David. Thanks as always. Haven’t gotten too far in … But intrigued by your mention of LCORX. $10,000 minimum. 1.28% ER. Apparently very overweight fixed income presently. A few short positions. And what appears to be a stellar long term risk adjusted record.
One interesting observation, however - If Yahoo Finance is to be believed, the fund fell 27.4% in 2008. Not bad compared to the roughly 50% drop in equities globally that year. Still, a bit more than I’ve have expected from such a cautious bunch.The nice thing is that the fund has such a long term record to be compared. A lot of us, self included, own things that weren’t around in 2008. That’s the year “the rubber really hit the road” or “the Kool-Aid hit the fan”. Whatever ….
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/LCORX/performance?p=LCORX

Pacific Current Group owns stakes in several boutique fund managers.
Its major shareholder, River Capital, does not support the GQG Partners' transaction.
https://financialstandard.com.au/news/gqg-makes-official-bid-for-pac-179801936

Byron WIEN who passed away recently at 90 (1933-2023) had this philosophy on predictions (and he made many) - they were meant to be thought-provoking contemporaneously and it didn’t matter whether they turned out to be right or wrong (and he didn’t keep score himself, but others did).

“ You have heard the saying, "Buy low, sell high," correct?”
So, my thinking goes, “why not wait a little longer…rest in the mmkt sweet spot with 5%+ for a while. The 3,6,12-month t-bills ain’t bad either.”

Well said, Level5.
Especially since, "The stock market just finished its best week in almost a year, but lurking beneath the euphoric surface are fears about Corporate America’s profit outlook.
Among companies that have issued guidance this earnings season for next quarter and beyond, more have been providing estimates that trail analysts’ expectations. A gauge of forward guidance that compares corporate forecasts with the Wall Street consensus has been lower only once since 2019, data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence show."
There is also the prospect of a prolonged government shutdown and a market that is still relatively expensive. The Fed's inflation target remains at +2% and rate hikes are still possible.
As a conservative and retired investor, I prefer to err on the side of caution and feel quite comfortable earning a risk-free 5.3%+ in CDs and a Treasury Floating Rate Bond ETF at this time.
Good luck,
Fred

Lower volatility or downside of JEPI comes from other things (not call writing) - in the SP500 universe, it finds undervalued stocks with lower volatility. M* shows %equity at 85%; rest 15% is used to support equity-linked notes (ELNs), securities lending, etc. On the whole, its effective-equity is 68%.

"Covered-calls don't offer downside protection (beyond the small premium received)."

@yogibearbull,
Can you elaborate?
One facet of the JEPIX approach "seeks to deliver a significant portion of the returns associated
with the S&P 500 Index with less volatility, in addition to monthly income."
The fund's 3-year beta was 0.63 as of 09/30/2023.
Since launch, the worst year for JEPIX was a -6.98% loss while the max drawdown was -18.33%.
The corresponding stats for VFIAX during this period were -18.15% and -23.89% respectively.
Portolio Visualizer

JP Morgan Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPI) has become the largest active ETF ($29.1B AUM) since its launch in May 2020.
The fund had inflows of approximately $12.3B thus far in 2023.
Now other firms want a piece of the action.
Morgan Stanley launched Parametric Equity Premium Income ETF (PAPI).
Blackrock introduced BlackRock Advantage Large Cap Income ETF (BALI).
Golman Sachs launched the Goldman Sachs S&P 500 Core Premium Income ETF (GPIX) and
the Goldman Sachs Nasdaq-100 Core Premium Income ETF (GPIQ).
Covered call ETFs may appeal to investors seeking income creation with some downside protection.
These ETFs reside in Morningstar's Derivative Income category which had inflows of $20.4B this year.
Citiwire article (may be paywalled)
Link
Morningstar also published a related article recently.
Link

I've written to GMO twice, about this and about the research on their seven-year asset class projections. In The Great Distortion, they appear to have been off by, say, 180 degrees on the order of their asset class projections.
No response so far, but they do have a final November prospectus posted at the SEC. I take that as evidence that they're free to push the launch button whenever the want. One tiny issue might be that the fund's ticker symbol (QLTY) is already in use.
I'll let you know if I get a response.

There was an unusually thorough explanation of the end of the Wildermuth Fund. Wildermuth was, by their description, an illiquid, closed-end interval fund that launched in 2014 but also a series of open-end funds that launched in 2017. In November of 2022, the fund lost its status as a registered investment company; the filing notes that a tax hit was coming but I don't see any explanation of how they managed to lose their legal status. Odd.
An SEC filing enumerates the pieces of the dismantling:
Effective November 1, 2023, Wildermuth Advisory, LLC was terminated adviser to the Fund.
Daniel Wildermuth and Carol Wildermuth each resigned from the Board of Trustees.
Daniel Wildermuth also resigned as Chairman of the Board.
Daniel and Carol Wildermuth also resigned from their positions as officers of the Fund, including Daniel’s resignation as portfolio manager.
An interesting side note is the existence of a specialty industry in managing fund liquidations The Wildermuths have been succeeded by BW Asset Management Ltd, a sort of undertaker for condemned funds which has overseen liquidation of over $1 billion in assets. Currently they’re providing end-of-life / beginning-of-death services for a Mauritius regulated fund with $110 million AUM; five private funds under voluntary liquidation with combined assets of $120 million; and “various funds in provisional or official liquidation with combined assets of $300 million.”
Maximizing returns of the remaining portfolio assets and distributing the results is an honorable task.
At the same time, it brings to mind the work of the prison cook charged with preparing last meals for condemned prisoners. I'm sure they try hard but, really, who's going to report that they put way too much salt in the ragout?

“It was a GLOBAL rally.”
Of course. I had a lot of other things rise last week (as did anyone who’s not sitting 100% in cash). Was just pointing out the sharp reversal in one segment (small caps). There’s been one or more recent threads in that regard.
"It's Almost Time to Buy Small-Caps" - from October 11
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/61579/it-s-almost-time-to-buy-small-caps#latest

It was a GLOBAL rally.
"FOR THE WEEK (index changes only), DJIA +5.07%, SP500 +5.85%, Nasdaq Comp +6.61%, R2000 +7.56%. DJ Transports +7.06%; DJ Utilities +5.80%. (Rotating spot long Treasury TLT +3.86%) US$ index (spot) -1.40% (remains too strong over 100), oil/WTI futures -5.88%, gold futures +0.15%.
A good week in EUROPE (Denmark +5.72%, Norway +2.07%) and a good week in ASIA (New Zealand +4.27%, Philippines +0.45%). (A GLOBAL RALLY week)"

This discussion reminds me of why I like to stay away from ”rock star” managers.
Bill Gross Slams Jeff Gundlach: “To Be A Bond King or Queen You Need a Kingdom”
https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/billionaire-investor-bill-gross-slams-jeff-gundlach-over-shared-bond-king-nickname-to-be-a-bond-king-or-queen-you-need-a-kingdom/articleshow/103606510.cms
Eee Gads! Who needs it? I like StarTreck’s approach (in spirit) - “go where no man has gone before.”

*

"Randy lay there like a slug. It was his only defense."

@FD1000, way to go digging those. @Baseball_Fan: Great term "confidently wrong"! I love it!

Mr. G isn't the only "expert" that has been wrong but still keep predicting. I collected over the years many of these for other experts.
Why would anyone predict the future?

Great question!
I dunno.
But many former M* participants will likely remember a couple of years ago when you presented YOUR projections of TR and SD for THE NEXT FIVE YEARS (sic) for a long list of bond OEFs.
Do you still have those projections? Would love to see them again!
Given your "bond OEFs are better than sliced bread" mentality at that time, and the last coupla years of bondland disasters, gotta think (read, "know") YOUR projections were off by miles!
But I trust (in your world) not as far off as your former bond god, now monthly punching bag, Gundlach!

Wacky weed, Mary Jane and related leads the pack (MJ etf). One may presume this seems appropriate during these turbulent times; whether rolling one's own, baking some brownies or having a gummie.
I set the chart for the 5 day return, for the best to the worst % returns from last week.
Remain curious.
Catch

@FD1000, way to go digging those. @Baseball_Fan: Great term "confidently wrong"! I love it!

Mr. G isn't the only "expert" that has been wrong but still keep predicting. I collected over the years many of these for other experts.
Why would anyone predict the future?

@FD1000 - always appreciate that you have a system that works for you, along with the brass balls (can I write “balls” here) to support it. My “pair” are just fleshy and when they’re tweaked, I find it very painful; whereas yours…
Still, I did heed your advice and did dip my toe in after your post in October.

@FD1000, way to go digging those. @Baseball_Fan: Great term "confidently wrong"! I love it!

Stuff didn't add up, so I did some snooping around.
First, Jacob Internet JAMFX (12/1999- ; ER 2.02%, min $2.5K) is the ORIGINAL dot.com era hot fund that crashed-&-burned-&-burned-over. It is still around as a fund even smaller than its shadow.
Then Institutional class JAMIX (12/2021- ; ER 1.99%, min $100K) was started in 12/2021. So, who was anxious to get in for just 3 bps ER reduction? It seems that there was only 1 victim who has since withdrawn most of the money.
1/5/23 Prospectus filing showed AUMs as of 8/31/23:
JAMFX $69.1 million
JAMIX $133K
Fido shows 9/30/23 class AUM of $44.75 million for JAMFX, total $44.76 million for all classes. My math says that JAMIX now has AUM of $10K+ only.
M* and Yahoo Finance just show total AUM, so their data weren't helpful for this.
The filing says JAMIX is liquidating (not merged into the other class). I checked SEC/Edgar and there is no filing that I could find related to the closure/liquidation of JAMFX. So, I suppose that JAMFX will continue.
Then, the filing is just to shake out the residuals of JAMIX. A strange way of doing things, i.e. liquidating one class when there is another continuing class.

Now there's a name out of the past.
Odd that instead of combining share classes (there's still investor class shares JAMFX), the board decided to liquidate one class of shares. Based on ERs, I suspect that there are few institutional shares outstanding. "Other expenses" are 0.22% higher for the institutional shares than for the retail shares. As a result, the ERs of the two share classes are almost identical.
Prospectus
OTOH, at $40M total AUM, this one star fund may not be long for this world.