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Hi guys! Anybody own this fund or have a thought on it? I'm thinking of getting it for its income. The 3-year chart looks good as though it bottomed. Just saying..... God bless the Pudd
I owned in a number of years ago. Bought around 2009 sold a few years back as energy tanked. I think it is a good fund. IMO natural gas makes a lot of sense. I believe we've all been hearing T. Boone make his case for wind and gas for some time. I also believe hydrocarbon fuel is going to be around for quite some time and this area is oversold. I own SND so you probably should seek others opinions. Years ago I received The Noload Mutual Fund newsletter. I got the recommendation to buy from there.
The expense ratio increase is troubling. It is higher now than any time in the last 10 years. It was 0.69 in 2012 with $713 million. Now it is 1.01 with $1.43 billion in assets. Something is not right.
GASFX was owned by FBR and sold to Hennessy in 2012. Owned the fund from 2010 to 2014. It was #1 utility fund during that time. It was comparable to GLFOX nowadays. Higher expense is only one factor, it is uncertain in the interest rate that make utility sector as a whole very challenging.
Hennessy has been raising the fee since they acquired the fund.
They then introduced an 'institutional' share class with a $250,000 minimum - with a lower fee than the (original, now called) 'investor' class, and in a very! shareholder-unfriendly manner - did not place the original investors in the 'institutional' class.
Aside - the current institutional GASFX ER is not that different from what the original ER had been, prior to Hennessy acquisition.
Other funds - can't recall any specifically at the moment - have given the original shareholders - this "grandfather" benefit and lower expense ratio.
I currently have gains on the fund, that prevent me from liquidating the fund without paying the cap gains tax. If I could sell without paying the C/G tax, I would sell it immediately.
FWIW (and too late for my "old money") you can duplicate the exposure of the fund, through a mix of MLP and Utility ETFs. The expense ratio would be, in aggregate, MUCH lower than GASFX, and it would be more tax efficient.
Below - using the wonderful PortfolioVisualizer.com, are a couple of examples
Comments
Derf
They then introduced an 'institutional' share class with a $250,000 minimum - with a lower fee than the (original, now called) 'investor' class, and in a very! shareholder-unfriendly manner - did not place the original investors in the 'institutional' class.
Aside - the current institutional GASFX ER is not that different from what the original ER had been, prior to Hennessy acquisition.
Other funds - can't recall any specifically at the moment - have given the original shareholders - this "grandfather" benefit and lower expense ratio.
I currently have gains on the fund, that prevent me from liquidating the fund without paying the cap gains tax. If I could sell without paying the C/G tax, I would sell it immediately.
FWIW (and too late for my "old money") you can duplicate the exposure of the fund, through a mix of MLP and Utility ETFs. The expense ratio would be, in aggregate, MUCH lower than GASFX, and it would be more tax efficient.
Below - using the wonderful PortfolioVisualizer.com, are a couple of examples
Match GASFX with MLPX + VPU: http://tinyurl.com/GASFX-match
Backtest Match of 35% MLPX + 65% VPU, with Annual[*] Rebalancing: http://tinyurl.com/GASFX-backtest
[*] Other rebalancing options are available. See menu at PortfolioVisualizer, linked above.
Since
http://www.etf.com/VPU has ER of 10 bps
http://www.etf.com/MLPX has ER of 45 bps
the blend has ER of about 22 bps, which is 79 bps less than the larded up GASFX Investor class.