Spiders (SPDRs) and VIPERs (Vanguard)
CATS, TGRS, and LIONS (proprietary versions of STRIPS)
According to M*, there were also RATS, COUGARs, GATORs, EAGLEs, and DOGS (Dibs on Government Securities, not to be confused with the aforementioned dogs of the Dow)

Dunno if it's a dead cat bounce or not. I sold my gold miners into the bounce today though.

I've got a long way to go before I do much better than break even with USAGX. Initiated my first position at 41.63 per share on 8/12/2011.
Bought again at 26.84 per share on 12/14/2012.
And finally, at 13.62 per share on 6/7/2017.
Sigh.
It's a small slice at .0145 portfolio weight. I throw nickles around like manhole covers.

Morgan Stanley funds currently managed by Kristian Heugh:
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. International Advantage Portfolio Class A (since 12/28/2010)
Morgan Stanley Europe Opportunity Fund Inc. Class L (since 4/14/2020)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. International Opportunity Portfolio Class A (since 5/31/2010)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. Global Opportunity Portfolio Class L (since 5/30/2008)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. Global Opportunity Portfolio Class I (since 5/30/2008)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. Asia Opportunity Portfolio Class I (since 12/29/2015)
Morgan Stanley Inst Asia Opp IS (since 12/29/2015)
Morgan Stanley Cntrpnt Global A (since 6/29/2018)
Morgan Stanley Developing Opportunity IS (since 2/14/2020)
Morgan Stanley Developing Opportunity C (since 2/14/2020)
Morgan Stanley Europe Opportunity Fund Inc. Class A (since 4/14/2020)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. International Opportunity Portfolio Class I (since 5/31/2010)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Opportunity H (since 6/30/2006)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. Opportunity Portfolio Class I (since 6/30/2006)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. International Advantage Portfolio Class C (since 12/28/2010)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. Asia Opportunity Portfolio Class A (since 12/29/2015)
Morgan Stanley Inst Global Opp IR (since 5/30/2008)
Morgan Stanley Developing Opportunity Portfolio Class A (since 2/14/2020)
Morgan Stanley Developing Opportunity Portfolio Class I (since 2/14/2020)
VALIC Company I International Growth (since 3/8/2018)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. Opportunity Portfolio Class IS (since 6/30/2006)
Morgan Stanley Inst Intl Advtg IS (since 12/28/2010)
Morgan Stanley Cntrpnt Global I (since 6/29/2018)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Global Opportunity H (since 5/30/2008)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. International Opportunity Portfolio Class IS (since 5/31/2010)
Morgan Stanley Cntrpnt Global IS (since 6/29/2018)
Morgan Stanley Institutional International Advantage Portfolio Class H (since 12/28/2010)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. International Opportunity Portfolio Class L (since 5/31/2010)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. Opportunity Portfolio Class L (since 6/30/2006)
Morgan Stanley Europe Opportunity Fund Inc. Class C (since 4/14/2020)
Morgan Stanley Inst Asia Opp C (since 12/29/2015)
Morgan Stanley Inst International Opp IR (since 5/31/2010)
Morgan Stanley Europe Opportunity Fund Inc. Class I (since 4/14/2020)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. International Opportunity Portfolio Class C (since 5/31/2010)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. International Advantage Portfolio Class L (since 12/28/2010)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. Opportunity Portfolio Class A (since 6/30/2006)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. Global Opportunity Portfolio Class C (since 5/30/2008)
Morgan Stanley Cntrpnt Global C (since 6/29/2018)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. International Advantage Portfolio Class I (since 12/28/2010)
Morgan Stanley Institutional International Opportunity Fund Class H (since 3/31/2010)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. Global Opportunity Portfolio Class A (since 5/30/2008)
Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc. Global Opportunity Portfolio Class IS (since 5/30/2008)

Hi, Lewis. I think the market cap floor was part of the original partnership agreement between Grandeur Peak and Rondure Global.
Greetings, Shadow. Ms. So managed Matthews Asia Small Companies for 11 years. Her last above-average year was 2014 and assets have been drifting away since 2015. That might, in part, explain why she and Matthews separated.
I'll reach out to Ms. Geritz to see what I can learn.
David

One day does not a market make.
JFTHOI - An hour before close Monday ...
Dow +450 / +1.5%
S&P +1%
NASDAQ - flat
NYMEX +3%
Gold Miners +2.65%
10 Yr Bond - Steady @ around 0.87%

It's a pity Rondure New World won't buy companies with market caps below $1.5 billion. It seems like a missed opportunity with this level of small-cap talent.

M* reports an adjusted ER for PIMIX of 0.50%. (See footnote 1 of Annual Fund Operating Expenses in Summary Prospectus.)
https://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/comment/128191/#Comment_128191
Average HY fund ER: 1.02%
Average multisector fund ER: 1.00%
Average core plus fund ER: 0.80%
Average core fund ER: 0.66%
(All figures from M* via premium fund screener)
If you really want a multisector fund and find TSIIX too expensive, the only less expensive multisector funds I can find available to retail investors are:
BWDTX 0.40% ER ($5M min, but with that amount seems to be available at TDAmeritrade)
JMSIX 0.42% ER ($100min NTF at Schwab)
MGFOX 0.52% ER ($10M min, but with that amount seems to be available at Vanguard)
JSTIX 0.54% ER ($2500 min/$1K IRA min at Schwab)
MGIIX 0.55% ER ($1M min, $2500 IRA min at Fidelity)
MWFEX 0.55% ER ($3M min at multiple brokerages)

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/915802/000139834420021185/fp0058962_497.htm
(see link for more info)
FINANCIAL INVESTORS TRUST
SUPPLEMENT DATED NOVEMBER 2, 2020 TO THE PROSPECTUS AND STATEMENT OF ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
FOR THE RONDURE NEW WORLD FUND (THE “FUND’) DATED AUGUST 31, 2020, AS
SUPPLEMENTED FROM TIME TO TIME
Effective immediately, Lydia So has joined the portfolio management team of the Fund. Therefore, the following changes are being made with respect to the Fund.
Summary Prospectus/Prospectus
The section entitled “Portfolio Managers” in the summary prospectus and in the summary section of the prospectus with respect to the Fund is hereby deleted and replaced in its entirety with the following:
Portfolio Managers
Laura Geritz, CFA, MA, Chief Executive Officer of the Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in 2017. Lydia So, Portfolio Manager of the Adviser, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since November 2020.
Prospectus
The following information is added after the last paragraph in the section entitled “The Portfolio Manager” in the prospectus with respect to the Fund:
Lydia So, CFA
Lydia So is a Portfolio Manager for the Rondure New World Fund. Her primary focus is on developing markets and her secondary focus is on international developed markets.
Prior to joining Rondure in 2020, Ms. So spent 15 years at Matthews Asia, initially as research analyst covering Asia ex Japan equities. She served as Co-Portfolio Manager for the Matthews Asia Science & Technology Fund (MATFX; now known as Matthews Asia Innovators Fund) from 2008 - 2017. Ms. So was the founding Lead Portfolio Manager for the Matthews Asia Small Companies Fund (MSMLX) from its inception in 2008 - 2020, and Co-Portfolio Manager for the Matthews China Small Companies Fund (MCSMX) from 2019 -2020.
Ms. So started her career in the investment industry in 1999 at Kochis Fitz Wealth Management in San Francisco. In 2001, she joined Dresdner RCM Global Investors as a portfolio associate working on U.S. Large Cap equity strategies.
Ms. So graduated from University of California, Davis, earning a BA in Economics. She is a CFA charter holder.

Greetings to all,
I'll run with this portfolio, pre-retiree, conservative, I hope that is is ok that I post after mkt opens on 1st trading day of the month...
VLSIX, KAR Long/Short, $150,000, 15%
TGUNX, TCW New America, $25,000, 2.5%
ARTTX, Artisan Focus, $25,000, 2.5%
ROSOX, Rondure Overseas, $50,000, 5%
IQDAX, Q Infinity, $350,000, 35%
TMSRX, T Rowe Price Multi Strat Tot Return, $50,000, 5%
ARBIX, Absolute Convert Arbitrage, $50,000, 5%
FPFIX, FPA Flex Fixed Income, $100,000, 10%
BIL, T Bill, 1-3 months, $200,000, 20%
Good Luck and Good Health to all,
Baseball_Fan

The above is a good discussion and why I keep trading bond funds. If you own higher-rated bond funds you are likely to make 2.5-3% average annually in the next several years.
Trading should not be done by most investors though ;-)

Well, consider this, maybe: I'm retired, wife's not. (That's how we can make expensive Hawaii work for us.) 4% is the figure that might work for us, as long as it amounts to the year's profit we remove from the portfolio, each January--- because, as long as the Market continues to rise, we'll make up that 4% and it will bring the portfolio back up to where it was, LAST January, before the withdrawal. So, we are not "spending down" the principal in the portfolio. I want to leave something behind. She's 19 years younger, and there is my son and her brothers to think about.
We're 36 stocks and 57 bonds and the rest in cash. That recipe is an aggregate of the fund managers' decisions. Of course WE are the ones who decided to be bond-heavy, now. We hold one equity fund (balanced, really) PRWCX, which comprises over 30% of our total. The fund is golden. It's closed, now. Because it's such a sizeable chunk of the portfolio, it produces profit in good years that's rather much higher than our other stuff. We take that 4% from THERE, not from our bond funds.
...WE might decide in days to come to begin to take the bond distributions and use them, but not yet. PRSNX RPSIX and PTIAX. I'm less than pleased with RPSIX, so on Friday last, I transferred a good chunk into PRSNX. These days, our monthly bond pay-outs amount to $300 in a good month. I want to keep growing that until it's worth much more. We have monthly automatic payments going into PTIAX. So we still re-invest all bond dividends. We take 4% (or so) yearly, but do not spend-down what's in the portfolio. We can have our cake and eat it, too.

Different types of risk are defined along with metrics from Mutual Fund Observer and Morningstar.
Fifty funds are evaluated over 20, 15, 10, 5, and 2 year periods for maximum drawdown, risk adjusted return (Martin Ratio), risk (Ulcer Index), and total return.
Short term performance for these funds are evaluated over one week, three months and year to date, along with 3 year beta.
Portfolio Visualizer is used to create a portfolio to minimize drawdown for an annualized return of 8% for the past two years.

50 Funds

Here's a table (data from M*) comparing the 3/5/10 year standard deviations of several of the funds listed. I've divided it into funds with high grade portfolios and funds holding substantial amounts of junk bonds. Not surprisingly, over every time period the latter have been more volatile regardless of differences in durations.
You can reproduce this data by starting with the M* legacy ratings & risk page for WATFX and then adding (using "Compare") the tickers for your funds of interest:

Fund	3yr	5yr	10yr
DODIX	3.62	3.26	2.93
WATFX	4.00	3.63	3.22
BCOIX	4.11	3.64	3.30
----------------------------
PTIAX	4.65	3.87	3.47
TSIIX	4.92	4.25	4.05
PIMIX   5.58	4.52	4.21

As @hank wrote (third paragraph, above), the funds with better short term performance tended to hold lower quality bonds. Most multi-sector bonds, including the ones above, have average credit ratings of BB. The core plus bonds above (DODIX, BCOIX) are rated A, the core bond fund WATFX is rated AA.
Buying into junk bonds, especially with cash, is a bet that the economy won't sink into a recession, or if it does, the government will bail out companies that were already shaky.
Here's a table showing past performance other than very short term. I've added a column, 3yr(2019) that gives annualized performance figures over the period 2017-2019. That gives a sense of more recent multi-year performance while excluding the unusual ups and downs of 2020.
As above, the table is divided into funds with high grade and with junk bond portfolios. Over extended periods or periods excluding 2020, higher risk (junk) has done better. Over the past year or three years if one includes 2020, it has not.

Fund	YTD	1yr	3yr	3yr(2019)  5yr	 10yr
WATFX	6.63%	7.56%	5.56%	4.91%	  4.95%	 4.53%
BCOIX	7.02%	7.70%	5.55%	4.66%	  4.92%	 4.50%
DODIX	6.73%	7.40%	5.39%	4.52%	  4.98%	 4.34%
------------------------------------------------------
TSIIX	5.71%	6.71%	4.85%	4.94%	  5.32%	 5.42%
PTIAX	3.34%	3.42%	4.49%	5.45%	  5.05%	 5.83%
PIMIX   1.54%	3.38%	3.57%	5.68%	  5.26%	 6.86%

Your home may not be a great investment but it is certainly a decent investment, comparable to safer investments in returns. Some people get lucky and buy homes at a great price or in neighborhoods that spike in value, but that’s often not the case.
We bought our home with a 15-year mortgage and paid it off about five years before retirement. Having our mortgage paid off made a huge difference in being able to retire when we did because our living expenses were so much lower. It also enabled us to ramp up our retirement savings the last few years of working.
Owning a home has many intangible values, if your neighborhood is desirable and you enjoy working in the yard or doing home improvements. For example, we live next a large city nature preserve where we can hike and walk the dog. On the downside, you never really pay off a home because of ongoing maintenance and repairs.

@BenWP, that's an excellent point about checking the total assets for which the manager has responsibility. In addition to other funds (to its credit, M* appears to list offshore as well as domestic funds), managers may also be responsible for private institutional/wealthy client accounts and/or pooled investment vehicles. You can find that information in the SAI.
"5 [other funds] $4.8 billion; 21 [pooled investments] $21.8 billion; 243 [other accounts] $2.5 billion"
(That's in addition to the $6B in MGGPX.)
M* analyst reports sometimes give a little more information: "in 2006, the firm entrusted him to launch the Global Opportunities strategies and form his own team in Hong Kong. ... After adding two more funds to their coverage in 2020, the seven-person outfit now manages seven strategies. The supporting cast also lacks notable shared tenure ..."
Something else (if one wants to get really deep into the details) is how much overlap there is in the different charges. For example, years ago, Fidelity closed Contra FCNTX (Danoff) while keeping open the much smaller New Insights (FINSX). While the funds focused on similar parts of the market, the size difference was so huge that New Insights was able to benefit from smaller companies that Contra couldn't touch, at least in any meaningful way.
All that said, I agree it would make sense for MS to consider closing some of the sibling funds also.

The single biggest variable longer term IMHO on bond funds is fees. Especially today, investment grade bond funds aren’t going to produce large returns (consistently anyway) without taking a large amount of risk. So, fee differences mean more with bond funds than with equity funds.
At .45% ER, WATFX is competitive on fees along with DODIX. Generally, that’s a low or reasonable fee for a core managed bond fund. The best source I know of on bond funds‘ holdings and performance history is Yahoo. I’ve entered your fund there and than clicked on:
“Holdings”
For interest rate sensitivity, look at “Duration” on the right. The fund is at 7 years on duration, a bit on the long side by today’s (cautious) standards - even for an intermediate term fund. By contrast, DODIX (mentioned in this thread) is a bit over 4 years on duration. WATFX should have fallen a few percent over the past 3 weeks as rates spiked. The benchmark 10-year bond‘s rate rose from below 0.60% a few weeks ago to 0.80%% today. (Rates up. Bond prices down.) The longer the duration, the more drastic the move. On the good side, your fund should be able to reinvest maturing issues at higher interest rates which will feed back into your proceeds. A caveat, however, is that investors might choose to flee. In that case, it’s harder for the fund to “self-correct”.
A second important ingredient in bond performance is credit quality. It looks like WATFX is weighted toward the middle or upper range relative to its peers. Ironically, it’s been the lower rated bonds (BB / BBB) that have had the nicest ride up in value since March due to the unprecedented actions of the Federal Reserve in buying-up (essentially backing) corporate bonds as low as BBB quality before they could fall further into junk (BB) territory. Nobody could have foreseen that action on the part of the Fed. Likely, this sharp uptick in value for lower rated bonds is temporary. But that, along with the longer than average duration, helps explain a lot about your fund’s recent behavior.
Rather than comparing performance (“chasing” per msf) I’d recommend thinking about the type of bond fund that best fits your long term style of investing and overall portfolio. What you have now is a core fund, weighted a bit on the long end of duration and hewing toward the higher quality end of the credit spectrum. The biggest advantage is it should help hedge equity losses in the future, as high quality longer duration bonds tend to rise a bit when equities tumble (though that wasn’t the case last week). Longer dated bonds also command higher rates of return. Your fund invests in higher quality credits. So, should junk and lower quality bonds decline, your fund should stand up better.
Bonds today really represent a “Catch-22.” Rates are so low that it’s unlikely bonds will reward investors for the risk they’re taking for a good many years and until rates are significantly higher. But that’s just a guess on my part. The experts have been predicting the “end of time” for bonds for at least the last decade. Generally, they’ve been wrong in that assessment. I’m 74 and retired. I certainly don’t want 100% invested in equities. Nor do I want to play much in the junk bond area. So, somewhat begrudgingly, I have about a quarter of assets in intermediate duration investment grade bond funds. A younger investor need not be as cautious.
Good luck.

Global Franchise is also a good one of theirs, if memory serves.
Need to be careful on any loads or 12(b)-1 fees, though.

I haven't found any way as a retail investor to invest in a MS share class that doesn't have a 12b-1 fee, unless I can pony up $5M (e.g. at Fidelity or at Vanguard).
Even with the fees, the total cost of ownership is not out of line (M* rates it average). I'm just wondering if you've got any workaround on the 12b-1 fees. Or does one need to invest through one's employer's plan to get a break?

WATFX has had some poor days.
This sounds more like performance chasing than a fundamental reason to change horses. It has lost 1% in the past three months. About 1/2% worse than DODIX, and still in the middle quintile (barely, at 59th percentile) of its peers.
Rather than jumping at particular funds, I suggest thinking first about the type of fund you want to own. WATFX is an excellent vanilla bond fund; if that's the type of fund you want, I wouldn't switch. DODIX (and I'll add BCOIX) are great core plus funds. That means that they add a fair amount of junk bonds, which have higher yields but also tend to move more like stocks. PIMIX is a multisector fund. These funds tend to have even more junk and may dabble in international bonds.
PIMCO funds, virtually all of them, are off in their own world and it's difficult to say exactly what they're doing at any given instant. M* likes PIMIX, describing the fund as one that "stands out for historically large positions in nonagency mortgages, which have helped drive strong performance in a variety of different market environments. It also buys corporate debt, and emerging-markets and developed foreign sovereign debt, with a sprinkling of non-U.S. dollar currency bets."
https://www.morningstar.com/articles/945813/do-you-need-a-multisector-bond-fund
Many people here are comfortable with this. The question is, are you? You'd be switching from a vanilla, high credit quality bond fund, albeit a relatively racy one (above average risk), assuming any vanilla bond fund can be called racy.
Here are a couple of graphs that may help to illustrate what I mean about performance chasing and risks:
Performance since 8/10/20 (WATFX's peak for the year, I believe)
Notice that the core fund (WATFX), core plus funds (DODIX, BCOIX), and market average (US Aggregate index) tend to track together. So does the multisector fund PDIIX, though with wider swings both up and down. But PIMIX goes its own way.
Now zoom out to YTD (click on the YTD link in the graph). You'll see that both the PIMCO funds take on a lot more risk - a huge dip in March, relative to the other funds. Over the long term, risk usually pays off. But that line of reasoning also suggests paying less attention to short term movements.
Here's a second graph, same funds, this one for the three year period before 2020 (2017-2019). It shows both PIMCO multisector funds outperforming. Notice that aside from separating a bit, all the funds still tend to track together except PIMIX. It diverges in the summer of 2019, with performance dropping from that of PDIIX to that of the more conservative funds.
My suggestion is to think first about what kind of fund you want to own. You might still wind up investing in PIMIX, but it will be for reasons beyond its performance over the past couple of months.
Side note: PIMIX is available with a $25K min at Vanguard and a $2500 min at Schwab.

As of 10/31/2020, my Challenge "Retirement Portfolio" has total value of $1,073,493, for a YTD total return of 7.35%:
PIMIX----- $212,055-----19.7%
TMSRX-----212,985-----19.8
TSIIX-----218,534-----20.4
VLAIX-----429,919-----40.1
Total----- $1,073,493-----100.0%
Fred