Hi Tampabay,
Thanks for the reply. I am not sure if you looked at Doug Short's link. If so ... Did you notice that December 2014 TTM earnings for the S&P 500 Index were reported at $104.50 while January's 2015 TTM earnings came in at $104.01? Seems forward earning estimates keep getting revised downward while TTM earnings are now starting to stall out since September of 2014 where they peaked at $105.96. This is not good. It will be interesting to see if investors keep paying more and more for earnings. I am of the camp most want. Does this mean a crash? Prehaps not; but, I do think the upside is now more limited and perhaps we have, or about to, top out. There are indeed headwinds blowing centering around a strong US$ and it is showing up in corporate earnings.
Just in case you missed reading this report I have linked it below again ...
http://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/PE-Ratios-and-Market-Valuation.php
I know you stated sometime ago and something to the effect that your assets had to work because you don't. Let's hope they keep on keeping on. I am thinking that your wife's portfolio being more conseratively invested with steady earners will out perform your portfolio of high flyers this year.
And, yes I still plan to reduce my holdings, over time, to domestic equities and raise my allocation to other assets by a like amount within my portfolio as I feel it is the prudent thing to do under current light. Hey, if the wind is blowing and clouds are moving in and you hear thunder in the background ... take shelter ... most likely a storm is coming. Let us hope it is a blow by and stays off shore or better yet let's change course and fly around it.
Old_Skeet

Do what you want, I'm always ok with that,
BUT,But the #1 investments in the WORLD is profitable US corporations...but spread your money everwhere if you feel like that is "protection"
Weekend?? Everyday is Saturday in Tampabay World, Sunday gotta rest,drink bud and watch sports

@Bitzer: Althought this is a little dated, I believe Jason Zweig explains the difference in the two fund. If you look at a M* Snapshot of both funds you will see some difference in sector weighting, and percentage in top ten holdings.
Regards,
Ted
(Click On Article Title At Top Of Google Search)
https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&site=&source=hp&q=Upstart+Fund+Beats+its+Daddy,”+&oq=Upstart+Fund+Beats+its+Daddy,”+&gs_l=hp.3..0i22i30.7308.7308.0.10138.1.1.0.0.0.0.155.155.0j1.1.0.msedr...0...1c..61.hp..0.1.154.tIbzVN5VMn8
M* BOND Portfolio:
http://portfolios.morningstar.com/fund/summary?t=BOND&region=usa&culture=en-US
M* PTTDX Portfolio;
http://portfolios.morningstar.com/fund/summary?t=PTTDX&region=usa&culture=en-US

My research indicated that the 2014 performance for BOND is substantially better than it's counterpart, PTTDX. I thought that BOND and PTTDX have similar holdings and the only real difference is that BOND is an ETF while PTTDX is a mutual fund. What's going on, am I missing something?

Last paragraph sums it up for me !
Insurers continue to have a spotty reputation for charging such fees. “Most insurers service their annuity clients in the same way John Dillinger serviced banks,” says William Bernstein, a well-known author of financial books. “I wouldn’t trust them at all to do this job in 401(k)s.” Treasury officials think differently.

Hi Tampabay, Ted, JohnChisum and others,
If you are of the camp that domestic equities are cheap you might wish to visit the links that I have provided below.
The first one is Morningstar’s Market Valuation Graph. It is showing that stocks in general are currently, as of Friday’s market close, four percent overvalued.
http://www.morningstar.com/market-valuation/market-fair-value-graph.aspx
The second one appears in the WSJ and is titled P/E’s & Yields on the Major Indexes. It reflects that the S&P 500 Index is selling on a TTM of 20 where as a year ago it was selling at 17. So from a TTM P/E Ratio S&P 500 stocks have gotten more expensive over the past year by better than fifteen percent.
http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3021-peyield.html?mod=wsj_mdc_additional_ustocks
And, another link that might be of interest is by Doug Short. It is titled … Is the Stock Market Cheap? Mr. Short's findings are that it is expensive with TTM earnings stalling out since September of 2014.
http://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/PE-Ratios-and-Market-Valuation.php
I believe that I will stay with my thoughts to reconfigure my asset allocation by reducing domestic equities by about ten percent and raising my other asset area within my portfolio by a like amount. When done my asset allocation will bubble somewhere around 20% cash, 20% income, 20% domestic equity, 20% foreign equity and 20% other assets. To me, domestic stocks are expensive and bonds are not a bargin either.
Have a grand weekend … and, most of all … I wish all … “Good Investing.”
Old_Skeet

FYI; The trend of money flowing towards robo-advisers and passive asset allocators is one that is likely to continue in the current market environment. Amid the more recent backdrop of low volatility capital appreciation in stocks and bonds, it seems that the natural evolution is to put your portfolio on auto-pilot or give it to someone who is just going to rebalance it quarterly.
Regards,
Ted
http://investorplace.com/2015/02/vti-vxus-bond-gaa-4-etfs-can-hold-forever/print

FYI: (Click On Article Title At Top Of Google Search)
The U.S. Treasury wants money managers to offer plans that mimic the defined-benefit programs of yesteryear.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&site=&source=hp&q=fund+of+information+barron's&oq=fund+of+information+barron's&gs_l=hp.3..0i22i10i30.1743.12240.0.12506.28.28.0.0.0.0.135.1882.27j1.28.0.msedr...0...1c.1.61.hp..0.28.1879.eOY7HH5pl18

FYI:
Regards,
Ted
http://wealthtrack.com/recent-programs/eveillard-legendary-value-investor/
M* First Eagle Funds: http://quicktake.morningstar.com/fundfamily/first-eagle/0C00001YR2/fund-list.aspx

Why is there only one share class? Do they market the fund to any 401k plans or pensions or 529 administrators?

15 days up and 1.35% gain?
hmmm....
1.35% gain every 15 tradings days...
that is pretty good.
at 252 trading days per year, that's eye-watering!
me?
today i watched one long-term holding go up 3% and two others down 3%.
a different world.
c

Markets are perverse and anticipatory. There was something more than meets the eye going on this week in the Treasuries/munis and the junk corporates. And it was all bad for the former and all good for the later.

the undoing of the deflation trade: oil up/treasuries (and other investment grade) are down, all interest rate related stocks (utes and reits) down and risk is up - equities higher, junk spreads are tighter. goldman's short basket is up 5.4% - called short squeeze. i wonder if this persists.

Spot on and a very crowded trade. The 1% yield scenario suddenly became a little too embraced. And as you said "I wonder if this persists"

>> Guinness Atkinson Global Innovators is the #1 Global Multi-Cap Growth Fund across all time periods (1,3,5,& 10 years) this quarter ending 12/31/14 based on fund total returns. They are ranked 1 of 500 for 1 year, 1 of 466 for 3 years, 1 of 399 for 5 years and 1 of 278 for 10 years in the Lipper category Global Multi-Cap Growth.

Interesting they lean on that, both the global category and the legacy timespan.Their US / non-US ratio in M*'s terms is higher than, say, the almost multicap FLPSX, and, as you note, the Brits (physicists) have been involved for the last 5 or 4 good years (the latter did join the firm 9y ago). More pertinent, since everyone loves (successful) innovation, yay, or comes to do so at least when it results in profitable sales --- the appeal as self-evident as motherhood and pie --- the second bullet is key to quantify: How, specifically, do they decide? What do they do that others do not do, macro trends or deep diligence or otherwise? Everybody wants to own winning innovators.
Should be an intriguing conversation.

FYI:
Regards,
Ted
WSJ Slant:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-stock-futures-flat-ahead-of-jobs-data-1423228518
Bloomberg Slant:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-06/u-s-index-futures-little-changed-before-payrolls-twitter-gains
Reuters Slant:
http://www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USKBN0LA1BK20150206
MarketWatch Slant:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-investors-on-edge-ahead-of-key-jobs-report-2015-02-06
WSJ Markets At A Glance:
http://markets.wsj.com/us
Sector Tracker:
http://www.sectorspdr.com/sectorspdr/tools/sector-tracker
Current Futures:
http://finviz.com/futures.ashx

Edit: Fed Gov. Lockhart threw cold water on the markets in today's speech in Naples, Fla as I rather expected. Sees possible rate increase in June. Ha. Not to be taken too seriously, but did turn around the markets in the PM. Gold in particular doesn't appear to like the prospect of higher rates. Having rough day.

Art Cashin would say the US 10 year bounce is part of the bottoming process or over bought.
I think you are correct.

As measured by the Merrill Lynch High Yield Master II Index - a daily total return index. And today is looking like 16. It's been a slow plodding rise, but a rise nonetheless. In fact, YTD, the average open end junk bond fund has gained almost as much as for the entire year of 2014. Some of the funds less exposed to oil and gas issues have done much better. Junk's rise this week has come at the expense of the safer and mundane areas of Bondland ala Treasuires and munis.
Edit: Without checking, I believe February is shaping up to be the first month of out performance of junk corporates over junk munis since December 2013. And on a total return basis, junk munis are looking at their first monthly decline since 2013. But of course, we are still early in the month.

FYI: Investors with the best intentions of diversifying the risks in their portfolio may well be paying “astonishingly high fees” and negating any potential upside, two researchers have claimed.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.ai-cio.com/print.aspx?id=2147491382

"The surging U.S. dollar and collapsing oil prices have dramatically changed the outlook for corporate earnings growth. Guidance from companies hasn’t been this poor since the depths of the Financial Crisis. At the end of the Q3, Wall Street had been expecting Q4 earnings of $32.24 (that’s the index-adjusted number). Now it looks like it will be about $27.64. That’s a big cut. At the end of Q3, the Street was expecting full-year earnings for 2015 of $136.07. That’s now down to $119.76. That’s a 12% cut in four months. Stock prices haven’t responded nearly as much."
Read all about this, and more, through the below link ...
http://www.crossingwallstreet.com/archives/2015/02/cws-market-review-february-6-2015.html

Tried to download the equity owls listing, but all 3 download icons in the page lead to fixed income xl sheet download only (115 entries of bonds) with no way to download asset allocation/equity listings.

Speaking of Sears, CNBC ran a story today. Different financial guru, similar story. Reading the comments, nobody believes the story.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102390278?__source=yahoo|finance|headline|headline|story&par=yahoo&doc=102390278

If people believed the story, nearly half the float wouldn't be short.
People who've shopped there recently don't believe it in the comments. I went into a Sears store a few months back and the lack of care apparent in the store's upkeep was clearly visible.
The belief that the "Shop Your Way" campaign will save them is delusional and the idea that Sears will somehow be a big player online in an era of Amazon and other such companies is absurd. The theme that Sears is trying is simply an attempt to buy more time.
I learned something new in the comments section: "2 of the most incompetent CEOs that RSH has EVER had came from Sears/Kmart and were devotees/disciples of Eddie Lampert - Julian Day (who was head of Kmart when it came out of bankruptcy) and Jim Gooch. Both, just like Lampert, were $ people who knew and knows NOTHING about retail." If true, that's interesting.
The other issue that concerns me is that I have little confidence that this won't turn into a "Heads I Win, Tails I Win" for Lampert as he financially engineers himself a sweet payday while the company crumbles. I have absolutely no belief that he's looking out for anyone but himself and his hedge fund, as evidenced by the loan he gave the company backed by choice real estate. If I remember correctly, Berkowitz tried to participate in that via JOE (sorry Bruce, JOE is not your Berkshire, never was), but JOE was having none of it.
Lampert was screwed by 2008. If the real estate was the thing, he should have started it in motion the second he got there. Now the end result isn't nearly as certain (and as for the real estate story, while Sears has some "A" real estate, how much of it is "D" and "F") and the company has deteriorated significantly.
And what's with Berkowitz's mixture of buys and sells? If it's so freaking wonderful, why sell a share?
Dec 16, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
5,000 Indirect Purchase at $31.18 per share. 155,900
Dec 12, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
14,600 Indirect Sale at $31.99 per share. 467,054
Dec 11, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
7,000 Indirect Purchase at $32.04 per share. 224,280
Dec 10, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
8,000 Indirect Purchase at $32.31 per share. 258,480
Dec 2, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
12,700 Indirect Sale at $34.97 per share. 444,119
Dec 1, 2014 BERKOWITZ BRUCE R
Beneficial Owner (10% or more)
26,700 Indirect Sale at $35.65 per share. 951,855