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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.
  • SVB FINANCIAL CRISIS
    I was taught in a college communications class a half century ago: ”A percept is a product” So, while we can mitigate the failure of SVB and put it into proper perspective, the perception out there among the public and some in the investment / banking industry will likely have greater ramifications.
    Great post @hank and dovetails with what I just heard on TV discussing how sentiment contagion here could be ominous. Silicon Valley Bank is not some mom and pop bank but the 16th largest in the country and the leader among funding venture capitalists.
    Edit: Schwab the large brokerage firm has also been pummeled the past two trading days.
  • SVB FINANCIAL CRISIS
    Typical FDIC intervention - close the bank on Friday, reopen on Monday under new ownership.
    Many confuse similar rescue for brokers (by SIPC) and insurance & annuity companies (by state regulators) - but those may take months or years to workout.
    https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/10/silicon-valley-bank-is-shut-down-by-regulators-fdic-to-protect-insured-deposits.html
    https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/2023/pr23016.html
  • SVB FINANCIAL CRISIS
    I have found a number of free sites that occasionally come up with something really worth reading. This is about SVB. The insiders were bailing out months ago. The chief risk officer resigned in late 2021 sold all her stock and was not replaced ( although investors were not told until 2023
    https://nongaap.substack.com/p/sivb-held-to-mortem-governance
  • Inflation funds
    Got through paywall, but article, to me , demonstrates that WSJ is a shadow of it's formal self. Little discussion of why IVOL and Kinetics funds have not worked and why PFIX has (although it is down YTD and today).
    PFIX and IVOL demonstrate again why investing is complicated. I could not understand IVOL discussions of it's strategy, although it was recommended by people I trust. PFIX I pretty much understand, thanks to Simplify's Harley Bassman's monthly discussions.
    https://www.convexitymaven.com/2021-xx/
    A lot of this is well over my head, but I don't try to invest in that stuff. Nor do I take large positions.
    A simple defense against inflation would also be very short terms bonds, floating rate treasuries (USFR) and/or treasury bills and inverse treasury ETFs.
    TUR is a great example of why equities work in hyperinflation countries.
  • SVB FINANCIAL CRISIS
    Looking at a 1 year trend of SIVB, the stock was dropping steadily over the year. It was already down -50% before yesterdays drop, so I'm wondering if this really was a big surprise to influential investors or they saw the last shoe drop. In comparison, SPDR® S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) was only down around -6% during that same time.
  • To Sell or Not to Sell
    Good morning,
    The confusion about the table is related to my second article for the month, "Looking Beyond 2023 - Investing Lies and Statistics" where I describe year over year as a way of measuring inflation as an example. It has to do with two data points, one now and the other a year ago.
    https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/2023/03/looking-beyond-2023-investing-lies-and-statistics/
    The chart is comparing the fund performance for the last twelve months as of the end of January which would be from February 2022 through January 2023. In February 2022 the S&P 500 was down 2.8% as a starting point. In January 2023, the S&P 500 was up over 7% compared to the previous month. The one-year comparison is from a starting low point to an ending high point. People have it fresh in their minds that 2022 was a bad year and the table is not comparing the calendar 2022 period.
    To validate the chart we can use the following calculator. For the calendar 2022 year (12 months) from January 2022 to January 2023, the S&P 500 lost 13.4%. For the twelve month period from February 2022 to February 2023, the S&P 500 lost 9.8% compared to loss of 8.3% in Chart #2 from the article. I am not sure why there is a 1.5% difference in the two reporting data sets. One difference is that I used VFINX which represents the S&P500 compared to the actual S&P500 index.
    https://dqydj.com/sp-500-return-calculator/
    As a final check, as of yesterday, using Morningstar, the one-year return on VFINX is minus 6.97% compared to SPY which is a minus 6.9%.
    I just updated the table through February. I don't know how to display a picture so if someone can't help me out, I would appreciate it. Through February, the one-year return of VFINX is -7.8% which is close to the table in the article and the Morningstar estimate as of yesterday.
    Symbol APR 1 yr % APR 2 yr %/yr APR 3 yr %/yr APR 5 yr %/yr
    VFINX, -7.8, 3.5, 12.0, 9.7
    VGYAX, -4.6, -0.1, 2.2, 3
    VWIAX, -6.5, -0.4, 2.7, 4.5
    GPANX, -3.7, -0.1, 3.5, 3.5
    VTMFX, -5.5, 0.2, 5.5, 5.8
    VGWAX, -3.3, 2.6, 6.7, 6.0
    COTZX, -8.1, -3.3, 6.4, 7.2
    PQTAX, 8.1, 12.5, 11.3, 8.4
    REMIX, 5.8, 9.2, 15.5,
    If I missed something, please let me know. I hope this helps.
    Regards,
    (Charles) Lynn
  • SVB FINANCIAL CRISIS
    SVB Financial/SIVB had a masterfully BAD timing. Several of its filings at Edgar/SEC showed up yesterday (see the link below) - a huge AFS* portfolio for sale, a large capital raise by issuing stock, preferreds, etc, on the day after the shutdown announcement by (unrelated) Silvergate/SI. Then the SIVB CEO was on call to its venture-capitalists (VCs) to not panic, and that if everyone panicked at the same time, that could be a problem. Well, the VCs ran away in droves.
    Banks are required to hold lots of Treasuries but can hold them at book value or initial purchase price (but not marked-to-market) in the long-term HTM portfolio that the banks may use for quick loans. They also hold securities in the short-term AWS portfolio that is marked-to-market. When there is a run on the bank, this distinction may disappear and almost everything becomes AWS (if the Fed or FHLB or somebody else doesn't step in for rescue) and huge losses ensue. Factors are also different for SI (a crypto-friendly bank) and SIVB (VC/startup-friendly bank).
    Neither SI, nor SIVB tapped the Fed Discount Window - unclear if by choice or they were turned away. Late last year, SI strangely tapped the FHLB for liquidity and that loan was suddenly called just before its recent unwind - may be it triggered the unwind.
    Twitter was buzz with both, but then it may not be mainstream media - is that CNBC?
    *AFS = available-for-sale (marked-to-market)
    HTM = Hold-to-maturity (NOT marked-to-market)
    https://www.sec.gov/edgar/browse/?CIK=719739&owner=exclude
  • SVB FINANCIAL CRISIS
    I am surprised this hasn’t gotten more discussion on the boards today.
    Ditto. It came up on the Off-Topic board yesterday in a post by @Baseball_Fan - but I was the only one to make any remarks. - LINK
    No - I don’t think this is anywhere near the equivalent of Lehman. Don’t expect a repeat of ‘08 either. But depending how far the Fed decides to push its 2% inflation goal, it might get nasty. Aside from all this, the competition from higher interest rates - especially at the short end - is putting pressure on equities. And banks have to be struggling due to the inverted curve. Not to make too much of 1-day, but was surprised to see an intermediate term high yield fund I own break even yesterday. Expected worse.
  • SVB FINANCIAL CRISIS
    @johnN @junkster
    What little of CNBC I watched yesterday was when Mayo was on with Scott Wapner, and they talked about financials (I didn’t know the huge financial sell-off stemmed from $SIVB)….mentioning that the largest, multinational banks have been stress-tested annually for several years, and are probably in good shape (C, BAC, WFC, JPM, etc). The banks just under that size, whether super regional or regional, have not been stress-tested. Obviously the worry is contagion.
    I have been trading ZION; it’s a conservative UT (redundant? Ha) bank that I have traded in and out of for last 18 months or so. Good dividend growth. But it was down 10-11% yesterday, so I bought more.
    Good luck to us….I’m in junkster’s camp that we’ve been in a rally since October, and that was the bear bottom….but man, all these walls of worry keep being built! Ha
  • 72T Uniform Withdrawals
    I suggest that @msf follow up on this with M* or @ApplebyIRA at Twitter.
    I'm rather antisocial (media) - no Facebook, Twitter, etc. accounts. And M* keeps making it harder to communicate with. Instead I'll try D. Appleby's website targeted at individuals, and relay what response I get.
    About the website: https://retirementdictionary.com/about-us/
    "The rules that govern IRAs, 401(k)s and other retirement accounts are complex. Need a plain-English explanation? Ask us!"
    https://retirementdictionary.com/ask-an-expert/
  • Harris Associates sells remaining shares of Credit Suisse
    Call me skeptical, but it sounds like the rep just looked at the current literature, i.e. Artisan's page giving the backgrounds of its international value strategy managers and as you wrote, the current prospectus. Neither you nor the rep know whether what he was reading was correct, just that Artisan had put something on paper. And he didn't dig any further.
    Artisan may not have been able to tell you what Oakmark funds it claims that Samra managed, but I can, by referencing Artisan's old prospectuses. In the final prospectus (Aug 26, 2002) before ARTKX launched (Sept 23, 2002), Artisan names a OAKIX and OAKEX as funds Samra had managed.
    It looks like Artisan's legal beagles promptly went to work. The full annual Artisan prospectus put out two months later (Nov 1, 2022) dropped the claim that Samra had been an Oakmark portfolio manager by dint of his having worked in the investment team (as an analyst?).
    From this point on, Artisan's prospectuses said only that Samra had been a senior analyst on these funds. Then in 2012 Artisan stopped giving Samra's Oakmark history.
    A related curiosity is that Artisan didn't say anything about Samra having worked on OAKGX until it was about to launch its own global fund (2007). Then Samra's global fund history with Oakmark (as an analyst) apparently became worth mentioning.
    Prospectus chronology:
  • Inflation funds
    This suggestion by YBB is very wise indeed. Keep TIPS maturities <= 5 years. I frankly like the idea. So why go longer maturities? No two portfolios are the same. There are a 1000 ways to make potatoes in India. We must all solve for what works for us.
    Incidentally I have been listening to a lot of Myron Scholes lately on this podcast:
    https://www.janushenderson.com/en-us/advisor/bio/myron-scholes-phd/
    This podcast is available online for free and I listen to it on my phone while walking. He speaks fast and there are many complex topics but he is dealing right in the heart of all the topics related to portfolio construction. Listening to it is humbling because there is just so much to it even for the sophisticated investors.
    None of this is supposed to be easy. But I do agree that YBB's suggestion is a step in the direction to make it easier.
  • Inflation funds
    If the idea is to keep up with inflation (CPI), shorter-term (=< 5 yrs) TIPS held to maturity would do that approximately. Then, roll them over and over. Make a ladder. Chart below shows CPI vs 2 common TIPS funds, ST and IT/LT; default timeframe is 1 yr but that can be changed.
    Using funds introduces rate and duration factors.
    https://stockcharts.com/h-perf/ui?s=VTIP&compare=$$CPI,TIP&id=p06767927681
  • Inflation funds
    SCHW down 12.76% today. Part of a big sell off in financials. Re +.50% rate increase. Let’s wait and see. This Fed “toes the line” about as well as a drunken sailor. (Admittedly, they’ve been slip-sliding into the gutter lately.)
  • Inflation funds
    @sma - this is supposedly a free link
    So far as I can tell it, it in fact is.
    One thing to know is that when you get instant ‘Subscribe here / subscribe now’ popups or similar , just click x and close them; I had more than one, but when I got rid of them , carefully and patiently , there was the article in full , albeit pocked with house ads
    but I was able to read the entire thing
  • Inflation funds
    Darn it! According to my WSJ subscription it's supposed to be a free link. Is this one any different?
    Copy Free Link
  • another argument for an EM ex-China fund
    Thanks Lewis. China exercises sovereignty over Hong Kong (unlike Taiwan and Singapore, at least not yet) and has steadily been tightening its control despite promising autonomy at the time of handover from Britain in 1997. I’m wondering if whatever risks one might ascribe to investing in China wouldn't bleed over, at least in part, to Hong Kong and that perhaps a fund like SIVLX shouldn’t be considered quite so China light.
  • Playing small ball with the Non-Equity side of my portfolio
    @hank @Junkster et al
    UST yields..... 1, 3 and 6 month; as well as 1, 5, 10, and 30 year. The chart starts at October 25, 2022. This was the start reference for the BONDS thread. Call it intuition or whatever, but the pricing/yields caused me to look more closely. I don't know that the chart will help 'see' anything; but it is one I've used for some time, and is real time, if you choose to save the site. KEEP in mind, this is a 'yield', nor NAV/pricing chart.
    The Ukrainian war and the inflation pressures everywhere had started to pull the FEDS chain, although they can't do much about many aspects of inflation. And as been noted previous, how far are they going to go with rate increases to 'fix' what they don't like, NOT break the economy and have a 2% inflation rate. Glad I'm not piloting that ship.
    @Junkster noted too about the MMKT and CD rates. One may look at MMKT charts and see the steps in yield increases following the Fed Funds rates, at least with a chart view inside Fido for FZDXX. The chart from left to right looks like a side view of stair steps.
    I agree with @Junkster about 'clear mud'. There are so many moving parts that the FED and the private sectors are focusing upon, that the best I can do is try to do at this time is be close enough to seeing a meaningful change to cause a change in the portfolio. NOT a fun time, right now; although I'm not a short term trader, I still want to have most of the gains between the high or low of an investment.
    IG bonds had their 'protective' place today, yields down/prices up amidst the equity burn.
    Perhaps something of consequence from some of the words. In a funk today, so I'm out of thinking gas.