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.
Mike, they did close it then to new investment through third parties, but you could still open a new individual investor account directly with Sequoia.
If we're talking about gold, as Bee seems to indicate, the simplest explanatory variable, the one that's driven mining activity for decades, is the price of the yellow metal. While there's certainly more to it than price alone, it's the most basic v…
Speaking of Andrew Foster and SFGIX, the latest shareholder letter, here, expands on his macro theme concerning the disconnect between the standard EM index and the actual economies of developing countries as they transition away from near-total exp…
Reply to @DavidV: This may or may not be helpful, but it's difficult to generalize; reading the prospectus for a given fund is the only way to know the level of flexibility that's built in. After you know that, it's easier to judge what the manager'…
Reply to @hank: Hank, they are the same fund: I class PAUIX vs. D class PAUDX - also see both shown here.
The portfolio info at the Pimco site is the most reliable and up-to-date. RA cut back on the "inflation" strategy earlier; the big drivers of …
Some great zingers in there. Here's the page with the full quarterly letter (free, no-hassle registration required), which includes Ben Inker describing how the GMOers have changed their methodology for their 7-year outlook. They've broadened the se…
Tip, if you sell now and switch to an index fund, remember to factor in that you'll owe tax on all the cap gains you've racked up over the past 20 years.
I owned Appleseed through the fund's back office when the E.R. was jacked up as described. That was my introduction to the system; you pay the higher NTF E.R. whether you buy the fund through the supermarket or not.
For those who think "destructive" inflation is right around the corner, here's a piece (and there are many others like it from actual economists, rather than money managers who think they're economists) that may bring on some cognitive dissonance.
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Skeet ... I've subscribed to his weekly e-mail since I first heard of it, I think close to 2 yrs. now. I used the sector momentum ratings for a while to tactically buy & sell sector etf's. It's very much workable to do that, but the amount I fel…
The Ron Rowland/Invest with an Edge style-box momentum lead just recently switched from small and mid caps, the leaders for many months, to large caps.
Reply to @Charles: Bill the G. also pushed out duration in BOND from 4.9 ~ a month ago to 5.3 now, according to the Pimco etf site, and even PIMIX is keeping duration in the high 4's.
Reply to @mohan: I saw that this morning and wondered the same thing.
According to Yahoo price quotes, it opened on Oct. 3, so DS was probably buying over the course of the month and missed interest payments that would have come in if he'd been in…
Reply to @willmatt72: I know. They opened up a whole new opportunity set, and once you get to looking at all the options, it looks like a whole new ballgame.
I looked up GBOAX (also load-waived at Fido), and it looks like an interesting global fund. Looks to be pretty actively managed, & not that they're especially comparable, but it did better than MAINX during the taper tantrum.
Reply to @TSP_Transfer: I like the looks of TGMEX so far, too. Right, their commentary is really detailed on both fund positioning and investment environment.
Reply to @Vert: Hi Vert, no bond expert here, but my guess would be it's mainly a result of bargain-hunting management of a very small level of assets versus an enormous fund without a lot of room to add value. VWEHX is over $16 billion.
But don't…
Reply to @Old_Joe: I dunno -- seems like this kind of fund is in a pretty sweet spot now, and maybe they're only rarely in a really bad spot because they've typically got some, but not a whole lot, of both kinds of bond risk. So it might not be a ba…
Reply to @hank: I bought and sold RPIBX several years ago, before the crash, based on the strength of the euro. It was so heavily invested in developed-market, low-yielding, higher quality investment-grade debt that the currency movements totally ov…
Reply to @MaxBialystock: I think it's M* that says it's a "world" bond fund; I don't think they have categories for foreign regional bond funds.
Willmatt, it's not an EM bond fund either ... Asia includes a slug of developed markets/economies too,…
Here's a quick report on RSIIX/RSIVX portfolio statistics for Oct. 31, which David Sherman generously e-mailed to me this morning and okayed my sharing with the board.
David stressed that these figures are based on in-house, unaudited calculations…
If you're speaking of my question on that thread, David, if I didn't say so clearly, I meant holdings AND portfolio statistics and commentary ... not just the bare holdings info alone ... but stats such as duration, credit quality, asset type breakd…
Reply to @Charles: Just noticed that the mgrs did a fairly extreme portfolio makeover in the last month, a major credit quality upgrade: 80% is now B or better (13% in the C's and 7% unrated). Of the 8 HY funds I'm more or less keeping up with, it w…
Reply to @AndyJ: On the liquidity question, the bid-ask of HYLD at this moment, during trading, is 52.10/ 52.13, or 0.06%. Bid-ask range is frequently skewed and not representative when the market's closed.
For anyone looking at HYLD as a buy & hold, I wouldn't do it. But as a strategic investment for the past year (and who knows how much longer), it's been positioned well, has a very good 1y up-down capture, bond price is around par vs. above par …
Thanks, Kenster.
Love the data breakdowns he does; it makes it so easy at a glance to see what's going on with the portfolio.
That said, it was very disappointing to me to see AF put significant $ into materials stock. The core, well-considered v…
Reply to @Mark: Mark, the manager G. Johnson ran it as a small hedge fund starting in 2003, and he killed the category through both the runup and the crash.
But he had only $17 million in the hedge fund at the peak, and since converting to a Pimco…
I've been thinking of opening a small position in PMHDX, not sure yet of the timing, but if I do, I'll consider it part of my stock allocation, and not so much as an alt fund for portfolio purposes. Seems to me it runs more like a lower-volatility s…
Hi Catch,
It depends on how long it's looked like that. "Category" and "investment style" are two different things in M*'s lexicon, and I think that's a useful distinction. I remember from the reclassification of ARTKX's category a few years back …
'Joel Dickson, a senior investment strategist in Vanguard's Investment Strategy Group, said strategies that involve overweighting particular factors look a lot like active management "cloaked in index Halloween costumes." '
Mr. Dickson apparently c…
It's an excellent fund: an actively managed etf, kinda expensive but worth it. The only other 10%+ ytd HY funds I'm aware of invest a lot further down in credit quality. It does, however, have more C-ish exposure than a lot of HY funds. It got cream…
Thanks, Charles; I intended to listen but was busy elsewhere. I'll look forward to hearing the recording. Just recently bought a starter set of AKREX shares.
