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Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
  • Rule # 1
    "For U.S. short-term reserve returns, we used the Ibbotson 1-Month Treasury Bill Index from 1926 through 1977 and the Citigroup 3-Month Treasury Bill Index thereafter."
    It's nice they inform us of that. However, all 9 of their suggested models contain 0% allocation to short-term reserves.
  • Two Top Health-Care Funds
    FYI: (Click On Article title At Top Of Google Search)
    This year’s market has not been good for anyone’s health. After the rockiest start ever to a new year, the volatility has continued such that even the recent three-day rally still has stocks down more than 6% as of Thursday. Health-care stocks, after five years of market-beating gains, have been hit particularly hard, down 8.6% for the year so far. The only sector in worse shape is financials, down 12.3%.
    In our Jan. 30 cover story, Barron’s told readers it was “Time to Buy Bank Stocks.” Investors would be wise to look at health-care funds as well.
    Regards,
    Ted
    https://www.google.com/#q=Two+Top+Health-Care+Funds+Barron's
  • Jason Zweig: When Stock Pickers Stop Picking Stocks
    FYI: Picking stocks has become so hard that some stock pickers have given up pretending to try.
    Pry open the hood of a mutual fund, and you might be startled by what you find. In the past, you would have seen roughly 100 stocks, each painstakingly selected by a portfolio manager passionate about beating the market. Today, you’re increasingly likely to find a few handfuls of exchange-traded funds — those autopilot portfolios that seek to mimic the market rather than beat it.
    Regards,
    Ted
    http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2016/02/19/when-stock-pickers-stop-picking-stocks/tab/print/
  • Collins Alternative Solutions Fund to liquidate
    @MFO Members: Created 4/30/12, with assets of only $21.7 million, and a 90th percentile perfomance record, with 2.36% ER. Management requests you don't sent flowers.
    Regards,
    Ted
    M*: CLLIX Performance Record:
    http://performance.morningstar.com/fund/performance-return.action?t=CLLIX&region=usa&culture=en-US
  • Collins Alternative Solutions Fund to liquidate
    http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1141819/000089418916007712/collins-tpm_497e.htm
    497 1 collins-tpm_497e.htm SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS (497E - STICKER)
    Filed pursuant to Rule 497(e)
    Registration Nos. 333-62298; 811-10401
    Collins Alternative Solutions Fund
    A series of Trust for Professional Managers (the “Trust”)
    Supplement dated February 19, 2016
    to the Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information dated June 28, 2015
    The Board of Trustees (the “Board”) of Trust for Professional Managers (the “Trust”), based upon the recommendation of Collins Capital Investments, LLC (the “Adviser”), the investment adviser to the Collins Alternative Solutions Fund (the “Fund”), a series of the Trust, has determined to close and liquidate the Fund. The Board concluded that it would be in the best interests of the Fund and its shareholders that the Fund be closed and liquidated as a series of the Trust effective as of the close of business on February 19, 2016.
    The Board approved a Plan of Liquidation (the “Plan”) that determines the manner in which the Fund will be liquidated. Pursuant to the Plan and in anticipation of the Fund’s liquidation, the Fund will be closed to new purchases effective as of the close of business on February 19, 2016. However, any distributions declared to shareholders of the Fund after February 19, 2016 and until the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange on February 26, 2016 will be automatically reinvested in additional shares of the Fund unless a shareholder specifically requests that such distributions be paid in cash. Although the Fund will be closed to new purchases as of February 19, 2016, you may continue to redeem your shares of the Fund after February 19, 2016, as provided in the Prospectus. Please note, however, that the Fund will be liquidating its assets as of the close of business on February 26, 2016.
    Pursuant to the Plan, if the Fund has not received your redemption request or other instruction prior to the close of business on February 26, 2016, the effective time of the liquidation, your shares will be redeemed, and you will receive proceeds representing your proportionate interest in the net assets of the Fund as of February 26, 2016, subject to any required withholdings. As is the case with any redemption of fund shares, these liquidation proceeds will generally be subject to federal and, as applicable, state and local income taxes if the redeemed shares are held in a taxable account and the liquidation proceeds exceed your adjusted basis in the shares redeemed. If the redeemed shares are held in a qualified retirement account such as an IRA, the liquidation proceeds may not be subject to current income taxation under certain conditions. You should consult with your tax adviser for further information regarding the federal, state and/or local income tax consequences of this liquidation that are relevant to your specific situation.
    The Adviser will bear all of the expenses incurred in carrying out the Plan.
    Shareholder inquiries should be directed to the Fund at 1-855-55-ALT-MF.
    Please retain this Supplement with your Prospectus and
    Statement of Additional Information for reference.
  • Rule # 1
    @MFO Members: "Volatility is not the same thing as risk, and investors who think it is will cost themselves money." .....Warren Buffett
    Regards,
    Ted
    http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-on-risk-and-volatility-2015-4
  • Rule # 1
    In investing is to determine your risk tolerance. This is a good basis from which to start. Scaled from 100% down to 0.
    https://personal.vanguard.com/us/insights/saving-investing/model-portfolio-allocations
  • Soft close for Oppenheimer International Small-Mid Company Fund
    Here's the Prospectus Supplement (it explicitly says that if you're working through an advisory-fee program you can continue to purchase shares).
    As I posted before, Oppenheimer is trying to raise its management fee by 1/3. Total ERs, including the management fees, would rise about 20% (Y shares would go from 0.95% to 1.18%; A shares would go from 1.20% to 1.43%). Here's the proxy statement on this.
    The rationale given is that the lower management fee is no longer in line with those of the fund's peers (and gosh darn it, managing this kind of fund is hard work). IMHO that might fly, except that this is, as slick noted above, a humongous fund.
    The closest direct peer is LAIAX, with a virtually identical ER (before raising the rate). The other two jumbo ($4B+) small/mid cap international growth funds are MIDAX (which will be about 11 basis points cheaper after the hike in ER), and PRIDX (which costs about the same as OSMAX, before the ER hike).
    It's not a done deal yet - they failed to get a quorum and had to adjourn the shareholder meeting until March 11th. But when it happens, the ER increase will make the fund less attractive.
  • Soft close for Oppenheimer International Small-Mid Company Fund
    Fund now has $6B in assets, all classes. the A shares OSMAX is available load waived as NTF. I own OSMYX, institutional version. I called them and if fund is held with financial advisor, can still add. Nice fund.
    January 29, 2016
    OPPENHEIMER INTERNATIONAL SMALL-MID COMPANY FUND TO SOFT CLOSE ON APRIL 1, 2016
    Dear Oppenheimer International Small-Mid Company Fund Shareholder:
    In an effort to continue to provide our shareholders with a long-term strategy for success, we are placing limitations
    on certain investor purchases into Oppenheimer International Small-Mid Company Fund. We believe
    these new limitations will help position the Fund for continued sustainable long-term growth.
    Effective as of the close of the New York Stock Exchange on April 1, 2016, the Fund will no longer accept
    purchase orders from new investors and existing Fund shareholders will no longer be able to purchase new
    shares or exchange shares of other funds into the Fund, subject to certain exceptions including:
    • If you own shares in certain types of employer-sponsored retirement plans you can continue to purchase
    shares and exchange into the Fund.
    • If you own shares through an OppenheimerFunds Portfolio BuilderSM account you can continue to purchase
    shares and exchange into the Fund.
    • If you own shares in any 529 Plan that currently includes the Fund within one or more of their investment
    options, those existing 529 portfolios are not affected.
    Distribution and capital gains set to reinvest in Oppenheimer International Small-Mid Company Fund will continue
    to reinvest after the close date. If you have automatic purchases established for this Fund and one of
    the above exceptions does not apply, your auto purchase feature will be turned off before the effective
    date. This will include purchases you make through Asset Builder, exchanges from another Oppenheimer fund
    into this Fund (including dividend exchanges) and other automatic purchase methods. If you wish to continue
    your automatic investments after the effective date, you will need to choose a different investment to receive
    the purchases. Your financial advisor can help you make changes to your account.
    We will continue to monitor the Fund to determine if we need to further modify these restrictions on investment
    purchases. Please see the prospectus supplement, which is available on our website at oppenheimerfunds.com
    for additional details on these and other changes to the purchase restrictions for the Fund.
    If you have any questions, please speak with your financial advisor or contact us at 1 800 CALL OPP (225 5677)
  • Lipper: Are Fund Awards Only Showtime For Mutual Funds?
    Always great perspective from Bob C.
    This awards game reminds me of the much hearlded "critic's" reviews for Broadway plays. Listen to those and you'll miss some of the best shows. Cabaret (2014) was one. Nearly didn't attend based on the lackluster reviews. Ended up seeing it 3 times before it closed.
  • DAILYALTS: Understanding Liquid Alternatives: Ask The Right Questions
    I can never get by my first question, 1) do these liquid-alt funds have better return over time than a moderate or even a conservative balanced fund? The answer is pretty much no.
    The problem I see with correlation to the market for these funds is that they seem to be uncorrelated during some market drops but not for others. Market drops happen for different reasons and the strategies specific funds hold do not work in all cases. They may be uncorrelated one time and the next time the market drops they add no protection at all. Just my observation.
    Basically, over time, I still say a balanced fund is a better option.
  • VBINX
    @wxman123
    Sorry, a better question, looking at VGLT's large swings, would've been 'So you time it?'
    What happened to it in Jan of last year, meaning a sudden 10% rise, followed by a larger-than-that decline only 5 months later?
    I do see a fair degree of decorrelation, but would not want to attempt to diversify with something that swings to this degree, I think.
  • DAILYALTS: Understanding Liquid Alternatives: Ask The Right Questions
    Before investing in any liquid alts, there are three, maybe four questions to answer for each potential position. 1) What is an acceptable return? 2) What is an acceptable downside? 3) Is the investment truly uncorrelated or at least very-low correlated? And perhaps 4) How many funds do I need to be diversified? There are, of course, many due diligence steps to take, but the above 3 (or 4) will at least start the evaluation process.
  • PTIAX portfolio followup
    My best guess on the very recent PTIAX loss is that it's munis to a small degree, but mainly the HY mortgages -- and if they've ramped up IG corporates since the Dec 31 report, that might be part of the mix too.
    I'm basing that WAG on 1 wk return figures: PTIAX is -0.86%, versus only -0.2/-0.3% for the muni funds I follow. HY mortgages have been hit much harder; for two examples of pure HY mtg funds, look at DBSCX (Gundlach) at -0.95% and DMO (cef, 34% leverage) at -2.05% on its NAV. As for corporates, VFICX (73% IG corps) is -0.53%.
    No change (yet) for me, Mona. It's not that significant yet compared to accumulated gains. But if HY mortgages stay weak for longer, I'd prob'ly shift some shares.
    Edit: Forgot about the taxable munis that as of 12/31 were more than half the muni sleeve. Assuming they're on the order of BAB, that could be a significant loser for the fund the last week: BAB's NAV is down 1.19%. So it's probably HY mtg and taxable munis doing the damage.
  • Chuck Jaffe: This Is How To Stay In The Market When Stocks Spin Out: Text & Audio
    FYI: New research from Rui Yao, an associate professor of personal finance at the University of Missouri, identifies risk factors for people who are “more likely to make investment mistakes during a down market,” and finds that aversion to losses is the chief culprit.
    Regards,
    Ted
    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-is-how-to-stay-in-the-market-when-stocks-spin-out-2016-02-18/print
    Chuck Jaffe's Money Life Show: Guest: Rui Yao ( Scroll & Click On Download)
    http://www.moneylifeshow.com/highlights.asp
  • VBINX
    hmm. Not seeing that as much as you are. I know about the Pimco classes, thanks. Just was looking at performance of the various bond funds I mentioned, not seeing clearly how to make a true diversification decision.
    >> You wanted to be heavy in VGLT till this week.
    Not starting in the fall of 2010 or two years later, or the spring of 2013. Or indeed the spring of last year. How far back are you looking?
    David, I don't know about others...but for me yes, I prefer to be UP 7% (VGLT) when the stock market is down 6.5% (VTI). As for how far back...well ytd VGLT UP 7% PIMIX DOWN .8%; 3yrs VGLT UP 6.1% PIMIX UP 3.8%; 5yrs VGLT UP 9.7% PIMIX UP 7.7% Over the longer term I expect PIMIX will beat VGLT since rates will likely rise slowly over time (though who really knows), but it will likely run in the direction of the stock market and hence is not what one looks for in the bond portion of a balanced portfolio.
  • VBINX
    hmm. Not seeing that as much as you are. I know about the Pimco classes, thanks. Just was looking at performance of the various bond funds I mentioned, not seeing clearly how to make a true diversification decision.
    >> You wanted to be heavy in VGLT till this week.
    Not starting in the fall of 2010 or two years later, or the spring of 2013. Or indeed the spring of last year. How far back are you looking?
  • PTIAX portfolio followup
    AndyJ and Junkster,
    I see that PTIAX is down 0.98% in the past 3 trading days, while DLTNX has fared much better and PMZDX is holding its own.
    Could the munis be the culprit for the drop in PTIAX? Lower credit quality and higher percentage of non-agency mortgages compared to DLTNX? It appears PMZDX is holding about 21% of non-agency MBS, which would fall in line with DLTNX.
    What is your opinion as to what is happening and specifically for AndyJ, since you mentioned that PTIAX is your largest bond holding, are you planning any changes?
    Best Regards,
    Mona