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.
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.
Reply to @scott: Maybe the board et al. think their funds are sold advisor-only, but marketing is cutting deals with brokerages that bypass advisors? The old right-hand, left-hand thing at work? If the Prez really used the word "only," then there's …
"He went on to explain that AQR funds are sold only through financial advisors."
Of course that is absolutely incorrect. I've never owned one of their funds, but test trades through Fidelity go through without a hitch on QLENX, with a TF and no adv…
Reply to @Charles: Just an FYI, not necessarily a recommendation that would add to the workload, but I've always liked the Lipper categories better than M*'s. They're a little more fine-tuned, e.g., there's a 'multi-cap' category that gets around on…
Must be for the I shares - the S share class, MNEMX, has been around for a while. It's been pretty decent, but lags SFGIX and THDIX, for a couple of examples.
Reply to @Old_Joe: Cash flow, maybe? To meet payroll obligations, etc., without having to tap into $ that might be making more in long-term investments in their sovereign wealth fund, say.
Reply to @Old_Joe: Thanks, Joe. That's a POV I can relate to.
RSIVX sounds to me like it could be an expanded opportunity-set version of OSTIX (short junk and convertibles), which in the past has been a 6-8% kind of fund (5 yr return right at 8%), …
So I'm curious, actually curious, not being snarky at all here, about why there's a rush to get into a brand new fund that hasn't yet reported a portfolio or published a single commentary.
Is it primarily the success of the other fund, with its di…
Reply to @Old_Joe: OJ, doesn't Schwab have a DCA purchase option? Fido is $5 a shot and Vanguard is $3 after the initial buy-in; hard to imagine Schwab wouldn't have something similar (?).
Yes -- here's the applicable part of the relevant footnote. It's still buy-only, too.
"Online Transaction Fees: $49.95 for most funds. Certain funds will have a transaction fee of $75. To identify any applicable transaction fees associated with th…
Reply to @catch22: Catch, like Will said, Fido has a slew of A shares offered load-waived now, lots of funds from shops you've never had decent access to before. Get your shopping list together ... it's worth a long look!
Reply to @Vert: In that case, it's hard to say who would qualify as a passive investor. Managers of what are usually thought of as "true" index funds have made an active choice to use market cap as the criterion for the fund's construction. (As Mr. …
Thanks for posting. There's also a new (to me anyway) issue of Asia Now on the site, this one about Asian frontier markets. I always learn a lot from the Matthews special reports.
Worked up to full positions in short-intermediate junk HYS and HYLD to go with the very staid OSTIX in that department, and slipped back into Pimco Income at a lucky time and caught some bounce. Otherwise, nada; still have ~ 25% in stable value and …
Reply to @msf: Right, the $1mm minimum is why I didn't mention WMBIX. Fido's apparently a little behind on the WBMRX (advisor share) E.R., which they show as 1.61 net.
NABAX is load-waived at Fido, NTF, $2.5k/$1k minimums, 2.33% E.R.
Whitebox Tactical WBMRX is no-load, NTF, & reasonable minimum at Fido: $2.5k minimum, 1.61% E.R.
Those are the two alt funds I've been thinking about, but haven't bit on either…
Like just about everything in life, it pays to do the math. The share classes that have a TF have cheaper E.R.s. It depends on how much you're going to invest, and what's the minimum holding period you're anticipating.
Reply to @Kenster1_GlobalValue: The TGMEX portfolio looks interesting, and it's doing okay so far considering when it launched. Have to check on the chops of the managers in stock investing, but it's worth a spot on the watch list, for sure.
Reply to @Maurice: Like you said, I wouldn't dream of selling out of Matthews, but it doesn't have to be either/or. Although I'm not entirely satisfied with SFGIX yet (Andrew F. hasn't proven so far, imho, that he's going to be successful as an ex-A…
I'd wait until it kicks above some standard moving-average metric, pick one ... it's below all of them, and has been below the 20 since the end of April, so I think at the very minimum, I'd hold out until it breaks above the 20 and stays there a few…
Reply to @Hrux: I agree completely with Hrux. JG's portfolios, in the two main funds he manages (DBLTX and DBLFX) are run on a balanced-risk basis. Once in a while, he tilts a portfolio very slightly in one direction or the other, but basically he's…