FYI: We could be asking the wrong questions about active versus passive management, a researcher says.
While most active funds fail to outperform their benchmark indexes over the long term, research from Martijn Cremers, the Bernard J. Hank professor of finance at the University of Notre Dame, has found that the more actively managed a mutual fund, the more likely it is to outperform.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.fa-mag.com/news/as-it-turns-out--the-more--active--an-active-fund-is--the-better-31394.html?print

@msf, Thanks for clarifying. My apologizes to you and all 5th grade teachers. You are correct. As I mentioned, above, the number of share classes can complicate the math a bit. In this case, I got completely tripped up with merely two. Thanks for fact checking.
So, more accurately, over 1/3 (about 37%) of VWUSX has 5 concentrated owners. To me, this kind of concentrated ownership has consequences for the fund (and individual shareholders). In the case VWUSX, I would call this ownership a "safe harbor strategy" by Vanguard for the leaking VWUSX ship. I would like Vanguard to explain their thinking here for the sake of individual investors (shareholders) of both (VGSTX) and (VWUSX).
My point is that mutual funds with concentrated ownership have unique issues. For instance, how is Proxy voting handled? As concentrated owners, do the fund managers of VGSTX pass through the 15.7% voting rights of VWUSX to VGSTX shareholders or do these proxy votes remain in the hands of concentrated owners?

@bee you may be good at 4th degree arithmetic, but are you smarter than a 5th grader?
Admiral shares represent about 45% of the fund's portfolio, and Investor shares about 55% (there are no ETF shares for this non-index Vanguard fund). Fractions come from net assets by share class reported in the annual statement.
So you need to take 51% of Investor shares and multiply by 55%, to get 28% of the fund's total AUM.
Then take 19.5% of Admiral shares and multiply by 45% to get about 9%.
The total portion of the portfolio owned by Vanguard funds is thus about 37%.

I have seen other funds list The Cayman Islands as a domicile for their holdings.It may indeed have a connection to the counter parties involved.
Why is the SPC being used increasingly as a fund structure?
The Cayman Islands continue to be one of the leading offshore jurisdictions for the establishment of hedge funds, private equity funds, real estate funds, and other asset classes. The versatility and efficiency of the SPC structure in terms of the ability to effectively ‘ring fence’ certain assets and liabilities under the same investment portfolio and benefit from statutory recognition of that ring-fencing have made the SPC increasingly attractive in this environment. Like other exempted companies, there are no residency restrictions on Directors or Shareholders of an SPC and there are no Cayman Islands taxes on the SPC or its shareholders.
http://www.loebsmith.com/story/2017/01/09/legal-developments-and-recent-trends-for-cayman-investment-fund-structures/57/

@VF
>> merely making the point M* lists it as 40% bonds,
Sorry, did not address that specifically. That is complete crap. M* has many weaknesses, increasing, it seems, but its inability to parse this fund is remarkable, and unfixed over >3y now. Wild. The piechart used to be even worse, for a while.
Fido is as bad if not worse. You'd think some ed would assign a staffer to do a proper article on this, or they would solve the whole thing w what the derivatives' goals are.
Note that for the Fido link you get foreign diversification w 11% Cayman Islands. Bwahaha. So not only is it a balanced fund, but international too! Woohoo!

I'm on holiday, so I'm just giving a quick look.
Hartford filing (see Section IV for mapping from old funds to new funds:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/45947/000110465916142313/a16-17487_240appa.htm
The old American Funds share class used was Class 2. Here's their Class 2 prospectus:
https://www.americanfunds.com/individual/pdf/ina2prx-998_afis2p.pdf
Sample swap: AF Growth-Income (0.54%) to HIMCO (Hartford house fund) Large Cap Core (0.49% including 0.02% waiver, 0.51% w/o waiver)
I find the complaint credible - when I look at VAs, I look at both costs and breadth/quality of offerings. The new VA that customers may be locked into (haven't checked the VA terms) has similar costs, but relatively few options, all in-house funds, with no track records. The old VA had long established funds. I wouldn't think of giving the new VA a first look, let alone a second. The old VA at least had some funds that might be worth a look.

We may all view this type of data more easily in one format vs another. I currently like this layout from Fidelity. I use this Fido page for a quick look at funds. Is the "other" holdings percentage the swaps? Scroll down a tiny and the top 20% indicates "swaps", eh?
DSENX composition:
https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/composition/258620814

When investors get complacent, they do certain things. They show up as bullish in the various surveys. They bid tiny premiums on options, driving down the VIX. They put all of their cash to work, letting money market fund levels get down really low. And they trade tiny volumes on QQQ.
This week’s chart looks at a 10-day simple moving average in the daily trading volume of QQQ, the largest of the ETFs which tracks the Nasdaq 100 Index. Low readings like this are associated with investor complacency, and thus with important price tops

http://www.mcoscillator.com/learning_center/weekly_chart/low_qqq_volume_a_sign_of_a_top/

Most of them wants $10/month for subscription.
Washington Post allows 10 free viewing than they ask you to subscribe. New York Times also doing the same for sometime now.

Yes. After 15 year period, the annual return of VTMFX is 1.13% higher than USBLX due to its lower ER. Also the tax cost ratio is better (lower values).

My TIPs fund is not doing very well. What do recent performance look like (1-3 years
Performance for TIP is similarly nothing much (+2% fora year -2% for 6 months

My TIPs fund is not doing very well. What to recent performance look like (1-3 years

WHat's not clear to me is whether the new funds will be less expensive or more expensive. In general while most on thi site probably have more than 11 funds (I do) I do not think more than 11 funds are needed.Like most I assume I have lots of funds in part because I deal with several firms. I do not have as many as 11 funds in any one account

Some funds that use a tax managed strategy might also include index funds and muni funds. Funds that combine these two strategy (50%- S&P 500 index / LC Blend and 50% -tax free Munis) include USBLX (5*) , and VTMFX (5*/gold). USBLX holds 501 stocks and VTMFX holds 880 stocks. VTMFX has a very low (.11 ER). Comparing these two funds VTMFX gets the nod:

FYI: Savvy bond investors aren’t waiting for more evidence of quicker inflation amid the debate over whether the U.S. economy will receive the jolt promised by the Trump administration.
While deliberations drag on about the merits of what’s become known as the Trump reflation trade, investors have been buying protection against a rise in consumer prices this month at the fastest pace since just after Donald Trump’s victory in November.
The iShares TIPS Bond ETF (TIP), the largest exchange-traded debt fund featuring Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, had $547 million of inflows during the past two weeks, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The 10 largest TIPS ETFs have seen aggregate net inflows in each of the last 10 weeks.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.fa-mag.com/news/best-performing-treasuries-suggest-inflation-threat-is-real-31380.html?print

FYI: The Hartford left its variable annuity business behind five years ago -- now, a group of firms are accusing the company of leaving behind its legacy customers.
Ahead of the financial crisis, Radnor, Pa.-based Hartford Financial Services Group pitched its unique Hartford Leaders product to advisors, fund managers and investors as a way to provide customized access to leading investment managers and strategies within a variable annuity.
Now, American Funds, Raymond James Financial, contract holders and others are complaining about a plan quietly submitted to the SEC that would allow Hartford to replace about 60 strategies run by various active managers within the Leaders fund lineup with a slimmed-down selection of 11 funds.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.fa-mag.com/news/american-funds--others-sound-alarm-over-hartford-va-fund-changes-31372.html?print

Quick note about treating it as a balanced fund: it has a higher 3y standard deviation than the S&P 500 (11.64 vs. 10.46), which doesn't really fit the profile of a balanced fund. (Look under "Volatility Measures" partway down the page.)

Hi, bee.
Yes and no. The information is listed in the fund's statement of additional information but in 90% of the cases the listing is Schwab or some other brokerage.
In the case of US Growth, the listing is:
As of November 30, 2016, the following owned of record 5% or more of the outstanding shares of each class (other than ETF Shares):
Vanguard U.S. Growth Fund—Investor Shares:
Vanguard STAR® Fund, Valley Forge, PA (30.78%),
Vanguard Fiduciary Trust Company, Valley Forge, PA (14.96%),
Vanguard Diversified Equity Fund, Valley Forge, PA (5.26%)
Vanguard U.S. Growth Fund—Admiral Shares:
Vanguard Fiduciary Trust Company, Valley Forge, PA (14.41%),
TIAA-CREF Trust Company, St. Louis, MO (5.09%)
David

In another thread with @VintageFreak, I opined over a dog of a fund, VWUSX. I commented that this fund experienced a "very rough patch" in the early 2000's. It held a FundAlarm rating of "3-Alarms" for many years after its tumble. At the time of VWUSX implosion I noticed VGSTX, Vanguard Star (a fund of funds) had taken on a large stake in VWUSX.
At present, VGSTX owns about 16% of VWUSX. I would call that a concentrated owner. M* does a good job of listing the concentrated owners of stocks and ETFs (individuals, mutual funds and institutions), but when it comes to mutual funds there is nothing mentioned as to ownership (who are the concentrated owners of the fund). If this were to be attempted I would further hope all share classes (of the fund) be collectively represented as one fund for ownership purposes.
Can a mutual fund owner find information on who the concentrated owners of a mutual fund are?

FYI: U.S. stocks on Wednesday look set to maintain a tenuous grip on record highs, with the Dow and S&P 500 trying to extend multisession win streaks, ahead of testimony from Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen and a batch of important economic reports.
Regards,
Ted
U.S.:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stock-futures-point-to-pause-for-record-setting-rally-yellen-data-on-tap-2017-02-15/print
Europe:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/european-stocks-stomp-toward-highest-close-since-2015-as-banks-rally-2017-02-15/print
Asia:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/nikkei-other-asian-markets-jump-on-yellens-bullish-comments-2017-02-14/print
Current Futures: Mixed
http://finviz.com/futures.ashx