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.
There's the declaration, right up front, that the guy who submitted it to U.S. News has a clear conflict of interest, and they published it anyway. Great job by the editors at that august bastion of professional journalism.
"The name of the portfolio mgr I was trying to remember is: David C. Leduc."
I believe that he is a distant French cousin of Donald, and may also be related to Scrooge.
I believe Donald's third nephew's name recalls that French family heritage, and…
The premium content on the Portfolio pages and the one-stop etf/cef data is what's kept me on their subscriber list.
It's usually easy to tell on the P-pages where the mistakes and stale content are. That stuff at M* is mostly a convenience, not a…
About the PQTIX portfolio allocation, it's all over the place from month to month. Here's the range of exposures from April (when I first started following it) through December 2014, per the monthly spreadsheets:
Equity 2-54%
Currencies 16-43%
Rat…
It's an entire package including tax cuts for the middle class and tax incentives for corporations to raise worker pay: all the details here at the WaPo.
There's a lot to say about this topic, but I'll limit myself to trying to help explain Lewis's broad point with a reference that's purely about investment process. The guys who run PRBLX, one of the best U.S. stock funds there is, use an approach th…
I screened exactly as I described; our difference of ONE fund (18 vs. 19) came about like this: One of the funds listed in the results showed a lower return than the Dbl fund, and I excluded that one from the count, thinking there must have been an …
I'm not sure what other criteria you were using ...
U.S. large blend, growth, OR value, because the post was in response to David's search for "discrete large-caps that beat DSENX." On that basis, his guesstimate of 20 was good.
Right, a distinct…
David M.: I just ran the premium M* screen for funds that beat DSENX in 2014, which lets you add "distinct portfolio only" to the criteria, eliminating all the dupes, and it returned 18 distinct funds. Then I added a screen of "M* risk equal to or b…
Looks like PRBLX (14.48 per Parnassus, 14.49 per M*) beat the S&P but not DSENX (17.70 per M*), but the other Parnassus large cap U.S. fund, PARWX, beat both (18.50 M*, 18.51 Parnassus).
Also, VFTSX, Vanguard's SRI index fund based on the S&am…
I think Asia is at least as attractive as Europe, so I'd go with a good foreign, mostly developed-market fund, preferably currency-hedged. For Europe alone, there are hedged options out there like HEDJ.
John, you're not putting new money into the fund with a reinvestment of a cg distribution. You have exactly the same investment you had before, except that you've picked up early tax liability for some of the fund's gains.
Compounding as I've alwa…
Dex: "I don't see how it is the fund's fault."
Right - I don't see that either. It means the fund made money. Only way I can think of that a particular fund manager could be faulted is if the fund's got a ridiculous level of turnover or the manager…
Dex, you're not getting any $ you didn't already have - it was priced into the NAV. Beyond being a convenient way to take out $ for retirement expenses or something similar, cgd's are a tax event only. In a tax-advantaged account, they're a non-even…
That's an interesting discussion...if you agree with the conclusions, that puts SFGIX in the spotlight given their Brazilian exposure, plus a higher % of assets allocated to India than any of the Matthews funds managed by Kevin Lowe.
Those were Nade…
I don't think the article mentioned a different kind of long/short strategy that is doing well lately...Gotham Absolute Return Fund (GARIX)...up 9% YTD ....
I've not generally been too wild about long-short equity, but I can see there could be some …
Well, I bumped equity up slightly in Nov. for the EOY seasonality effect, and plan to take it back down to neutral in ~ early/mid January. If I were at neutral, I'd probably leave it there until the overall trading range breaks down.
I'm worried about the junk munis wondering if I should rotate some to investment munis. But will let price dictate my actions not my mood.
Junkster, do you still own ETHYX? It's not really a junk fund anymore - more of a mid-long IG muni fund with …
I would expect a short junk bond etf to be at least in positive territory today.
That's one day, during which junk had a minor rally and then fell back, and the short fund didn't follow late in the day. I don't think there is an investment vehicle …
Clacy: You don't like SJB? Not sure exactly how well it tracks, but it seems to be mostly positive when junk's negative, and vice versa, and it also has reasonable volume.
Exchanged PIMIX for PMZIX, added to ETHYX, continued a slow dca into NEXTX, and started a position in QMNNX, AQR's new, mostly quant, market neutral fund. Thought hard about DDG (short oil & gas) (first started tracking it 4 months ago but procr…
Analysts said the weak inflation trend was likely to continue until next year.
Ha! Whoever those analysts referred to in the article are, if the writer is representing them accurately, they're REALLY stepping out on that prediction - "until next yea…
So M* has it 4% above its benchmark and 0.16% below its category YTD, and 1.66% below its category for the last 12 months: even the best funds have a stretch of underperformance now and then, this strikes me as not bad for a fund with an excellent l…
Hey David, I didn't mean all down days, just a few here and there, which surprised me because of how well it charts overall. But after hearing the presentation, it seemed to make sense that every once in a while, it must be that one of the invested …
Why is Ariel fund a socially conscious fund? The parent company donates some money to an inner city school...
I'd suggest reading the prospectus to see what they say. In the past, they've employed a few negative SRI-ish screens. SRI/ESG funds are a…
This Mebane F. global allocation fund's apparently less tactical nature might be what eventually sets it apart from his disappointing first shot in the general category. It would have been very helpful if the WSJ writer had simply asked the question…
I listened to the last conference call on DSENX, and that was a main point - the stock piece has trailed slightly but the bond sleeve pushes it ahead. Before, I'd been wondering why, on a few (only a few) equity-down days, the fund lost more than an…
I'm also happy with PQTIX. They've been making major allocation shifts from month to month; not sure if they can keep it up, but it's good while it lasts. Also thinking about adding a small position in QMNNX (AQR's new market neutral fund).
No mention of previous charge GTAA, eh WSJ? GAA won't exactly be a "different approach,' as the article says. You'd think the WSJ is big & profitable enough to do basic research and include relevant information.
According to Schwab's 11-page 2015 global outlook, we can throw out everything we think we know about EMs, commodities, and a strong dollar. Excerpts:
"A strong dollar, weak commodity prices and solid emerging market stock performance ... can coexi…
M* Lizzie: "Thank you for your patience and understanding."
Nothing against Lizzie, but that's been M*'s plea for years. These problems persist at M* - sometimes fixed for a few weeks or months, but always returning, a la MacArthur - and are the r…
