One of the many things to dislike about ML is that when they show unrealized gain/loss (PONAX down -4.35% since you bought it long ago, wtf) you have to go to view tax lot details to see cumulative investment return and find the total client investment and hence loss to date of -2.55%.
Maybe this is good accounting, and maybe it's how some other places do it, but not Fido, and it's a minor pain for someone slightly savvy, and downright misleading for others pondering 'Huh, should I sell this thing?'

Hi, guys.
This was a flagged discussion. The argument was that apkmetro plagiarized a Wall Street Journal article with only the sort of tweaks that a college sophomore could imagine getting away with. As I checked their homepage, their business model appears to depend on copying stuff from behind paywalls and posted tweaked versions.
It's pretty bad. I'd prefer we not associate with, much less encourage, them.
That said, johnN is pointing us to an article that makes valuable points, as the Journal often does. My compromise with my conscience is to share (a) the link to the legit story, (b) the intro paragraph and (c) the point of the article.
Alex Edmans, Why Many People Misunderstand Dividends, and the Damage This Does https://wsj.com/articles/why-many-people-misunderstand-dividends-and-the-damage-this-does-11591454292, Wall Street Journal, 7 June 2020.
Dr. Edmans is a professor of finance at London Business School.

Over the past year, voices across the corporate and political spectrum have argued that companies are beholden to all stakeholders, not just shareholders. And indeed, many companies are recognizing these responsibilities in the current pandemic, with several paying furloughed workers and donating products. Investors have largely supported those efforts. But when it comes to corporate responsibility, there’s one red line that many shareholders say should never be crossed: the dividend.

• companies are so manic about protecting their dividend that they're willing to cut workers in order to preserve it
  
• dividends don't benefit investors because they're simply pulling money out of the company and lowering its share price
  
• stock buybacks are different, and better, because buybacks are more flexible. You can execute them when it makes sense (Snowball laughs out loud given the transparent record of buying back overvalued shares in order to prop them up) and skip other years. Dividends are sort of a permanent entitlement.
  
• in consequence, companies do stupid things to guard the dividend, investors overpay for stocks offering a dividend (you can lose 2-4% per annum in total returns) and it encourages investor complacency because they see dividend-payers are "buy it and forget it" stocks.
  
• solutions? Have reporting services focus on total return, not share price appreciation, stats and have companies treat all future dividends as "special dividends," that is, as one time payouts that will be resumed if and only if economic circumstances justify it.

David, with thanks to johnN

@hank: There is talk of infrastructure spending and it's been going on since the 2016 presidential campaign, thus my skepticism. In my view, the US is unwilling to invest in infrastructure projects that don't pay for themselves. The wonderful high-speed trains in Europe and Asia do not make money, but they make for great travel and they preserve the environment. California's effort to build an HS train route has been trashed by the same administration that promised infrastructure spending. Very few states appear willing to privatize their toll roads even though it makes perfect sense to do so. BTW, was Mobius partly responsible for the many signals in the past decade or so to buy emerging markets?
Your comment on gold prompts me to say the physical gold we inherited in 2012 has had a "V" shaped recovery: it has gone from $1675 to $1275 and now back up to $1700+. It cost me more for the safe deposit box than my entire appreciation.

The fund is changing focus from opportunistic ("event driven") value investing to intrinsic value investing, and adding an explicit requirement that 65% of its portfolio be invested in income-producing securities. As it migrates its portfolio, it expects to have a lot of turnover.
Managers (people) come and go, but I can't recall seeing a subadvisor (management company) resigning. Usually it's fired by the fund family running the fund. Here, the fund's long time (30+ years) managers, Harold Levy and David Cohen created the submanagement company that is "resigning". If they simply wanted to close up shop, First Eagle could have hired the remaining managers and not had to overhaul the fund. All in all, the "resignation" seems rather strange.
The in-house managers assigned by First Eagle have at best limited experience managing funds. Albertini is a manager of FEBAX, but he's the junior one of four, with just over a year's experience there. First Eagle describes Gupta as an associate manager of SGENX, but he doesn't appear in the fund's prospectus. It's a similar situation with Christian Heck who is described as an associate manger of SGOVX, but isn't in the fund's prospectus. In short, no lead management experience, and little experience at a level senior enough to even merit a mention in a prospectus.
High turnover, inexperienced management, virtually a new fund (new objective). Hard to find any reason to consider this fund.

Other EV News:

Move over, Tesla Inc., another environmentally friendly vehicle maker is stealing your sunshine. Shares of Nikola Corp. leapt as much as 71% to a record in its third day of trading on the Nasdaq after a reverse merger with VectoIQ Acquisition Corp.

electric-truck-company-called-nikola-surged-71-in-its-third-day

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/906352/000093041320001580/c95954_497.htm
Changes are in Investment Objective, Investment Strategy, Portfolio Manager Team, Advisory Fee Rate and Expense Limitations of the Fund, and Resignation of Subadviser

A “trigger point” for electric cars will occur once they overtake gasoline-powered vehicles around 2030-2035, Zeng said. That view is more ambitious than that of researchers such as BNEF, which expects the shift to take place a few years later.
CATL, which is adding a production facility in Germany, is set to make more than 70% of batteries required by BMW, an early customer, Zeng said. CATL also works with Volkswagen’s Audi unit and is cooperating with Porsche, he said.

a-million-mile-battery-from-china-could-power-your-electric-car

https://www.forbes.com/sites/moneyshow/2020/06/08/where-to-invest-now-10-experts-share-some-favorite-ideas/#14faaad76eb8
Several mf managers give good recommendations and ideas what to consider buying next
They also have web seminars in june10_12
https://online.moneyshow.com/june-2020/?scode=050428

Hi Vintage,
Hope you're doing well and being safe.
First off, I always maintain a couple of canaries to alert me to movement in the sector. Good or bad, this is where I like to play. Collecting coins for 65 years does things to you.
I had purchases of ISVLF 1/30/19 @ .2231, 3/24/20 @ .2749, 4/6/20 @ .235. (currently @ .499)
KOOYF 3/24/20 @ .16 (currently @ .255)
TKRFF most recent on 4/6/20 @ .088 (currently @ .1405)
Please keep in mind that these are penny silver mining stocks and you can rest assured that you will see massive volatility. It is COMMON to see 10% point swings in a day.
And please let me repeat that the vast majority of precious metal mutual funds consist of mining stocks, albeit gold dominate. The bullion plays are mostly ETFs. Be very careful with bullion ETFs as they are taxable at collectible rates (i.e. keep them in deferred or exempt accounts). And I will mention again, I do not like bullion ETFs. Too many accounting issues that give me the creeps. For bullion, the first and foremost alternative is REAL PHYSICAL BULLION. Geez, go with bling is you must. For playing the sector, I like the mining stocks and over the years, silver has been my investment vehicle of choice. Originally per force as a GI bill econ major selling my restaurant stash into the Hunt Bros attempt to corner the market. Silver went up 10x to ~$50. Gold went up 2-3 to $850. Rono partied like a bloody maniac.
I got into the miners during the Big Bonanza from 2002 to 2011. The leverage is enormous. I was buying Silver Wheaton between $2-4 per and it went to $43. ChaChing! My one and only Home Run.
and so it goes,
peace and flatten the curve,
rono

here's a visual of those two 9/1 days, set against the backdrop of the nyse composite. only time will tell how etc etc.
https://ishort.ink/6s5R

Barron’s often features excerpted clips of investment advice from various forecasters. The following comes from this week’s magazine. I don’t know anything about the Aden forecast. The message provides food for thought. Will be interesting in the following months to see how correct they were. (No link / Transcribed from subscription)
Steer Clear of Bonds The Aden Forecast: Money, Metals, Markets adenforecast.com
”June 4: Interestingly, interest rates are starting to rise. The 30-year yield is leading the way. It’s above its 15-week moving average, at a three month high, and the 10-year yield is following. We’ve been showing you how oversold interest rates have been, which means they’re poised to head even higher, especially now that the rise is getting underway. This is going to coincide with an ongoing drop in bond prices, so continue to steer clear of all bonds for now.” *
Barron’s June 8, 2020 (By Mary Anne and Pamela Aden)
*There was additional short commentary on action in the U.S. Dollar index. It wasn’t directly related to the above, so I didn’t include it.

Curious as to why VFINX has reclaimed YTD loss pretty much, while DSENX still have 5% to go. Anomaly, or has something broken in DSENX?

https://www.fxstreet.com/analysis/wall-street-next-week-202006071602
Wall Street next week
ANALYSIS | Published Jun 07, 2020 16:02 (+00:00)
1. Markets cannot go higher on valid fundamentals
We believe the short squeeze (soon) over and any good news MORE THAN built into markets. We also believe this is a time to be defensive rather than FOMO. Going forward economic activity caused by the pandemic should bottom out and a real recovery will happen, but one that is slow going and uneven. We see a U US economic recovery but stock markets NOT V, L or U but W.
There is very high risk in the market now until late Summer.
IT IS TIME TO PROTECT/EXIT especially above 3150 SPX.
POST SUMMER INVESTMENTS SHOULD BE TARGETED FOR A POST COVID-19 WORLD
Couple fundamental points for next wk

(Cue the Forrest Gump impersonation:) Some here might remember the saga: we wanted to move wifey's 403b at a former employer and just convert it to a Trad IRA with VLAAX. It took them 3 months to even acknowledge that we exist (by mail) to tell us that a request had been made to the old custodian to transfer the money. THEN, we received a 2nd letter from Value Line telling us they were going to try a 2nd request to the old custodian. ("You know why it didn't go through the first time, you geniuses? Because the money isn't THERE any longer!")
Yes, after a couple of MONTHS, we went with Bruce BRUFX. Fast, quick, efficient, done.
"And that's all I have to say about THAT."
********************************************
And honestly, the one whose money is already in DODBX? She's got it on cruise control, uninterested in doing any new paperwork with a new fund family. You can lead a horse to the water, but...
Here's Sam Browne with a hot and spirited version of George and Dhani Harrison's song, "Horse To The Water."

@hank: Thanks for the reply. After reading your reply I do remember seeing some of your moves on MFO. I purchased two allocation funds mentioned here, SFAAX & VLAAX & bought VWINX at Vanguard. StaySafe, Derf

@Derf - Sorry for delayed response. I’m aware you were buying back than and either called the bottom or came darn close. I’m looking now at what you picked up. Lipper rates SFAAX quite high except expenses. I like that it has a long track record back to ‘86. VLAAX another pretty good choice, but another with high frees. VWINX is regarded as among the best in its class - but around 60% bonds. I was attempting (with limited success) to steer away from bonds back than. Don’t recall the reason. Possibly the Fed had already signaled their coming move to greater stimulus. That said, I do believe some income producing funds / assets are important to a balanced portfolio - unless of course you are very young. Sometimes it pays to act quickly. I didn’t buy after just a mere 1000-2000 Dow drop. But after 4,000 - 5,000 points down from around 29,500 it made sense to grab the net and start dipping.

people, suggest further researching
drill down into these threads as much as you can stand; Casselman is exemplary
https://twitter.com/bencasselman/status/1268936475791548416

I like to track DODBX, instead. Balanced. Stocks AND bonds. My numbers are from Morningstar. It sits today at 80th percentile among peers. But in real terms, down for 2020 now by just -3.77%. Given the recent uptrend, I'd say it will climb out and produce profit, as well as yield: currently at 2.57%. Looking at percentile rankings going back several, maybe a handful of years, there are some years where it underperformed peers, but most years are good to excellent. It is less consistently wonderful than PRWCX, but PRWCX is still CLOSED.
Back in 2010, reorienting a friend (and wife's) money, my intent was to spread the money out, to diversify. So, they own both DODBX and PRWCX, still, 10 years on. I guess you just can't have EVERYTHING. Life is like that. And, like me, they are investors, not traders. Trading just seems too much like real WORK!

OMG, the lib media is in shock, they expected at least 7 million job losses and they got +2.5 million gain. The 2.5 million came without help from NY+CA which are still shut down.
It's terrible for them but good for America.
Then came their usual, it's a lie, it's meaningless, it's only low paying jobs why cheer.
When unemployment was the lowest ever (for many categories) months ago even then they didn't cheer. It's so ridiculous.
Wait, social distancing? no more. Let's march together, burn and loot our cities, and defund the police.

@msf Thanks for the added details. The size of the "errors" for April and May appear to be similar to the size of the total monthly unemployment rates for many preceding individual months (how the world has changed!). This article was the first I noticed to point them out. It seems odd the BLS did not more prominently make reference to them at the beginning of their monthly News Releases given their magnitudes. That likely would have provided a clearer picture of the current unemployment situation. (The note referenced in the Washington Post article is located near the bottom of page 6 of the BLM's June 5 News Release.)
https://bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

I finally tried this out a week ago. A nuisance to trade on a mobile device (the only platform Fidelity supports for fractional shares). But since I had already loaded the application to deposit the infrequent paper check, it wasn't that a big deal.
No problem, very smooth operation. I used it to buy a cash substitute ETF in an IRA. That seems like an ideal use of this feature, since cash is tracked in dollars and cents.
It worked slightly differently from the way one would by an OEF. When one buys an OEF by dollar amount, one gets a certain number of shares (calculated to three places). No cash remains in the account, even if the number of shares purchased are worth a penny or two less that the size of your order.
With my ETF purchase, the number of shares was also calculated out to three decimal places. But I was left with 2¢ cash in my account.
Schwab finally followed through with its earlier announcement of fractional shares. Seeing that it doesn't handle ETFs, it doesn't handle stocks outside of the S&P 500, and it doesn't handle amounts under $5, it really is a day late and a dollar short.
https://www.schwab.com/fractional-shares-stock-slices/gift