RPHYX / RSIVX: New commentary explains mistakes that resulted in credit losses Without taking a closer look at the specific holdings, I'll just give my instinctive feeling about the fund's issues. Basically a cop-out: the issues seem like a little bit all of the above.
The fund is supposed to hold around 50% in bonds that are due in under 90 days (or are expected to be called in that short a time). Sounds a little like prerefunded, but clearly more risky (no stash of cash backing up payments). The book value of a company is supposed to be enough to cover 100% of the bond's value, but that depends on the company's business (is it bleeding cash and so reducing book value, did it just fail to increase book value due to a failed IPO, etc.) And even if a company can cover bond payments if it goes bust (book value exceeding bond value), that doesn't mean it will go through bankruptcy and pay off when the bonds mature.
Remember too that most of the bonds held are junk. That rating can include expected defaults, even for truly "money good" bonds. The fund has an interesting strategy, and one that should generally work well in small doses (thus the concern raised by a poster above about the fund being too large). But by definition, junk bonds, even ultra short ones, carry risk.
I'm still uncomfortable about the explanations given. Maybe I'm just looking for something along the lines: there is judgment involved here, otherwise we could not get this sort of yield. Judgment isn't 100% perfect - even when everything looks good, stuff happens. Here's what happened in these cases ...
I figured that the yield was good enough to provide a buffer in case of a blow up (i.e. it would still come out better than a bank account). So far, that's true, but without much margin of error left, at least until the fund resumes performing better.
Utilities ETF PNM is my local utility, thought I would post this for your interest in PNM. I really like PNM, they are very generous with nonprofits and a good public servant. Besides, since I have solar panels, I don't pay for my electricity - usually its $0 after balancing out the months I pay (winter months) vs the generating months (March - October). I get 300 days of sun each year, thats when it really works. After having lived in Cleveland for
13 years in 70s and 80s where its cloudy 300 days each year, it's nice :)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/n-m-supreme-court-dismisses-231100416.html
Chuck Jaffe Money Life Show: Guest: Alan Gayle, Director Asset Allocation, RidgeWorth Investments Any thoughts on Foreign Developed Markets US Hedged options?
Maybe PIPDX
Short Term Bonds?
Maybe VSTBX, MWLDX, ACSNX, FMEQX, FSHBX, WSHNX (most with Manager Tenure of 15+ years)
High Yield Bond:
Maybe BUFHX, FAGIX, CIOZX
Mutual Fund Cutline Report
M*'s Upgrades & Downgrades For October
Bond Market Wardrobe Malfunction: Almost all swap spreads have.... a negative number? I haven't seen this before. I don't even have an idea what this could mean--- that traders have more confidence in the swap counterparties than in the Treasuries themselves? Weird.
http://www.alhambrapartners.com/2015/11/06/the-quick-burn-of-balance-sheet-capacity-is-the-recoverys-mangled-end/
swap spreads have been sinking fast and to unprecedented levels. Though mainstream commentary will provide plausible-sounding excuses, mostly about corporate or even UST issuance, that is only because these places will not even consider that Janet Yellen has it all wrong; thus, they only search for possibilities that allow that narrative to remain undisturbed even though that narrative itself can never account for negative spreads.the nonsense nature of negative swap spreads is precisely the point – for them to be negative in the first place, let alone highly so (like the 30s again), is a pretty unambiguous signal of malfunction if not full distress. It is only great imbalance that can change the information content of a market price into meaninglessness; therefore we can interpret that case as some great reduction in balance sheet capacity since it is dealer capacity that determines the nature of the spreads.
Sequoia is now a three-star fund clear-eyed ...approach to identifying value
@Andy Sounds deep and thorough to me. And now I must be off to complete paperwork for my $
100M "personal," to satisfy a terrible itch I have to make a charitable contribution to my alma mater (it is their world; we just live in it). Hoo, boy, the pig just needed a little lipstick, and she's good to go. Yes, pretty telling.
Goldman's BRIC Era Ends As Fund Folds After Years Of Losses FYI: The BRIC era is coming to an end at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
The bank’s asset-management unit folded its money-losing BRIC fund, which invests in Brazil, Russia, India and China, and merged it last month with a broader emerging-market fund. Goldman Sachs pulled the plug on the nine-year-old product because it doesn’t expect “significant asset growth in the foreseeable future,” according to a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-08/goldman-s-bric-era-ends-as-fund-closes-after-years-of-losses
Succession Planning @ Osterweis Hi VintageFreak,
As it turns out, right now might be a good time to buy OSTVX. If you look at a line chart of its weekly price since 1/1/2015 with 3-week and 6-week exponential moving averages overlayed, it's a market timer's dream. The EMA crosses signal a buy in late January, a sell at the start of June, and are about to signal a buy this week. I use www.stockcharts.com for my charts.
A Year-End Game Plan For Investors 
#6 Use all those stock gains as collateral for something tangible, yeah, like "real" assets. Even with a recent bankruptcy, and a FICO 500, looks like you can buy and flip another house, or two, or three--- terms seem mighty "
reasonable" (yes, it's happening again). :) Lever it up.
A Year-End Game Plan For Investors
how to retire well
how to retire well I believe there are three ways to get money out of the Traditional TIAA account (not the IRA, the one teachers and staff get). 1. 10 essentially equal yearly installments. 2. Required Minimum Distributions. 3. A single preium annuity. Not a liquid investment, but options 2 and 3 provide a solid anchor for the fixed income part of an asset allocation portfolio.
November is up You can purchase BOPIX through Scottrade for a initial minimum investment of $100.00 plus T/F.
Succession Planning @ Osterweis @Chinfist And, of course, there now would be one more reason to consider a sell,
e.g., 9/30/
15 #
1 hldg: Valeant Pharma, 2.93% :)
