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At least Andy drove the price down a bit by selling some of his high yield munis recently.
Happy to be some help on that score, Hank. I'm guessing the cash will go into CEFs, maybe mostly munis if they cooperate, when there's a selloff of some degr…
Sold a chunk of HY muni last week to raise cash for possible opp'ties created by selling pressure around the Fed meeting. Have been standing pretty much pat for a while.
P.S. Just fyi for anyone who thinks they need a shorter duration FI option to …
I did see BISAX at Fidelity but with a 5.75% load unless I'm reading it incorrectly. I will certainly take a look at PRIDX. Thank you.
Right - unfortunately, BISAX isn't NTF/LW at Fido, like so many other A shares are.
Do you have any suggestions on an EM fund that has solid returns and metrics. I'm not looking for the highest returning fund and I certainly do not want to "performance chase".
You might keep an eye on the new Laura Geritz (ex-Wasatch) fund Rondur…
I watched maybe half of one of her programs once, and the impression it left was she doesn't know squat about investing, but for people who are up against it with debt, going through some kind of finance-related trauma, just trying to get along fina…
Definitely paring down the optional stuff except for good whiskey. Jameson 18 years is not on the chopping block.
Jameson 18 might need to be in consumer staples.
I followed it for a while starting ~ 3y ago, and it's apparently always been a Chindia-plus-other-Asia fund. I thought of it as a good fund, but wasn't as thrilled as I might have been about the downside. Haven't followed it lately, so I can't say t…
Dunno about Goldilocks, but if normally less correlated assets move together in one direction, there's nothing stopping them from moving together in the other direction.
Those of my demographic that I know (outdoorsy Westerners & Nor'westers at/near retirement age) are seriously paring down the optional stuff; we're certainly not helping the consumer economy get even more over the top than it already is.
If they trade just like stocks, hoping commission free trades every month count toward CEFs. Then its like purchasing NTF, with no early redemption penalty :-)
They do. Those free trades you get for moving $ around are worth a pile of dough.
Not …
Trading is just like stocks & ETFs; broker's commissions the same.
Be aware many taxables are pretty extended, with 1y returns up in the +30s - won't go on forever.
Coincidentally, out of curiosity, earlier this a.m. I checked the 1y and 3y Sharpes (standard calculation of reward/risk) of the S&P 500 (VFINX) vs. PIMIX as of yesterday, per Google Finance. 1y: PIMIX 6.85, VFINX 2.62. 3y: PIMIX 2.20, VFINX 0.9…
This was a repeat, not a new interview. I think there must be a rule somewhere in the PBS manual's fine print that says "no new programming during a pledge-a-thon." Which to me makes zero sense if you want people to actually watch during a pledge dr…
I enjoy driving my 1996 Toyota 4 Runner...
Still driving my '87 Toy pickup, but no longer as a long distance vehicle. If I could buy the same truck new today, I'd be set for life. (30th anniversary falls on Halloween.)
You mentioned PTIAX. I'll keep it concise: you get a mildly rate sensitive holding, with some protection against an equity downturn, with 5%+ yield. I've not run across anything else like it, though the strategy isn't at all complicated or genius-le…
Per msf's post in the other thread on the program, I think what he heard was the weakest comment in the whole program. The interviewee was fumbling trying to explain.
I wasn't shilling for these particular guys, but pointing out that no matter who …
Good interview, as almost always is the case, basically about corporates, munis, and the above-par pricing of so many FI products these days.
Consuelo is so good -- picking a variety of topics and guests, making an interview into a conversation, g…
Andy, wouldn't you like to have lunch with her and CapeCod?
Ha! I think I'd prefer to be a fly on the wall - any closer, I could get buried by the fur flying ...
Lets look at the one comment she made on fixed income investments:
A Goldman analysis of 10-year government bonds around the world shows ...
... that AJC knows very little about the breadth and depth of the fixed income market, if the only reference…
Hi Ben, I've got an equity-light portfolio that's slightly overweight Asia vs. the MSCI ACWI, with MAVRX and MEASX as most of the Asia punch; MEASX is really loaded with consumer names, which makes the overall Asia component pretty consumer heavy.
…
@davidmoran, AGC, the author of the piece you linked, doesn't reveal a lot anymore since he got his advisory business going. This guy is one of the better SA contributors on CEFs.
I agree with Mark that the M* CEF discussion board is a great resou…
Go figure - Venezuela's stock market (which is apparently an infintesimal part of Latin American equity overall) has been on a tear, with all-time highs this month.
The debt of VZ's national oil company, PDVSA, used to be fairly widely held among E…
Time reported this on Wednesday:
"Ladbrokes, one of the largest betting sites in the world, announced today that it has tweaked the odds that Trump leaves office early via impeachment or resignation to 4/5, or 55 percent."
Make of it what ye wil…
What Fidelity and apparently other brokerages report is cost basis as in that used for figuring capital gains, for tax purposes. The distributions are taxed themselves, separately, as income or cap gains as appropriate, so the "re"investment of them…
Hi Crash - remember the star ratings are entirely quantitative, within whatever category M* places the fund - no opinion involved. Plus, after a go-go run in credit FI generally, it may not be a negative to be a star down; could mean it's positioned…
Mona: PTRMX vs. VWIUX?
Hi, I wasn't recommending PT's muni, just using it as an example. Vanguard's funds are fine; I might look at the longer term funds, VWLTX and VWAHX, as possibilities if mimicking PTIAX is the objective or a little more yield …
What muni fund(s) come to your mind that would fairly closely resemble the credit quality and duration of the 21% tax-exempt munis in PTIAX? OPTAX? PHMIX?
Mona
Hey Mona, just saw this. Short answer: a longer duration investment grade muni fund, not…
Main moves in the port at this house lately have been in cutting back CEFs. I'm all Pimco taxable FI in that department; those funds have been in the sweet spot for quite a while, but some of the premia (and z-scores) are getting close to the ozone …
Regarding PTIAX, you're right Mike...about 36% in muni's.
PRESS,
Unless I am reading the bar chart incorrectly, 24.7% are tax-exempt.
Here's the 3/31 fact sheet: The difference in the two muni figures you all are quoting is the stake in taxable mu…
ECRI's leading indicators, which turned up in mid-2016, stalled out and reversed course in the first quarter - so the Q1 GDP result is not too surprising. See "Featured ECRI Composite Indexes," right column, here.
... Yahoo also has dividend adjusted NAV numbers (again, at least they used to).
"Used to" is the operative phrase. In the big redesign, they somehow forgot how to subtract distributions from the closing price to calculate adjusted price. Every secu…
Hi Tony, I'll have to check out the last two indicators you mentioned - not familiar with them. I've kept it pretty simple on my end, just trying to avoid larger than the "normal" drawdowns in my fairly conservative retirement portfolio and picking …