This thread is directed toward those who currently own CDs. I have used CDs extensively for almost 2 years now, watched CD rates go over 5%, but now CD rates are dropping. As my my CDs mature, I am hearing a lot of chatter about why it is not a good idea, to continue investing in CDs, because stocks and bond options are pretty much guaranteed to make more than CDs. In the last several weeks, I have chosen to buy some bank CDs at my personal bank for 5.25%, but my brokerage CDs are selling in the 4% ranges now, because the FEDs projected rate cuts.
Are any "current" CD owners still buying CDs, with cash that becomes available to you, from maturing CDs or other cash sources?

AAII Sentiment Survey, 12/27/23
BULLISH remained the top sentiment (46.3%; above average) & bearish remained the bottom sentiment (25.1%, below average); neutral remained the middle sentiment (28.6%, below average); Bull-Bear Spread was +21.2% (above average). Investor concerns: Budget; inflation; economy; the Fed; dollar; crypto regulations; market volatility (VIX, VXN, MOVE); Russia-Ukraine (96+ weeks); Israel-Hamas (11+ weeks); geopolitical. For the Survey week (Th-Wed), stocks were up, bonds up, oil flat, gold up, dollar down. SP500 near new highs. The dollar is headed below 100 & that will benefit commodities, EMs, foreign funds. #AAII #Sentiment #Markets
https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/post/1296/thread

@Crash said, I'm already at 61 stocks, 33 bonds.

Stock funds, right? How do you manage them? I am trying to considerate to less than 20 stock and bond funds/ETFs.

Just today, I rearranged the deck chairs, pulling about $7,500 from PRNEX and adding that much to TUHYX. (junk.)
14% of the portfolio is in single stocks. That's in taxable.
56.03% is in stock funds.
26.4% in bond funds.
PRWCX holds some bonds; it's a "balanced" fund.
3.57% in "cash" and "other."
So, then: 70.03% in stocks, both singles and funds.
How do I manage them?
Giggle. Badly. I always take a slice out of the IRA in January; I try to figure out how to do that with the least amount of harm. I don't want to cut myself off at the knees in terms of future growth.
I am drawn to the Zurich Axioms. Others here don't like them and find them to be internally self-contradictory. But I think the Axioms make sense. Not all of them apply equally, and I dare say are not INTENDED to fit every situation. The Axioms strike me as a bunch of tools to be employed intuitively, if you know what I mean. It's not charts and statistics--- a.k.a. sadistics. A listing of them all is somewhere in the archives here at MFO.
https://harriman.house/books/the-zurich-axioms-harriman-classics/

Speaking for myself, it's just the way I was raised. Along the way it just became part of my curiosity toolkit to compare and contrast funds and their holdings, as well as what they are charging for doing business with them.
One example I can think of involves green energy funds. I steered clear of the ones that featured a lot of consumer durables in the nature of electric vehicles. That's more of a sector orientation though. And I can't say that it has done me much good so far.
Another example would be cogitating on the performance difference between FBALX and PRWCX.

Same. To wit: I remember when Berkwitz's Fairholme Fund was all the rage; I looked and its' top holding was like 40% of the fund, so I thought that was a little much (it was either Sears or St Joe, I forget). I just like to know what it holds & how it's allocated/investing before I jump onboard!
Same when PRGTX was the 'hot' fund a few years ago - its #1 holding was like 10-15% in TSLA. which was an immediate turn-off for me.

Where at Schwab can you find the summary report? I just looked for PVCMX and cannot find any analysis
Not that it is worth anything . ChatGPT pans PVCMS saying they have a "unseasoned portfolio mangers" ( Really!!! If you know how you can dig around and find they have been managing money since 1993) and unreasonable fees ( ER total - 1.15%)

I go to the Research > Stock tab, put in a symbol, and on the right-hand column there's all the research Schwab has on the symbol, including, if available. its M* report. Not sure if they're available for funds, but they are for individual stocks they cover.

Initiated starter position in Liberty Broadband Corporation's Series A preferreds (LBRDP) $ 22.50 as a long-term income holding.

SEQUX has about 1% in their A shares, another 3% in their C shares, and 5.08% in Liberty Formula ! (FWONK ). It's not the worst taxable fund I have owned over 10 years. So I am also interested in what the attraction is.
I see now that SEQUX has added two more small slices from Liberty, one being the Atlanta Braves. Is this going to be their next Valeant?

Where at Schwab can you find the summary report? I just looked for PVCMX and cannot find any analysis
Not that it is worth anything . ChatGPT pans PVCMS saying they have a "unseasoned portfolio mangers" ( Really!!! If you know how you can dig around and find they have been managing money since 1993) and unreasonable fees ( ER total - 1.15%)

Initiated starter position in Liberty Broadband Corporation's Series A preferreds (LBRDP) $ 22.50 as a long-term income holding.

Took a peek at EL. Late to the party already ! Low on 10/31 $104.5 up 37+% at $145.

@yogibb said, I have noted elsewhere that FBALX is among the more aggressive moderate-allocation funds (nominal 50-70%). This shows in its higher volatility and higher effective-equity.

FBALX is actively managed and tracks Vanguard Balanced Index fund and with heavier weighing in the tech %. This alone contributed to better performance. I prefer the more conservative, FMSDX, whose manager has running the fund for well over 10 years. Other than a handful of funds such as Contra and Low Priced Stocks, many Fidelity funds have high turnover on their managers. I agree with M* rating based on the mutual fund track record of the manager(s) tenure. The forward performance becomes less relevant whenever there is new management.
@MikeM, I also like PRCFX for a different reason; really like to explore the bond strategy of this new fund. @msf posted information on a SMA managed by Farris Shuggi. I think there are good opportunities on bonds next year.

I noticed a small drug company stock a few weeks ago that I was going to take a flyer on but got tied up with end-of-semester stuff and didn't have the time to put my order in. This past week, it's been up 5-15% every day (incl during premarkets0 and nearly doubled since i noticed it in mid-December.

Makes sports betting look tame by comparison. :)
I’d guess money is there to be made by folks willing to (1) do the research (2) invest an awful lot of time & effort into trading a basket of those stocks and (3) having the courage of their conviction / being able to add more $$ or sit tight when something falls further. (Who needs it?)
My 10% in individual stocks is split among (1) a mega-dollar international food conglomerate, (2) a large U.S. drug / grocery retailer and (3) a large insurance co. / equity conglomerate (not BRK). The latter replaced a small cap conglomerate which has only continued to rise since I sold a few weeks ago.
I tried exiting all individual stocks for a couple days back in Oct. or Nov. The withdrawal symptoms proved too great …

After pulling out significantly from of my Schwab robo earlier this year, I've been adding most of that money back into balanced funds, both conservative and moderate. The "balanced-funds-are-broken" mantra, I thought, was always a dumb knee jerk reaction by the media.
I already have about 20% of my self managed portfolio in PRWCX, but that fund sits in a 401k account that I can't add to. For that reason I recently added PRCFX (10% of total). I bought the manager and investment process and I'm fine with the more conservative equity/income weighting. I also added a chunk to LCR (Leuthold Core ETF) back in the summer and most recently to CGBL (Capital Group Core Balanced ETF) 5% each.

I checked and omission of FBALX from the list wasn't accidental. The list included only Gold, Silver, Bronze rated funds. M* downgraded FBALX to Neutral (from Bronze) in 2019, a long time ago!
Looking at M* Reports in the Archives, M*'s issue is lots of portfolio manager changes. Fund has a large list of PMs (11; it's almost a holding pool of Fido managers that didn't succeed with their own funds, but Fido likes to keep them) and someone is always coming or going. Now, the lead manager has also changed.
FBALX 5* Rating means that it has performed well in the group, but the Analyst Rating of Neutral shows M*'s skepticism. I have noted elsewhere that FBALX is among the more aggressive moderate-allocation funds (nominal 50-70%). This shows in its higher volatility and higher effective-equity.
It's a good moderate-allocation fund. M* ratings/evaluations should count only in the initial fund screening. But if you have done due diligence and know what you own, you should be comfortable with your decisions.

You first @Derf. Let us know how it works out.
Healthcare’s had a tough ride in ‘23. Something I’ve never been interested in from an investing standpoint. Potential for litigation issues alone make them too dicey for me. And I’ve witnessed enough tech high-wire acts and steep plunges in my life not to want to buy a tech company. (As part of a broadly diversified fund I’d have no objection.)
Next thing - you’ll be looking at the ”steep underdog” sports betting opportunities on DKNG!
BTW - The “guru”s on Bloomberg are all over the place this morning advising investors to begin transitioning from cash into equities - now that the S&P’s gained about 30% off its recent lows. Never fails!

Yeah, really. I noticed a small drug company stock a few weeks ago that I was going to take a flyer on but got tied up with end-of-semester stuff and didn't have the time to put my order in. This past week, it's been up 5-15% every day (incl during premarkets0 and nearly doubled since i noticed it in mid-December. While I'm sure it will be a long-term winner given the drug sector it's in, I'm definitely not chasing it.
That said, I'm still putting $$ to work on QDI stocks, preferred stocks, and my first ever purchase in the BDC space.

M* continues to slight FBALX, one of the top performing balanced funds over every time period. Yet they promote TRPBX, a mediocre fund at best. I owned both for many years (until I moved funds from TRPBX to FBALX this year), and FBALX has greatly outperformed TRPBX over the past 1, 3, 5, 10, 15 years with slightly higher volatility.

2023 year-to-date
Company Ticker % ch. year-to-date Market value loss ($ billion) Sector
Pfizer (PFE) -44.6% -$128.9 Health Care
Chevron (CVX) -15.9% -$53.7 Energy
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) -12.0% -$51.0 Health Care
NextEra Energy (NEE) -28.5% -$48.9 Utilities
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) -27.4% -$40.1 Health Care
Estee Lauder (EL) -41.8% -$37.1 Consumer Staples
Exxon Mobil (XOM) -7.6% -$33.5 Energy
Moderna (MRNA) -47.2% -$32.3 Health Care

Covered are the US (up to 10% foreign), diversified (11-39% foreign), and global ( >= 40% foreign) moderate/global allocation/balanced funds. Excluded are Multi-Asset funds (M* calls them "supporting"; it's not a M* Category yet) and the TDFs (with glide-path allocations).
https://www.morningstar.com/funds/best-balanced-funds
"After suffering one of their worst downfalls on record in 2022, balanced funds bounced back in 2023. The Morningstar US Moderate Target Allocation Index, which resembles a typical diversified balanced fund, gained more than 15% for the year to date through mid-December, and despite continued pessimism from some market observers, the outlook isn’t as grim as some soothsayers say....."

More info on Vanguard ETF reinvestments.
Now I have 5 ETFs in my VG Brokerage a/c. My default is to reinvest when this option is available. So, it is interesting that VG is handling them differently.
ETF, Reinvestment, When Done?
ICSH, ON, Pay Date
USFR, ON, Pay Date
CEFS, ON, Pay Date
PYLD, ON, Not done (too new?) (div stays in core VMFXX)
TCAF, option NA, NA (too new?) (div stays in core VMFXX)
When the VG reinvestment works as intended, the money doesn't flow through core VMFXX, but is directly aggregated and reinvested via a market-order on the Pay Date.

am interested in knowing why the new PRCFX would be appealing to existing long-tenured PRWCX holders.
A. most importantly, it does not seem giroux will be using this unique time to go into small-mid cap space, given the very low ~$25M AUM. everything indicates they will want to re-use research & tradedesk effort already being put into PRWCX, which means more of the same LC growth.
B. there does not seem to be the allocation to international which PRWCX has latitude\mandate. (PRCFX showing 100% domestic as of 20nov2023)
https://troweprice.com/personal-investing/tools/fund-research/PRCFX
C. the equity mix seems similar (both min. 50% aspiration).
d. slightly smaller expenses, which is more like the PRWCX institutional version.

International value funds I own, MOWNX, BISMX,COBYX (heavily invested in Latin America) have beaten the SP500 in last three years with lower drawdowns. CCISX also but with equal loss in 9/2022. Typical Emerging market funds ( SIGIX GQGPX) have not done as well, although it appears they have beaten their peers. I would look for funds that are well run, invest in areas off the beaten path and have lower correlations with the US.