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Scanning the article, the author - not Bernstein - seems to be supplying the "only." Without Bernstein's full text - it's hard to evaluate.
Yep, Hank, it seems to be Michael Aniero's style to overstate just about everything, plus he doesn't supply…
Here we go - quantifying the concentration risk of the FM index after the shift, from Laura Geritz's (WAFMX) quarterly commentary:
"With the UAE and Qatar gone from the MSCI Frontier Index, nearly half of the Index is made up of two dominant market…
Thanks for the more complete writeups, LLJB. From the WSJ piece, it does sound like the index reconfiguration (and piles of investor $ going into FM funds?) was the catalyst for the warning. The quote from the spokesperson, though, was about the att…
So why would FINRA issue an "alert" right now, as opposed to a month ago, six months ago, a year ago, etc.? The alert begs the question, and nothing in the very brief article gives a hint as to what the answer might be. Did they just now notice that…
Interest rate sensitive stocks down today. MLPs down as well. Concerns over rising interest rates.
VPU, the U.S. utilities etf, was hit big today too - down 1.88%.
I think one lesson of the bond market hiccup of recent days is that, despite the many months now that the Fed has clearly signaled gradual tightening, it's so NOT priced into the market that a rumor of a relatively minor shift in language produces a…
For jlev, the OP, I think the bond question depends on how you and your significant other would react to a 30%-plus drawdown in your net worth.
You could pick actively managed bond funds that at times are correlated with stocks, but fairly weakly …
MAINX is mostly EM, but not 100%. The Matthews site lists several countries in the portfolio that are either always or usually considered 'developed' - Hong Kong, Oz, Singapore, Korea (they mean South, of course), and very small holdings in NZ and J…
As several have said here over time, beware M* on their bond/cash/hybrid breakdowns within bond and allocation funds. Their analytical tools for bonds are very, very shoddy and inconsistent compared to the tools for stocks.
Looks like if you have an AIP in place, it may be okay in taxable, as they say below - assuming it's all "OR's" between the bullets. This is from the PDF hard-close announcement on the GP site:
"Retail Shareholders (Direct Shareholders Only):
• Ret…
JG upped the HY corp stake in the core fund from 2% to 5%, so not exactly a ringing endorsement. Junkster, I follow the HY spread chart on FRED, and it's now bounced up off the 3.8% level that's been a top or bottom basically every time the spread's…
CNBC is showing the direct quote below from Gundlach on the subject:
U.S. 10-year bond rates will remain between 2.2 and 2.8 percent for the rest of the year, bond guru Jeffrey Gundlach told CNBC on Tuesday.
"The low in U.S. rates was in July 201…
I bought into ARIVX and Cinnamond when it first came out because of his conservative style .... I dumped it when I saw his affinity to precious metal miner stocks. He has been caught in a value trap for years now and won't adjust.
That was my ARI…
Hey Catch, it can also be a buy ... then sell and buy something else if it doesn't work out - no shackles.
Around here it's 4%, on its way to 5 by the end of the month.
Hi Will, on the "short-term, high quality bond fund with low risk," I'm not a big fan of THOPX either, but don't you already have something like that in the Baird fund? Also, keep in mind that Fed rates have the most influence on the short end of th…
Howdy @AndyJ,
There are a few that make comments form time-to-time ... and, you are one of these.
And, in the spirit of trying to be helpful ...
Well ... How was I to know?
No problem, Skeet; thanks for the helpful attitude. But if you read the …
If I'm doing the math right, then, 50% of the total portfolio is in assets that have significant equity/credit risk (40% stock plus 10% in bond funds that are totally on the credit-risk side - EVBAX, PRHYX, BHYAX).
If you're a conservative investo…
Are you 100% in bonds, or are the percentages of the bond side of your portfolio only? If the latter, it's impossible for anyone to comment intelligently on the bond breakdown without knowing how much and how risky your stock sleeve is. In other wor…
That was a rhetorical question, Old Skeet, meaning for starters that someone thinking of raising cash should have a solid view of what in his/her portfolio is (most) overvalued before selling. In other words, a plan is desirable before changing a de…
rjb: "If someone has a 100% bond fund portfolio, this fund would provide great diversification. If someone has a stock heavy portfolio, not sure how much diversification this fund would provide."
My thoughts exactly. Also, I'm thinking that KG's vi…
Hi Bee, always check the A shares ... some brokerages have deals with the fund companies to waive the loads on those. Fidelity for example has EVBAX load-waived & NTF, minimum investment of $2.5k.
David, if you do get in touch with GP, it might be good to know if they consider a hard close for GPROX as imminent or somewhat further down the line - if they're even prepared to make a guesstimate.
Thanks for all your help.
AJ
'Core' in the case of a bond fund usually means a predominantly investment-grade intermediate-term fund that's light on 'extras' like ex-U.S. and non-IG; total bond funds, like say Vanguard's VBTLX, are probably the purest examples. 'Core plus' mean…
Scott: "That's what I thought - I really don't think that should allow "absolute return" in the title. If a fund has "absolute return" in the title, that should cover the fund as a whole, not just one aspect."
Agreed - plus it doesn't seem accurate…
For the OP, I'd say that if I were going to own an index fund in EMs, it would probably be this one because of the fundamental factor approach vs. market cap ... but I prefer active managers in EM.
Charting it against other EM funds is interesting;…
VPGDX, the managed payout fund, may not be a slam dunk, but one of its constituent funds may be worth a look: the new Global Minimum Volatility Fund, VMVFX, which looks to be well diversified across geography, sector, and market cap, and so far at l…
Yes, thanks for the detailed explanation of TK's views, David.
Countries of the issuers are shown on the Matthews web site; see the lower half of the page, under 'Country Allocation.' This is another case where information from the source is more u…
Yikes. Angel Oak = mortgage fund run by three alums of banks (the third guy was with B of A) that were up to their necks in the exotic-mortgage disaster. What could possibly go wrong?
In the 'Portfolio' area for each fund on M*, the Premium screen shows moat ratings (wide, narrow, none) for the fund's portfolio. The usual suspects (PRBLX, VDIGX, etc.) show up as high scorers in the moat department. I'm not sure that exactly trans…
Hi rjb, the only way I know how to find trailing P/E at M* is to put the fund in a Portfolio Manager watchlist and set up 'My View' to include trailing P/E; it's one of the data points on the long menu of statistics you can pick for that page. -Che…
What does he do for risk control? It's been a great fund so far, but the trailing/forward PE's are up to 27/24 (per M* - the AKREX fact sheet doesn't mention P/E), so how much upside can there be left in it this market cycle, and how much risk is th…