which now ranks only behind Amazon.com and Wal-Mart, while limiting the capital improvements on stores since the plan was to sublease and redevelop the assets anyway."
Sears Holdings' Incredible Hidden Value
If you read this article, here's Seritage's website:
seritage.com/portfolios.aspx

FYI: ECB Signals Readiness For Further Stimulus
Regards,
Ted
http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-stock-futures-edge-lower-1415279918
Markets At A Glance: http://markets.wsj.com/us

Old_Joe, just posted about WESNX in the EMIYX thread. The fund has been helped this year by its large (25% of the portfolio) weighting in small cap Indian stocks, which have returned 50% YTD. The fund also had a very high weighting in Consumer Discretionary stocks (30%), particularly automotive related holdings, which helped performance.

A Japan fund not mentioned in this article is HJPSX which though it has a very high ER has performed very well. Here is HJPSX compared against the article's chart references
DFJSX and SPY:

WESNX has been helped by a big weighting in small cap Indian stocks, almost 25% of the portfolio, and Indian small caps have returned about 50% YTD. The fund was also helped by its overweight (30% vs 17%) in Consumer Discretionary stocks.

I wonder if that helps somehow against front-running?

I don't know, but this really does shape up as an interesting battle with Berkowitz and Lampert (and some other noteworthy odds and ends, although no one to near the degree that Berkowitz has) on one side and 17M shares short on the other. I hate what Lampert has done (which I've said a million times), but I guess my question becomes how has the long thesis (which has been spelled out again and again - real estate value, etc) failed to sell to the masses to the degree that there's 65% of the float short?

@David: Got to get up very very early to keep ahead of the linkster. I intend to make 'ETF Vital Signs' a daily featured link.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.mfwire.com/common/artprint2007.asp?storyID=50101&wireid=2
http://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/16805/etf-market-vital-signs-nov-5#latest

Do you know why the sale?
59,800 Indirect Sale at $36.54 - $36.61 per share. 2,187,0002

Dunno. He sold and bought about a month and a half ago, as well.
Oct 13, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
50,000 Indirect Purchase at $25.29 - $25.31 per share. 1,265,0002
Oct 10, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
5,900 Indirect Sale at $25.31 per share. 149,329
Oct 6, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
7,700 Indirect Purchase at $29.11 per share. 224,147
Oct 2, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
49,200 Indirect Purchase at $26.37 per share. 1,297,404
Sep 25, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
15,900 Indirect Sale at $26.05 per share. 414,195
Sep 24, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
10,500 Indirect Sale at $26.40 per share.

FYI: Most Japan open-end and closed-end funds and ETFs that have been around 15 years have lagged the S&P 500 in that period, and all lag year to date.
A $10,000 investment in Japan-invested open-end mutual funds on Sept. 30, 1999, would have grown to $16,504 by Oct. 4 this year, according to Morningstar.
Regards,
Ted
http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=MTg2MzQ5MjQ=
Enlarged Craphic: http://news.investors.com/photopopup.aspx?path=WEBlv1106_1K.jpg&docId=725220&xmpSource=&width=1000&height=1047&caption=&id=725221

Do you know why the sale?
59,800 Indirect Sale at $36.54 - $36.61 per share. 2,187,0002

Oct 31, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
104,800 Indirect Purchase at $35.34 per share. 3,703,632
Oct 30, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
212,200 Indirect Purchase at $37 per share. 7,851,400
Oct 29, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
59,800 Indirect Sale at $36.54 - $36.61 per share. 2,187,0002
Oct 29, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
161,900 Indirect Purchase at $37.04 per share. 5,996,776
Oct 28, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
100,000 Indirect Purchase at $37.78 per share. 3,778,000
Oct 27, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
69,700 Indirect Purchase at $38.66 per share. 2,694,602
Oct 23, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
111,100 Indirect Purchase at $35.37 - $36 per share. 3,965,0002
Oct 22, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
21,600 Indirect Purchase at $34.74 per share. 750,384
Oct 21, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
126,400 Indirect Purchase at $34.81 per share. 4,399,984
Oct 20, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
144,500 Indirect Purchase at $32.29 - $34.92 per share. 4,856,0002

Artisan Funds
https://www.artisanfunds.com/distributions/current.cfm?Banner=3_p1_110514_DistEst_v1
or
https://www.artisanfunds.com/distributions/current.cfm

This article and study comes from a link that John Chisom provided on their portfolio asset allocation survey. However, this study is on the Santa Claus rally. Some say it begins around Thanksgiving, others the day before Christmas while others think that it comes on the last day of December with all lasting until the 2nd day of trading in the new year. I am of the camp that it starts early form time-to-time and feel that it started around October 15th this year.
And, yes ... whatever the time span you choose to go by ... I have positioned for the benefits that usually come with the fall/winter stock market rally which usually continues on and into and through spring of the following year.
The link for the study is below for those that might be interested.
http://investorplace.com/2014/11/sp-500-santa-claus-rally
Old_Skeet