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Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.

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  • edited July 2013
    I'm surprised that ARIVX is so heavily into mining companies. Miners are quite volatile and face a lot of unique challenges and uncertainties that you don't get with other industries. Cinnamond says they only invest in miners with strong balance sheets, but I'm not sure that means much for this industry.

    That said, miners are definitely cheap(er) after falling by double digits every year for the last few years, so I understand there is a value proposition here. I have also been thinking of dabbling a bit into the sector myself. So in a way, I feel reassured that the manager's thinking is consistent with my own.

    I don't like ARIVX's performance in 2012 and (so far) 2013, and I don't like paying nearly 1.5% in expenses to hold 60% in cash. But I have to admit, the fund is still doing what it promised to do, and those were the goals I had when I added it to my portfolio, so I will keep holding it for now.

    Even so, I see no reason to add to ARIVX until the manager finds better things to do with my cash.

  • edited July 2013
    Reply to @claimui: Miners to me seem like trading vehicles. You will get some of the larger companies that will get through this period and probably pick off a number of smaller companies on the cheap, particularly something like BHP.

    I own Glencore, which has been a terrible investment (I'll admit), but thankfully it's not a huge position and I didn't buy early on. I still love the assets (which include the "highly controversial" materials warehouses) and it continues to be there as other companies have issues - including billionaire Ike Batista's situation the other week (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-27/billionaire-batista-s-mmx-says-it-s-in-sale-talks-with-glencore.html; "How debt woes brought Batista's Brazil empire to the brink": http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/06/25/uk-brazil-batista-idUKBRE95O19L20130625.) It remains a long-term holding, but I'm not adding to miners/materials. I've pondered buying Potash (POT), but just haven't decided to.
  • edited July 2013
    Reply to @claimui: He started heading into those names months and months ago, which was the nail in the coffin for me ... sold it all early in the year. Several analysts/managers this year (Rich Bernstein on Wealth Track two weeks ago being the latest I've heard) have been saying stay away from late-cycle cyclicals like energy and commodities in favor of the mid-cycle champs tech, discretionary, and industrials ... and they've been right so far. Of course that'll eventually change ....
  • I am one of those disappointed with ARIVX (I had moved from ICMAX), ARIVX performance has been very poor(5% vs 20% performance gap is huge), I have not completely bailed out yet.

    I am glad to split the half of my ARIVX investment to MSCFX in March.
  • I'm in ARIVX and while I'm not crazy about its performance, I'm not concerned at this point. One comment I have to make though is regarding paying 1.50 and being 60% in cash. When we hire active managers, we can't have it both ways. If market tanks today guess which fund will be outperforming. If we are going to equate ER with % of assets invested, then we should just buy index funds. JMHO.
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  • Decided to use ARIVX as a " bond substitute". I trust that Eric C. will outperform bonds by varying ARIVX's cash and equity positions. Use WSCVX ( thank you MFO) for small cap value. So far so good but am ever watchful.
  • edited July 2013
    The fund's page notes that the benchmark is the Russell 2000 Value Index. Not a very realistic benchmark for a very low-key/conservative fund that looks more towards undervalued companies and holding considerable cash at times.

    Russell 2000 index ETF vs ARVIX:
    http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=IWN+Interactive#symbol=iwn;range=ytd;compare=arvix;indicator=volume;charttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined;

    I wouldn't expect much more than doubles from this fund and I certainly would not expect it to beat its benchmark. I'm not saying that as a bad thing, just that the fund is what it is.
  • Eric C. is a very risk averse investor.....period.

    People are selling/talking down his fund because of him not chasing stocks that many agree are overvalued. Not that long ago every one was falling all over themselves trying to invest with him for the same reason they're selling today. Damned if you do damned if you don't
  • edited July 2013
    Reply to @perpetual_Bull: Comes with the territory...and lately, he has a lot of good company.
  • Stopped my AIP lately due to a couple of weddings pending. Meets my main criteria: good relatively long positive previous track record and a lot younger than I am. Hope he makes my children happy. (Shucks, hope he makes me happy in 2020.)
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