Howdy,
A thank you to all who post the links, start and participate in the many fine commentaries woven into the message threads.
For those who don't know; I ramble away about this and that, at least once each week.
NOTE: For those who visit MFO, this portfolio is designed for near retirement, capital preservation and to stay ahead of inflation creep. This is not a buy and hold portfolio, and is subject to change on any given day; based upon perceptions of market directions. All assets in this portfolio are in tax-sheltered accounts; and any fund distributions are reinvested in the funds. Gains or losses are computed from actual account values.
While looking around..... Fund Tools, here at MFO and Google Finance. MFO's Accipiter has graciously provided 2 wonderful tools for our use. Both tools, Falcon's Eye and Navigator may be found at the main, large, blue title bar at the top of each page here, but I will only define my use of Navigator. At "Resources", hover the mouse for a drop down menu, and select "Navigator". Accipiter has written a nice "how-to" at this page. This note regards finding funds by name title, to help sort a fund list for special fund types of interest. A good example, which will allow you to discover the value of this tool; is to type the word "unconstrained" in the "fund" box. This word example is used to find any fund that is likely an "unconstrained bond fund" by vendor name. You will discover a full list to be generated, at which point you may click upon the fund name, which will allow you to study this fund via a number of selectable sources (M*, etc.). NOTE: If one uses a very generic name, as "total"; the generated list may be too large, and can not fill to the end of the alpahbetic naming list. Also, as you begin to type a naming; you will likely find an intuitive list begin to generate; which may or may not be what you intended to search.
Google Finance: You do not need to be signed in or a registered user of any Google function to use this method.
At the search box, try "high yield" for a test of this feature. An intuitive drop list will begin to form. Ignore this list and click the "blue spyglass" to generate a list of the words searched. Upon loading your search, you will discover a "company" and a "mutual fund" header list generated. As you scroll down, the "company" list may contain various types of funds (etf's, index, etc.). Further scrolling will provide the "mutual fund" list. IN BOTH LISTS, if the list is large, you will find a "more" highlighted at the end of the list. For high yield, 100's of mutual funds are noted; but keep in mind, and not unlike "Navigator", some of these are redundant listings for various classes of a same fund. After selecting more, arrow keys appear at the list end to move through the list.
I believe all of these procedures are proper steps. If I missed something, please let me know.
The data/numbers below have been updated.
As to sector rotations below (Fidelity funds); for the past week: (Note: any given fund in any of these sectors will have varing degrees of performance based upon where the manager(s) choose to be invested and will not directly reflect upon your particular fund holdings from other vendors.)
--- U.S. equity - 2.4% through + 3.8%, week avg. = + 2.4% YTD = + 16%
--- Int'l equity - .4% through + 4.0%, week avg. = + 2.5% YTD = + 11%
--- Select eq. sectors + .9% through + 5.6%, week avg. = + 2.7% YTD = + 15%
--- U.S./Int'l bonds - 2.4% through + .6%, week avg. = - .26% YTD = + 3.2%
--- HY bonds + .2% through + 1.1%, week avg. = + .65% YTD = + 10.3%
An Excellent Overview, M* 1 Month through 5 Year, Multiple Indexes
You may consider our portfolio to be quite boring, but you may be assured that it moves and bends each and every day; from forces beyond our control. We retail investors will find many interesting investment periods to ponder, as usual, in the coming years.
I have added a few blips related to our portfolio and market observations at the below SELLs/BUYs and Portfolio Thoughts.
SELLs/BUYs THIS PAST WEEK: = NONE
Portfolio Thoughts:
Our holdings had a + .27 % move this past week. Sidenote: The average return of 200 combined Fidelity retail funds across all sectors (week avg = + 1.75%, YTD + 12%). The equity markets, while having been very happy recently, still appear a bit on edge; so our portfolio will stay in place for now. This coming week may indicate any further actions by the Fed. Reserve, relative to "stimulus". We will review one particular holding (PLDDX) based upon a Fed. plan going forward. As for Europe's grand plan to buy every sovereign bond in sight to help stablize some country bond issues; well, I am not waving a victory flag for this project just yet. Still plodding along, and we will retain the below write from previous weeks; as what we are watching still applies.
--- commodity pricing, especially the energy and base materials areas; copper and related.
--- the $US broad basket value, and in particular against the Euro and Aussie dollar (EU zone and China/Asia uncertainties).
--- price directions of U.S. treasury's, German bunds, U.K. gilts, Japanese bonds; and continued monitoring of Spanish/Italian bond pricing/yield.
--- what we are watching to help understand the money flows: SHY, IEF, TLT, TIP, STPZ, LTPZ, LQD, EMB, HYG, IWM, IYT & VWO; all of which offer insights reflected from the big traders as to the quality/risk, or lack of quality/risk; in various bond sectors. These areas may also reflect towards directions of various equity sectors; as if some bond types get the cold shoulder, so will some equity areas, regardless of perceived quality or value.
The Funds Boat is at anchor, riding in the small waves, watching the weather and behind the breakwater barrier. To the high praise of MFO and the members, it is very difficult to find a topic to note here that has not been placed into the discussion boards. Excellence, as usual.
I have retained the following links for those who may choose to do their own holdings comparison against the fund types noted.
The first two links to Bloomberg are for their list of balanced/flexible funds; although I don't always agree with the placement of fund styles in their categories.
Bloomberg Balanced
Bloomberg Flexible
These next two links are for conservative and moderate fund leaders YTD, per MSN.
Conservative Allocation
Moderate Allocation
A reflection upon the links above. We attempt to establish a "benchmark" for our portfolio to help us "see" how our funds are performing. Aside from viewing many funds within the balanced/flexible funds rankings (the above links), a quick and dirty group of 5 funds (below) we watch for psuedo benchmarking are the following:
***Note: these week/YTD's per M*
VWINX .... + .2% week, YTD = + 8.56%
PRPFX .... + 2.05% week, YTD = + 7.01%
SIRRX ..... + .13 % week, YTD = + 5.29%
TRRFX .... + 1.24% week, YTD = + 9.39%
VTENX ... + .95% week, YTD = + 8.56%
Such are the numerous battles with investments attempting to capture a decent return and minimize the risk.
We live and invest in interesting times, eh? Hey, I probably forgot something; and hopefully the words make some sense. Comments and questions always welcomed.
Good fortune to you, yours and the investments.
Take care,
Catch
---Below is what M* x-ray has attempted to sort for our portfolio, as of June 1, 2012---
From what I find, M* has a difficult time sorting out the holdings with bond funds.
U.S./Foreign Stocks 1.9%
Bonds 93.9% ***
Other 4.2%
Not Classified 0.00%
Avg yield = 3.72%
Avg expense = .55%
***about 18% of the bond total are high yield category (equity related cousins)
---This % listing is kinda generic, by fund "name"; which doesn't always imply the holdings, eh?
-Investment grade bond funds 28.2%
-Diversified bond funds 22.4%
-HY/HI bond funds 14.5%
-Total bond funds 32.4%
-Foreign EM/debt bond funds .6%
-U.S./Int'l equity/speciality funds 1.9%
This is our current list: (NOTE: I have added a speciality grouping below for a few of fund types)
---High Yield/High Income Bond funds
FAGIX Fid Capital & Income
SPHIX Fid High Income
FHIIX.LW Fed High Income
DIHYX TransAmerica HY
---Total Bond funds
FTBFX Fid Total
PTTRX Pimco Total
---Investment Grade Bonds
ACITX Amer. Cent. TIPS Bond
DGCIX Delaware Corp. Bd
FBNDX Fid Invest Grade
FINPX Fidelity TIPS Bond
OPBYX Oppenheimer Core Bond
---Global/Diversified Bonds
FSICX Fid Strategic Income
FNMIX Fid New Markets
DPFFX Delaware Diversified
LSBDX Loomis Sayles
PONDX Pimco Income fund (steroid version)
PLDDX Pimco Low Duration (domestic/foreign)
---Speciality Funds (sectors or mixed allocation)
FRIFX Fidelity Real Estate Income (bond/equity mix)
---Equity-Domestic/Foreign
NONE outright, with the exception of equities held inside of some of the above funds.
Comments
But, what is PDDLX?
Z
In this case, a brain fart. I stopped house painting for a bit before the write and swapped the ticker digits........should be PLDDX (Pimco Low Duration bond fund).
Thank you for catching the boo-boo.
Regards,
Catch