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.
In other news, Reuters reporting earlier today that Europe and India signing "mother of all deals" including trade, defense, etc., numerous industries impacted. This after Carney becomes a minor hero at Davos calling for the "middle nations" to uni…
I love references to "TDS", especially when I hear our president obsess over Obama and Biden.
ODS (Obama Derangement Syndrome) is a particular hoot since Obama's been out of office for nearly a decade at this point. It likely drives Trump's Peac…
Canada already having speaks with China, even as Donnie again proclaims himself the master of 47-dimensional chess.
I think this is the year that Europe et al. say "yeah, we don't need America as much as all that" and our hegemonic and economic f…
I'm holding out hope that the spineless GOP is waiting for it to get really ridicilous (no, I mean really, really before they act so that the whole populist fever collapses on its own, and they can swoop in to restore sanity. But, in reality, I'm…
@Sven - I would personally love to do more with Vanguard, but their customer service is absolutely, freaking, ridiculously bad. Charge me the extra .000132% or whatever they pride themselves on trimming back on the ER this quarter, and be easier to…
Rotating small amounts out of US and Global into International in my account. Wife was overweight small cap (conservative, deep value) which is now going into global bonds and all-cap international. Nothing more than 5% moves in either, however. …
Oh, good. And the average daily trading volume will be, what, 2000 Shares?
I understand traditional open end funds are in decline and that boutique ETFs of every stripe are the rage -- but are Oakmark, Tweedy, First Eagle, FPA, etc. all hurting so…
Makes me think of the SNL / Please Don't Destroy skit about hard seltzer. "Everyone's got their own seltzer now, JC Penny, Jiffy Lube, Exxon, Verizon....".
Oddly, D&C reportedly just added a skootch of international stocks to DODBX to help stabilize returns. Looks like a "skootch" is 15-20%. M* did something on the changes at DODBX a while ago, IIRC.
@hank, @Sven -- my wife is a former long-time TWEBX investor. The fund used to have good downside protection, in spite of the fee. That advantage has evaporated. Tweedy now joins hte legions of fund companies of all stripes rushing to either kick…
I like OEFs because it's easier to reinvest fractional shares. I also like the point @hank made about not being tempted to jump in and out of a position when the market does what it does.
Hey, @all -- I confused RiverNorth with RiverPark (I thought it was RiverPark that was moving an OEF to an ETF; the bloom seems to be off R/N and much of R/P for some time now after "Mitch" blew up the R/P Long/Short Opportunity Fund);
Editoring c…
These ETF conversions don't make sense to me. Are these (low volume) products supposed to be something asset management firms double-dip on? You pay for the trade, as well as the management fee, or etc? Are they cheaper to manage / service than an…
Not for nothing, but I have a neighbor, nice family, male head of household works in finance. They bought their home a hear or two before my wife and I. Listed their home several months ago for way above market. The thing has sat for quite some t…
Long-term investor with Oakmark here (OAKIX, OAKWX, OAKEX, and sometimes OAKBX). I am still with Oakmark, though I don't know why. They really seemed to have lost a lot of their mojo over the past 5+ years. I saw it first with OAKBX; OAKEX has lo…
Many European leaders and member of the commentariate have noted that, indeed, the US was subsidizing their defense so that they could focus on welfare state issues. And, a couple of US commentators have noted that Europe has not made much of a mov…
Have a Hopkins grad on my team. Whip smart and really good researcher. Damned if they aren't the best overall researcher and manager on my team. With luck, I'll be hiring another one in short order.
Hopkins, along with Chicago, MIT, Caltech, and…
I"m in risk-off mode. Increasing cash stake to 15% in various accounts. I sold out of many International stock funds a week ago (actually, I was a bit overweight international and smid's, moving some of that to cash); keeping cash in asset allocat…
Vanguard's service is still abysmal, however. I wish they'd just go ahead and charge me the extra $2.28 per year and have halfway-decent customer service.
@all -- I do not use online accounts for security reasons.
I receive my regular Vanguard statements via USPS.
There is no brokerage or fund family I deal with that gives me a hassle for doing all my business via USPS; none. Except Vanguard.
