FYI: The month of August is now behind us and September trading begins on Tuesday following Monday's Labor Day holiday. Below is a look at the performance of various asset classes in August, quarter-to-date and year-to-date using our key ETF matrix. http://www.bespokeinvest.com/thinkbig/2014/8/30/august-qtd-and-ytd-asset-class-performance.html?printerFriendly=true

MFOers, it does not look to me like their data is accurate. And they show the date of their data, 8/30/2014

Below is a comparison of the YTD performance figures from Bespoke versus Morningstar. I trust the M* data

@VintageFreak, here's a link to the M* article that gives a good amount of detail about David Iben. After reading the M* article I went to his website to find out more about the fund and enjoyed the commentary that I linked. I find most fund manager commentaries disappointing because they tend to tell you what made money and what lost money, but they don't often tell you what they actually think about the businesses they invest in and even less about how their view of the big picture impacts their investments. In this case I was pleased to find a commentary that told me far more about how Iben thinks and invests than the fact that his positions in Russia are detracting from his performance this year.
news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=663563

Interestingly, the main recommendation Kathleen Gaffney gave to the listeners is to rise cash.

She did say cash is a great 'investment' at this time.
I think this was in answer to Consuelo Mack asking her: 'What is the one recommendation you have for all now'?
What do MFOers think about raising some cash now?
Gaffney said she is holding 20% cash now, as opposed to her normal level of 5%.
She says we will be able to buy things at a lower price after a price correction, so raise some cash

FYI: (Click On Article Title At Top Of Google Search)
Quality stock investing" is the latest marketing meme in ETFs. But for some investors, it's a joke: How do you define "quality"? "Quality is the stuff I own, and crap is the stuff I don't own," quips Doug Sandler who, as co-manager of the RiverFront Moderate Growth & Income fund (ticker: RMIAX), owns one of the 18 quality ETFs, most of which have launched in the past three years. "When you hear managers say 'it was a low-quality rally,' it means all the stuff they didn't own worked. It's a nebulous term."
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&q=how+ETFs+Define+"Quality"&oq=how+ETFs+Define+"Quality"&gs_l=serp.3...89498.110978.0.111518.45.38.0.1.1.2.106.2129.37j1.38.0....0...1c.1.52.serp..22.23.1296.vdpe1TOwRU8

Nine Reasons To Just Say No To Managed Futures
http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/07/31/nine-reasons-to-just-say-no-to-managed-futures/
Fooling Some of the People All the Time
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1279594
Managed Futures Funds - The Ultimate Sucker's' Bet
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-07/how-investors-lose-89-percent-of-gains-from-futures-funds.html

FYI: The month of August is now behind us and September trading begins on Tuesday following Monday's Labor Day holiday. Below is a look at the performance of various asset classes in August, quarter-to-date and year-to-date using our key ETF matrix. The left hand side of the matrix features mostly US equity related ETFs, while the right side contains country, commodity and fixed income ETFs.
As you can see, August was a big month for US stocks, with most areas gaining 3-5%. It wasn't so great for foreign markets, however, with a lot of red on the board. Commodities got hit in August as well, leaving them down big for the quarter. Fixed income put in yet another month of gains.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.bespokeinvest.com/thinkbig/2014/8/30/august-qtd-and-ytd-asset-class-performance.html?printerFriendly=true

FYI: John Turner suspected that brokers were encouraging federal workers to ditch their top-flight retirement plan. So he went undercover.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/as-brokers-urge-ira-rollovers-ex-workers-ditch-their-low-fee-federal-retirement-plan/2014/08/14/53c68dd0-2239-11e4-958c-268a320a60ce_story.html

Like many here, I'm not a market timer but do believe, on a short-intermediate term basis, there may not be a lot of room for the markets to run. So, contrary to some advice given here, I'm moving slowly and cautiously into alternatives, primarily long/short and managed futures.

I don't see the Yacktman funds as being shelters for when the market turns south.
FPACX might, as it is only 52% equities right now.
I own the Litman Gregory Master Alternative Strategies fund, for the reason you mentioned.
I've never been able to understand much about managed futures funds. I used to track (on a watch list) a fund run by an MIT economics guy, Andrew Lo, but the fund never did anything.

Hi Bee, always check the A shares ... some brokerages have deals with the fund companies to waive the loads on those. Fidelity for example has EVBAX load-waived & NTF, minimum investment of $2.5k.

I bought EVBAX load waived through Fidelity early this year and it's done great. I think it's a great option as an aggressive multi sector fund.

Bee, according to a test trade I just made in my Fidelity retirement account, EVBIX is available for a $500 minimum with a $49.95 initial transaction fee.
Kevin

Look at what Eaton Vance might of had to pay Ms. Gaffney to get her away from Loomis Sayles. Talent like her's is very costly and is, no doubt, passed on its fund investors. And, since I wanted to own a fund managed by Ms. Gaffney ... Well, I steped up and was willing to pay the associated cost. It certaintly beats 2&20.
I am sure there are others, like yourself rjb112, that might feel different.
Old_Skeet

@Old_Skeet , I understand your viewpoint, respect it, and I'm not necessarily opposed to investing in that fund. I could very well find myself one day investing in it, even some day soon, even though I don't like the expense ratio. You're right, it beats 2/20, and I'm sure she's better than 99% of hedge funds that are charging 2/20.
My bigger issue with investing in it is finding it's role in my portfolio.
It has 18.6% stocks, unusual for a bond fund. 31% below investment grade bonds. An additional 2.46% not rated. 50% BBB bonds. So we are not talking about a portfolio of high quality bonds. Which may be just fine, if I can come up with a role for this fund in my portfolio. A good portion of the fund will be somewhat correlated to the stock market. Below investment grade bonds tend to be correlated to the stock market.
A person could almost buy a balanced fund and perhaps get a similar risk profile, depending on how conservative the balanced fund is.
One thing is certain: I do like Dan Fuss, Kathleen Gaffney, and other talented money managers!

I noticed my brokerage offers a no load version of her fund, EVBIX, but the minimum is $250K. Can I purchase this fund no load and maybe even NTF somewhere...hopefully with lower minimums?

@bee: Available at both Schwab and Fidelity, no load, no transaction fee

I don't like the expense ratio: 1.27% , currently lowered to 0.95%
These expense waivers bother me.
If they wanted the expense ratio to be 0.95%, they wouldn't have made it 1.27%
When the expense waiver expires.....well, eventually it is planned to be 1.27%
In today's low interest rate world, 1.27% is way too high for a bond fund, IMHO

My mom had RJF for over 400k of her IRA. Honestly, the broker/dearler/advisor never had a idea that I could not have come up with on my own. He also charged at least 1.25% per annum. That on top of the ER for the funds. They did have some load waived MFs that are useful like the LW version of CAIBX. I moved her out to Trowe Price(2013) and have not been sorry. When she lost 50k in a private bank stock that his office offered (he was also on the bank's board) I never heard from him again. He sluffed her off to one of his associates. Oh by the was the FDIC is suing the board to recover 8-9million in fees, trips, salary for the board members. Not typical for a RJ advisor but I still have a bad taste in my mouth.
Anybody offering a VA is not to be trusted.

Hi Bee, always check the A shares ... some brokerages have deals with the fund companies to waive the loads on those. Fidelity for example has EVBAX load-waived & NTF, minimum investment of $2.5k.

From FPA Crescent Fund Letter to Shareholders,July 25 2014
Russia
Early in the year, we began to focus on Russian companies as many global businesses seemed reasonably
priced. We ultimately settled on a commodity basket that we could buy if and/or when its stock market sold off.
We chose commodity companies because their dollarized revenue stream limited exposure to the ruble, which is
expensive to hedge. Furthermore, these businesses account for 25% of Russia’s GDP and 50% of the country’s
governmental revenue so it’s clear they are of critical importance to the state. We also believed that there was some
ability to mitigate U.S. sanctions as the underlying asset is globally traded.
When Russia “annexed” Crimea, we had our opportunity. The companies in our basket traded at huge
discounts to their global peers and, despite low-payout ratios, had dividend yields that were much higher than their
P/Es. The average P/E of the basket at purchase was less than 4x current year consensus estimates while the
average current dividend yield was greater than 5%. We appreciate the risk of investing in a country with a
complex, authoritarian political system and that our upside could potentially be taken by the government, but we 8
also believe that the prices at which we purchased these securities were sufficiently discounted to offer an
asymmetric risk/reward that was skewed in our favor.
http://www.fpafunds.com/docs/quarterly-commentaries-crescent-fund/2014-q2-crescentBD9EEAFAF16B.pdf?sfvrsn=4

I noticed my brokerage offers a no load version of her fund, EVBIX, but the minimum is $250K. Can I purchase this fund no load and maybe even NTF somewhere...hopefully with lower minimums?

I think you're wise, Old Skeet. I think I'm going to raise my cash stake a little.
On the other hand, acecdotally at least it seems that a lot of people feel as we do -- I don't hear a lot of people saying they're all in -- so probably there's a lot of cash on the sidelines and any dip will be limited.
I remember coming across a saying that the term for overvalued assets getting even more overvalued is... a bull market. It could go on for a few years more. That's my guess, but my cash levels right now are so low (5%) that it can't hurt to raise them a bit.
Just Saturday morning musings, not based on data or anything.

Cass Business School, 2013
Note: While this research (Clare, Motson & Thomas) has received ample press coverage, I don't recall seeing links to papers, video or PowerPoint before. They appear below.

Monkeys vs Fund managers - An evaluation of alternative equity indices

1. Alternative indices produced a better risk-adjusted performance than passive exposure to a market cap-weighted index
2. Fundamental indexes out-performed a comparable market cap index

Authors discuss results:

• 'Monkeys' beat market cap indices - The Video
• 'Monkeys' beat market cap indices - The PowerPoint
• 'Monkeys' beat market cap indices - The Feature
• 'Monkeys' beat market cap indices - The Mobile Page
• 'Monkeys' beat market cap indices - The Monkey

EM Blogs From Barrons
BRAZIL: Brazil slipped into recession,
The Market Vectors Russia ETF (RSX) tumbled nearly 2% Friday, ending a disappointing week for bulls who have been pouring money into the fund this month.
INDIA: India’s Pres. Narendra Modi heads to Japan to forge new bonds at the expense of China.
http://blogs.barrons.com/emergingmarketsdaily/2014/08/29/emerging-markets-week-in-review-2/?mod=yahoobarrons&ru=yahoo
South Korea:
Industrial production in July rose by 1.1%, much greater than the 0.3% consensus.
Japan had the opposite of Korea. Its industrial production disappointed, creating dilemma for its policymakers
http://blogs.barrons.com/asiastocks/2014/08/29/asia-evening-roundup-korea-ip-jumps-japan-sinks/
For the week ending August 27, of the $1.2 billion that went into emerging markets, $0.8 billion, or about two-thirds, went into China. This is the 12th consecutive week of inflows.
Bloomberg reported the largest China ETF, the iShares Large Cap China ETF (FXI), is on track to break the December 2012 record this month. This ETF has rallied 9.4% in the third quarter, although August is mostly trading sideways. The iShares MSCI China ETF (MCHI) gained 8%. Fund flows tend to lag stock market performance by a few weeks
http://blogs.barrons.com/asiastocks/2014/08/29/investors-love-china-shun-japan/
Update 08/31/2014 (this article does correctly name Mr Modi as India's Prime Minister)
Japan Aims to Double India Investment in 5 Years: Report
"India, Asia's third-largest economy after China and Japan, needs faster economic growth to create work for the one million young people who enter the workforce every month.
In early steps, PM Modi has allowed foreign investors to own 100 per cent of railway projects with an eye to drumming up interest in building India's answer to Japan's high-speed 'bullet' trains. He is also courting Japanese investment in an ambitious industrial "corridor" to run between Delhi and Mumbai.
Japan's Honda Motor Co Ltd, Suzuki Co Ltd, Sony Corp and Toyota Motor Corp are household names in India. Yet, India accounts for only 1.2 per cent of Japan's total outward foreign direct investment."
http://profit.ndtv.com/news/economy/article-japan-aims-to-double-india-investment-in-5-years-report-657101