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.
I agree staples are well worth watching for a turnaround. I won't consider buying, though, till there's some evidence of it. The sector index is in death-cross territory, with the price and the 50d ma still headed down, down, down.
Yup.
" 'Millionaires are not very mobile, and when they do move across state lines, taxes play a small role in the decision. Tax-induced migration among millionaires is not zero, but it is fairly close to zero.' Young* notes that millionaires are,…
Bespoke is one of my favorite data/trend analysis groups, and in case anyone's interested, I'll point out that they're posting a lot of great info via Seeking Alpha these days, in concise, right to the point, digestible bites. SA is routinely panned…
@Catch, the 10y T hitting the magic 3.0% very likely triggered a fair bit of trading. Where it goes from here over the next few days could be really significant.
Quick glance: mostly mid to microcaps; range of 20-80% long (20% now); a small (< 10%) stake in international; the principal, per the fact sheet, is a Boston Partners alum, though he was a fund co-manager for only a little longer than two years (…
Shadow, there's a relatively new investor share class, SPFPX, that's available at Fidelity NTF and low-min. According to the M* purchase page, it looks to be similarly available at many/most of the commonly-used brokerages.
I own it, and agree with one M* poster who's expressed the opinion that it's the only bank loan fund that might make sense to buy and hold.
However, and you knew there'd be one, it's getting much better known now, AUM is climbing, and it's unclear…
Hi VF, here's the fund site. I'd suggest looking through the fact sheet and detailed "presentation" to get the gist of what they're doing - of course keeping in mind they're talking their book to a degree, like any fund guys would do.
If you're loo…
UCS has a concise, footnoted report on impacts of nat gas here, with the same basic message as msf's Nat Geo link. While ng burns cleaner than coal or oil, its life cycle GHGs depend mainly on the magnitude of methane leaks from drilling and pipelin…
Also keep in mind GMO's forecasts are for broad asset classes, and in the case of bonds, very broad asset classes. Even if GMO's nailed it for broad classes, the Pimcos et al. of the investment world aren't necessarily stuck with those returns.
@Slick, what's that reg'l bank fund you mentioned? No hits on that ticker I can find except a pending listing for a JPM target retirement fund. I'm curious to see how an active oef (if that's what it is) is doing vs. an index ("modified equal weight…
Slowly reducing my cash position and investing in SIGIX and MAINX.
Matthews is shining these days, and MAINX has been in a sweet spot for a while. It's been doing great on dollar-down days, and pretty much holding its own when the buck's flat or …
Good article on some stars in the shadows, so to speak. One caveat on several of the etf's Lewis mentions is lack of volume; they're thinly traded and at times will have significant bid-ask spreads. Thin volume can require a lot of time and effort (…
Easy to get the wires crossed these days, ain't it? I get a serious headache trying to follow the back-and-forth across-the-wide-oceans supply & manufacture chains and where a specific tariff nestles in and who it ends up screwing over once the …
Imho, agree with Mark, PCI is the better buy if I had to put $ down on one of the two semi-siblings now. Not only because it's still at a discount and PDI's at a premium, but 'cause of the magnitude of the uptick in the PDI premium. PDI was in the +…
@Crash, Fidelity has had very good customer service by phone during the several years I've been with them. I just don't see any need to visit an office. You won't have the problems like you've probably had with the too-often uninformed and unhelpful…
@MikeM, Treasuries are also up (TLT, IEF). Some of the reporting services don't account for today's distributions right away. Also, at least some CEFs are up, including everyone's favorite Pimco fraternal twins (not just a little, either) and most o…
I'd add that semi-odd-duck GLFOX has started to show some signs of life after a rare period of underperformance. Classed as infrastructure, half utes, half industrials, 3/4 Europe, 30% midcaps ... It's US$ hedged, so the flattening out of the buck l…
An important qualifier to the Giroux comments on utilities begins at 17:08. He emphasizes that he's not talking about traditional utes as they exist today, but as they're certain to evolve over the time frame he's talking about -- to include more re…
Began buying back CEFs in Feb, but as a much smaller part of the port (so far) than 2016-H1/2017: KIO, PDI, PFN so far, looking to add PCI and possibly BGB or BGX on a bit more of a dip.
Lots of muni CEFs look cheap per discounts and z's, but larg…
Yes, no argument with any of what you wrote. My point was that the broad LW agreement between Fidelity and Pimco essentially rendered moot the account by account clause in the conversion notice for Fidelity customers. Of course Pimco and Fidelity we…
I spoke at length with a Pimco rep in early March about the conversion, mainly because the wording in one of the clauses seemed to be aimed at grandfathering accounts, not funds. The rep confirmed that was the case; in his words, the account in whic…
UMBC might have a decent chance of making it into the 16 - playing K-State. That is, unless the VA game was the game of their lives.
Buffalo didn't make it, but they did well, really even in that KY game they lost by 20. The KY not-really-students…
@AndyJ ...Stayed up 'till midnight watching Buffalo clobber mighty Arizona. If you haven't seen the Bulls play, they are a fun team to watch. Much more so than the Orange.
Saw it, @MikeM; first time I even knew there was a Buffalo U. or whatever it …
@MikeM, love that Syracuse zone. Duke used a really spread-out, active 3-2 today against Iona. Not the whole game like Syracuse, but they really play it well, just like the Orange guys.
@OldJoe, you're right, I'm having trouble getting used to the new reality. You'd think I'd have adapted during Bush II, with its "we make our own reality" unreality.
ISTM that this writer and ETF.com are muddling together various concepts. The writer talks about ESG, but uses a supposed SRI ("socially responsible") database, which in turn throws everything in.
@msf, I think that's exactly right, judging by the…
Very fishy article. I scanned through it, and an unknown (to me) "fossil fuel free" etf (BLES) listed as owning Petrobras jumped out as particularly egregious, so checked it - and the writer is completely out to lunch.
BLES is a Xian-themed fund; …
"Encore" at WT means "repeat." The PBS program last week and this were repeats of Hyman & McLennan's January (2018) two-part (U.S. and international) annual outlook interviews. (I always wonder why PBS shows reruns during a significant chunk of …
@ooby, I looked back at the wording in the REDWX writeup, and it refers to avoiding the energy "sector," which in the conventional breakdown is made up of FF companies. Renewables are scattered around various sectors - mostly as tech, but also utili…
I'd owned GLFOX for a few years, until it began to lose momentum middle of last year, then sold it and put the $ into ARTGX.
If I still had it in the port, I'd think about holding at least some of the position for now to see what happens in the ne…
Just saw in their new prospectus (Jan. 31, '18) that they've changed the wording around currency hedging from "The Fund may hedge ...." to "The fund generally hedges a significant portion ...." (emphasis mine)
Leaving little doubt, apparently, that…
Hi Bitzer, that'd be the expectation from the way they're built, and it's the way it worked the only down quarter for the S&P (Q3 2015) since both funds have been around.
L/S is M/N + a long overlay, about 50%, which if I recall right is varia…
