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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.
  • Frontier Markets
    UC, I know it seems a bit much in one space, but it is an unknown arena and there really isn't much overlap in them. They are in varied areas and have a mix of LC, MC and SC. I may at some point eliminate one, but I'm not yet comfortable enough with this space.
    To answer your question, I have a total of 12 equity funds. I have to admit, I have been thinking about reducing that number.
  • Frontier Markets
    I too am a believer in FM. Many believe that they are traditional EM of 20 years ago, so the growth potential has a huge upside. I have been moving some monies from my traditional EM funds into FM funds.
    I currently own MFMPX.lw, WAFMX and MEASX. I like the breadth and depth this combo gives me. Although they are relatively struggling in 2015, this is a LONG-TERM investment and high volatility is to be expected. Furthermore, high ER is the going rate, it cannot be avoided in this arena with mutual funds.
    I have not looked into the Dreihaus fund at this point, so I do not have any thoughts on it.
  • Final 2015 Barron's Roundtable: 33 Savvy Picks: Faber, Herro, Schafer, And Gabelli
    I'd say Marc Faber is doubling down. Sure he's been a little wrong - since the dawn of time - but he makes up for it in confidence. Same for Peter Schiff and John Mauldin.
    Faber: If I could find a way to short central banks, that is what I would do. This is the year that people will lose confidence in central banks, mostly because of the failure of Abenomics in Japan. [Abenomics, the economic policies advocated by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to reignite Japan’s economy, encompass monetary easing, fiscal stimulus, and structural reforms.] One way to short central banks is to go long gold. I recommend buying physical gold, silver, and platinum. If you are looking for bigger gains, I suggest either mining-company stocks or the Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners [GDXJ] exchange-traded fund. In last year’s first half, when gold rebounded by 15%, the Junior Gold Miners ETF rallied by more than 40%.
  • The Closing Bell; U.S. Stocks Drop As GDP Growth Slows
    @scott
    Yup. We've hashed this marketing stuff before, eh?
    I wonder at times if these "Fed" moments are a pissing contest among members, ego or something else. But, these statements are not generally productive, IMO.
    Rants are okay, scott. A form of investment therapy for me.
    Take care of yourself,
    Catch
    Thanks.
    Some have said that 90% of Fed meetings are discussion of communication and 10% are discussions of policy. Wouldn't surprise me.
  • Frontier Markets
    I'm a believer in frontier markets because I believe we will see better growth rates and I think there's a lot of room for businesses to grow, especially ones with more and more access to foreign capital, as the middle class grows substantially.
    MFMPX and HLMOX were historically very focused on the banks/financial institutions in the MIddle East and they did very well as UAE and Qatar ultimately moved from frontier to emerging market status with MSCI. I get the impression HLMOX has moved geographically since then but both are still heavily weighted towards financials.
    WAFMX is far more focused on consumer defensive based on what they say is a bet on the rising middle class and the local economies rather than being tied to the global financial markets and its done well since its inception also.
    According to Driehaus' registration statement and if I understand correctly, the fund should be available around February 14th. It carries a very large minimum investment so I'm not sure how accessible it will be for retail investors, but when I asked a few months ago I guess they weren't really able to answer and they just said more information would be on their website when the fund is available.
    MEASX also has a pretty big focus on frontier markets in Asia and they are also far more focused on consumer defensive and consumer cyclicals and sports a similarly high but slightly lower expense ratio than the others.
    I own both WAFMX and MEASX now and will be paying close attention to the Driehaus fund to see if their approach is one I like as well as whether there are any opportunities to invest much smaller amounts of money.
  • The Closing Bell; U.S. Stocks Drop As GDP Growth Slows
    Think this (linked) Friday morning interview with St. Louis Fed Pesident James Bullard on Bloomberg TV may have played a part in the day's markets.
    I caught snippets of it over early coffee. Thought it odd at the time that he seemed to imply there's some underlying inflation building (not yet reflected in the official numbers). Certainly, he seemed hell-bent that rates are going up, sooner rather than later.
    1. This "good cop, bad cop" routine is getting to be such a tiresome load of garbage. Cue another Fed member going, "Oh no no no we didn't mean it" after a 250 point drop in the market. At some point (and I can't believe it hasn't been already), the credibility goes into the toilet after one too many times of this BS. Yellen the other day meeting with democrats going "No no no, no rate hikes anytime soon" and telling them that the economy is okay (and some of them are going, "Yellen told us the economy was okay" as if they have no bleeping clue what's going on outside of DC beyond what Yellen just told them.)
    Now you have Bullard going "rate hike coming up?" Ridiculous.
    2. If you're going to raise rates, do it. I don't believe they can and the market may very well call that bluff. They've painted themselves into a corner.
    3. OR they are going to attempt to raise rates (and if so, do it. Hike the rate tomorrow and stop with the b***s*** already) so that when the next downturn starts they'll have some room to bring it back down again, but that still looks terrible if that's their grand plan. Additionally, Yellen doesn't seem to have anything against NIRP.
    4. At some point in this ZIRP cycle, do pensions and other investment vehicles (social security fund, etc) get in trouble from the standpoint of already low selection of safe yield and current treasury holdings at higher yields begin to mature?
    5. The dollar skyrocketing is clearly not a good thing for many companies, nor would it SEEM to be a positive for the Fed. However, there's also the fact that they never admit when anything isn't going right, because if it's not going the way that they planned, then it's.... (drumroll) transitory. As for prices going up, the memo from the cafe at the Fed saying that they were going to have to raise prices because of food inflation is still hilarious.
    The whole thing is - to some degree - the Eddie Lampert-ing of America. People love the financial engineering story (QE), but you haven't really done anything to broadly improve the underlying "business" (because we have politicians who can't agree on a street sign and who use that excuse to sit on their hands.) Eventually, the underlying business starts to show some cracks because more effort was put into financial engineering than actually building a solid, sustainable foundation for the business. After that, more aggressive moves have to be taken and the shine comes off the financial engineering story.
    And now things are starting to look rocky and the Fed is at ZIRP while other major nations are cutting rates (some to NIRP.) The fact that you have some major nations cutting rates or going into NIRP should give some people pause about the state of the global economy, but no, of course not - especially the financial media. I can't wait for those who go, "The WORLD NEEDS MORE QE, STAT!"
    I would not be surprised if we get a "next stage" of the QE era where even more significant and surprising actions are taken. The Fed has continually tried to stop economic Winter from happening. If Winter pushes its way in to a more noticeable degree and the Fed is still at ZIRP, things get interesting in a hurry. NIRP or other new measures wouldn't surprise me. To me, the concern is that QE and ZIRP are not the end of this era, but the beginning.
    Rant over.
  • The Closing Bell; U.S. Stocks Drop As GDP Growth Slows
    Think this (linked) Friday morning interview with St. Louis Fed Pesident James Bullard on Bloomberg TV may have played a part in the day's markets.
    I caught snippets of it over early coffee. Thought it odd at the time that he seemed to imply there's some underlying inflation building (not yet reflected in the official numbers). Certainly, he seemed hell-bent that rates are going up, sooner rather than later.
    I'm surprised how the media decides to pick-up on certain "news" stories but ignores others. Couple months ago there was near hysteria about whether or not the Fed would drop the term "extended period of time" or something like that from their statement. Now here's a member of the FOMC telling us that (1) he thinks the economy's getting hot, (2) he's concerned about inflation, (3) interest rates are too low and (4) rates will be going up. Yet the interview received very little coverage. Go figure.
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-01-30/bullard-warns-of-asset-bubble-risk-if-fed-keeps-rates-too-low
  • Just for the heck-of-it.....PTTRX vs JUCIX...a work in progress...
    JUCIX still a work in progress, eh?
    ---Jan 10, 2015
    PTTRX is at +1.5% for 3 months and +.97% YTD.
    JUCIX is at -.77% for 3 months and -.29% YTD.
    ---Jan 17, 2015
    PTTRX is at +.58% for current week and +1.56% YTD.
    JUCIX is at -.39% for current week and -.68% YTD.
    ---Jan 30, 2015
    PTTRX is at +2.62% YTD
    JUCIX is at +.28 YTD
  • Can somebody help in selecting funds for 401k
    @fundalarm:
    Age: 35y
    Country origin- India. Medium term outlook - to stay for 5 years or so in US and then back to native country.
    Portfolio: Reasonable amount in the native country with real assets too. The equity allocation can be adjusted based upon the 401k selected funds. So, if I can select a US based equity fund, I can adjust my home allocation accordingly over time.
    The overall idea is to have around 20% bond, 30% mid/small and 50% large cap, if possible. Otherwise, I can manage with a single decent fund here and rest outside.
    The 4% match is the main point. If nothing else, I will use this to get a bond allocation, as you mentioned.
    Regards.
  • Can somebody help in selecting funds for 401k
    great.
    -now find out about loads and fees (loads could be waived in 401k, but ADP quarterly service fee is either picked up by your employer or not. if not, and you are paying ADP from your balance, just do enough to receive the company match and invest outside of this plan.)
    also,
    -how old are you and
    -do you have investments outside of this plan? (if yes, please list them with percentages)
    this should help determine your overall asset allocation.
    @fundalarm: there is upto 4% match.
    Thanks for those inputs.
  • Can somebody help in selecting funds for 401k
    ...All of those "A" shares. A 401k is a retirement vehicle and so there should be no loads. If you're not getting an "LW" (load-waived") version of these funds, steer clear. Listen to "fundalarm" here. I don't know how employers can get away with this sort of thing.
  • Can somebody help in selecting funds for 401k
    are you paying loads on A share classes? if the answer is yes, then don't invest, or invest in MS money market to get your company's match and leave it there. instead open a Roth IRA if you don't have one. if you max your Roth (5500/6500 for 2014 and same for 2015 could be contributed today), do it in a taxable account.
    also, please find out what's ADP fee. i used to be invested into the small company 401K without a match and very fee heavy and years later, still can't recuperate from the lost performance. again, if there is no employer match, you're better off outside of that account.
  • Can somebody help in selecting funds for 401k
    @Ted
    Sorry. Edited post with a different image host. ADP is the name of the 401k plan provider (if that is of any help).
    Regards.
  • Can somebody help in selecting funds for 401k
    @reo: ADP= Automatic Data Processing ? Screenshot 1 & 2 ????. If you want help you must type in English !!!
    Regards,
    Ted
  • Barry Ritholtz: Breaking With Bogle
    FYI: Now before I commit blasphemy, a few words: I am as close to being a Boglehead as you will find, without actually being one. The bulk of my portfolio is in passive indexes. Most of the assets I manage are in a broad allocation model.
    Regards,
    Ted
    http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-01-30/jack-bogle-vanguard-s-passive-investing-strategy-needs-updating
  • Can somebody help in selecting funds for 401k
    Plan provider ADP.
    Screenshot 1 = image
    Screenshot 2 = image
    Is any of these reasonably good Fund? Good as in value for money paid.
    Any pointers are appreciated. Thanks.