FYI: I’m most definitely a Warren Buffett fan. I love it that arguably the most successful active investor alive recommends index funds, long holding periods and minimizing fees. And I love that Buffett walks his talk about being greedy when others are fearful.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.etf.com/sections/index-investor-corner/where-i-disagree-warren-buffett?nopaging=1

Go figure - Venezuela's stock market (which is apparently an infintesimal part of Latin American equity overall) has been on a tear, with all-time highs this month.
The debt of VZ's national oil company, PDVSA, used to be fairly widely held among EM and global high-yieldy funds. Just did a quick run thru the top 100 holdings of FNMIX, and PDVSA's there, but not in massive amounts. (Side note: that is a really oily EM fund!)

People need to learn to be responsible for their own retirement. These days rolling over 401(K) can be readily done with various brokerages - Schwab, Fidelity, and others.

One gaming site currently puts the odds at about even: http://time.com/money/4782344/trump-impeachment-gambling-betting-odds/
Saudi Arabia apparently doesn't believe he'll be removed. Yesterday they committed to funding a $40 Billion Blackstone infrastructure fund. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-saudi-blackstone-group-idUSKCN18G0OW. The new fund "reflects our positive views around the ambitious infrastructure initiatives being undertaken in the United States as announced by President Trump," the PIF's managing director Yasir al-Rumayyan said.
I disagree with the idea that markets would necessarily rise if this were to occur. You'd be setting in motion a whole bunch of different pieces. How they'd eventually settle out is a big unknown (like whether Pence would be better for the economy than Trump and how it might affect the Democrats' chances in 2020). Keep in mind that even if impeachment were to occur, there would still be a trial in the U.S. Senate before the President could be removed. In all likelihood this would prove to be a long and contentious period.
Some (admittedly partial) sources have recently advocated invoking the 25th Amendment, which provides for removal of a President who has become incapacitated to the point of not being able to perform his/her duties (without using he impeachment process) https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxxv
May you live in interesting times. :)

FYI: If you are lucky enough to work for a paternalistic employer, it can be easier than ever to set yourself up with a retirement savings account. Many employers have taken to signing people up automatically for 401(k)’s and similar workplace plans. Some even raise the amount you set aside each year unless you object.
When it comes time to leave that employer, however, too many people end up with drained accounts, while paying penalties and taxes and leaving themselves with reduced retirement savings or none at all.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/your-money/401ks-and-similar-plans/do-not-drain-your-401-k-or-let-a-former-employer-do-it.html?ref=your-money

Brazil is having turmoil with their presidential corruption. Venezuela is in even deeper trouble and this may last for awhile. As a result, many Latin America funds lost in excess of 10% this week - the worst sector in emerging market.

FYI: Funds with large holdings of Brazilian assets tumbled yesterday as allegations against the country’s president sparked a selloff.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-19/brazil-heavy-funds-get-crushed-by-political-chaos-rocking-market

While Bloomberg called her a "seasoned financial reporter", in her WSJ article Fuller states up front that "I don’t have a finance beat".
Her WSJ bio talks about her work process (with spreadsheets and databases), but virtually nothing about domain (subject area) expertise, i.e. her beats. It only says that she began by working on stories "related to education data" and that she reports on data. Nothing I see there about data acquisition skills, just data analysis and graphing.

Note to Trump - Please resign after DOW falls 1000 times. Then if it does not go up 1000 points, take the soothsayer to court.
Utter crap. Making a prediction predicated on something that's not going to happen in which case one cannot really say you are wrong.
If I could become 20 again, I would have hair. How's that for a prediction from someone who has predicted several times, such predictors will never go away?

FYI: An exchange-traded fund that tracks the done industry spiked on Friday, hitting a record after an appeals court struck down a controversial requirement by the Federal Aviation Administration that users must register their devices.
The PureFunds Drone Economy Strategy ETF IFLY, +1.98% climbed 1.9% on more than triple its average daily volume, according to FactSet. Nearly 11,000 shares exchanged hands, 280% above its 30-day average of just 3,900.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/drone-etf-takes-off-after-court-decides-users-dont-have-to-register-under-faa-rule-2017-05-19/print
M* Snapshot IFLY:
http://www.morningstar.com/etfs/ARCX/IFLY/quote.html

What a complete nonstory this is, and she's a data investigator?? And yet another misleading hed.
Her management fee is low. Her fund fees are low. Her total is lowish.
Not to defend this sort of thing, but seriously.
And she coulda found all this out with only a little work. The first c/s person screwed up. But I bet she could've found out online that this firm has a low client fee, 0.85%.
Some people in my family are like 1.1% now. And fund fees are readily available at M* and everywhere else.
Lame, lame journalism.
Whether there should be any such fees at this level, and what they should be if not, well, that's a story. But not this one. Opaque? Hardly.
She comes off as a bit of a snowflake. Should handholding and guidance and judgment and execution be free?

I have adopted as a strategy to keep regularly adding to ICMAX and PVFIX in the current phase of the market. But most of all, to resist the temptation to add to PRWCX. I am considering instead establishing a new position on WHGIX - which had a shallow draw-down in 2008 10-year Downside Capture ratio of 52.76, but still reluctant given that the decision would be based on a single full-cycle (my assumption is that each cycle is different, and have tried to use the discipline of having more than one.)

FYI: Life without President Donald Trump? On Wall Street, that idea is being bandied about increasingly of late, as the commander-in-chief has seen his credibility as leader of the free world assailed relentless over the past weeks, ultimately spurring Wall Street stocks into their worst tailspin in months.
On Wednesday, Jeremy Siegel — a prominent stock-market bull — said equity markets, specifically the Dow, would spike by 1,000 points if Trump announced his resignation from the U.S. presidency.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/man-who-called-dow-20000-says-stock-market-could-see-1000-point-jump-if-trump-resigns-2017-05-17/print

FYI:
Regards,
Ted
One:
http://thereformedbroker.com/2017/05/19/sign-of-the-times/
Two:
http://thereformedbroker.com/2017/05/18/this-will-never-end-but-markets-will-get-used-to-it/

GLRBX down 1.06% yesterday. Eh, not impressed for a 50/50 equity/bond split fund.
Kind of makes sense. I believe small and mid caps were down about 2x that amount.

Unfortunately, the fund managers' decision to stress small and mid cap value equities has not served it well over the past three to five years. In addition, It's upside/downside capture ratio has been pretty poor during that time period as well.

FYI: Allowing investors to make a positive social impact while participating in one of the fastest growing investment categories.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170518005335/en

GLRBX down 1.06% yesterday. Eh, not impressed for a 50/50 equity/bond split fund.
Kind of makes sense. I believe small and mid caps were down about 2x that amount.

Hi Catch,
Indeed, the markets might move in the direction that you suggested. Then again, it just might generate results in the opposite direction. It's just statistics, but statistics do yield the probability likelihoods, and these offer decision making guidance.
The odds are important and I would never make an investment without some estimate of the payoff probabilities. "The future is uncertain, so investors should always think in terms of probabilities, never guarantees.". There is terrific wisdom in that single sentence. I copied it from an article referenced immediately below:
http://awealthofcommonsense.com/2015/11/playing-the-probabilities/
The historical odds summarized in the opening table of this article provide the encouragement to stay in the market for the long term. On a daily basis, it's only slightly more positive for a rewarding day than a fair coin toss. But as the timeframe increases those odds become more and more attractive.
Stay strong, Catch. I will.
Best Wishes

FYI: Sovereign wealth funds pulled $18.4 billion from global stock and bond markets in the first quarter of 2017, notwithstanding robust equity gains in this period, data from research firm eVestment showed on Thursday,
Oil-backed sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) have been under pressure since oil prices LCOc1 tumbled from their mid-2014 highs of $115 to around $52 a barrel, with governments tapping state funds to close budget gaps
Regards,
Ted
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-swf-flows-idUSKCN18E14U

GLRBX down 1.06% yesterday. Eh, not impressed for a 50/50 equity/bond split fund.