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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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Disappointments or surprises?

Are you disappointed with the performance of any of your funds over the past few months? Surprised at anything? Just curious what you think has performed well and what hasn't in your portfolio.

Comments

  • DIBRX has performed as a flight to safety this week... I just neglected to pack much of my portfolio in time for this flight.
  • I've been disappointed with XSLV, which is supposed to be a low volatility fund. Small cap value has performed pretty lousy overall, but this fund has not exhibited low volatility lately, IMHO.
  • edited March 2018
    PRSNX has held up pretty well, though it is down, marginally. (PRSNX = 9.05% of portfolio.) In the last 2 days, portf. is down -2.14%. Crap. All my growth-y and small-cap stuff is in the jakes. VSCIX PRDSX and EM, SFGIX. MAPOX and PRWCX are both balanced, but MAPOX has fared worse. Total portf = down yesterday by -1.09% and today, just a bit "better:" down -1.05%. No safe haven. PNM (elec. utility) was up yesterday, down by a lot more, today.
  • Glad most of my bond allocation is in two muni bonds, not funds, they vary by only 01% or so when market down. Not displeased with GIBIX, seems to go down less than my other bond funds. Am somewhat disappointed in TWEIX it seems to go down almost as much as my more aggressive funds, but ive only had it a year, needs more time to simmer. Value is not in fashion nor will it be perhaps for a while.
  • Rockstars: PCI & PDI
    Holding above water: FCNTX, POAGX and PRGTX but that may have more to do with tech's run-up so far this year
    Puzzling surprise: GLFOX. Down the most YTD at a time when I thought infrastructure might finally find some footing.
  • I've been holding on to POSKX due to a large appreciation over the past few years, but it is a volatile fund, in my opinion. It really tanks when the market goes south.
  • The trade war is on now and there will be no winners. It is naive to think trade barrier will have no impact on the bottomline - earnings. That is why England is trying to negotiate a trade deal with EU on the consequences of Bretix. Without it the odds of recession goes up this year for England. Another word there is no free lunch.
  • @Mark Indeed, I've been watching PDI for a long time, waiting for a dip to buy, but it never comes... Incredible how it's risen even of late. Any idea how Ivascyn is positioned to do so well?
  • @expatsp - if I had clue I'd send him and Murata my resume. They just keep hitting it out of the park month after month, year after year and I'll just hang on for the ride until it stops. Where else can you find a 9-10% yield with seemingly no material effect on the NAV or trading price.
  • For me, POAGX has been the most pleasant surprise, up more than 11% YTD even considering two difficult months for equities. It did much better in January's rally and has provided strong and mild positive results during the difficulties of the last 2 months. I suspect a good deal of that is NKTR, Nektar Therapeutics, which is up 72% YTD and is listed as the fund's largest position by M* but I haven't done any further analysis to determine how many other positions are also making a meaningful contribution.

    On the disappointing side, I'm not very happy with the category rankings of many of my funds and it runs across domestic, foreign, emerging markets and global funds. They've all been good performers over longer time periods but the last few months have not been a good showing for the majority of my choices. I'm not, however, considering any changes at this point.
  • More importantly to me, how are people's portfolios holding up? Individual funds will have their day, what holds up now still may not be the best option to hold over time.

    So if anyone wants to share, how's the portfolio doing YTD now that we have seen the "Trump bump" and the start of the "Trump dump"?

    I'll throw it out there. After yesterday my 50/50 combination of Schwab robo (62:38), down -1.6%, and my self managed (about 40:60), down -0.3% gives me a total loss of -0.9% YTD.

    A benchmark I use is the TRP 60:40 retirement fund TRRBX,down -1.3% and the 50:50 fund TRRGX also down -1.3%.

    And just because some like to measure against it, the S&P 500 (VFINX) is down -2.8
  • Down 1.39% YTD
    Derf
  • edited March 2018
    As near as I can calculate, i am down -1% ytd, my best position ytd is MSEQX +8% and worst is RHS down -8%. I am 67% equity, rest bonds and cash
  • Down 0.1% YTD with 72% equity, 18% in a commodities etf and about 10% cash. I've been back and forth between commodities and equity twice this year but otherwise no trades. POAGX is my best position +11.4% and its a sizeable position for me whereas MSCFX is my worst position -5.7% and its a small position.
  • A weighted average is beyond my pay grade. Teachers gave me passing grades in math as gifts. Holdings:
    PRWCX = 35.73% of portf. and is down -0.99% ytd.
    Next: MAPOX, at 18.66% of portf is down -5.27%. HURTS.
    Next: PREMX, 15.13% of portf. is down -1.71%. (EM bonds doing better than my balanced fund. Go figure.)

    PRSNX 9.3% of portf.is down -0.18%.
    PRIDX is 8.04% of portf. and is up by +0.69%.
    PRDSX is 5.86% of portf. and is up by +0.60%.
    VSCIX (wife's 403b) is 3.33% of portf. and is down by -1.96%.
    PNM (electric utility) is 1.99% of portf. and is down ytd by -9.23%.
    SFGIX is 1.96% of portf and is down by -2.28%.
  • @LLJB , what are you using for your commodity weighting? Any suggestions from others?
  • @MikeM, I'm using DBC, mostly for its liquidity but I also appreciate that it caps energy's representation at 60% IIRC. The expense ratio is higher than I'd like but the liquidity is more important for how I'm using it.
  • edited March 2018
    Of my holdings, biggest surprises: YTD: POAGX up 11.4%, OPGIX up 8.6%, ARTTX up 5.2%
    Biggest disappointments: YTD: OLVAX down 5.7%, LCCAX down 4.5%,
  • edited March 2018
    Overall, I'm about -2.5% YTD, due to some of my largest holdings having a bad start to 2018, such as PIMIX, VWENX, VWIAX, USMV and FMIJX. I hold a few other stocks and they have been beat up this year as well. My bond funds have been a mixed bag, with some holding up better than others.
  • ytd DSEEX down 2.3% and PONDX down less than 1%, so that's life
  • @davidrmoran, I remember in past posts you contimplated being only in PONDX and DSEEX. Did you actually do that?
  • edited March 2018
    Yes, sir, with perhaps a third or a little less 'edge' holdings --- cash for non-SS cashflow, DLEUX (unimpressive thus far, to put it nicely; typoed earlier entry corrected), FLPSX (which I have held for decades on and off), PDI and PTY (a little volatile), FRIFX (for nominal diversification), DGRW in lieu of ML-barred CAPE (trying to short-term-trade the recent volatility and of course have failed majorly), and also of course sundry loser spec stocks in oil, pharma, and tech.

    So 70% of our total nut is split b/w DSEEX and PONDX. Turning 71 soon and looking at moving some moneys into some GO bond funds, though it's v hard to find ones preferable to PONDX (I missed, d'oh, the insane minimums for some earlier mentions).
  • Now both GABCX and GADVX are available with a tf at E-Trade with a 25 basis point difference in expense ratios. Still hoping GADVX will go back to a ntf fund as it was several years ago.
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