I use LPEFX to gain exposure to private equity; and, I hold this fund in the specialty / theme sleeve found in growth area of my portfolio. My historical annualized return since I purchased the fund in September of 2011 has been about 12.50% and my total return in the fund has been better than 70%. For me, it is a keeper plus it sports an income yield of about 4.5% on amount invested. Over time, I plan to keep adding to the position.

FYI: Actively managed funds tout their ability to successfully rotate across styles (such as large-caps versus small-caps and value versus growth) or sectors (industries) and thus outperform passive strategies (such as index funds). It is certainly true that investment styles do move in and out of favor, presenting actively managed funds with an opportunity for asset managers to outperform passive strategies through the use of portfolio rotation strategies. In addition, the emergence of style- and sector-based ETFs has facilitated the ease and affordability of rapid portfolio rotation across styles and/or sectors, and thus improved the implementation capabilities of style-timing strategies.
Regards,
Ted
http://mutualfunds.com/news/2016/03/22/success-or-failure-the-evidence-from-style-rotating-funds/

FYI: The recent rise in the stock market has attracted a lot of attention — and it’s easy to see why. From the market bottom on Feb. 11 through Monday, U.S. stocks, as measured by the definitive Wilshire 5000 index, rose a bit more than 13 percent, or about $2.8 trillion.
A pretty nice five-week increase, isn’t it? No wonder so many people are talking about it.
But there’s another investment that has also turned positive — but has attracted far less attention.
I’m talking about taxable money market mutual funds. Yes, money funds.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/comatose-money-market-funds-have-finally-begun-to-wake-up/2016/03/21/0f20531c-ef76-11e5-89c3-a647fcce95e0_story.html
Highest Yielding Money Market Funds:
http://cranedata.com/

And the analyst who was most involved with the Valeant investment now departs as well (though Sequoia won't say who, the prime suspect is analyst Rory Priday):
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-24/ruane-cunniff-analyst-who-helped-champion-valeant-left-with-ceo
@Charles Yes, indeed, I've been waiting for the answer to that one for over a month. One passage in the above suggests that a certain person of importance never learned a damn thing:

At a board meeting last week, the directors realized that “we were at an untenable situation” because of Goldfarb’s “inability or unwillingness to sell the position,” Swiggett said. He declined to comment on whether the board forced Goldfarb to retire.

bee, it seems to me that SEQUX will be collecting $46 million in annual fees when and if their AUM goes down to $4.6 billion (and the ER is 1%). According to fundmojo.com, AUM as of 02/2016 was $6.04 billion, and AUM as of 05/2015 (the oldest date listed) was $9.04 billion. I believe that AUM decreased because of the drop in share price and shareholder withdrawals.

Not me; usually the inverse of good timing :( .
Such foreign and reit as I have I have not sold, just am not really seeking to traditionally diversify anymore, and am not adding to such positions.
Have modest MC (FLPSX) and I think almost no SC.
LC of quality will always do whatever they do
Plus a year-plus of cash, and SS for me starts in 13mo (at age 70).
I will sell some fund holdings over the next months to add to cash, if the market is flat or rises, as I anticipate; if the Yackts recover I will do this even at a slightly larger scale.
I too semiretired ~3y ago, forcibly. Am debating putting large percentage of cash into PONDX but not really seeing the point --- small beer, also risk.

@bee & MFO Members: In addition to bee's math, on this date,3/26/15, one year ago SEQUX was selling for $252.00 per share.
Regards,
Ted

Please check my math:
With $5.5 Billion AUM, SEQUX with its 1% ER nets $55 million in annual fees. These annual fees are obviously impacted by recent poor fund performance, but in a year when shareholders absorb a 25% share price loss, management will still collect close to $46 million in fees (based on 25% less assets under management due to a 25% drop in the fund's share price).
Share holders selling out of this fund would cause a 100% management fee loss and might be about the only way to properly voice their disapproval of management decision making.

Another reason that one might avoid SVXY, UVXY, VIXM, and VIXY is that they issue schedule K-1s. There is a list of such ETPs at: http://etfdb.com/etf-tax-efficiency/etf-tax-tutorial-complete-list-of-etfs-that-issue-a-k-1/

FYI: (This is a follow-up to the follow-up to the follow-up, I think Chuck's a little late to the party !)
In the stock market, there are bad times — and then there is what the Sequoia Fund is going through.
Bad doesn’t even begin to describe the situation for Sequoia SEQUX, -0.64% one of the most legendary mutual funds, which has seen its reputation torched by a bad bet on a controversial stock. The fund’s fall from grace culminated in the resignation of a co-manager after a 45-year career with Sequoia’s management company
Regards,
Ted
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-a-big-bet-on-one-bad-stock-broke-a-legendary-mutual-fund-2016-03-26/print
Sequoia's One Year Performance As 3/24/16: Source M*
1-Day (-0.64)
1-Wk. -(0.13)
1-Mo. -(7/19)
3-Mo. -(14.13)
YTD -(11.55)
1-Yr. -(24.03)

Over the last 10 years T. Rowe Price's Global Technology fund, PRGTX, seems to have edged out NASDX:

Charted Over the last 15 years:

FYI: Easter comes early this year, and U.S. financial markets will be closed on Good Friday, which falls on March 25, while U.K. and some continental markets will be closed for Easter Monday as well.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/when-do-markets-close-for-good-friday-2016-03-22/print

@hank- Oh, you mean like this...

The Southern Pacific, which my father worked for his entire working life, designed these to keep the tracks through the Sierras passable. Some of these are still in use.

@hank- What's a snowblower??
:)

OJ, It's a machine that you run.
Has blades that go round and round. Kind of like an electric Margarita mixer - only more fun. :)
http://www.amazon.com/Margaritaville-Premium-Concoction-Easy-Pour-Blending/dp/B000QH2JCO/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&qid=1458861547&sr=8-22&keywords=electric+cocktail+mixer+blender

FYI: Sorry, I hit the post instead of the save ! It's no fun being 80 !
Regards,
Ted
Bloomberg Slant:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-23/resurgent-dollar-hits-asian-stock-outlook-as-crude-extends-slump
Reuters Slant;
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks-idUSKCN0WQ14K
MarketWatch Slant:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-set-to-break-five-week-winning-streak-as-dow-futures-fall-150-points-2016-03-24/print
USA Today Slant:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2016/03/24/stocks-dow-thursday/82200688/
IBD Slant:
http://www.investors.com/market-trend/stock-market-today/stocks-snap-win-streak-gamestop-down-after-hours/
WSJ Markets At A Glance:
http://markets.wsj.com/us
Sector Tracker:
http://www.sectorspdr.com/sectorspdr/tools/sector-tracker
Current Futures: Negative
http://finviz.com/futures.ashx

I appear the only person incapable of posting an image to the discussion board. I keep trying and keep getting the broken-image icon. The best I can do is a link to a composite valuation graph. Grantham argues that the two standard deviation line is the threshold for major reversals. Market values exceeded that only once (and housing values once) in 100 years.

Because I bought some GILD six months ago. I thought that I had warned all of you before I did that

I got out back around 104. Forgot to thank you for the heads-up. :)

FYI: Did he fall on his sword? The 71-year-old leader of the well-known investment product, which has underperformed 98 percent of its peers since January, is stepping down. Goldfarb’s 36-year tenure at the helm comes to a close after his mutual fund suffered huge losses — to the tune of 25 percent of the fund’s value since 2015 — following heavy investments in Valeant Pharmaceuticals International. Concern over the venerable fund’s reputation has prompted action, and Goldfarb will retire at the end of the month.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.ozy.com/presidential-daily-brief/pdb-68659/bowing-out-68669
Bloomberg Slant:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-23/goldfarb-to-retire-from-sequoia-fund-after-valeant-losses
Shareholders Letter:
http://www.sequoiafund.com/Sequoia_clientletter.pdf

@TSP_Transfer re. YTD change in PTIAX's AUM
(366-223)/223 x 100= 93% ?
Hmmmmm...... time to change the batteries, maybe? :)

Biotech Related
Biotech Selloff, EVENTIDE FUNDS Semi-Annual Report 31 December 2015
The Gilead Fund and Healthcare & Life Sciences Fund are both exposed to the biotech sector,
which normally is not correlated to the broader economy. The futures of companies in the
biotech industry are dependent on company-specific pipelines of new drugs.
Despite the worst selloff in biotech history, the fundamentals of the industry remain positive. The
decline may be due in part to the 2015 drug-pricing scare in which rising drug prices became a
political issue. In addition, biotech normally experiences one large selloff every year. But, most
likely, the decline is due to a broad flight from risk among investors, and biotech is risky.
As a result, we believe investors are pricing companies far below a rational consideration of value.
While price-to-earnings (“PE”) ratios aren’t normally a useful metric in the biotech sector, given
many companies are pre-earnings, the PE of the four largest companies show them trading
below the PE of the S&P 500. Normally they trade much higher, as earnings growth rates in the
sector typically outperform estimates. Small-cap biotech companies have plenty of cash —
enough to last them for an average of 6.6 years before needing additional investment. That’s
plenty of time to produce new drugs, and the industry has many exciting new drugs in the
pipeline. Finally, the regulatory environment is positive, with officials approving more new drugs
every year. In other words, the fundamentals in the sector are positive.
EVENTIDE FUNDS Semi-Annual Report 31 December 2015
https://materials.proxyvote.com/Approved/MC5611/20160129/SAR_275117.PDF
1 Day Y T D
FBIOX -4.08 -31.06
IBB -3.30 ( nav) -22.26
ETNHX -4.64 -27.50
PRHSX -1.39 -13.40
M* Health: Total Returns Y T D Ave -14.81
http://news.morningstar.com/fund-category-returns/health/$FOCA$SH.aspx

IBB: Political Posturing Sell-Off Presents Buying Opportunity
Mar. 8, 2016 4:49 PM ET
http://seekingalpha.com/article/3956759-ibb-political-posturing-sell-presents-buying-opportunity

Vice President Joe Biden dropped in to Tutta Bella’s Westlake Avenue location during a visit to Seattle on Monday and ordered four Neapolitan pies to go.
Biden was in Seattle to tour a research facility to promote a $1 billion proposal to cure cancer, announced in President Obama’s January State of the Union address.
http://www.pmq.com/March-2016/Vice-President-Orders-4-Pies-to-Go-from-Seattle-Pizzeria/