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Tweedy Browne Value TWEBX

Currently this fund is mostly all large cap. Theres a few % in mid & small but not much at all. Does anyone here know their history investing in small and mid cap over the years? It seems to me they have....like an all cap fund, but lean towards large cap. I was thinking they're flexable and will go where they see the best value. Thanks!

Comments

  • According to Morningstar, TWEBX had 60% of its holdings in small or midcap back in 2000, and the fund is still relatively small ($602 million per M*), so I'd say that the large cap emphasis now is just a valuation judgment. The case with Tweedy's foreign fund (TBGVX) is similar. The only problem I've ever seen with Tweedy, Browne is that the expenses are rather high. Maybe in this case you get what you pay for.
  • Thanks Vert. I've been interested in them for a while now. You really have to be patient and realize they will lag in up markets. You have to be able to accept this and keep a long term focus. They really excel in down markets. I imagine that is due to buying quality companies at deep discounts with a big margin of safety.
  • Reply to @clemg64: Tweedy Browne is a true value shop in every sense of the word. Of the two funds I prefer TBGVX.
    Regards,
    Ted
  • Thanks Ted. Yeah I read a lot there reports on their site. I've been interested in them ever since I read The Little Book of Value Investing by Chris Browne. And I don't read a lot:)
  • I split TRBVX 50-50 in 1210 when TBCUX was offered. TBCUX has slightly outperformed acc. to M* and to my records. Not a great difference, but it all depends on your view of the dollar's strength.
  • I wasn't impressed with TBGVX's 38% loss in 2008. Even though the MSCI EAFE lost 43%, this fund was reputed to "excel in down markets". I expected better downside protection, and a 38% loss coupled with high fees was good enough reason to sell the fund.
  • My wife is in Tweedy, Browne because their investment philosophy is very much aligned with her own. The 38% loss in the recent crash was disappointing, but given magnitude of events, I think its understandable that there was little place to hide. They did much better in the dot.com downturn, for example.

    My only concerns with Tweedy is their fee level; and the fact that over longer periods of time they underperform (on a cumulative basis) many of the other usual suspects in their respective areas. Last I checked, they still best the indexes (international, global), but lag, say, Dodge & Cox by a pretty wide margin. Another puzzling factor is that their international offering (which has a "global" moniker for some reason) performs much better than their global offering (which has the simple name "value fund", because the fund was transitioned from a predominantly US fund several years ago, but kept the name).

    I think for a conservative investor, these are solid choices.
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