What the heck does "Templeton Global Bond ($100bn in total, $59bn in mutual funds)" mean? That Templeton Global Bond has $100B AUM, of which $59B are invested in other funds? I doubt that.
The $100b is not Franklin Templeton's AUM (Wiki reports $844B - even if this is stale data, it shows that F-T has a lot more than $100B).
Maybe it's talking about total AUM that the Global Bond team is managing, of which $59B are in mutual funds (the rest being in SMAs, collective trusts, etc.) It then goes on to talk about retail outflows - does retail mean "mutual funds" (including institutional share classes), or what?
That outflow ($7.6B YTD) is then reported to be 13% annualized. But it looks like the 13% came from dividing $7.6B by $59B (12.9%). Problem is that this would represent 13% pulled out YTD, which would mean an annualized rate of 14% or so.
It says that the fund is underperforming its benchmark by 4.6% YTD. The prospectus says that its benchmark is Citigroup World Government Bond Index (Citi WBGI USD). M* reports the fund is outperforming its benchmark by almost 3.5% YTD.
Okay, so the numbers (whether this is a quote of Goldman, or zerohedge's creative accounting) are suspect. The fact remains that Templeton Global Bond has likely had sizeable outflows. Zacks, citing M*, claims $6B in fund outflows between Aug 2014 and Aug 2015.
But so what? M* also reports that TPINX/TGBAX is roughly 50% cash. (To M*, cash includes debt that matures in under a year.) That means that the fund could sustain a massive stampede without having to dip into illiquid securities. Nor does ZeroHedge discuss the fund's holdings, or what percentage is high yield. It just mentions this EM fund next to HY funds, and expects you to jump to conclusions.
What I see is an EM fund that is still performing above its peers (43rd percentile YTD). People who are fleeing the sector would jump from whatever fund they owned (so shouldn't the blog be looking at EM funds with less liquid holdings?). People who might flee weaker funds (but not the sector) will be hanging around.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-11/goldman-takes-aim-superstar-bond-manager-hinting-he-could-be-next-third-avenue
"
Amongst our coverage, BEN (Sell) is most exposed with 30% of fixed income holdings in high yield securities per eVestment, and with 37% of fixed income exposed to emerging market debt in particular. Importantly, Templeton Global Bond ($100bn in total; $59bn in mutual funds) – BEN’s largest fixed income fund – has seen meaningful outflows YTD (-$7.6bn from retail; -13% annualized rate) and could persist given the deterioration in excess performance (-460bps vs. benchmark YTD)."

I came across this "Big Issues" presentation which might add "food for thought" with regard to investing themes:
slideshare.net/CommSec/the-big-issues-2003-2016

Doubleline Total Return fund has been shorten the duration of its holding in the past 12 months. With an AUM over $50B, it is a much more difficult task than $50M.
I think the hike will be small (25 base points) and incremental afterward. If the market cannot handle this level of rate hike, what does it says about the market itself?

FYI: The environment is in the spotlight, with the Paris climate talks in full swing. But investors in “green” exchange-traded funds have learned from experience that these funds have yet to establish a long-term footing.
There are all sorts of ETFs in this sector. Some focus on individual green technologies or market segments, while others take a broader view. As a group, however, they have mainly had a tough year. So far in 2015, through Nov. 30, some in the group were trading 15% to 22% lower.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.wsj.com/articles/green-etfs-struggle-thanks-to-fall-in-oil-price-1449460370

FYI: Investors know by now that it’s been a flat year for stocks. Just how flat?
So far this year, the S&P 500 has flip-flopped between positive and negative territory for the year a record 24 times, according to data compiled by Bespoke Investment Group. If the large-cap S&P index closes above 2058.9 on Thursday, that number would rise to 25 instances. It was flirting with that level in the early afternoon.
Regards,
Ted
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2015/12/10/stocks-see-record-flip-flopping-in-2015/tab/print/

@msf Yeah, I see what you mean. It all sounds so very reasonable, and yet there are so many phrases in the document that really chap my hide I eventually lost count of them. Geez, inflation on its own has achieved whatever they're trying to do with their "adjustments" so just leave well enough alone. Just leave it alone. I recently looked into a Regulation D investment and was surprised that the State of Nevada had its own restrictions, and what I would call "regulatory cautions," but nothing went beyond the pale. Frankly, I appreciated the formalized concern.
Too bad about the Third Avenue fund. I've had it on my watch list for some time and started watching it very closely this past Spring. Thomas LaPointe managed one of the first MFs I owned in the 1990s, the Columbia Conservative HY Fund, and managed it well, so I was hoping for success with this original idea for his sake. I think this fund was attacked by hedge fund shorting (I suspect iHeartCommunications, among others?). Although I thought he should have started lightening up on the distressed asset plays at the beginning of 2015, the present environment isn't exactly what one would consider The Perfect Storm--- something beyond his control had to have come along and pushed things over the edge, something that caused institutional money to bail on him in a big way.
See Ted's post for a more extensive update to the WSJ story as it was first released. It's pretty good.
For those invested in TFCVX (from the Third Avenue website):

There will be a conference call for shareholders with Thomas Lapointe, Lead Portfolio Manager, on Friday December 11, 2015 at 11:00 AM EST. Contact your relationship manager for the dial-in details and for more information.

The idea that net worth (or salary) can serve as a proxy for investing expertise is IMHO absurd. One can luck into money (win a lottery ticket). Even without that kind of luck, what is it that makes a surgeon (high income) any more knowledgeable about startup investing than someone who's bounced around from startup to startup?
This is why I feel that the whole concept of accredited investor is fatally flawed. Investors are accredited so that a company can sell stock to them without having to go the nuisance of filing disclosures. Who cares if the investor is being taken for a ride? Caveat emptor. The investor's rich - so surely he can watch out for himself, ask all the right questions to get at the information that would have been disclosed anyway?
This legislation seems like a reasonable step toward qualifying investors, rather than using wealth/income as a proxy. But it also strikes me as grandstanding. The SEC is already required to revisit accredited investor requirements every four years (Dodd Frank). It was in the process of doing so, with better insight. There was not a need for this blunt legislation.
Here's a nice summary of where the SEC was a few months ago, including some of the nuances of various proposals.
http://media.mcguirewoods.com/publications/2015/SEC-Considers-Updating-the-Accredited-Investor-Definition.pdf?utm_source=Mondaq&utm_medium=syndication&utm_campaign=View-Original

@Old_Joe
We might have more opportunities ahead !
House committee approves easing accredited-investor standard
Measure with bipartisan support would expand the kind of investors who can purchase unregistered securities
By Mark Schoeff Jr. | December 9, 2015 - 10:58 am EST
"We're trying to expand opportunities for Americans to participate in taking a risk but also engaging in the benefits of the upside using their knowledge, not only just a threshold that says you get to invest just because you have wealth," Mr. Schweikert said during debate on the bill Tuesday night.
As the committee advances the legislation, the SEC has indicated it will soon release a review of the accredited-investor standard.
Republicans have pushed to expand the accredited-investor parameters, asserting that doing so would help small business start-ups and other emerging investments raise capital.
http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20151209/FREE/151209918/house-committee-approves-easing-accredited-investor-standard?template=printart

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1031661/000093041315004707/c83245_497.htm
497 1 c83245_497.htm
Third Avenue Focused Credit Fund
Supplement dated December 10, 2015
to Prospectus dated March 1, 2015
Effective December 9, 2015, the following information supplements the Funds’ Prospectus dated March 1, 2015:
At the recommendation of Third Avenue Management LLC, the investment adviser to the Third Avenue Focused Credit Fund (the “Fund”), the Fund’s Board of Trustees approved a Plan of Liquidation for the Fund effective December 9, 2015. The Prospectus is revised to delete in their entirety all references to the Fund.

@MFO Members: Here is the Linkster's pecking order for the various S&P Sectors for 2016 !
Regards,
Ted
1. XLV
2. XLY
3. XLK
4. XLP
5. S&P 500 (SPY)
6. XLI
7. XLF
9. XLB
10.XLU

I've done well in financials lately...hopefully, it will continue into 2016.

@BenWP No luck on the distributions but full speed ahead with asset growth !
Eventide Hires Ultra High Net Worth Sales Veteran as Head of Distribution
Marketwired
December 09, 2015: 08:30 AM ET
Eventide Funds (NASDAQ: ETGLX)(NASDAQ: ETNHX)(NASDAQ: ETNMX)(NASDAQ: ETAGX)(NASDAQ: ETAHX)(NASDAQ: ETAMX), a values-based mutual fund family, is pleased to announce that Jeff Cave will lead its sales and distribution efforts. As Head of Distribution, Mr. Cave will specifically lead sales and distribution to institutional channels and will continue to improve Eventide's quality of service to financial advisors and clients. Mr. Cave brings extensive experience from his prior role as an Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) Wealth Management Specialist for the Private Banking and Investment Group at Merrill Lynch.
"There is a significant and growing group of clients and advisors who want to connect means and meaning," said Mr. Cave. "I'm excited to now connect with advisors in all channels and to combine my passion for faith and finances on a full time basis. Eventide has created something very special, and I'm thrilled to be a part of this group of caring, thoughtful and very talented people who are working to make a difference in the growing movement of values-based investing."
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/11G075081-001.htm

Hi @TPS Transfer,
Yes, energy is currrently taking it on the chin and would be a contrarian move. I will not start to change much of anything until I begin to see some positive upward movement in the markets. Fourth Quarter 2015 reporting will, I believe, set the stage for much of 2016.
Currently, my current overweights are financials (+3%), communication services (+3%), Industrials (+1%), technology (+1%), consumer staples (+3%), healthcare (+3%) and utilities (+3%). Keep in mind my target weightings for the four minor sectors of materials, real estate, communication services and utilities is 5% each and my target weighting for the majority sectors of consumer cyclical, financial services, energy, industrials, technology, consumer defensive, and healthcare is 9% each. This leaves 17% that can be moved around, to overweight, from my target weightings.

Dex, why I hate and never trade the ETFs. The junk munis ETs (HYD and HYMB) suddenly took a big hit late today (and on extraordinary super high volume) Must be some news? There is usually a one day lag between the open end and ETFs so will sell part of my open ends today. It may be much ado about nothing but will just buy back in if that is the case.

HYD
Yes but something about that volume - Yahoo 2.1M, Google 113K
Avg vol according to Yahoo 340K
There could have been some sort of screw up.
Similar story for HYMB

When Trends Reverse
Posted on December 8, 2015 by David Ott Acropolis Investment Management
Some strategies, managed futures being the most obvious, are based exclusively on trend following and they really got hurt last Thursday.
Managed futures funds attempt to catch trends by buying what has gone up recently and selling short assets that have fallen recently. Going into the meeting, they were short euros and long German bonds (among other things) and were hit with a tough reversal.
The Newedge Trend Index, an equally weighted index of large managed futures managers, lost -3.66 percent on Thursday, wiping out all of the gains for that index for the year. http://www.newedge.com/en/newedge-indices/
Although we haven’t really invested in managed futures programs, we have been looking into them over the past several years.
We’re not opposed to managed futures and trend following, but we don’t feel like anyone understands them like traditional asset classes like stocks and bonds.
..there is good data on stocks and bonds that goes back to the 1800s for the US and many decades from countries all over the world.
As always, we’ll keep looking and learning, just like we did last Thursday.
http://acrinv.com/when-trends-reverse/

@ Junkster Somethings do repeat !
Meredith Whitney returns, this time managing money at an insurance company
She'll oversee a portfolio with money allocated to about eight managers, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and BlackRock Inc., Mr. Hutchings said. Its investments include U.S. and Asian stocks.
“Her task is to essentially manage the managers,” Mr. Hutchings said. “It's not S&P focused, it's a little more varied than that.”
http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20151208/FREE/151209922?template=printart
Also
Capitulation in high-yield ETFs?
Dec 9 2015, 15:21 ET | By: Stephen Alpher, SA News Editor [Contact this editor with comments or a news tip]
Tuesday's declines to multi-year lows were accompanied by record volume, with HYG trading 25M shares - more than doubling the high level mark hit during the 2013 "taper tantrum."
Volume in JNK was even higher at 34.8M shares as that ETF closed at its lowest price since 2009. The $11B fund also saw a one-day withdrawal of $452M on Monday.
The two rattled ETFs are getting a breather today, with HYG higher by 0.4% and JNK by 0.2%.
http://seekingalpha.com/news/2974726-capitulation-in-high-yield-etfs
JNK https://www.google.com/finance?q=JNK
HYG https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSEARCA:HYG&ei=JY9oVrnbE4m_mAHKp4_wBw

FYI: Jeffrey Gundlach, whose $51.3 billion DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund has outperformed 99% of peers over the past five years, said the Federal Reserve may come to regret raising U.S. interest rates amid signs of a fragile economy and a crumbling credit market.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20151209/FREE/151209917?template=printart

Eventide Healthcare & Life Sciences N ETNHX
Only real bright spot for me this year.Volatile with smaller companies.
http://eventidefunds.com/our-products/#!healthcare
As of September 30, 2015:

Collegium Pharmaceutical Inc (5.66%) Abuse-deterrant treatments for chronic pain
Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc (3.37%) Bringing treatments to market for debilitating genetic diseases
Neurocrine Biosciences Inc (3.25%) Innovative pharmaceuticals for diseases with high unmet needs
DBV Technologies (2.85%) Patient-friendly therapies for food and pediatric allergy patients
BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc (2.81%) Providing new therapeutics for severe or life-threatening diseases
Dyax Corp (2.68%) Treating hereditary angioedema and licensing phage display technology for research
Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc (2.64%) Treatments for thrombosis and other hematologic diseases
Kite Pharma Inc (2.59%) Clinical-stage therapies that harness patients’ immune systems to fight cancer
Bluebird Bio Inc (2.58%) New drugs for patients with severe genetic and orphan diseases
athenahealth Inc (2.57%) Cloud-based services for health records and medical practice management
Related
From WSJ Business
How Pfizer Set the Cost of Its New Drug at $9,850 a Month By Jonathan D. Rockoff
Updated Dec. 9, 2015 12:01 a.m. ET WSJ
Process of setting the price for breast-cancer treatment shows arcane art behind rising U.S. drug prices
At $11,000 a month, one official said the plan “would definitely require physicians to document medical necessity for Product X,” according to a person familiar with the surveys. It was the kind of paperwork obstacle Pfizer wanted to avoid.
Staff members put together a chart estimating the revenue and prescription numbers at various prices similar to those of the three drugs Pfizer had decided to use as benchmarks.
The chart showed a 25% drop in doctors’ willingness to prescribe the new drug if it cost more than $10,000 a month. This indicated Pfizer might collect higher returns by charging toward the lower end of its range.
Pfizer also had been talking with the Food and Drug Administration. The agency agreed in late 2014 to a speedy review, without waiting for results from an elaborate “Phase 3” clinical trial, so that patients with life-threatening conditions could get the drug earlier. This sped up the time to market by about two years.
Pfizer staff members staged two mock reviews by health-plan officials. The officials, who were paid for their time, sat around a conference table and simulated a day-long discussion of how to handle a drug such as this one.
Pfizer employees say the mock reviews supported a monthly price below $10,000. If it was higher, insurers could start requiring doctors to fill out paperwork justifying its use.
The staff felt they finally had it. When they met in November 2014 to nail down a price, they picked a figure just below the cutoff: $9,850 a month. This would be the list price, from which health insurers and pharmacy-benefit managers would negotiate discounts and rebates with Pfizer.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-art-of-setting-a-drug-price-1449628081