Obscure foreign tax credit gotcha:

Taking a credit usually is more advantageous, but to qualify you must have held your shares in a fund for at least 16 days of the 31-day period starting 15 days before the ex-dividend date of the fund. For additional information, refer to IRS Publication 514, Foreign Tax Credit for Individuals, and the Instructions for Form 1116, Foreign Tax Credit (Individual, Estate, or Trust).

https://www.troweprice.com/personal-investing/resources/planning/tax/fund-specific/reporting-for-foreign-taxes-paid.html

Long ago, the IRS eliminated the requirement for filers to break down registered investment company (RIC, i.e. mutual fund) income by country. You just give "RIC" as the "country".
In 2007, the IRS even stopped requiring mutual funds to report this breakdown to investors. So you couldn't give a detailed breakdown by country even if you wanted to.
2007 rule change (no more country reporting to investors)
Not sure how 2020 got in there. In 2022, 100% of FMIJX's ordinary income was from foreign sources.
https://www.fmimgt.com/fmi/funds/other/2022_FMI_Tax_Insert.pdf

+1 @Old_Joe - I’m convinced if you listened only to Summers and El-Erian you’d never invest. Frankly, I watch only the first 40 minutes of the one-hour WSW - so don’t do Summers.

@msf : You didn't mention form 1116 & tracking which countries were paid what tax..
This pops up when over $300 in credit is claimed . That sounds like a big pain in the BUTT ! Thanks for chiming in.
Have a good one, Derf
Added : As I mentioned I'll still be removing FMIJX from Roth to Taxable account to get the foreign tax credit as of 2020 Schwab shows no foreign tax .

There is a real difference between taking a foreign tax credit and a foreign tax deduction. But there's no effective difference between getting a foreign tax deduction in a taxable account and having the fund in a traditional IRA or having it in a Roth.
Basically, taxes that funds pay are a cost of doing business. They can pay it the same way as they pay their electric bill, subtract the expense from revenue (divs and interest), and pay their investors the rest as dividends. This is what most global funds and some international funds do.
Alternatively (if they meet legal requirements for a high enough percentage in foreign investments), they can execute an accounting fiction. Instead of paying the, say $1 in foreign taxes and distributing say $9 in divs to you, they can declare (on paper) that they're distributing $10 in divs to you, but then you pay the $1 in taxes (on paper). Either way, you've netted $9 in divs.
In an IRA (either traditional or Roth), your investment has increased $9 in value. When you withdraw your money from your traditional IRA, you pay taxes on that $9 increase (as well as your original contribution). In a taxable account, you declare that $10 div that's only on paper (your net is just $9). If you take the deduction, you subtract $1 from your declared income and pay taxes on $9. Same as the traditional IRA.
The foreign tax credit is a different story. As Schwab explains, it is worth more to you.
It's like having an investment in a "foreign" state. If you earn income on real estate in another state, you pay income taxes to that state. Your home state gives you a dollar for dollar credit for that tax (up to certain limits).
The foreign tax deduction is like a SALT deduction. You earn money and pay taxes under one sovereignty (your state), and you get to deduct it from your federal taxes. You don't get a dollar for dollar credit.
I don't know if any of that makes things clearer - I'm just suggesting that these taxation ideas are not necessarily "foreign".

+1 sma3 Good job on walking 3 miles a day! I walk about 1 or 1.5 miles a day at a variety of parks in the area but I'm afraid 3 miles a day might aggravate my knee problems.

This is my summary of the Cover Story; I didn't see it as an ESG story and searches on "ESG" and "sustain" produced zero results. It is a story on how technology has changed farming.
COVER STORY (ECONOMY) “The Boom Time for FARMERS Can Last. Who Will Reap the Rewards”. AG-TECH is booming (biotech, AI, mechanization, hybrids, crop rotations). Higher grain prices and wind energy installations are helping. Farmland prices are up; institutions including pension funds are active in farmland. Grains are used for human consumption, animal feed, biofuels. But farm labor is hard to find, and many are turning to immigrants. Mentioned are AGCO, CNHI, CTVA, DE, TITN; farmland REIT FPI.
There are couple of general fund stories too:
FUNDS. BIOTECH funds are attractive now. They peaked in 02/2021 after a deluge of biotech IPOs following the pandemic in 2020. Mentioned are ETAHX, FBDIX, FBIOX, JAGLX, LYFIX, PRHSX, SHSAX; ETF XBI. (by MFO @lewisbraham)
FUNDS. Barnaby WILSON, Lazard Asset Management (OCMPX, etc). He is searching the GROWTH stock rubble globally for quality stocks with good cash flows, reasonable valuations, competitive moats, pricing advantage. He avoids companies with unprofitable growth.
LINK

Barron's has hit a double ( two weeks) ESG covers
Two weeks ago it was plastic waste and recycling
https://www.barrons.com/articles/cheap-new-plastic-choking-the-world-9b318936?mod=past_editions
This week Agriculture and fertilizer emphasizing new technology to deal with drought and changing climate.
https://www.barrons.com/articles/economy-farmers-deere-agco-stocks-c4ca8e8c?mod=past_editions
Unfortunately, neither is as precise and insightful as they could have been, with only few investment ideas.
But it does show how the financial press is still thinking about pollution, climate change and ESG
And "100 best Sustainable Companies" in this week's edition.
https://www.barrons.com/articles/most-sustainable-esg-us-companies-1b5f70fd?mod=past_editions
They point out that "The top 100 returned an average negative 9.5% in 2022 versus negative 18.1% for the S&P 500 index. Moreover, 63% outperformed the index, up from 47% in 2021. "
I would hope this message gets around and will convince our lawmakers to stay out of investment decisions or their constituents will suffer.
Apologies to anyone who can't open the articles. Who knows how to post the entire article?

The search page linked below might pull it up. Top of list.
Google
(My Hulu TV records it automatically)

+1.

Over, Under, Sideways, Down; February 27 - March 3, 2023
The above is a song title of a Yardbirds song from 1966. Not about investing, but the words fit the current investing market place, eh?
How about the state of things at the moment, it's all over the place, so it's sort of over, under, sideways, down.
---Over.....over valued
---Under..... under valued
---Sideways.....just plain sideways in values
---Down.....prices down for equity and bonds, bad; down yields for bonds, good for bond pricing and borrowing needs, private and business
Other than these, everything is very clear in the investing world at this time :)
Parts still on back order for the Magic 8 ball....crap!
--- This list Feb. 20- 27 (most current for a full week) FUND FLOWS
Pretty much bond-land for this time frame.
Top 10 Creations (All ETFs) ...Ticker... Fund Name... Net In-Flows (millions)
SHV iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF 3,146.28
BIL SPDR Bloomberg 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF 1,841.76
SGOV iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF 1,339.54
BND Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF 943.49
SPTS SPDR Portfolio Short Term Treasury ETF 835.62
JPST JPMorgan Ultra-Short Income ETF 695.99
TLT iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF 685.80
GBIL Goldman Sachs Access Treasury 0-1 Year ETF 626.00
JEPI JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF 526.29
SMLF iShares MSCI USA Small-Cap Multifactor ETF 490.80
--- Friday, March 3.....ISM (Institute of Supply Management) services sector report is too 'hot' for the FED's liking. Too many folks still working. The number 50 is the base line, and the current number is 55.1, with an estimate of 54.5; the highest since December, 2021. One suspects we may find another higher (.5) Fed funds rate increase in our near future.
ISM services covers many areas of economic measurements. Read about them here, if you're curious about the reports.
***Bonds were in a funk until Friday helped many sectors become happy for the week. The Real Yield thread at MFO may help with some of the current thinking. I remain with the thought that the 'pundits', if they're drinkers, would rather be throwing a few down at their favorite bar; as I'm convinced a lot of them don't know which darts to use for the board, either. I always keep in mind while watching yields that they only apply to our investing to a point, as I'm not buying individual bonds to hold for ten years or whatever time frame to obtain a full 4% rate. Our house watches the yields and how they are going to affect pricing, as we're buying the price, not the yield. Pension funds and related may be happy with long term holdings of bonds; but we retail investors for the most part, are buying bond mutual funds or bond etf's; and this is where pricing becomes most important, IMHO. NOTE: 'Hedge funds' also play big in the bond etf world. Yes, we may want to hold the fund or etf long term, but our goal is to buy 'low', right? Wouldn't it be nice to buy a fund with a sideways price and a yield of +6%; and just hold on, to support your income flows and balance one's equity holdings.
Those MMKT's. Stagnant yields again this week, as they've hit a plateau; but most still having a yield between 4.2 and 4.5%, unless it's a magic sauce MMKT. Perhaps another bump up in yields when the FED raises rates again.
--- U.S.$ DOWN -.64% for the week, +1.18% YTD (Big POP this week)
*** UST yields chart, 6 month - 30 year. This chart is active and will display a 6 month time frame going forward to a future date. Place/hover the mouse pointer anywhere on a line to display the date and yield for that date. The percent to the right side is the percentage change in the yield from the chart beginning date for a particular item. You may also 'right click' on the 126 days at the chart bottom to change a 'time frame' from a drop down menu. Hopefully, the line graph also lets you view the 'yield curve' in a different fashion, for the longer duration issues, at this time. Save the page to your own device for future reference.
A good day to you.....
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---Several selected bond funds returns since October 25, 2022. I'll retain this date, as it is a recent inflection point when bonds began to have positive price moves. We'll need to watch if this was just a 'blip'.
NOTE: I've kept the prior dated reports in the beginning of this thread; and have added YTD to this data.
For the WEEK/YTD, NAV price changes, Febuary 27 - March 3, 2023
***** This week (Friday), FZDXX, MMKT yield continues to move with Fed funds/repo/SOFR rates and ended the week at 4.46% (flat lined now). The core Fidelity MMKT's have continued a slow creep upward to 4.22%. The holdings of these different funds account for the variances at this time. *** These rates have now mostly flat lined for two weeks.
--- AGG = +.19% / +.58% (I-Shares Core bond), a benchmark, (AAA-BBB holdings)
--- MINT = +.02% / +1.15% (PIMCO Enhanced short maturity, AAA-BBB rated)
--- SHY = -.02% / -.12% (UST 1-3 yr bills)
--- IEI = -.07% / -.49% (UST 3-7 yr notes/bonds)
--- IEF = +.05% / -.22% (UST 7-10 yr bonds)
--- TIP = +1.36% / +1.48% (UST Tips, 3-10 yrs duration, some 20+ yr duration)
--- VTIP = +.71% / +.81% (Vanguard Short-Term Infl-Prot Secs ETF)
--- STPZ = +.72% / +.66% (UST, short duration TIPs bonds, PIMCO)
--- LTPZ = +3.0% / +4.14% (UST, long duration TIPs bonds, PIMCO)
--- TLT = +1.16% / +2.86% (I Shares 20+ Yr UST Bond
--- EDV = +1.66% / +4.31% (UST Vanguard extended duration bonds)
--- ZROZ = +2.38% / +5.05% (UST., AAA, long duration zero coupon bonds, PIMCO
--- TBT = -2.3% / -5.14% (ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury (about 23 holdings)
--- TMF = +2.8% / +4.6% (Direxion Daily 20+ Yr Trsy Bull 3X ETF (about a 3x version of EDV etf)
*** Additional important bond sectors, for reference:
--- BAGIX = +.1% / +.57% (active managed, plain vanilla, high quality bond fund)
--- LQD = +.66% / +1.37% (I Shares IG, corp. bonds)
--- BKLN = +.96% / +3.92% (Invesco Senior Loan, Corp. rated BB & lower)
--- HYG = +1.35% / +2.6% (high yield bonds, proxy ETF)
--- HYD = +.1 %/+1.2% (VanEck HY Muni)
--- MUB = +.44% /+.36% (I Shares, National Muni Bond)
--- EMB = +.58%/+1.62% (I Shares, USD, Emerging Markets Bond)
--- CWB = +1.15% / +5.67% (SPDR Bloomberg Convertible Securities)
--- PFF = +1.4% / +7.67% (I Shares, Preferred & Income Securities)
--- FZDXX = 4.46% yield (7 day), Fidelity Premium MMKT fund
*** FZDXX yield was .11%, April,2022.
Comments and corrections, please.
Remain curious,
Catch

The past year has led me to hold a very small ongoing position in SPDN, currently 2% of total invested assets. Enough to modify downside volatility on bad days. Definitely an experiment. The thinking is that it may be allowing slightly more aggressive positioning in some of the long positions. I’d never recommend it to others. But if others have any funds or techniques they employ as hedges I’d be interested in hearing.
About a year ago, I bought a little TAIL. Played with it for perhaps 6 weeks before discarding the idea. That’s not to say I wouldn’t use it again at some future point. BTW - My above post originally misstated TAIL’s 1- year performance. While it employs the VIX in its methodology, it hasn’t fared nearly as badly, off only 21% for 1 year.

Is the March 1 issue delayed?
I also see that @David_Snowball last logged in on 2/25/23. I hope that everything is OK.

@hank - from T. Rowe Price:
What Does a Low VIX Tell US

Physical ailments: sorry to hear about that. In 2021, after surgery, doc told me: "Yes, I removed what was left of your L-5 disc. So much pain for so many years. Now, quite a bit less. So, you use PT. i found it to be quite useless. Best wishes to you as we ALL grow older.

M* Ptak noted this new filing in a Twitter LINK that seems similar in description to PIMIX but it isn't stated explicitly. ER is missing too.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1450011/000119312523058554/d471085d485apos.htm

Silvergate/SI is an FDIC insured bank
That’s interesting. One of the Fed “open-mouth committee” members seemed to hint at a rate hike pause yesterday (for later this year). Strange talk I thought based on past Fed rhetoric. Was scratching my head trying to figure out what possible scent in the wind might have gotten their attention? Banks possibly? Elsewhere, I read today that one recent problems facing crypto banks is the high rate of interest now available to mom & pop investors thru T-Bills, money market funds, etc. so that people are somewhat less inclined to play around with crypto. I don’t mean to cry “wolf” here or anything like that. Just find all this a bit interesting.
BTW -The VIX fell over 5% today and at 18.49 sits just above its 12-month low. And it’s down nearly 50% over the past 12-months. From that, can we conclude there’s not a lot of fear in the markets?

Today’s the first time I’ve gotten the fixed income allocation up to 20% of portfolio in at least a year. (Sold across the board.) Everything’s ripping today. Dollar must have weakened because some foreign holdings gained. Metals and mining continued recent strong trend higher.
10-year fell below 4%, helping bonds.

Had to go to PT for my 70 year old hip and shoulder. Hoping to stave off hip replacement for another year!

Hope goes well for you. You reach an age where more stuff’s broken than what works (from experience). :)

BTW, this is also the 1st posting of 3/3/23! Where did everyone go?

I’ve been busy taking profits all morning.
PS - I’ve enjoyed reading some of the current threads even if I haven’t contributed. Especially some of the excellent analysis and number crunching by @msf - a tremendous asset to the board!

I don't know how much money the US Hindenburg Research could make on its short positions on Adani Group. Shorting is severely restricted in India. So, Hindenburg was only speculating with derivatives and some Adani-bonds ( < $10 billion outstanding?) in the non-Indian markets. But market losses to the entire Adani Group were rather severe, and if it doesn't go under (unlikely), somebody will make lots of money. Would that include Rajiv Jain of GQG? May be.
BTW, this is also the 1st posting of 3/3/23! Where did everyone go?