@FD1000. Control. Less bullshit.

Please let me know where is the BS, be specific.
============
Fred495: That's all well and good, FD, but why do you keep bringing up PRWCX when it is closed to new investors
First, I have posted about VLAIX several times and said it was a good fund. See one (example)
Second, many investors I know own PRWCX and why I still mention it.

Lots going on in Berkshire portfolio this year and lots of other topics:

Airlines are scrambling to prepare ultra-cold shipping and storage facilities to transport COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna, whose doses, which require deep freezing, are likely to be among the first to be distributed.

What companies are in a great position to participate?
https://reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-airlines-freight-a/airlines-scramble-to-prepare-for-ultra-cold-covid-19-vaccine-distribution-idUSKBN27Y0NN
FedEx delivers much of the COVID test samples and maybe now the vacciine:
fedex-set-deliver-covid-19-vaccines-worldwide
Top Holder's of FDX:
FDX Top 10 Mutual Fund Holders

Winter will be grim but the pandemic's end is in sight, and all sorts of economic data is looking promising (housing starts, car sales, plus lots of money in savings accounts). I've been steadily buying and am now up to 80% equities. I mostly bought VDIGX and GPRIX, but that has to do with gaps in my portfolio than with any bets on what part of the market will do best.
Lots can go wrong, and the market can always drop 10-15% for no particular reason, but I think a bad winter is the base assumption now, already priced in.
Then again, I'm also at least hopefully 15 years from retirement and just got a raise, so I can sock away about a third of my salary going forward. If I were retired, as many posters here are, I would be more conservative.

I'd been mostly in stocks and some funds since a kid in the '80s. I wanted to get into futures to learn about them as a potential second income stream (active trading). It was an interesting time to be in the markets, as I both 'won' a lot, and lost a lot .... I should add that was just as algos were really taking off and I decided it wasn't worth playing against them regularly or spending the time to develop & code my own trading systems. Not to mention, in 2010 I left consulting & landed my (current) faculty position and priorities shifted. :) But I still monitor the equity index futures and will dabble with them now and then, since they trade 24x5 compared to stocks.
Back during the GFC I was sitting on a huge pile of cash that I was managing for an aging parent's immediate needs and was wishing we'd see 6, 8, 10% rates on CDs and bonds at some point ... I saw what that did for my grandparents decades ago and it made for a very comfortable retirement for them. If that ever happened again, I'd probably sell down 50% of my portfolios and throw it into government fixed income. :)

@rforno, you are way ahead of me with investing at that time period. I managed to invest few dollars in CDs that paid over 6% in the 80's.

I had the good fortune to buy AUENX for my 2 Fidelity retirement accounts, when the IRA minimum was $2500, while a 1 million minimum for taxable accounts. Needless to say, AQR a short time later increased the retirement minimum to 1 million also!

I made two partial exchanges today to tamp down a bit of risk.
My domestic/foreign stock allocation did not change materially.
Roth IRA
VWILX >>> VDIGX
401k
S&P 500 CIT >>> MIEIX

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1444822/000119312520295680/d27997d497.htm
497 1 d27997d497.htm AQR FUNDS
AQR FUNDS
Supplement dated November 17, 2020 (“Supplement”)
to the Class I Shares and Class N Shares Summary Prospectus
and Prospectus, the Class R6 Shares
Summary Prospectus and Prospectus,
and the Statement of Additional Information, each dated January 29,
2020, as amended, of the AQR Emerging Defensive Style Fund (the
“Fund”)
This Supplement updates certain information contained in the Summary Prospectuses, Prospectuses and Statement of Additional Information. Please review this important information carefully. You may obtain copies of the Fund’s Summary Prospectuses, Prospectuses and Statement of Additional Information free of charge, upon request, by calling (866) 290-2688, or by writing to AQR Funds, P.O. Box 2248, Denver, CO 80201-2248.
At a meeting held on November 16, 2020, the Board of Trustees (the “Board”) of AQR Funds (the “Trust”) approved a proposal to liquidate the Fund. Among other things, the Fund was not viable on an ongoing basis. Accordingly, effective 4:00 P.M. (Eastern time) on November 30, 2020, the Fund will no longer accept orders from new investors or existing shareholders to purchase Fund shares.
On or about November 30, 2020, AQR Capital Management, LLC, the Fund’s investment adviser, intends to begin liquidating the Fund’s assets in an orderly manner in advance of the Liquidation Date (as defined below). Proceeds from the liquidation of a Fund’s assets will be held in cash and similar instruments pending distribution to shareholders. As a result, the Fund may deviate from its investment strategies and policies and cease to pursue its investment objective. The Fund may incur transaction costs from liquidating portfolio holdings and performance may be adversely affected from holding cash and similar instruments.
The Fund will declare a dividend to all holders of record on December 14, 2020 (the “Record Date”) consisting of any undistributed income and capital gains (net of available capital loss carryovers). On or about December 18, 2020 (the “Liquidation Date”), the Fund will make a liquidating distribution of its remaining assets proportionately to any shareholders holding shares on the Liquidation Date. The Fund will then be terminated as series of the Trust. Shareholders may redeem their Fund shares or exchange their shares into shares of another series of AQR Funds, subject to any restrictions in the Fund’s Prospectuses, at any time prior to the Liquidation Date.
The liquidation of the Fund is expected to have tax consequences for a taxable shareholder. Any final capital gain dividend will be treated as long-term capital gain, and any final income dividend will be taxable as ordinary income, or as qualified dividend income to the extent of the Fund’s income that so qualifies (which is taxed at the same preferential tax rate as long- term capital gain). The Fund’s final liquidating distribution will result in capital gain or loss to the receiving shareholder. Shareholders should consult their tax advisors concerning their tax situation and the impact of the liquidation and/or exchanging to a different fund has on their tax situation.
We appreciate your investment in the AQR Funds. For more information, please contact the Trust at (866) 290-2688.
PLEASE RETAIN THIS SUPPLEMENT FOR YOUR FUTURE REFERENCE

updated:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1170611/000110465920126231/a20-32694_10497.htm

See link for table
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1444822/000119312520295687/d90218d497.htm

I attended “investment school” only sporadically between 21 and my mid-40s. Getting burned by the bear market in gold post-1980 taught me a lot as I watched the coins I’d bought at the heights of the euphoria steadily loose value while bullion fell more than 50% over a decade or longer. That’s a lesson I’ve never forgotten.
With a fee-based “advisor” managing my workplace plan from around 1971 until the mid-90s I was largely “in the dark“ - as an underlying principal of that profession is to keep clients uneducated about investments and, hence, dependent on them. That said, at least he had me in what was a pretty good fund in those days, TEMWX.
My serious schooling began in the mid 90s after reading in the WSJ how 403B investors, seemingly locked-in at one fiduciary, could easily and legally transfer assets in any amount from that custodian to virtually anyone they wanted to due to an existing legislation loophole. The loophole was in later years plugged, but gave me the opportunity during my final 5-10 years of working and contributing to transfer funds periodically out of Franklin Templeton to other houses and, at the same time, “cut the cord” between myself and the fee-based advisor. Also, around than our workplace plan broadened to allow fee-exempt contributions to T Rowe Price.
Now that I had control over those investments, reading and learning became somewhat of a passion. I found I enjoyed the process. I won’t recount all the newspapers, magazines, books I read back than, as they’re pretty much standard mill and others here have I’m sure also so self indulged. One source stands out. I’d begun reading The Street.com in the late 90s. Bill Fleckenstein published a column on that site and was screaming loudly that something bad was about to happen. So in the late 90 I moved most of my 403B holdings into cash and bonds. The warnings were correct and the tech sector lost something like 75% of its value over the next few years. Broader markets followed suit - to a lesser degree. Likely, it was a case of listening to the right voice at the right time. I’ve learned, however, in subsequent years to take all “expert“ advice with a large grain of salt. If you can’t confirm their bias with your own independent analysis, stand clear of unsolicited financial advice.
On any given day one’s acquired learning may not seem all that momentous or remarkable. But when you put it all together and reflect over whatever your learning period has been it’s remarkable how much each of us has learned. This board is often a source of that learning. Frequently it works indirectly, however, as something discussed here provokes me to dig deeper into a subject on my own.

FD said: "In the last 3 months...PRWCX 8%...VLAIX-VLAAX only 4.6-7%..."
That's all well and good, FD, but why do you keep bringing up PRWCX when it is closed to new investors and, therefore, not an option for those members who prefer to invest in a balanced fund.
Can you suggest another fund in the 50-70% allocation category that has as excellent a risk/reward profile as VLAIX/VLAAX?
For example, the fund's M* total return percentile rank in its category is as follows:
YTD = 14
3 year = 1
5 year = 3
10 year = 3
Fred

Warning, while past performance of VLAIX looks good the fund invests in high-rated bonds while PRWCX is not and a lot more flexible. That worked well so far when rates were going down but rates are probably were at their lowest point.
In the last 3 months...PRWCX 8%...VLAIX-VLAAX only 4.6-7%...SPY 7.95%

Seven conservative mutual funds and one exchange-traded fund are evaluated for defensive performance. The shortlist of funds is TMSRX, HSTRX, GAVIX, ADVNX, AEDNX, COTZX, FIXD, and SUBFX.
These funds were selected from my last article on Seeking Alpha and shortlisted based on Portfolio Visualizer optimization, Mutual Fund Observer risk-adjusted performance, composition, and recent performance.
Top-ranked funds, based on metrics from Mutual Fund Observer, for mutual funds from Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard, and other companies, exchange-traded funds, and closed-end funds are updated.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4389583-short-list-of-defensive-funds

MWTRX is a good fund but GIBLX has a better record for 1-3-5 years.
Both are not funds I use since I'm mainly a bond investor in the last several years and their past performance (6% average for 3 years) will not happen in the future.
I'm also not impressed by LT record, DODGX had a great record years ago but now it trails the "stupid" index SPY for 10 years already
BTW, I used to be at 80-90% equities until several years prior to retirement where I change gradually to more bonds.

Can you please explain your comment? Are you saying that you won't buy a fund with good performance because it can't keep up? Not sure how you can be confident that a newer fund will outperform established winners. I have substantial positions in both MWTRX and GIBLX, a very big fan of the latter.

For the average Joe investor: KISS investing
1) I believe in using up to 5 (maybe 7) funds
2) The core portion should be about 70% and use very cheap indexes, the rest may be in managed funds that have something special.
3) Hardly trade which means looking at your portfolio 1-2 times annually and make small adjustments of 1-2 funds.
With that in mind:
1) Core: I would use SPY/VTI for most of my stocks. BIV as my generic bond fund.
Explore: PRWCX, VWIAX, PIMIX.
2) Let's check MWTRX and GIBLX in the last 5 years. I don't see MWTRX as anything more/special beyond BIV but GIBLX is different enough which is why I may use it in my explore portion. See 5 year

chart.
1) I'm a flexible investor with specific goals. Making over 6% annually using mainly bond funds, be positive every year, SD < 3, never lose 3% from any last top.
2) I mainly hold very concentrated portfolio of 2-3 funds. I may own a fund, weeks or years. I held PIMIX for 6-7 years, PHMIX for 3 years, IOFIX easily over 50% in the last 3 years.
3) Even if I own a fund for years, I may sell it for days to several weeks when market conditions are extreme which is one of my goals. This is not your usual trader as someone who buys 10 stocks and keep changing them.

Well, BIV and MWTRX will get you to the same place over time...but MWTRX has an SD of 3.53 (Sharpe 1.29) versus 5.19/.89 for BIV (still a big fan of BIV when I don't want to get locked into a mutual fund). I must say FD you are quite impressive in your trading skill, no doubt about that but I do question whether you might also get to the same place just holding quality bond funds like these two and say PIMIX. You say you've had very large positions in IOFAX and I recall you jumping out before it cratered, but had you guessed wrong you would have lost significant life savings in a matter of days. I could not live with that possibility...so I'd rather make my 5% to 6% by combining PIMIX with MWTRX, which is what PV say I would have made on average since 2008.

From a recent Barron's article (paywalled):
"Jerome Dodson, the founder of Parnassus Investments and a titan of sustainable investing, is stepping back at the firm he founded."
"Dodson, who is 77, is leaving the Parnassus Endeavor Fund (ticker: PARWX) and the funds’ board of trustees effective Dec. 31, the investment management company said on Nov. 10. While he will no longer be managing money for the firm, Dodson will remain chairman of the board. He owns more than 60% of Parnassus Investments."

It's also available at TD Ameritrade. Have they added a 12b-1 fee of 25 basis points annually?

You are welcome, @Rickrmf
Low volatility funds are going to be mostly equities which are invested in consumer staples and other necessities. The average drawdown of low volatility funds that I track was -19% for the past 18 months. The more defensive funds are typically mixed asset or use options to reduce volatility. The average drawdown of the flexible portfolio funds was -10%. Absolute return funds has a drawdown of -8%.
The risk adjusted return (Martin Ratio) for low volatility, flexible portfolio, and absolute return funds that I track was 0%, 7%, and 5% respectively although performance can vary widely.
Multi-Strategy Funds had a maximum drawdown of -6%, and Martin Ratio of 3.
There are many types of multi-asset funds that have lower risk, and higher risk adjusted returns than low volatility funds. I used to own several low volatility funds, but mostly look for multi-asset funds now because of the higher-sleep-well-at-night-factor.
My articles are based on risk and risk adjusted return among other considerations. Low volatility funds have higher risk that what I am looking for.
Lynn

This gentleman opines:
"The "great rotation" doesn't have to be all that great. In other words, when investors do see a rotation, it may not necessarily mean that all large-cap growth or the "Big 5," i.e. FAAMG, need to be sold.
It could simply mean that large-cap growth and Tech and many of the names seeing multiple expansion with the COVID-19 lockdown spend a year consolidating the gains of the last 4-5 years, as the underperforming styles and sector laggards like Financials and Energy play a little catch-up."
Style-Box Strategy Update: The Great Rotation Begins

Here is one prognosticator's thinking about the durability of the recent value bump.

Notably, the rotation to "value" is likely premature as these companies specifically require a more robust economy to generate revenue and earnings growth. The current environment is not conducive to that. Expect a reversal of the trade soon, and money rotates back towards "pandemic" related companies.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4389100-market-breaks-out-on-vaccine-hopes-cases-surge
But, at least for a short time FMIJX and some other funds with a value tilt have shown some some signs of life!