Invested a hefty (for me) chunk of 6-month t-bills at 5.5% through Vanguard Brokerage.

@david_snowball I am surprised (shocked) that you find it difficult to identify and buy the 50 stocks in the S&P 500 that are up 56% this year. I might just have to start traveling on other discussion boards at this rate.

While July has historically shown to be a good month for stocks I'm of the opinion that we will see the market hold or drift down over the next few months rather than surge to the tune of a new bull market. If the institutional folks are not buyers at these levels there's no reason for me to be either. Therefore I sold DIVO and 25% of my SCHD position. I captured no gain or loss on DIVO and a small short term loss on SCHD. In return I gather a 4.7% distribution which is greater than either of these two ETF"s were paying by contributing the proceeds to my MM position while I wait and see what happens. I could be wrong but I'm used to it.

Ha! Yes, 7.6% net gain (0.69 * 1.56) over 18 months ... or, 7.6% per month gain since January if you were lucky enough to apply the strategy.
It's easy ex-post.

Today's WSJ "Wealth Adviser" newsletter begins with this item:

This should have been a great year for contrarian investors. The 50 stocks in the S&P 500 that fell the most last year lost an average of 31%, then rebounded a startling 56% this year. Simply buying the losers at the end of December was a winning strategy.

"A winning strategy." If I'm doing the math right, that's stunning volatility for a 7.6% gain over 18 months?

@dtconroe- Hey, thanks much for your follow-up. I'll be watching closely to see if the Fed does in fact raise rates again soon... if they do, that might up the rates a bit.
OJ

Projecting what the FEDs will do next, is a complex aspect of CD investing. I will be pleasantly surprised if shorter term rates stay comfortably above 5% much longer. I am interested in longer term CDs and "hope" they settle closer to 5% than they are now, but suspect it will be in the mid to high 4% range for 2 to 3 year CDs. If I am accurate, that will present some challenges, for at least me, in my CD renewal decisions.

Dallas firm expects to hand back keys to 19 hotels, including two in Plano
The Plano properties are among a portfolio that would have required a paydown of $255 million and $80 million in capital spending.
Read in The Dallas Morning News: https://apple.news/AegWIHgtISIa34X7E9rHjDQ
I am assuming this is the right thread to post the above, given the OP. If not, please feel free to move it to the right thread.
I know everybody talks about office RE being the only sore spot in real estate. A few weeks ago two landmark hotels were surrendered by the owner in SF and I told myself that SF probably has some idiosyncratic issues and this is likely limited to SF and that if travel and entertainment is booming, the office contagion is unlikely to get to hotels.
I guess I need to read the Baron funds link @devo posted to understand the nuances of the RE.
Edit: Baron funds link covers Travel related real estate on page 8 of the 16 page document. Note that the fund, while talks about the great prospects for travel related RE, has allocated only 4.4% to Hotel & Leisure (15+% going to Casinos (grouped in Travel)).
Hotels 2.0
Timeshare Operators 1.5
Ski Resorts 0.9

These things do change depending on where the starting line is.
The difference in daily returns from June 21, 2016 (mid-summer) is 8.58%.
The difference in daily returns from August 4, 2016 (the day Albert died) is a little over 4%.
Monthly return from the end of August 2016 is 1.35 in favor of SPY.
From the end of September the advantage to SPY was down to .61
Monthly from 10/31/2016 to 7/7/2023 it's NICSX 135.13 to 132.39 for SPY.
Looking at MFO premium (July through June) I see:
7years SPY 16.26 David 16.13
6years SPY 12.55 David 13.55
5years SPY 12.22 David 13.82
4years SPY 12.69 David 13.24
3years SPY 13.48 David 15.29
2years SPY 3.28 David 5.69
1years SPY 19.39 David 26.57
That's good enough for me for an IRA watch list where I would be considering risk factors, in addition to total return.

@WABAC
>> Pretty sure NICSX has beat the 500 since David took over after his father passed.
I don't know when that was exactly, but this is not at all the case since midsummer 2016 (AN died that August): SP500 up 7% over Nicholas.

FAFRX (bank loan) continues to do well YTD. Other good ones are GIFIX, then FFRHX. The first two funds...YTD>7%...one year>10-11%...3 year>19-21%. All 3 funds SD is about 4.2.
But that's not all, compare this to PRCPX+TUHYX and you can see that HY has a much higher volatility. You want to achieve higher performance with lower volatility.
YTD Chart(https://schrts.co/CuXmBygK)
To see the volatility use only two funds: BL=FAFRX vs HY=TUHYX. See (https://schrts.co/vsTRCtXv) For YTD from Peaks and troughs, FAFRX was down only 1.5%, but TUHYX lost over 5%

(This Article First Appeared in Bloomberg)
“UP AND down Wall Street, forecasters were caught flat-footed by how the first half of 2023 unfolded in financial markets. That seems to have rattled their faith in what the winning playbook for the rest of it should be. Heading into the year, a handful of predictions dominated strategists’ annual outlooks. A global recession was imminent. Bonds would trounce stocks as equities re-tested bear-market lows. Central banks would soon be able to stop the aggressive rate hikes that made 2022 such a year of market misery. As growth stumbled, there’d be more pain for risky assets.
“However, that bearish outlook was shattered as stocks rallied even as the Federal Reserve continued to ratchet up interest rates in the face of stubbornly elevated inflation. And what was supposed to be the year of the bond fizzled: US Treasuries have nearly wiped out their tiny gain for the year as yields test new highs and the economy remains surprisingly resilient in the face of the Fed’s monetary policy onslaught. As a result, financial soothsayers have rarely disagreed more about where markets are headed next.
“There’s a 50 per cent difference between the most bullish one from Fundstrat (which sees it rising nearly 10 per cent more to 4,825), and the most bearish call from Piper Sandler (down some 27 per cent to 3,225), according to those compiled by Bloomberg. The mid-year gulf hasn’t been that wide in two decades. “
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/wealth/wall-street-soothsayers-have-rarely-been-so-bewildered-about-whats-next

@dtconroe- Could you advise time to maturity on those? Can't find anything on Schwab better than 5% going out to 2025.
Thanks- OJ

I just checked CD rates at Schwab. They do offer a 18 month CD, that matures in January 2025, that pays 5.2%. It is offered by Leader Bank, which is an A+rated bank, paying semi-annually. That seems pretty attractive to me for anyone wanting something maturing in 2025. 2 year CDs pay 5% from several banks.

July 8 Episode

Royce discusses why his Royce Pennsylvania Mutual Fund has outperformed its benchmark for over half a century and why he believes small-caps are laying the foundation for an extended cycle of above-average returns.

chuck-royce-shares-50-years-of-investment-wisdom-on-his-small-cap-outperformance/

M* used to have some great tools:
- Charts with rolling returns (customizable)
- Returns of entire asset classes / categories over various time frames (1 month to 5 years)
- Brokerage availability of mutual funds / share classes showing TF / NTF
and many more. All gone.
Of course, M* Discuss was destroyed. Largely during the tenure of Chief IT Office Gregg Goff, who drew a salary of $1.4 million. Go figure.

Few star managers can make the transition to a team much less assume it will be your kid.
Michael Price is another example of a one man show that became problematic after he left.
Another example is Albert Nicholas who ran the Nicholas Fund.
According to Bloomberg Markets in 2015, "The Nicholas Fund, which he has run since 1969, has topped the Standard & Poor's 500 Index by an average of 2 percentage points a year for the past 40 years and [beat] it every year since 2008 [through 2014]."
His son David was in and out of the family company and finally back in, but a quick look shows that he hasn't done nearly as well as Pops.

Uh. Pretty sure NICSX has beat the 500 since David took over after his father passed. He has been on NICSX since 2011. Their stated thesis hasn't changed:

Growth rate of 10% or better
Consistent earnings
Return on equity (ROE) of 15% or an improving ROE
Debt to total capitalization of less than 50%
A price to earnings ratio lower than two times the growth rate
An enduring franchise or brand
Honest, capable management
Significant management ownership of stock
Long-term and short-term business momentum

I sold it out of the my IRA after Ab died. And I wish I hadn't. They have added two new managers to the fund. And David is ten years younger than me. So it's back on my watch list for consolidating the IRA.
David has been running small cap funds at Nicholas since 1993. They don't look so good. But few small caps do these days.

Old_Joe, 2 of them were 6 month CDs, and 1 of them was a 9 month CD. CDs maturing in 2025 were paying less than 5.3%. If the FEDs do raise rates 2 more times this year, there may be an opportunity to pick up longer term CDs with a little higher rates, but I am not counting on it.

@dtconroe- Could you advise time to maturity on those? Can't find anything on Schwab better than 5% going out to 2025.
Thanks- OJ

I chose to reinvest CD money, from recent maturing CDs, into several new CDs. I was able to purchase several new CDs for 5.3% rates. That may become more challenging in the future, if the FEDs do not choose to raise rates at their next meeting.

+1 Nice summary @Yogibearbull.
Their emphasis on intermediate duration bonds seems to be pretty much limited to investment grade. I haven’t read much of this issue yet. But find the following title bemusing …..
”The S&P 500 Is Now A Tech Fund” (Barron’s Article by Lauren Foster)
Just adding a bit re: above article - As folks know, a handful of large cap tech stocks comprise something like 30% of the S&P 500. Apple and Microsoft at the top. The article recommends several specific indexes and mutual funds to help investors diversify away from this large cap dominance. In particular international & domestic small cap represent better long term value. Well worth a read if you can link to the article.
My Kindle subscription to Barron’s ends in September when Amazon pulls the plug on its Kindle subscriptions. Questionable if I’ll subscribe elsewhere right away. Prices are higher than the Kindle edition was. Albeit, the Kindle only includes the articles - not access to all the the data. Already subscribe to NYT, FT & Bloomberg online. Too much to handle really. Will surely miss Barron’s.