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@Crash / Nice to hear you’re making progress with PRNEX (T. Rowe Price New Era Fund). That one, of course, is in the natural resources area.
I accidentally entered its symbol earlier when intending to reference PRNHX (T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund). That’s the small cap offering. I have corrected the error..
- “John H. Laporte, a onetime Morningstar fund manager of the year who beat three-fourths of his peers in his 22 years managing T. Rowe Price Group Inc.'s New Horizons Fund, has died. He was 68.”
- “From 1987 to 2010 he was lead portfolio manager for small-cap growth portfolios as well as chairman of the investment advisory committee for New Horizons, one of the firm's oldest funds, created by firm founder Thomas Rowe Price Jr. in 1960.”Laporte oversaw a quintupling of assets in the fund, to $5.9 billion, during the two decades he ran it.”
- “Morningstar Mutual Funds, a newsletter published by Chicago-based Morningstar Inc., named him domestic stock fund manager of the year after New Horizons returned 55 percent in 1995 compared with 30 percent for the Russell 2000 Index.”
- “His successor at the helm of New Horizons, Henry Ellenbogen, hasn't dropped the torch. The fund had the highest total return over the past three years and the best risk-adjusted performance among small-cap funds that buy U.S. stocks, according to the Bloomberg Riskless Return Ranking. As of July 31 it had $13.2 billion in assets, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, more than twice as much as when Laporte left.”
That was then. This is now. Memory is a funny thing.
Henry Ellenbogen moved on from PRNHX in 2019 and founded Durable Capital. He was/is a member of Barron's Annual Roundtable that is published every January. Amazingly, Barron's kept him as a Roundtable Member even around his 2019 transition when he left Price to start Durable, and was really without any job for a while until Durable was up and running.
FWIW - I noted that the Bloomberg article I linked was from 2013 in making my point that PRNHX has seen better days. Ellenbogen’s earlier tenure was part of the reason.
@Crash, I took your challenge. It seems that pages exist but cannot be found from the main Durable Cap link. The "tech guys" need serious web help. There is also some clickable mumbo-jumbo at the end. https://www.durablecap.com/team-bios/
His bio at Price also needs updating - it reads like he is still there, but he left 4 years ago! May be Price thought that his Durable Capital stuff will flop & he will return.
Small Caps Rockin' the Casbah again today! Equal weighted S&P outperformed yesterday. The arguably best T/A poster on investment forums recently stated we could see S&P 5,500 by Turkey Day 2024.
All systems appear to be GO for US stock investors heading into the New Year!
"The crowd caught a whiff Of that crazy Casbah jive"
Sectors that have been close to moribund have attracted buyers. Totally anecdotal, because I’m no expert. Nonetheless, healthcare has moved up, and two of the four « final trades » on MSNBC at noon today were in health. My position in GSK no longer feels like an ulcer. All the SC ETFs I track seem to have been administered some sort of upper, reminding me of Oliver Sacks and the film « Awakenings. » SCHW went a bit nuts today and so did KRE, so the financial sector may be participating. Real estate is showing up green instead of red. Makes a guy scratch his head.
Sectors that have been close to moribund have attracted buyers. Totally anecdotal, because I’m no expert. Nonetheless, healthcare has moved up, and two of the four « final trades » on MSNBC at noon today were in health. My position in GSK no longer feels like an ulcer. All the SC ETFs I track seem to have been administered some sort of upper, reminding me of Oliver Sacks and the film « Awakenings. » SCHW went a bit nuts today and so did KRE, so the financial sector may be participating. Real estate is showing up green instead of red. Makes a guy scratch his head.
People have stopped listening to Powell about rate cuts. Or they have decided that 5.25% is not the end of the world.
If this keeps up, I might be able to get myself out of some of the silly stuff I got my IRA into in November 2021. Oy.
Thought that I would bump this discussion back up the thread to see if anyone has found any additional small cap funds they are considering adding. I plan to continue holding PKSAX and NEAGX. Might add to PKSAX in the new year in 401K. Also will probably add DSMC which @BenWP kindly brought to my attention. Thanks and happy New Year to all.
Mentioned earlier, AVUV seems to have a slightly better chart than DSMC, but Ben was concerned about the number of positions. I went with the former; for whatever that is worth.
I added CALF to my holdings a few months back. It offers a different take on individual small cap stock selection. I expect to continue to hold it but no promises as I hold other equity positions that in crude small caps.
Thanks for the feedback @raqueteer. hard to find a consistently strong performing fund in the small cap space if you look at the 1 3 5 and 10 year time frames that also has good downside protection. Large cap has so strongly outperformed small cap over last ten years. Best example I have found that meets these attributes is PKSAX. AVUV and CALF look interesting.
Someone pointed out to me that CALF, while certainly interesting, also was consciously avoiding financials. Depending on your view of that sector, that could be a factor to consider, @MikeW. That would have been a tailwind that might not be present in the future if financials rebound.
My own opinion on the current holdings in a managed ETF, not sure it means to much other than looking backwards. Maybe CALF has avoided financial for now but could make it a high percentage going forward. Who knows. You have to have faith in the management and process more so than the current holdings, I think. Same for any ETF or mutual fund.
One interesting statistic on CALF and AVUV. CALF has 100 holdings. 73% of those holdings are also in AVUV which has 748 holdings. Obviously, they like many of the same SC stocks, but CALF is more concentrated.
FWIW, I've held QRSVX at different percentages for many years. A conservative SC that does well over time. I've more recently in the past couple months added both CALF and AVUV to my SC holdings.
I can't locate any information that states CALF specifically avoids the financial sector (and/or any other sector). Here's the current Fact Sheet from Pacer.
I can't locate any information that states CALF specifically avoids the financial sector (and/or any other sector). Here's the current Fact Sheet from Pacer.
I guess it would more accurate to say that the fund has avoided financials at least recently. Whether or not that was a temporary decision, I can't say with any conviction. My point was simply that this choice was a tailwind that one cannot count on going forward. Maybe they'd adjust? Don't know. Anyway, it was something pointed out to me that I'd missed, and it figured into my own thinking.
Among the SC funds that I track, FDSCX, Fidelity Small Cap Selector, is among the leaders for every time period going out 15 years. It’s been a steady, reliable performer — unusual for SC funds, which tend to be streaky. I prefer SC blend funds for that reason.
Comments
I accidentally entered its symbol earlier when intending to reference PRNHX (T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund). That’s the small cap offering. I have corrected the error..
https://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/prnhx/portfolio
Click on "Weight" in "Style Box"
https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/summary/779562107
Thanks for helping make my point. As I noted earlier, PRNHX has not been a very good fund recently. But a decade or so ago it was.
Bloomberg (subscription only) article from August 18, 2013:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-08-16/john-laporte-t-rowe-price-manager-who-beat-peers-dies-at-68
A few excerpts from above linked article:
- “John H. Laporte, a onetime Morningstar fund manager of the year who beat three-fourths of his peers in his 22 years managing T. Rowe Price Group Inc.'s New Horizons Fund, has died. He was 68.”
- “From 1987 to 2010 he was lead portfolio manager for small-cap growth portfolios as well as chairman of the investment advisory committee for New Horizons, one of the firm's oldest funds, created by firm founder Thomas Rowe Price Jr. in 1960.”Laporte oversaw a quintupling of assets in the fund, to $5.9 billion, during the two decades he ran it.”
- “Morningstar Mutual Funds, a newsletter published by Chicago-based Morningstar Inc., named him domestic stock fund manager of the year after New Horizons returned 55 percent in 1995 compared with 30 percent for the Russell 2000 Index.”
- “His successor at the helm of New Horizons, Henry Ellenbogen, hasn't dropped the torch. The fund had the highest total return over the past three years and the best risk-adjusted performance among small-cap funds that buy U.S. stocks, according to the Bloomberg Riskless Return Ranking. As of July 31 it had $13.2 billion in assets, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, more than twice as much as when Laporte left.”
That was then. This is now. Memory is a funny thing.
I should add that it also has a new manager. I wouldn't stay in PRWCX if Giroux left.
I dare ya to find anything useful on this webpage. Or find anything at all.
https://www.durablecap.com/
https://www.durablecap.com/team-bios/
His bio at Price also needs updating - it reads like he is still there, but he left 4 years ago! May be Price thought that his Durable Capital stuff will flop & he will return.
Small Caps Rockin' the Casbah again today!
Equal weighted S&P outperformed yesterday.
The arguably best T/A poster on investment forums recently stated we could see S&P 5,500 by Turkey Day 2024.
All systems appear to be GO for US stock investors heading into the New Year!
"The crowd caught a whiff
Of that crazy Casbah jive"
If this keeps up, I might be able to get myself out of some of the silly stuff I got my IRA into in November 2021. Oy.
One interesting statistic on CALF and AVUV. CALF has 100 holdings. 73% of those holdings are also in AVUV which has 748 holdings. Obviously, they like many of the same SC stocks, but CALF is more concentrated.
FWIW, I've held QRSVX at different percentages for many years. A conservative SC that does well over time. I've more recently in the past couple months added both CALF and AVUV to my SC holdings.
CALF versus AVUV here for those not familiar with etfrc.com