How come we never hear from anyone who purchased lots of longterm T-bills 1988-1990? They are coming up pretty soon. Is this a case of 'investor returns'?
G-fund since April Fool's '87 to last xmas was ~5.3% annually on average; SP500 was ~7.1% and with very different taxation, right? Who woulda thunk.

"...(at a 20% cost basis yield) you would double your money ever 5 years..." At a 20% return per year, you would more than double your money every 4 years (1.2 raised to the 4th power equals 2.07+).

For recent historical reference.Government " G " Fund as part of the Thrift Savings Plan offered to Government employees and U S Military personnel
The G Fund buys a nonmarketable U.S. Treasury security that is guaranteed by the U.S. Government. This means that the G Fund will not lose money.
Last 12 mo. through 6/30/2016 2.02%
First offered on 04/01/87

Thanks Openice for that info. In addition here's a link to a Wall Street article on ICMIX stating a lot of the things that Openice mentioned.
http://www.intrepidcapitalfunds.com/media/pdfs/TWST061016.pdf

I believe Snowball has written extensively about their virtues.

He's featured ICMAX (April, 2016) and ICMUX (Mar. 2014), also adding a piece this month about ICMAX.
The firm is doing a conference call Aug. 4. You can submit questions in advance.
The fund purchases companies with at least a 20% discount to FV, holds 15-50 securities (currently 30), and, like the other funds at Intrepid, emphasizes absolute return and will hold cash when it cannot find suitable investments.
I spoke with Ben Franklin, PM of ICMIX, earlier this month about how the fund is presently constituted and about some of the portfolio holdings. While the product is an all-cap one, the market cap is currently <400m with 95% in small and micro cap international companies because those areas offer the best value, he says. Currently, 46% of the holding are in Europe. He's reduced cash from around 23% at the end of Q1 to 13% at the end of 2Q and apparently found some enduring values somewhere! (my opinion) especially when the domestic "EV/EBITDA multiple on the Russell 2000 Index is 20X, while it was closer to 12x at the prior two market peaks (March 2000 and July 2007," according to Jayme Wiggins at Intrepid.
Despite its all cap mandate, he expects that the fund will continue to emphasize international small cap value --the area he says that he came to prefer as a PM since joining Intrepid.
The fund complements other micro/small cap but dissimilar, distinctive funds that I own, e.g., GPMCX.

Okay, that last remark got me curious, so I checked. In its category (the one I'm guessing Ted used - M* 30%-50% allocation), there were two funds that had worse 5 year records.
One has continued its bottom 2% performance except in the past few months - PRADX (NTF at various brokers). M* rates it a bronze, ostensibly because it is a real return fund. (Sometimes M* tacitly acknowledges the limitations of its classification system.)
The other is a familiar fund - PRPFX. For a fund that is supposed to offer stability (by investing in a broad mix of asset classes: gold/silver, Swiss francs, natural resources, growth, and US bonds), it has certainly gotten led around by gold. 98th percentile over 5 years, but top 1% over the past year.

msf, agreed. Another thought...even if a bear market emerged and your NAV dropped to $55 from $100, (at a 20% cost basis yield) you would double your money ever 5 years perhaps negating the risk of holding through the $45/share loss. IOW's would this be approached differently if an investor never believed his $40 cost basis would ever be breached? I am looking at my old research notes from the depth of 2008. HYV was yielding 22.9% DHF 21.3% SBW 16% HYT 22.1%. Incredible. I am not recommending the funds. No need to comment on the funds...simply examples of yields during that brief period of time. The one caveat is cuts in dividend thru economic cycles.

Ignoring tax issues, IMHO always mark to market (i.e. look at current prices).
Say you bought a share for $40 that was yielding 20%, and it is now selling for $100, yielding 8% (same $8 interest, just divided by a higher current price).
You've got a $60 gain, whether you choose to realize it or not. You've also got something worth $100. The question you're faced with (again, ignoring taxes) is: where is the best place for that $100?
If you were to buy another bond fund with similar risk (duration, credit quality), it would have a similar yield. If you're happy with your current investment's risk/reward characteristics, keep it - swapping for something else won't accomplish much.
But if you think that you want to get out of the bond market, or get something with shorter duration (expecting rates to increase), they you should consider taking that $100 and buying something shorter term, or cash. (Or if you want to get into equities, go there.)
The point is what I said at the start - you've got the profit now, whether you choose to realize it or not. The choice is not so much whether to sell or not, as it is where you want to put the current value of your investment - where it is now, or somewhere else.

During 08-09 some of these funds sold off substantially to all time lows/discounts with 20% yields. If an investor were lucky enough to buy them then, should the funds be sold at large profits or held forever? (thinking the NAV may never go that low again and yields may never go that high again). The consensus is sell because once the funds recover you are getting 8-10 years worth of dividends in the profit. However, if you do sell, you are now faced with establishing a new cost basis to provide income during those 8 years that is near impossible to replicate. Thoughts?

@DanHardy
Yes, relative to new and future retirees. If the 10 year moves sideways from this point in a narrow channel for yield; total return (which includes price movement) would be muted.
Any search for yield must be carefully weighed against from where the yield arrives and why; as well as what circumstances going forward will alter the yield.
Not unlike today and U.S. investment grade bond yields; I'm not concentrated upon the fact that the yield continues to move lower, as the underlying price performance is far out pacing the yield.
At this time our house is not chasing any yield for income, but yield (downward) for price performance.
Total return on any given investment, while attempting to prevent loss of capital continues as our primary focus.
Sideways movement of pricing for any investment is a possibility for extended periods of time. So, those expecting and wanting performance from equity investments can also get stuck in sideways price movements. Obviously, total return becomes diminished, regardless of the investment area.
Retirees who have chosen to not be involved with investments in the stock/bond markets find themselves stuck with the choice of a CD or similar. We know what these returns will be at this time. Annuities currently are unable to offer returns of consequence (although some folks might find other aspects appealing).
Pension funds and some large institutions are looking everywhere to provide for their future needs. Many of these organizations have finally begun to pull away from the fancy hedge fund promises and fees. The "alt" investments folks are also clawing to prove they know what their doing with "other peoples money". The enormous California retirement fund reported a "year to year" (June 30) total return of .62%. Batman would surely do a "holy crap" for this folly.
Central banks globally continue to "play". Bank of Japan recently did not further reduce bond yields with market intervention, but expanded their ability to purchase Japanese market etf's (equity) specifically designed for the Bank of Japan to purchase. The ECB, among other ongoing purchases is also purchasing eurozone corporate bonds. I have no idea with what our Federal Reserve is involved within the market place.
Gotta go help at high school band camp.
Most interesting times continue.....
Catch

As an investor in Oakmark funds for the past 20 years or so, specifically the international funds, I am not happy to hear this. Both OAKIX and OAKEX performance has suffered recently and I am fairly certain that asset bloat with OAKIX at 23.5 billion AUM and OAKEX at 2.4 billion AUM has been a factor on this poor performance. OAKEX in particular hasn't beaten it arrivals for last 1 yr, 3 yr, 5yr , or 10 yr periods. But I believed in the management and stuck with them all the years albeit cutting back on my exposure to OAKEX to about 25% of my original investment. But I think this may finally bring me to sell the remaining holdings in the fund. I originally invested in OAKEX to get small cap international value/blend exposure which was not offered in my 401K selections which only had foreign LC and Emerging Market as investment options. But now I believe their are several better options in the SC International arena. Funds such as ICMIX, ISMRX, and SBSHX all appear to be more compelling options in the international SC area with ICMIX probably being the standout option IMHO. So while I am glad that Oakmark believes that have some many good investment options, I am saying good bye to at least to OAKEX. So be warned since I am planning on selling OAKEX next year they probably return to stellar performance against their peers - just my luck. Disclosure I currently own 4 Oakmark funds - OAKLX, OAKWX, OAKIX, and OAKEX.

I'm not that familiar with Intrepid... What is it that you like so much about them, other than performance?

With U.S.A some 17 trillion in debt I would agree with DanHardy.
Derf

Meh. Not seeing what size has to do with it, pro or con.

"Investors have poured $3 billion into the fund over the past six months and its assets have nearly doubled in the past three years"
Don Kilbride runs a concentrated portfolio of around 45 high quality stocks. Theoretically, by closing the fund, he can continue to beat the index by investing in his best ideas at a price point that he finds acceptable. Kilbride either believes that he can not effectively employ more assets at this time or he believes that he is bringing home enough income.
Of course, the management team of PRBLX seems to feel differently by keeping their fund open, but the fund is also 1/3rd the size of VDIGX.
Mona

The US 10 year below 1.5%
I took a look at HYG and the trend in its dividend pay out down 21.4% in 4 years from Aug '12 to June '16
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/HYG/history?period1=1343620800&amp;period2=1469851200&amp;interval=div|split&amp;filter=div&amp;frequency=1d
I don't see that trend changing. The implications are not good for all the new retirees looking for income.
Where people are searching for yield?
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/emerging-market-debt-funds-just-had-a-record-4-week-buying-boom-2016-07-29

FYI: (Click On Article Title At Top Of Google Search)
Star bond investor Jeffrey Gundlach’s flagship fund has been slowed by a rally in the types of bonds it has avoided, putting its performance this year behind most comparable funds.
The $61.1 billion intermediate-term DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund has gained 3.5% this year through July 28, while the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index has shot up 5.7% and the average intermediate-term fund has risen 5.6%, according to Morningstar Inc
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/#q=Gundlach+Bond+Fund+Trails+Rivals+as+Mortgage+Focus+Pinches+WSJ

FYI: (Click On Article Title At Top Of Google Search)
It has been an electric year for dividend exchange-traded funds—many have outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 index in the past 12 months. These once-staid income tools have looked more like growth funds, helped by their large stake in hot utility stocks
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/#q=Utility+Stocks+Could+Shock+Dividend+Investors+wsj

FYI: Jeffrey Gundlach, the chief executive of DoubleLine Capital, said on Friday that many asset classes look frothy and his firm continues to hold gold, a traditional safe-haven, along with gold miner stocks.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.reuters.com/article/funds-doubleline-gundlach-idUSL1N1AF1XE

From my post from February 2015 ..
Any opinion or observation concerning DHGAX ? A little research led me to feel it may be a reasonable defensive play due to it's 2008-09 performance.The fund is available no-load in my Schwab I R A. Advice/opinion ???
Hat tip to @heezsafe said in February 2015
@TSP_Transfer : Ah, yes, the Dreyfus/Standish Global Fixed Income Fund. Sometimes it pays to be less than fastidious in cleaning up the old Ideas folder (and what a shameful mess mine is). I found a 2010 prospectus. Rhao, it is not (though he is an internatl. fund mgr.). The name of the portfolio mgr I was trying to remember is: David C. Leduc. FWIW
Today...
Mr Leduc is indeed still the lead manager.I own the fund with the same premise I asked about 18 months ago. Chart vs ACITX. Still like DHGAX minimal draw downs.Subject to Schwab's 90 day early W D penalty. No distributions this year ???
https://public.dreyfus.com/documents/compliancedocs/factsheets/monthly/6940.pdf
February 2015 discussion M F O link:
http://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/18700/what-are-your-favorite-fixed-income-investments/p1

As an investor in Oakmark funds for the past 20 years or so, specifically the international funds, I am not happy to hear this. Both OAKIX and OAKEX performance has suffered recently and I am fairly certain that asset bloat with OAKIX at 23.5 billion AUM and OAKEX at 2.4 billion AUM has been a factor on this poor performance. OAKEX in particular hasn't beaten it arrivals for last 1 yr, 3 yr, 5yr , or 10 yr periods. But I believed in the management and stuck with them all the years albeit cutting back on my exposure to OAKEX to about 25% of my original investment. But I think this may finally bring me to sell the remaining holdings in the fund. I originally invested in OAKEX to get small cap international value/blend exposure which was not offered in my 401K selections which only had foreign LC and Emerging Market as investment options. But now I believe their are several better options in the SC International arena. Funds such as ICMIX, ISMRX, and SBSHX all appear to be more compelling options in the international SC area with ICMIX probably being the standout option IMHO. So while I am glad that Oakmark believes that have some many good investment options, I am saying good bye to at least to OAKEX. So be warned since I am planning on selling OAKEX next year they probably return to stellar performance against their peers - just my luck. Disclosure I currently own 4 Oakmark funds - OAKLX, OAKWX, OAKIX, and OAKEX.

Since 1986, energy as part of a simple, seasonal three sector switching strategy has had it's best statistical profitability in the winter / spring months. 2016 was exceptional .
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NrMJ1hs2zhLrXc-WgjdbA_0uf0KUPzvKdgKUJZvyFCM/edit?usp=sharing