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.
Vert: " ... I can't imagine it being much better than the Perkins or Polaris shops."
I owned PGVFX at one time, and liked several things about the fund ... one being atypical weightings, such as ~ 10% in Scandinavia, as I remember.
The one Pimco equity fund that has done exceptionally well after a bit of a sluggish start was the one with the least fanfare - the L/S fund, which was a former hedge fund. That fund - despite its concentrated nature and heavy cash holdings - did …
BRTNX did well protecting against loss in Q3 '11, and it's the only U.S. stock fund I've followed that was positive in Q2 '12, other than health care sector funds. The up-down capture ratio numbers are good ... but not hugely compelling. I'd put AKR…
In solidarity with Charles, I nominate TNEYX, an Invesco target date fund invested ~ 100% in an Invesco risk parity fund. As I watched it after buying a first chunk, decided risk parity is not for me unless it's a declining interest rate environment…
Bought starter positions in GPROX and RNDLX & added a little to PMHIX. I'm probably a little late getting started on RNDLX, but it still looks like better valuation than high yield right now.
Not a knock on it at all, but I think it is relevant to this thread that APPLX has become a little more of an allocation fund and a little less an all-cap stock fund. The stock percentage hasn't been above 71% for several years, including most of th…
Congrats on another fine edition. Love the active share piece and the report on Mark's conversation with David Sherman.
Fyi, all four links in the 'Observer Fund Profiles' section go to a 'Not Found' page.
finder: "APPLX has about 13% in gold. It worked well for the fund in the past, but will it work in the future?"
It has more than 19% in gold, per M*, in the first and third largest holdings. I owned APPLX a few years ago, and it was really impressi…
Morningstar is only showing each year's return back to 2009.
On the M* 'performance' pages, you have to click "expanded view" to get returns further back than 5 full years. M* shows WGRNX lost 39.05% in '08.
Thanks for the note about AYBIX at Vanguard, Mona. I didn't even look there when I decided to buy. Most of the funds I own are at Fidelity, and I just have Pimco and Vanguard funds at Vanguard; Vanguard's brokerage fund coverage is so generally lous…
Hi again Mona, I think you've got the right idea with AYBDX if you want a step out from a fund like OSTIX (or RSIVX, which seems to be tracking right along with OSTIX); it's not as volatile and hasn't lost as much as more credit-sensitive funds in c…
Not all-cap, but FMIJX is global (both by domicile and footprint), value-oriented and firmly process-driven, and managed conservatively a la cash and currency exposure. It's also not as "international" as the name is usually inferred to mean -- the …
Josh, look at the z-statistic, which factors in historic premiums/discounts. PDI has run quite a ways and is really no longer a bargain if you consider that it's traded, on average, at a discount since it launched. See the M* quote page for the fund…
Reply to @Accipiter: Adios, Accipiter, thank you for your good work for so long. I'm sorry you've had to deal so directly with this silly, juvenile mess.
Several of ARLSX's shorts are up a lot short term, too - UNG, EA, and ESG about 20%, and UAL just shy of that. From a quick look at the full holdings (via M* premium), appears many of their shorts are up ... though again this is short term.
*Stopped small incremental adds to VWALX (muni); will see how tax-selling season goes before adding more.
*Consolidated U.S. stock holdings into AKREX and PMHIX.
*Slow adding to TGMEX, TCW's new-ish retail EM allocation fund (but an institutional …
Matt, WAFMX is really heavy in consumer stocks, mainly staples, so I think your idea of diversifying within FMs is reasonable if you want to own more FMs. The only other FM fund I've looked at is MFMPX, and it's heavy M-East and banks, so it might w…
tp2006, I wasn't familiar with GWL, but it's pretty odd that they can call it "World Ex-U.S." and have basically zero in EMs (unless that's another M* data error).
VEU and IXUS are actual "world ex-U.S." etf's, if that's what you're after and you w…
Reply to @MJG: "Morningstar Star ratings should never be used as the sole criteria for mutual fund selection."
Of course not. Even M* says the star ratings should be only a beginning point of fund research.
There's another Pimco fund, CommoditiesPLUS, PCLIX, which according to M* does some active management, overweighting and underweighting by small %s within a mostly index-y approach:
"This fund also takes a more active approach to its commodity expo…
Reply to @Charles: M* would need to create a new category, on the order of 'short duration high yield.' Seems like it would be justified, with several funds & etf's either starting up or moving in that direction.
OSTIX is another case in point…
I don't know how your portfolio is stacked up risk-wise, so this is just a heads-up, not a recommendation: FMIJX is excellent if you want a lower volatility approach to international. They can and so far have hedged most of the currency risk, and th…
Reply to @davidrmoran: Yeah, that's roughly the kind of approach I was thinking of, so it would be the mechanical, mostly hands-off part of the overall portfolio. They're kind of light on foreign (light on foreign stocks, essentially no foreign bond…
Reply to @davidrmoran: There's a whole cadre over at M* who think that's the best approach, bar none. Rationale seems to be that (a) dividends can grow over time, but "fixed" income can't; and (b) it doesn't matter how much your portfolio is worth, …
John, in addition to David's profile, another good source is the last Consuelo Mack WealthTrack interview -- with Dan O'Keefe, the co-manager of both ARTGX and ARTKX. He does a good job there of explaining their value + quality investing discipline.
The WaPo article confuses some characteristics of multi-sector funds with what is usually thought of as "unconstrained" and what M* calls "nontraditional." M* defines nontraditional as a fund that can go outside the style box, i.e., can go negative …
