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PTIAX falling like a rock.

edited March 2020 in Fund Discussions
PTIAX Just thought I'd mention it. Together with the rest of the market's meltdown, the fund is more than 9% of my stuff, now. Unbelievable swings in the Indices! I suspect a mid-month dividend is due overnight, which might help to explain today's performance, Friday the 13th. ... (And "beware the Ides of March!")

Comments

  • bad time for bond funds, good correlation with other classes
  • edited March 2020
    err...looks like that on the chart but percent drop isn't much. am i missing something?
  • PTIAX was approaching +5% for the year. Now at +1.45%, but this is from Morningstar, so take it with a pound of salt...
  • @Crash LOL. I'm not sure you have a legitimate complaint about your fund "only up 1.45%". Falling like a rock indeed :-D
  • @Crash
    You're are likely still in the sleep zone at your house. But, you may review this link regarding the reactions of your bond fund relative to the broad bond market actions.
    While it is unknown what the managers attempted of the fund did during the past week, if you review the fund web page, you may have a better understanding based upon (somewhat) the last reported holdings.
  • @VintageFreak and @catch22 Thanks, Catch, I read that thread. Re-read, actually, but this time, I paid attention. I was thinking and feeling the same thing: "nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide." Are the markets broken? We've been in a different world, along with Alice and the Mad Hatter and the Doormouse for quite a while, eh? Zero, or near-zero rates. Gov't stimulus everywhere, out the ying-yang..... This (former) bull has been propped-up continuously, for years, now. Savers are suffering. The divorce between Main Street and Wall Street. The gigantic gulf between workers and management. Diluted currencies. Outrageous public debt. And the beat goes on... About PTIAX: well, ya, it's still above zero. But it's full of less than prime stuff, and so, it was getting "killed." The common wisdom is that bonds move opposite of stocks. But low-quality bonds are more connected to the behavior of equities than AAA-rated stuff. I get that.:)
  • edited March 2020
    @Crash FWIW. These are just a few random thoughts....

    It doesn't surprise me that many bond funds took a hit this week. Maybe the bond market is in an "early stage" and rather dysfunctional way saying the bottom is approaching on interest rates (zero percent is a pretty low rate!). Doesn't the NAV for most multisector bond funds tend to decrease as rates start to bump off a rate bottom? (I suspect the current bump was partly related to technical issues and is just a bump for the time being.)

    I am not convinced the world as we know it is coming to an end. Its my sense the Fed will move heaven and earth to keep credit flowing and prevent a total meltdown in the bond markets...zero percent discount rate, quantitative easing, and new tricks yet to be unveiled. Here is a look at the state of the bond market. It can profitably be read just for the generalist highlights.

    https://seekingalpha.com/article/4332039-when-black-swans-collide

    A recession is likely in the offing. So, I suspect the fiscal floodgates will open to prop up the economy over the next year or so.

    https://washingtonpost.com/business/2020/03/14/recession-economy-coronavirus-jobs/

    My thought is the markets and the economy will move past this. The PTIAX dividends will keep arriving and management is skilled enough to make lemon aide out of the lemons. (I own some too.)

    Maybe I acted too early, but on Friday I bought some more ZEOIX (down 2.94% year to date) and initiated a postion in RCTIX (down 0.56% year to date).

  • edited March 2020
    While PTIAX may have disappointed you, it has outperformed many other popular multisector funds the past week, month, and YTD.

    Fund 1Wk 1Mo YTD

    PTIAX -3.24 -0.56 1.45
    PIMIX -4.64 -5.69 -4.54
    VCFAX -2.72 -2.42 -1.07
    PUCZX -7.59 -8.20 -6.61
    JMUTX -4.52 -4.42 -2.99
  • @Observnt1 and @davfor Thanks for the work, guys. I learn a lot around this discussion board. It's all your fault! ;) I wasn't so much disappointed as surprised and dismayed, but now I see what happened, and a better picture of the "why."
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