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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.
  • Treasury FRNs
    Vanguard has an OEF/ETF comparison tool that gives similar performance and tax comparisons to the M* fund compare tool, though it lacks the risk (Sharpe ratio) and portfolio data (turnover, duration, etc.) comparisons of the M* tool.
    https://personal.vanguard.com/us/faces/JSP/Funds/Compare/CompareEntryContent.jsp
    Fidelity's OEF/ETF screener does a pretty decent job as well. It lacks MAXDD which is found on individual M* fund pages. The only risk ratio it shows is Sharpe ratio; likewise M* pages don't offer other ratios.
    Fidelity screener comparison of USFR and TFLO
    Fidelity screener results for ultra-ultra-short taxable bond funds/ETFs (0.02 year duration or less)
  • CD Rates Going Forward
    I noticed that Bank CD offerings at Schwab, are bumping up slightly with more banks offering 5.3% CDs for almost all periods of 1 year or shorter. 18 mo CDs are also bumping up slightly, but not quite to 5.3% yet. Longer than 18 months are not changing much yet.
  • Treasury FRNs
    In investments, not everything is long-term. Some opportunities are just transient. From tipsters, these can be scams. But the FRNs indeed present a good/genuine transient opportunity now - UNTIL the rates start to go down (late-2024? 2025?).
    I will be using BOTH FRN auctions and USFR. In fact, I will shift much of ICSH into USFR until the rate outlook changes.
    I am STILL comparing the larger WisdomTree USFR (only 4 FRN holdings) with the smaller iShare TFLO (8 FRN holdings + tiny BlackRock m-mkt/cash). Strangely, both have comparable daily trading volumes (power of iShare/BlackRock marketing?). ETFdb indicates that TFLO follows a different index than what is indicated by iShare - this may be a recent change.
  • Treasury FRNs
    Long-term performance of FRN ETFs is meaningless; during much of the ZIRP regime, they had negative spreads but spreads have been positive since mid-2022. FRNs have done well since 2022 because of the ZIRP regime being gone (first the expectations, then actual); the 3-yr or 5-yr views overlook these contemporary factors.
    Look at StockCharts from 1/1/22 (I have also added an ultra-ST ICSH); USFR does have a small edge over TFLO (they track different indexes).
    https://stockcharts.com/h-perf/ui?s=TFLO&compare=ICSH,USFR&id=p28096591213
  • Is Fidelity hiding something (Dodge and Cox funds)
    @msf, I have been most successful talking with live Fidelity representatives in early morning (before 7 am EST) or after business hours (5 pm). Their secured messaging is slow and appears to be AI generated. My D&C question took over a week to get a canned and useless answer.
    Vanguard is getting worse for customer phone support. Being a Flagship client has no value now since they cancel that stuff awhile back. The benefit I found to be useful is 25 free trades per year for each account. I use it to buy (and sell) transaction fee funds. Fund screening for non-Vanguard funds is sparse and they need lots of improvement. Somehow I get the feeling that is intentional so to favor Vanguard funds. However, their PAS clients phone numbers are very responsive.
  • Treasury FRNs
    Per the Wisdom Tree site today. USFR 30 day sec yield 5.30% Distribution yield is 5.35%.This correlates with the dividends I get.
  • Treasury FRNs
    Concur that USFR is ahead of TFLO in 3 and 5 years performance in terms of Martin ratio while having similar risk (MAXDD %). Yields are 3.8 and 4.3%, respectively. Search is performed using MFO Premium.
    Fidelity and Vanguard fund screening are limited that lacks detailed comparison as one would find in M* for individual funds. Guess there is no free lunch.
  • Is Fidelity hiding something (Dodge and Cox funds)
    If you can find it [at Vanguard], their screen hasn't been updated since the oughts.
    https://personal.vanguard.com/us/FundsMFSBasicSearch
    Remove Vanguard from the family list, add D&C. The screener returns all seven D&C funds, including DODEX with inception date of 5/11/21. Total returns given are as of 7/31/23.
    https://personal.vanguard.com/us/FundsMFSResults?query=0029-1420-0004-6220-
    You do raise an interesting question: is failing to provide fund listings for free malice? IMHO this is a gray area. I think it is stupidity for an institution not to provide basic listings of its offerings. That's not in an institution's best interest. OTOH, not providing screening services (beyond product listings) could be viewed as business savvy (to entice people to sign up/subscribe). MFO tries to split the difference by providing Quicksearch for free but requiring premium membership for Multisearch.
    Schwab fairly recently changed its public pages so that one cannot readily find an aggregate listing of fund offerings. That strikes me as stupid. See this MF page that gives links to fund tools that now require logins.
    https://www.schwab.com/mutual-funds/find-mutual-funds
    At least its screener is still free if you know its URL.
    Not so with other brokerages such as Firstrade and TIAA. It seems stupid not malicious to me that TIAA doesn't publicize the fact that it offers some interesting funds NTF at low mins, such as GLIFX ($10K min). I don't know how one would discover that without already being a TIAA customer. Even a direct search returns nothing (though the search box recognizes the ticker).
  • Treasury FRNs
    @YBB. This is a personal issue where I have set up all my bills to be paid on the 1st of each month. USFR typically pays dividends around 5 days before the end of the month and I can use the dividends to pay bills on the 1st. TFLO pays dividends in the 1st week of the month so it doesnt work as well in my scheme of how I pay bills.
  • Is Fidelity hiding something (Dodge and Cox funds)
    I kept significant amounts directly at D&C for 25 years. Great outfit. Since opening a Fido brokerage account 2 years ago, more options than I’d ever imagined opened up. Age, too, has been a factor in wanting to combine everything under 1 umbrella. Possibly, the types of funds & distribution network that served one well at age 55 are not the same ones he / she might elect as they near 80. To each his own.
  • Treasury FRNs
    Current rates:
    Government M-mkt funds (7-day yield) VMFXX 5.26%, SPAXX 4.97%, SNVXX 5.04%
    3-mo T-Bills 5.56%, 8/17/23
    FRN yield = T-Bill yield + spread (2023 range 12-20 bps).
    So, one has to decide if extra 40-75 bps over m-mkt funds with FRNs makes sense. It depends on the amounts involved too. Real advantage over T-Bills is that FRNs are rolled over every 2 years, instead of every 3 months.
    With FRN ETFs, decide if giving up 15 bps is worth it when the fund isn't really doing much work. I could go along with 5bps ER for such trivial work.
  • Buy Sell Why: ad infinitum.
    Whew! Put through a small buy at Fido with fewer than 5 minutes left in the day. Prompted a time warning, but it went through. No big deal. Just wanted to throw a few more bucks at the slumping gold, metals / mining sector through a diversified CEF I own. May amount to a case of “going down with the ship”. :)
    Gold ISTM fell to below $1900 today. Need @rono to do some cheer leading!
  • Treasury FRNs
    Treasury FRNs
    There is growing interest in Treasury FRNs. These didn’t do much during the ZIRP, 2020-22, but have done well after 2022 as interest rates rose.
    The 2-yr Treasury FRNs pay the yield of 3-mo T-Bills (reset weekly) plus spread (set at the Auction). The interest accrues daily but is paid quarterly. These require less frequent rolling than 3-mo T-Bills. Auctions (original issue or reopening) are monthly. Among the brokers, Schwab accepts online orders, but you will have to call Fidelity’s fixed-income desk to enter Auction or secondary market orders.
    The next Treasury FRN Auction (reopening) is on Wednesday, 8/23/23.
    The ETFs are TFLO, USFR; both have 15 bps ERs
    These can be good supplements for T-Bills or money-market funds.
    Don’t confuse these with regular FR/BL funds that are junk-rated/HY. In between are the investment-grade corporate floating-rate notes.
  • Is Fidelity hiding something (Dodge and Cox funds)
    ISTM with auto invest you could switch it on on for a single purchase? And than turn it back off?
    ”You have to enter at least two dates, but you can turn it off after the first one executes”.
    $5 beats $49.95.
    It beats the $75 fee for D&C funds by even more :-)
    Got it. / Thumbs Up! :)
    It’s unlikely I’ll even need that feature, but nice to know it’s available.
    And Thanks @msf
  • Is Fidelity hiding something (Dodge and Cox funds)
    ISTM with auto invest you could switch it on on for a single purchase? And than turn it back off?
    You have to enter at least two dates, but you can turn it off after the first one executes.
    $5 beats $49.95.
    It beats the $75 fee for D&C funds by even more :-)
  • MOVEit Data Transfer Breach
    @catch22
    My father and his sisters kicked themselves because starting in 1965, there was at least one cousin at UT for 20 plus years, and then my sister was teaching school. Then in the 2000's the grandkids started at UT. So far there have been four of them.
    If they had bought a house large enough for all the cousins ( there were never more than 3 or 4 at a time) in the 60's they would have made out like bandits.
    My sister's husband paid $15000 for five acres of land outside of Wimberly ( 45 mins south) in the 1980s. He built his house over time but had a small mortgage for AC and a rain water collecting system. It is assessed at $800,000 now
  • Is Fidelity hiding something (Dodge and Cox funds)
    Thanks. Sometimes I think I might sell my remaining small D&C investment which was transferred into fido - just to avoid future hassles in any kind of rebalancing. Since you can sell for no cost, it boils down to the 3 or 4 times a year when you might want to add. ISTM with auto invest you could switch it on on for a single purchase? And than turn it back off? $5 beats $49.95.
  • Is Fidelity hiding something (Dodge and Cox funds)
    While Fido website doesn't recognize D&C funds or tickers, through an open web search, I found Fido links to several D&C I class funds (TF). It could be that Fido and D&C are negotiating new terms for Fido platform listings (NTF, TF). Schwab shows most D&C funds as TF only.
    Via Research Fidelity, https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/fund-screener/
    D&C Funds (I classes) https://digital.fidelity.com/search/funds?q=dodge & cox
    DODGX https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/ratings/256219106
  • Is Fidelity hiding something (Dodge and Cox funds)
    Fidelity has made it difficult to find their info on D&C funds. Here's the feedback I just posted to Fidelity:
    MF search engine excludes Dodge and Cox from its list of fund families. Under 'D' are Direxion Funds, followed by Domini.
    Likewise, when trying to find a D&C fund (e.g. DODWX) with the search box in the upper right corner, no fund appears in a pop up (as contrasted with, say, FLPSX). When the search is actually activated, the site goes to the search return page:
    https://digital.fidelity.com/search/main?q=DODWX&type=o-NavBar
    That search also says that the webserver cannot find DODWX.
    Yet the fund page exists:
    https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/summary/256206202
    Only D&C is hidden. Funds from Vanguard and Schwab (two other families with $75 transaction fees) are easily found.
    Also unavailable on the website (at least I've never found it) is info on whether a given fund (any fund, not just D&C) is eligible for automatic investing. $5 per (additional) purchase is valuable enough when dealing with a $49.95 transaction fee, but even more so when the fund has a $75 transaction fee.
    When I asked a phone rep about auto invest eligibility, the response was that "if we sell it, you can invest in it this way." After I pushed back, saying that I'd been blocked on other funds, the rep then checked with the back office. The good news is that the D&C funds (at least the couple that I used as test cases) are eligible for auto invest, as are most funds.
  • AAII Sentiment Survey, 8/16/23
    AAII Sentiment Survey, 8/16/23
    Bullish remained the top sentiment (35.9%; below average) & bearish remained the bottom sentiment (30.1%; below average); neutral remained the middle sentiment (34.0%; above average); Bull-Bear Spread was +5.8% (below average). Investor concerns: Inflation (still high); economy; the Fed; dollar; crypto regulations; market volatility (VIX, VXN, MOVE); Russia-Ukraine war (77+ weeks, 2/24/22-now); geopolitical. For the Survey week (Th-Wed), stocks were down, bonds down, oil down sharply, gold down, dollar up. Longer-term rates are rising: Treasury 2-yr 4.97%, 10-yr 4.28%; 30-yr mortgage 7.40% (Bankrate). #AAII #Sentiment #Markets
    LINK