I wouldn't sell anything Pimco right now. They are better off IMO.
My question regarding long-short funds was dealing with the fact that there are many variations of the funds. I hold ACDJX which is 130/30 but uses the short side to leverage returns. I don't expect this type of fund to hold up well in a bear scenario and it's one fund I am eyeing to move out of. I've had good success with it. I'm more into the bond side for protection but with the bond market looking topsy, the unconstrained funds are one choice besides short term govt.
We haven't gone down ten percent yet which has been a general trigger for me. Lately I've been sweeping profits. I have a feeling things might get worse here but I've been wrong many times before. It's all part of the game.

Let me clarify what I meant by "monitor". I'm trying to ask questions to myself and answer them to see if these are candidates worthy of purchase. I already own some of these, so it makes sense to go see what you thought about the fund doing for you and whether you screwed up .
For example, I've been toying with RNBWX. So today I'm asking myself this question: How does a fund with 3 quarters of its assets in cash, strategy of using options for protection, still happen to drop 1.36% yesterday?
Another example. LSOFX. Is this simply another fund like CGMFX, which except for trading more frequently, is simply making upside and downside bets, instead of actually managing risk in any meaningful way. In other words, is this simply another fund like which can screw up on the long positions AND short positions and actually end up performing worse than any long only or short only fund? With 1 third of assets in cash it still managed to lose 2% yesterday.
Finally, are funds like TFSMX, WMCNX, WBMAX, etc. really the kind of funds you want to be invested in rather than PMHDX or ARLSX or RLSFX?

Thanks Ted, but I'm pretty much done betting on the mutual funds world's best kept secrets. Pretty much a 50/50 crapshoot. Yes, a 10 year beat its peers performance record is impressive, but how long will it last?

@scott, are you referring to the 130/30 funds which are typically leveraged for returns?

I guess the idea is more that I would not expect a long/short fund to change - or be nimble enough - to take advantage of a 4-5% correction. A mutual fund isn't going to change in dramatic fashion because of what has happened over the last week, in other words. If this lasts months, then you may see movement and then you can look at results. It's just too short-term at this point to - I think - see major shifts in a fund's allocation.
As for the Managed Futures category, which has not done well broadly over the last few years but is something I'd not expect a moonshot from on a good year, to have a fund like Pimco's new one get double digit returns and be ahead of the category by more than 10% is certainly compelling, although the fund's prospectus language is very broad and doesn't give me a sense of the difference in this fund vs other MF funds. I will say that the Pimco fund has outperformed a large managed futures hedge fund - whether or not that continues, who knows - but I find it rather impressive.

@scott, are you referring to the 130/30 funds which are typically leveraged for returns?

http://www.mymoneyblog.com/schwab-free-automated-etf-portfolio-manager.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Mymoneyblog+(My+Money+Blog)
Schwab is just weeks away from setting up "FREE" Robo-Advisor managed portfolios
with free rebalancing for about .10 fees. That's 10 basis points per year.
You would be able to get a fully diversified ETF portfolio managed by a large
reputable firm at the current lowest cost available.
Check it out before moving your money anywhere!!!

FYI: Just because winners decline doesn't make them a bad choice.
Regards,
Ted
http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=667868
How All the Funds Rank, Then and 10 Years Later
http://online.wsj.com/news/interactive/IFRANKING2014090820140906?ref=SB10001424052970203523204580116012154265320

FYI: A few weeks ago, I advised investors to beware of mutual fund asset bloat, because the mutual funds with the largest size in assets under management are rarely the best in performance. But the opposite is also true: Some of the best funds are often those that are smaller in size, compared to the averages in their respective categories.
Regards,
Ted
http://investorplace.com/2014/10/best-funds-low-aum/print

bigger up days necessary to compensate for smaller down days. Compounding works in reverse. 10% drop requires 11% to compensate for it.
I wouldn't get worked up about this one way or the other. There is absolutely no reason to put new money to work unless market stops making lower lows.
I mean who wants to get castigated for owning fund with bad performance number YTD, right?

The reason I cannot find fault with MFO commentary on PTTRX was because to me, it was simply telling all of us to fire the finonsencial asswisers, and think for ourselves.
Buy the manager, not the fund. If you believe that, you should leave PTTRX. You should however not leave PIMCO if you have another fund you bought for different manager.
I sold PTTRX 401k. I continue to use PAUDX managed by Arnott in IRA.

I got into WBMAX looking for an alternative to MFLDX when I saw its AUM skyrocketing. I haven't been exactly thrilled with it's performance, but it does seem to be behaving as expected, so I'm satisfied.
MFLDX, on the other hand, has been absolutely horrifying. Not at all what I was expecting even with the asset bloat. Mediocre is one thing, but down over 11% YTD?
The FAIRX blowup was painful, but it's not something I find surprising given the bets Berkowitz has been making, and I expect I'll probably be adding to my position there before long.

Hey, a closer look at SEQUX...

Its UI is actually quite low this past year, even three years. Unfortunately, the SP500 UI is even lower. Compounding this issue is excess return. Compared to SP500, SEQUX has delivered only half the return.
During bull runs, equity volatility typically drops, and those funds that are more defensive, like SEQUX or many all-asset funds, drag, especially this past year as bond and commodity volatility is up.
But that does not mean they are "wrong," at least with regard to the way they chose to handle risk, but their ratings will invariably suffer. (Look at COBYX, for example, and the whole list above.)
Bottomline: If the market is always up, three years may not be very telling from a risk adjusted perspective.
That is something I think we are in-g on.
Thanks David. Hope all is well.

I disagree with the MFO commentary on Oct. 1st regarding Bill Gross's Departure. What bothered me was the comments telling readers to fire adviser's, endowment consultants, and cancel subscriptions of anyone recommending the sale of the fund.
I ask anyone, why would you stay? There is no simple understanding of what is in that behemoth of a portfolio. No representative or conference call has ever been able to explain what they do coherently. The derivative positions in the fund are unlike anything ever seen. Liquidity concerns are unknown to the public, but PIMCO reassures us their aren't any (Heard this before.hm,hm,) Two major changes in management over the past year. And the fund grew at the expense of shareholders (in my opinion).
I don't think PIMCO's boat is going to sink, but it's the Mobro 4000. There are too many options out there, why sail with this pile of garbage.
I guess I'm baffled because this fund does not even meet the Sniff test of MFO based on what I've read on this website as far back as fundalarm.
I love the MFO, Just curious on others opinion.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/906352/000093041314004302/c78933_497.htm
497 1 c78933_497.htm
FIRST EAGLE FUNDS
First Eagle Global Fund
First Eagle Overseas Fund
First Eagle U.S. Value Fund
1345 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10105
(800) 334-2143
SUPPLEMENT DATED OCTOBER 9, 2014
TO PROSPECTUS DATED MARCH 1, 2014
This Supplement is intended to highlight certain changes to the Prospectus dated March 1, 2014. Please review these matters carefully.
Matthew McLennan and Kimball Brooker, Jr. are the Portfolio Managers for First Eagle Global Fund and First Eagle Overseas Fund, and Matthew McLennan, Kimball Brooker, Jr. and Matthew Lamphier are the Portfolio Managers for First Eagle U.S. Value Fund.
Mr. Abhay Deshpande has resigned from his portfolio management positions with First Eagle Investment Management, LLC and the First Eagle Funds. Please disregard any references in this Prospectus to Mr. Deshpande.
* * * *
The information in this Supplement modifies the First Eagle Funds’ Prospectus dated March 1, 2014. In particular, and without limitation, the information contained in this Supplement modifies (and if inconsistent, replaces) information contained in the inside front cover and in that section of the Prospectus entitled “The Adviser”.

@00BY.
Hmmm, bear signal?
Market is tough to handle lately, certainly.
A bit psycho.
At close today, SPY off 4% from last high, so still long way from bear territory.
Believe we'd need to come down another 16% to call an end to this bull market.
But we are only 2% above 200 day average, which probably represents next support level.
I think earnings will continue to show strength, but if today is any sign, not sure that will help.
David was right...October is tough for markets.
Not sure why.
But this October seems no different.
c

The problem with being critical with respect to OAKLX: $10 invested in this fund at inception now became $98, whereas the same $10 invested in S&P 500 during the same time became $39.

I'm afraid that LLJB's joke might not be far from the truth. The site went down last night at almost exactly midnight Eastern. A sense of a disturbance in The Force caused Chip to wake around 1:00 a.m. Eastern to discover a series of alarm notices on her cell phone. She tried restarting our server but without effect. She filed an emergency assistance request with the server firm and had an online chat with the overnight tech. She describes him as coming across as completely overwhelmed, using two different accounts and attempting to field questions from ten different people simultaneously.
We received, throughout the night and today, periodic status reports on the attempts to get us back online. The latest did raise the prospect that one of another of our Cold War adversaries might well be flexing their muscle:

Thank you for your patience with us getting this resolved. We have identified the problem as a large incoming DDoS [distributed denial of service] attack against our network. While we have mitigated most of the attack and are seeing services restored for some clients, the incoming flood of traffic is still causing intermittent service which you may still be seeing with your VPS [virtual private server].
This incoming attack only causes congestion on our network which is slowing down access to services. There has been no breach of security or access to any of your website files. You can expect intermittent access to your VPS until we are able to fully resolve the DDoS attack. Unfortunately we still do not have an ETA for you at this time, however we will be sure to update you as soon as we confirm a potential ETA.

There's a fascinating report out of new malware, called Spike, that's able to infect devices in "the Internet of Things" - that includes household devices like thermostats and dryers which are subject to being remotely activated or programmers - and use them as agents of DDoS attacks.
We have no way of establishing that our outage was as a result of Russian or Chinese activity, but both groups have been active of late; the Russians seem particularly irked by Western sanctions and prone to malicious disruptions.
For those into neat visuals, there's a live global map of DDoS attacks that's both fun and frightening to watch.
I'll keep you as informed as I can. Regrets for the down time.
David & co.

Is it a bearish signal?
VFINX up 8% ytd and up over 21% over the past 1 year

The link seems to work for me.
No different from OAKIX (except the timing): "Effective October 4, 2013 the Fund closed to new investors at most third-party intermediaries. The Fund remains open to retirement plans, most investment advisors with existing positions, and any new and existing investors who purchase shares directly from Oakmark."
The funds will remain open to all new investors, just not through all channels (supermarkets). Nevertheless, expect M* to report the funds as "Closed to New Investors", as it does now for OAKIX.

The Oakmark Global and International Small Cap Funds will close to new investors at most third-party intermediaries effective as of close of business 10/10/14

http://www.oakmark.com/News/News-and-Insights-Placeholder/Oakmark-Global-and-International-Small-Cap-Funds-to-Slow-Inflows.htm
I am not doing the links right tonight. It's on Oakmark's top page, under News and Insights.