Return from Vacation: Portfolio Update-

Old_Joe

Returned yesterday via Amtrack from Washington DC, after trip through Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Connecticut to see fall colors. A week in Boston, and a week at the Smithsonian. Grateful that the economic world did not melt down (again) while we were away. Were able to watch the Giants clean house from the East Coast. !! YES !! Got out of DC just ahead of the storm shutdown. Lucky once again!

Following is the present portfolio percentage distribution, showing changes from 10/1 to 10/29.
Cash positions are not shown, but approximate portfolio distribution currently is:
Equity Funds: 16% / Bond Funds: 32% / Cash: 51% • (May not equal 100% due to rounding error.)

		10/29/12		
		 Change		AF = American Funds
		 Since		AC = American Century
Fund	 PF %	10/1/12		S: = Schwab Account
				
ANCFX	7%	-1.31%		AF Fundamental Investors
SMCWX	3.8%	-1.45%		AF Smallcap World Fund
CWGIX	2.2%	-0.91%		AF Capital World Growth & Income
ANEFX	6.8%	-1.23%		AF New Economy Fund
GABAX	2.5%	-0.62%		S: Gabelli Asset
MAPIX	0.9%	1.64%		S: Matthews Asia Dividend
GASFX	0.9%	-0.26%		S: FBR Fund Advisors
MFLDX	2.1%	-0.52%		S: Marketfield
				
ABALX	16.2%	-0.94%		AF American Balanced Fund
GBLAX	0.1%	-0.46%		AF Global Balanced
TWSMX	9%	-1.13%		AC Strategic Allocation (Moderate)
				
ABNDX	9.5%	-0.23%		AF Bond Fund of America
AIBAX	7.5%	-0.29%		AF Intermediate Bond Fund 
CWBFX	0.6%	-0.61%		AF Capital World Bond Fund
AHITX	10.8%	0.54%		AF High Income Trust
ABHIX	4.8%	0.32%		AC High Yield Bond Fund 
BGNMX	1.1%	-0.89%		AC GNMA Bond Fund
ADFIX	2.8%	-0.35%		AC Diversified Bond Fund
ACITX	8.5%	-0.07%		AC Inflation Adjusted Bond Fund
RPHYX	0.9%	0.3%		S: Riverpark Short Term HY
PONDX	2.2%	0.33%		S: PIMCO Income Fund (D) 
				
Total Portfolio Change:		-0.51%		
				
				

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Gandalf

Welcome back. I enjoyed your trip report more than how your port changed. Sounds like you had some fantastic travels.

hank

Welcome back OJ. Sounds like a neat trip. Tigers fielded a very fine team - but no match for your Giants who played superb. Congrats to everyone in the SF Bay area. We're preparing to fly down to the Keys for few days. No hurricanes down there - but the storm approaching Michigan may complicate matters. Take care.

Charles

Hi Old Joe.

Why do you choose to invest in so many funds? Tell me that it is simply because you like to.

Versus the more stodgy road of investing in say a single conservative fund, like Vanguard Wellesley Income Adm VWIAX, which produced similar results to your portfolio last month.

In any case, thanks for sharing.

Old_Skeet

Hey Old_Joe ...

Glad you made it out on NY before everything shut down ... Would not have wanted to get stuck there with the wrath of Sandy moving through. I watched a special last night on the storm ... man, this reminded me of Hugo that tore up the Carolina's and moved North to WV and on into PA.

I was at the Carolina coast to mid day Saturday and headed out to higher ground. My cat was feeling the effects of the storm as he usually just rides in the back window of the car in a most mundane fashion ... but, not this time as he quickly became an alley cat type. Did not like the wind, rain, etc.

Our family home in Charlotte is in one of the old neighborhoods that dates back to the late 1800's. With that the power lines are on poles that run through the alley ways. When Hugo tore everything up our home was one of the last ones to get power back as it was out for about a month as the debris had to be cleared from the alley ways before they could restring and replace blown transformers. Our street had stuff piled on the crub for months as special contractors were hired to collect the rubble. Not something I want to go through again. I feel first hand for those that have now experienced Sandy.

We were lucky though ... In Charlotte a 100 year oak tree went down with damage to our home and it took over a year to put it back together ... at the coast ... only a few branches out of the pines to pick up and the yard to clean up ... no damage whatsoever to the home. You would have thought the coastal property would have been hit the hardest and for some indeed they did get hit hard ... but, 200 miles away severe damage too.

I am sure there are those around that remember Hugo (September, 1989) ... and, I am sure there are those that will remember Sandy (October, 2012) for many years to come.

That train excursion must have been one heck of a trip? And, how about the club car? How was the food, etc? Would you make the trip again?

Glad I have been trimming equities back and by my math the S&P is about 5% off it's recent high, perhaps it will pull back some more ... Got some cash to play with now.

And, most of all I am happy to learn that you had a good trip and returned home safely.

Best wishes ... and, "Good Investing."
Skeeter

catch22

Howdy OJ,
Well, the portfolio held just fine during your travels. The best is that both of you were able to sample food in new areas of the country and expand your minds with all of the locations visited. Always good for a nice unwind.
Glad to know you two are home; safe and sound and having enjoyed the journey.
Take care,
Catch

hank

- As Catch noted the stability of your port, I'll toss in that markets have seemed fairly stable since about the time of your infamous (I think correct) "If you're thinking of selling ..." post. Yes, they shot ahead after the Sept Fed statement and have backed off somewhat since. Gold has backed down to near $1700 from around $1800. Oil's in the mid 80's from near $100. I pay more attention to the Dow, which as of this write still sits above 13,000. And the NAS is still above 2900, near where it sat prior to the '08 beating. (As volatility leads to more buying and selling, I'm thankful for the calm & trust the timing police at the various fund houses feel the same:-)

- As for Charles' inquiry as to why some of us (self included) own such a high number of funds, I'll resort to the mountain climber motto: "Becausre they're there". - Not the best reason, perhaps, but probably bears more truth than most want to admit. - Regards, hank

... Err ... excuse me while I go throw a shoe at the answering machine. *#&!!* politicians

Old_Joe

Reply to @Charles: A very long story, Charles, going back forty years or more to when we first started to invest, knowing absolutely nothing about investing. As you might recall, I mentioned some of that history in a previous post. At this point most of the Amerian Funds stuff is IRA, just starting to be drawn down by required reductions, all of the American Century is non-IRA, mostly kept just because it's done pretty well for a long time, and would be our second line of defense in case of a cash emergency.

All of the Schwab stuff except Gabelli is quite new, and a result of discussions and suggestions here at MFO. They are funds of a nature not available at either American Funds or American Century.

I've been using the same Apple Works spreadsheet for more than twenty years to keep track of this stuff, and it really isn't all that hard... I just paste in a Google Finance list of all of those funds, and the rest is automatic.

You are quite right about the possibility of one particular fund essentially providing the same results over some particular period of time. I had to laugh about that myself a while back because holding only ABALX would have given the same results as the whole portfolio for the time frame that I was looking at. Over the long haul, though, spreading it around makes for better security, I hope.




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Old_Joe

Hi there Skeeter- very relieved to hear that you got through this without serious damage, and I hope that all of our other MFO folks are OK too. I know just the type of neighborhood that you are describing in Charlotte.

The train itself was a lot of fun, especially traveling again through the Rocky and Sierra mountain ranges. No club car as such, but a nice observation lounge car. Food and wine decent.

Have extra cash sitting in bank, with inflationary moths steadily chewing away. Hope to put some of that back to work if market provides opportunity.

Thanks for the kind thoughts!

Regards- OJ

Old_Joe

Thanks, Catch & Hank. Always very nice to hear from you two.

hank

Reply to @Old_Joe: Good stuff. I like to spread her around too.

Charles

Thanks Old Joe, hank. Understand. I used to have just 3 funds. Then, I subscribed to FundAlarm and MFO. Read all the good MFO advice...you guys, David, scott, bee, catch, Skeeter, and so many more...so, I too am unable to resist. "Because they're there," like hank says, and "Spreading it around makes for better security," I defend like Old Joe.

But resist I try. Each time we trade a mutual fund, we're out of the market a day, at least. Plus the expense of the trade. And the knowledge that the more funds we hold, the closer we are to index exposure, but with higher fees. Then, the inevitable comparison over the follow-on period: "Did I make the right trade?"

I personally will continue to try and resist. Predisposed to not hold too many funds, or employ too many money managers.

Until I read the next MFO post that is...when my resistance will inevitably wane.

Thanks again, Charles

Hiyield007

Reply to @Charles: I am an advocate of concentration. I like to invest/trade in as few funds as possible and go with whatever is working best. Working best means sticking with relative strength/persistency of trend combined with the least amount of volatility. I am an investor when the position is going my way and a trader when it's not. Worked for me in the 80s and 90s with equity mutual funds and since in bond funds. Right now my largest positions are in PONDX and PPSIX with smaller ones in MWCRX, SUBFX, and ABTYX. I am skeptical about how much longer bonds will keep giving but then I am always skeptical.

Ted

FYI: Some of you are kidding yourselves by owning so many funds. You do nothing more than increase your cost and reduce your returns.
Regards,
Ted
http://finance.yahoo.com/funds/how_to_choose/article/100568/Don't_Own_Too_Many_Funds

catch22

Morn'in Ted,

As the phrase goes.....a little "think outside of the box".

There are those who have multiple retirement and other account types that may also cause them the have to choose among those offerings. I know several people today who have had vendor changes within 401k's, 403b's and related. In some cases, they were able to maintain the old accounts and well as the new accounts. One person has had 3, 403b vendors within 25 years. They are able to use all of the accounts and now have a much larger choice of investment funds; versus anyone of the vendors alone.
Also, I don't find a problem with having several similar fund investments within a grouping.

One may choose to be in a particular sector, be it equity or bond; and spread the ability of management, an index or etf to smooth some of the risk of manager actions against other managed funds, static indexes or eft's.

If one has 5 active managed funds in one sector area and all funds have an E.R. of .55%, one does not have a higher expense, as you noted. And how are returns reduced by having "x" number of funds?

Obviously, there are variable factors among all investors that may cause them to invest differently than you or I.

Anyway, to each their own style; and I have no right to be a critic of anyone's methods and/or choices.

Regards,
Catch

Gandalf

I probably have as many or more than OJ, some due to reasons Catch mentions. Nevertheless, I would like to reduce them down to maybe 10 or less, but I suffer from procastination inertia. Will make another run at it just before I retire next year:)

FundStudent

Some people collect sports memorabilia, and some people collect mutual funds. A slim portfolio is the only way for me - I feel scattered and cluttered if I own more than 5 mutual funds.

hank

Kidding? Perhaps - Emotions do play a part for most in the investing process. For those from careers outside the financial world it's a difficult leap entrusting a lifetime's earnings to the vicissitudes of Mr. Market. If a peculiar mix of funds - evolved over many years and the product of much thought - provides the necessary confidence for that investor to stay the course, than there's value.

No doubt Ted has posted many fine links over the years about common mistakes made by average retail investors. Holding too many funds is one. But, the more egregious are: poor timing decisions, big single sector bets, and chasing the latest hot trend, fund, or manager. Am confident the losses arising from duplicity of funds and associated fees pales in comparison to those others.

hank

Reply to @Charles: I think there's a variety of productive strategies and nobody will go wanting for lack of various strategies here. When much younger, our plan at work was very limited. Of the options, one from Templeton Funds (before they merged with Franklin) was least onerous. An assigned "agent" received a 4% load and invested all my contributions in the venerable old TEMWX. That's the only fund he used. It grew nicely over 15-20 years. Years later, T Rowe Price became an option & I slowly transitioned to them. Without an agent and much nearer to retirement, I began diversifying among the vast array of funds at Price.

HY 007 has clearly explained an approach that works for him. My approach is pretty much a modified version of "set it and forget it." 60-65% is essentially buy and hold, about a dozen funds including high yield, commodities, international bonds and various balanced or hybrids - DODBX and PRPFX being two. The remaining 35-40% is divided about equally between cash and equity funds. I only "play" in this part, tilting sometimes more to equities and sometimes more to cash. Allows some input - without risk of upsetting the entire apple cart. The approach evolved 10-12 years ago from an undisciplined "quagmire" of funds - leading to an unusually high number of funds still today. Many years into retirement, it's geared more for stability than for growth.

Since all $$ is directly invested with 6-7 different fund houses, trades in and out of funds are free of charge. Having $$ at several houses, frequent trading restrictions are rarely an issue. Nor do I feel the "tug" each time somebody touts a new fund. The $$ has been rolled into IRAs. Price waives its otherwise substantial IRA fees if one keeps over 50k with them or agrees to "paperless" records. The others get $10-$20 a year in fees. All told - under $100 a year - not bad when you consider that trades are free of charge. ... No one size fits all. Just some ramblings.

Charles

Reply to @hank: Outstanding hank. I forgot that when you invest directly with fund houses, the trading is same day...and, for no cost, typically. I have experienced that at Fairholme Funds versus the one-day turn plus fee (on non-select funds) with my Schwab account. In future, I too will be moving more assets into direct investment with fund houses. And, yes, once the assets are with the fund house, any new offering outside would need to be compelling enough to go through the hassle of moving them. An MFO temptation mitigation approach! Thanks for sharing.