Investments, Risks, and Performance
Principal Investment Strategies The fund normally invests 45-75% of its net assets in fixed income and other debt instruments, including corporate and government bonds, mortgage- and asset-backed securities, and bank loans (which represent an interest in amounts owed by a borrower to a syndicate of lenders). The fund normally invests 25-55% of its net assets in common stocks and other equity securities, and may invest up to 15% of its net assets in preferred stocks and convertible securities. The fund also uses derivatives and invests in foreign securities, including emerging markets securities.

TRP does this with virtually all funds, including funds mentioned favorably at MFO such as PRWCX which you own (prospectus) and PRHSX (prospectus).

T. Rowe Price charges an annual account service fee to help offset the relatively higher costs associated with servicing lower balance accounts. Accounts with low balances result in a disproportionate amount of service in relation to the amount of the investment, and this fee helps apportion some of the operating cost more equitably within a fund.

https://individual.troweprice.com/public/Retail/hUtility/Help/Fees-&-Minimums (click on fees tab)
You don't get charged this fee if you waive paper delivery of documents or invest more than $10K. If you're going to inflict disproportionately high costs on a fund and won't meet it half way by accepting electronic delivery then it is fair to expect you to pay for some of those costs.

Interesting: https://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1689311/000168931117000003/cann1afiling.htm

FYI: (Click On Article Title At Top Of Google Search)
What’s not to love about preferred shares? These securities, which have characteristics of both bonds and stocks, pay yields of around 6%—more than the average junk bond—and are typically issued by large, well-capitalized, investment-grade-rated financial institutions. Payouts are usually taxed as qualified dividend income, allowing investors to keep more of what they earn.
There’s one problem, however: They are getting expensive....
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&q=Preferred+Shares:+High-Yielding+but+Pricey&oq=Preferred+Shares:+High-Yielding+but+Pricey&gs_l=psy-ab.3...4505.4505.0.6550.3.2.0.0.0.0.82.160.2.2.0....0...1..64.psy-ab..1.1.82.6..35i39k1.R5jU2DtHUO8

FYI: (Click On Article Title At Top Of Google Search)
MFS Value has a long history of beating the market. When the S&P 500 is really on a tear the fund can look sluggish. But it’s what you want to own when the market rally subsides.
Regards,
Ted S
https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&q=The+Fund+To+Own+In+A+Downturn&oq=The+Fund+To+Own+In+A+Downturn&gs_l=psy-ab.3..33i160k1.18783.18783.0.20723.5.2.2.0.0.0.78.153.2.2.0....0...1.2.64.psy-ab..1.4.164.6..35i39k1.FhJLzPIy2Hk
M* Snapshot MEIAX:
http://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/meiax/quote.html
Lipper Snapshot MEIAX:
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/fund/meiax
MEIAX Is Ranked #71 In The (LCV) Fund Category By U.S. News & World Report:
https://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/large-value/mfs-value-fund/meiax

Wait, whose point are you making??
Romney was weak (worse than weak, but putting it nicely) in any number of respects, and latterly has become rehabbed into this ersatz statesman quite by default.
Five years after your article, Baker has brought the state back to its ever attractive vibe, for several reasons, and it remains a place companies look to for all sorts of advantages; see the article I posted.
If I were in the 1%, or close, I would not be hanging out here looking for smart ideas. If I were a rightwingnut, hmm, don't know what I would be opposing, depends on which flavor...

Right, who says that? Howie?
Wonder why GE ever made its decision other than the $ incentives.
Answer here:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/07/29/these-tech-execs-explain-why-they-moved-their-companies-boston/9sDaU4eCrlLneQgPldF4MI/story.html

FYI: op Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) investors Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price cut their holdings in the second quarter and indicated they were taking profits from the electric car maker stock, which is up 65 percent this year.
Sellers included Fidelity funds like Fidelity OTC Portfolio, which sold 1.62 million shares, or 43 percent of its position during the quarter, as well as funds managed by T. Rowe Price Group (TROW.O), including T. Rowe Price Growth Stock Fund (PRGFX.O), which sold 1.33 million shares during the quarter or 48 percent of its position, recent securities filings show.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-funds-idUSKCN1AY14B

FYI: (Click On Article Title At Top Of Google Search)
By many measurements, today’s stock markets are overvalued but investors are struggling to work out when or if a crash will come.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&q=The+perils+of+calling+the+peak+of+the+equities+bull+run&oq=The+perils+of+calling+the+peak+of+the+equities+bull+run&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i3k1.6506.6506.0.8735.3.2.0.0.0.0.82.148.2.2.0....0...1..64.psy-ab..1.2.148.6..35i39k1.mK19VyxQoeM

FYI: If you are an investor who seeks to protect assets during a time of international uncertainty and what might be the late stage of a bull-market cycle, the Permanent Portfolio’s asset allocation might appeal to you.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fear-north-korea-or-trump-or-an-expensive-stock-market-this-fund-plays-defense-2017-08-15/print
M* Snapshot PRPFX:
http://www.morningstar.com/funds/XNAS/PRPFX/quote.html
Lipper Snapshot PRPFX:
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/fund/prpfx
PRPFX Is Unranked In The (30%-50% E) Fund Category By U.S. News & World Report:
https://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/allocation-30-to-50-equity/permanent-portfolio/prpfx

johnN: You've heard about the early bird, he's here again John ! 8/16/17
Regards,
Ted
http://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/34735/fees-exacerbated-a-lost-decade-for-active-managers

http://www.fa-mag.com/news/fees-exacerbated-a-lost-decade-for-active-managers-34171.html
Interesting read on passive vs active

FYI: DoubleLine Capital is engaged in an unusual media relations campaign against the Wall Street Journal, attacking reporters on Twitter and in emails to rival news organizations for a story that has yet to be published.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.bloomberg.com//news/articles/2017-08-17/gundlach-attacks-wsj-for-doubleline-story-it-s-still-reporting

Hi Guys,
Put together a group of market forecasters and the forecasting outputs will vary all over the map. Historically, GMO tends to be conservative and its projections are typically on the lower end of expected returns.
What action should be taken in response to these forecasts? Here is one recommended approach: "If you want to be a successful investor, you should forget about your gut feeling, hunches, intuition or somebody’s else’s opinion about what the market will do, because that will be worth zero,”
That hard to implement bit of wisdom was extracted from a recent MarketWatch column. We often seek and are strongly influenced by the action of the crowd. Here is the Link to that article.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-why-you-should-never-try-to-time-the-stock-market-2017-03-14
As always, your best action is one that makes you comfortable, and hopefully just a little more wealthy. Good luck!
Best Wishes

Certainly with each passing year (of late), BRK has lost its Alpha mojo.
Due to its girth, Berkshire is unable to gobble up the companies that drove its out performance when Mr. Buffet started the conglomerate mutual fund in the mid 1960's.
Berkshire's cash pile, at smaller levels, was considered a virtue. Now, it's soooo massive, it's a drag on performance.
BRK's free cash flow (FCF) from the wide moat companies in the portfolio, what Mr. Buffet calls "owner earnings," will still provide a cushion. If and when BRK initiates a (let's say 2-3%) dividend, shareholders will likely get better total returns.
Your grand kids will ultimately own a "dividend aristocrat!"

This certainly wasn't a great PR move, but aside from that, could be viewed as a positive.
It's pretty common to see one fund in a family buying the same securities as another one is selling. Aside from the immediate benefit of reducing trading costs (by trading internally), it can also be taken as a sign that the managers are not all moving in lock step, suffering from group think and a single pool of analysts.
That seems preferable to watching implosions from massive overlap, such as one of BobC's bugaboos, Janus.

@BobC. Not so sure. I lost half my portfolio in dot com bust. I lost 22-23% in Financial Crisis. Only because I sold.
It is true I also didn't enjoy the gains after 2008 that one would have done simply buying and holding. However, I'm not sure I am worse for it. I'm more objective now because I was more "active". Sometimes that's better than deer caught in headlights.
I need to read the whole GMO paper. I'm not going to say anything about people's ability to predict. However I do manage my allocations systematically. I was a 100% invested until last week in my retirement accounts, now I'm not. One doesn't have to make 100% on/off moves, but for me taking some money off the table and trying to deploy it somewhere else or gradually putting it back in does make sense.
Also, sometimes I keep a list of things I "want" (not "need") and if I take gains, I will go buy something. After all, that's why we invest.
Best.

Yes, let's follow the herd and dump domestic mid and small cap, and dump any international we might have that we didn't already dump. And then, when the S&P 500 has a drop of 10-15%, we will all sell at the low point, just as we did about 10 years ago. Unfortunately, that's why lemmings have such a bad reputation.

A little bit more about that 2015-2016 dip. From M*'s article "Your Bond Fund Could Be Riskier Than It Looks" (linked to by Ted)
"the trailing five-year period through July 31, 2017, includes only one stressful period for high-yield corporates: June 2015 through February 2016. That was mainly confined to energy and metals and mining firms. ... What if, instead of rebounding in February 2016, oil prices had continued to plunge, or just settled at a much lower floor, pushing more high-yield bond issuers into financial distress? Was this scenario more or less likely than what actually occurred? Risk isn't just what happened (volatility); it's what could have happened but didn't."
From the video, it sounds like this fund had been investing in low rated bonds and got burned in the only time during its lifetime that this section of the market hiccuped. At least as of Jan 31, the fund was still over 50% in BBB or lower-rated bonds. (Jan 31, 2017 annual report). This was after moving the fund into higher quality bonds (per annual report).
Are they managing credit risk well? Are the high returns so far (despite the volatility) due to skill or simply holding mostly junk and near junk?

Live free (to take advantage of customers) or die?
Pointless. Fidelity had already downsized its Mass. operations by 60 percent between 2005 and 2015, and since then has reduced its headcount by an additional 8% of those remaining.
So it's not as though Fidelity has shown much commitment to the Bay State, except to keep execs like Ned (recently retired) and Tillinghast comfy in their Beacon Hill abodes.