' I would love to find a bond fund that could be both a safe haven and could provide steady returns, but I just don’t think that exists anymore'
OK Ruth, Don't check out VWEHX,PRHYX.....they might fit the criteria +9% 5yr, +7%10yr

Howdy @00BY
Here ya go on the fee thing:
The Activity Assessment Fee is imposed by Fidelity Investments on behalf of The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for executed sell orders. It is administered in an effort to defray some of the costs associated with the regulation and surveillance of the securities industry and its professionals. This fee is deducted from the proceeds of most equity and option sell orders and will be reported on trade confirmations as the Activity Assessment Fee. Fidelity uses the average price of multiple executions when calculating the regulatory fee charged by the SEC to sellers of equity securities that are traded on exchanges.
Effective April 10, 2009, the fee is $25.70 per $1,000,000.00 of aggregate sale proceeds (principal amount of the sale X 0.0000257). The fee is rounded up to the nearest penny.
S.E.C. info page..................http://www.sec.gov/answers/sec31.htm
You may also consider TIP ,which is available with the others on Fido's etf list.
Take care,
Catch

I also don't own bonds in 401k anymore because I sold PTTRX :-)

Hmmmmm.........
Howdy @Derf
I presume you mean the link did not work. I always check and it did link through to NPR radio, Fresh Air program from March of 2012.
Okay, try this............. https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=NPR+fresh+air+March+10+2012+power+of+habit
The above is a Google search for the program

I suggest, as I have previously; the book; The Power of Habit. Habits, of course; reach into almost every aspect of one's daily routines and decision making.
This link provides a nice overview of the subject matter. The book is readily avaialable at Amazon; with one's purchase helping to support MFO when using the Amazon link on these pages.

Screenshot of FAIRX holdings, showing the +8.7% figure, error by M*

I just called M* and let them know about the data error. I suspect they will have this corrected soon.
Regarding the big difference between the closing price of SHLD on 12/31/13 and 1/2/14, and the "adjusted closing price" shown in Yahoo Finance. I believe that may have had to do with spinning off Lands' End stock.

And with that action today, SHLD becomes the leader of the FAIRX portfolio YTD at +8.6%.

I believe you got this figure from M* and their "Holdings" tab.
However, I don't believe M* is correct when they list SHLD as being +8.6% YTD.
SHLD closed on 12/31/2013 at $49.04, and opened 1/2/14 at $49.05
Today it closed at $34.96
However, they must have had some dividend or split, as Yahoo Finance lists the "adjusted close" (adjusted for dividends and splits) on 12/31/13 as $39.31/share
So the "adjusted close" went from $39.31 to today's close of $34.96
Looks like an 11.07% loss YTD
Looking at it another way, based on what M* said about SHLD YTD data after Friday's close [down 28.5% YTD per M*], then factoring in today's change, it looks like a 12% loss YTD.
So either -11.07% YTD if you trust Yahoo Finance adjusted closing price data, or -12% YTD if you trust M*'s YTD data from Friday........but M* has this incorrect on their "holdings" tab of FAIRX regarding SHLD YTD performance

Hi Guys,
For the most part, investors make informed, logical investment decisions. That rule is violated when emotions override reasoned choices and mistakes are made. How to limit this destructive tendency? Morgan Housel might have a partial answer in one of his recent columns. Here is the link:
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/10/16/some-things-to-remember-about-market-plunges.aspx?source=iaasitlnk0000003
One danger is that we are blunder prone and either don't recognize it or are not willing to admit it. As Moliere observed: "It infuriates me to be wrong when I know I'm right". Let's avoid that absolute rightness trap.
Enjoy the Housel article.
Best Regards.

Quaker Funds
http://www.quakerfunds.com/performance/tax/2014distributions

FYI: U.S. stocks advanced on Monday, though downbeat earnings from International Business Machines Corp. kept a lid on gains for Dow industrials.
Regards,
Ted
http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-stock-futures-fall-following-european-markets-1413807708#printMode
Markets At A Glance: http://markets.wsj.com/us
Leading Groups: http://finviz.com/groups.ashx

***** oooooooh, I's got spurs, that jingle-jangle-jingle, as I go riding mer-ri-ly along *****
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/shouts-on-bond-trading-floor-yield-to-robot-beeps/
"Until last year, the work that Q.M.M. performs was handled by human traders at JPMorgan Chase, who would shout prices into a phone and yell “Done!” when the trade was executed.
Now, Q.M.M., which sits on the same floor as those traders in a Midtown Manhattan skyscraper, can come up with the same prices in a fraction of a second. When it completes a trade, it emits a jingling cash register sound, making the trading floor sound like an arcade."
..............
"[J.P Morgan] is involved in experimental efforts like Project Neptune, a collaboration among financial firms aimed at making it easier to find specific bonds electronically.
That will involve failures along the way when some markets don’t evolve as expected."
Hmmm, and would these "failures" involve carbon-based investors, Mr. Rohrbaugh?

FYI:
Regards,
Ted
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102103235

Worried about the concentrated focus the fund has in a few stocks? This news is very pertinent.
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSL3N0SF46520141020?irpc=932

FYI: During the turmoil in global markets on Wednesday, something happened that bond traders will not soon forget.
Soon after 9 a.m., the yield on one of the world’s most-traded bonds, the 10-year Treasury, went into a bizarre free fall. This particular Treasury note is tracked obsessively by Wall Street and is a reference for other interest rates across the wider economy. Investors see it as a haven in times of stress.
Regards,
Ted
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/seeking-an-explanation-after-a-benchmark-bonds-unnerving-move/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

@JohnChisum (Oct 19th post) Yes, an individual investor certainly may move more nimbly than a manager of a long/short or managed futures fund. But, as an individual investor, I seem to have a good deal of trouble calling market tops and bottoms to go into defensive or offensive mode. Even if I sell at the correct time, I still have to get back in and make that correct timing call as well.
@Scott That might be me
@00by I sold FMLSX to double down on BPLEX. Need to have some fun in life!

Any advice for using MINT, FLOT, or SHY as cash repositories. At Fidelity FLOT and SHY are available commission free. But there is some fine print that goes with it:

Free commission offer applies to online purchases of Fidelity ETFs and select iShares ETFs in a Fidelity brokerage account. Fidelity accounts may require minimum balances. The sale of ETFs is subject to an activity assessment fee (of between $0.01 to $0.03 per $1,000 of principal). iShares ETFs and Fidelity ETFs are subject to a short-term trading fee by Fidelity if held less than 30 days.

Anyone know what this activity assessment fee means?
I know these aren't money market accounts (buyer beware), but FDRXX doesn't yield anything nowadays.

I used to have a boss that felt you either had integrity or not. There were not degrees of integrity, he would explain.
I'm not so sure.
I've come to seek managers and fund houses that disclose failures as well as successes.
Maintain communication even in bad times. Actually, especially in bad times.
Have interests aligned with the interests of their shareholders. Which as David and Ed have written about, probably means at some level that they manage money because they love to manage money...not just to accumulate assets.
Do what they tell you they are going to do.
Charge no load. No 12b-1 fees. Have minimal share classes. Maintain below average fees. Strive to make fees as low as possible.
I don't always succeed.
But in any case I think we should all try to hold managers and fund houses accountable, as best we can.

Harding Loevner Funds
http://www.hardingloevnerfunds.com/fileadmin/pdf/HLF/distributions-093014.pdf
Davis Funds
http://davisfunds.com/estimated_capital_gains
American Century Funds
https://www.americancentury.com/content/americancentury/direct/en/investment-planning/tax-center/estimated-distributions.html
Scout Investments
http://scoutinv.com/resources/documents/literature/2014 Year-end Distribution Estimates.pdf
Transamerica Funds
https://www.transamerica.com/Images/Capital-Gain-Distributions-Actual_tcm73-37718.pdf
Henderson Global Funds
https://www.henderson.com/uspa/Document/15806/2014-hgf-annual-distribution-estimates
Lord Abbett Funds
https://www.lordabbett.com/content/lordabbett/en/resources/tax-center/capital-gain-distribution.html#la_Estimated_Capital_Gains

Investors usually exit poorly performed funds. in order to raise cash for exiting investors, managers of the open end funds have to sell securities in a declining market. so they realize multi-year gains and sting the remaining investors with the cap gain taxes on top of the poor performance.

Thanks to The Shadow. ("The SHADOW knows...") And to all the others who have added to the list here. My question is about the TRP est. numbers--- particularly about PRESX Europe and PRSVX Small-cap Value. Can those estimates really be trusted, after a pretty stinky year, so far? If so, how do we account for the discrepancy?
PRESX YTD is down -10.72%, but with an over 2% rise, just on Friday last.
And yet: a larger pay-out (.35 cents/share) is estimated--- bigger than last year's.
PRSVX is down YTD by -7.74%. But a pay-out of $2.63 is estimated.
How on earth.......???????????

Hi Reids,
Your questions and comments are always welcome on MFO.
I will make it a minority of three, and here is what I wrote on 8/4/2014 about MFLDX, previously a loved darling on MFO:
"Avoid MFLDX:
1. Poor Fund Stewardship: As AUM have ballooned to $18.9B, there has not been a significant decrease in the exorbitant 1.39% management fee or the extremely high actual expense ratio of 2.66% (forget the M* data which is unreliable). Aronstein and the fund directors need to address this issue, but I doubt that they ever will as this fund is a very productive cash cow.
2. High Expenses Are a Headwind for Future Returns: There continues to be an inverse correlation between fund expenses and returns.
3. Troubled Space: There continues to be very few long-term winners in the L/S space, so your default position should be to avoid this space.
4. You Don't Need a L/S Fund: I have yet to read any objective evidence that investors need a dedicated L/S fund as part of a diversified portfolio. Fixed income may provide all the needed volatility dampening you need at a much lower cost."
Now if you have an equity-biased portfolio like mine, you may want to consider adding a relatively low cost conservative allocation fund like VWIAX or PGDIX to decrease the volatility of your overall portfolio. And solid bond funds such as PIMIX would serve the same purpose.
Another fund you may want to consider is PQTIX, which takes long and short positions in various asset classes through futures and derivatives with the goal of producing low-to-negative correlation to traditional asset classes. I've been watching this fund, but have not bought it yet.
Kevin