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.
Yesterday I gave DoubleLine a chunk of $ I'd reclaimed from Pimco earlier, and bought a little BAB as a baby step anticipating an eventual, temporary, long-rate fall. Still have a lot of cash.
Have eyes on a couple of CEFs, but as a poster on M* m…
Looks like Invesco has a smoother ride with not as much potential upside; haven't looked at the strategies to see how different they are, but that might be worthwhile for RP-leaning investors.
Not sure about that specific fund, but the RP schtick in general is equal risk among stocks, bonds, & commodities, and when there's a lot of correlation across asset classes and the direction is more down than up, it's not going to do well. Leve…
Reply to @ron: I'd tend to agree ... it might change in the next week for all anybody knows, but very recently the best allocation would prob'ly be some equities and a bunch of cash, and if you've got bonds, to be in safer, slower-moving, unlevered …
IE, I think it depends on what else in Asia/EM you own. If you've got another foreign or EM bond fund you're happy with, maybe you don't need MAINX. If you have an EM stock fund you're happy with, you might be more diversified with MAPIX than MACSX.…
Thanks, Skeeter. Guess I need to be reminded from time to time to look at the Bespoke site; lots of great info there.
Consumer staples oversold is kind of a surprise ...
Good stuff, OJ; gracias.
The best info on employment reports, imho, is straight from the horse's mouth.
The Bur. of Labor Stats news releases have much more info in them than the average news report ... and they're concise, well organized, and fa…
Reply to @mnzdedwards: Agree with Mike. I'm considering moving some PIMIX to PDI, but I'd like to see the NAV stop falling at least briefly before I sink $ into it.
I usually have very little to no cash in investable assets, but sold roughly equal amounts of core bond, credit-risk bond, and stock to get to 20% cash this week ... then in a moment of sheer insanity, bought a little VPACX yesterday for a 'safer' p…
I was curious because I'd never heard of OBIOX so took a quick look ... it doesn't pass my quick risk test, which consists of M* risk rating (high), 2008 return (-60%), and Q3 2011 return (-24%).
Have you looked at WAIGX? I haven't researched the …
Reply to @sligo: No, I don't think it's too big ... it's 2/3 large caps, and it has a geographically large investment universe. All the new Matthews funds are coming it at really high expense ratios; I seriously doubt any of them are going to be as …
I'm planning to build up from a small position in ARLSX (long-short); overall its returns since I've owned it have fallen between stocks and bonds, and on the days when both take it in the shorts, it's been the only green anywhere in my holdings ...…
I finally found a use for a long-short fund, ARLSX in this case, on days like these last few when most stocks and most bonds are down. It's up reasonably in the last week, while all my other funds are down. I still have a core bond fund that would n…
Did sell a chunk of munis, but otherwise holding for now. Be aware that some of the big selling in FI CEFs and ETFs, at least yesterday and today, has an element of panic to it; several have lost big in price, while actually gaining in NAV. (Same wi…
In PAUIX, Arnott holds what has appeared to be a near perma-short on U.S. stocks, while investing significantly in EM stocks and bonds. That particular combo has not been a winner this year; not to say it won't be in the future.
Imho, Arnott no lon…
You're asking how to pick a mutual fund in general? If that's it, I'd suggest starting with some basic reading, such as:
http://www.investopedia.com/university/quality-mutual-fund/
You'd also be well advised to explore M* beyond the simple headlin…
This is a health savings account, yes? I don't know that much about them, but it seems like the first thing you'd want to do is make an allocation plan based on age, how much you're putting into it, what your med bills are like, how much liquidity y…
You made a good decision to buy when you did, Max. I was thinking it could be a big downside-style fund, but for the last year, anyway, it's coming in at only 73% of the downside of the S&P 500 ... up/down capture of 115/73 vs. the small-blend c…
I haven't seen any negative effects; the one A. fund I hold is still closed, the E.R.'s unchanged, and the managers haven't been tasked with running any new funds.
I owned UMBDX at one time, but got out of it for consolidation reasons, not because it didn't meet expectations. I was under the impression that it had the truly risk-averse foreign small/mid-cap niche pretty much to itself, so I'm a little surprise…
Reply to @mcmarasco: Just one small point: what you'll be asking Fido for is a conversion (from one share class to another, which is not a taxable event), not an exchange. (The original cost basis follows you over to the new share class.)
Dividends have been spotty with that fund; maybe look at holdings and recent reports to figure out what they're doing in that regard. Cap gains? Haven't been any since 2008, and with the price runup since then, the recent Japan uptick, & the 40-…
Reply to @MikeM: No, not unique, & I'm no expert on tv in general because I don't watch much of it, but the econ/finance etc. coverage is still egregious to me, I guess mostly because of what I expressed in the last graf: it's so poorly done com…
Reply to @AKAFlack: PBS isn't known for its economy/investment smarts. Witness the years of superficial Nightly Biz Report journalism; the new, equally mediocre, CNBC clone; the repeated appearances of Suze Orman during the dreadful pledge week prog…
FWIW, I took John Rekenthaler off my "wise" list after his botched reorganization of bond data for funds, and clumsy attempts to justify it, on the M* site.
I agree MJFOX is a good Japan fund, but if I were tempted to put $ into a pure-Japan stock play at this point in the rally, I'd regard it as a purely tactical move and therefore use an ETF. That way I could get out without any delay and without a re…
There are several ways to value the markets, and I wouldn't base a major investment decision on just one method ... especially, in the case of M*, where the methodology is proprietary and undisclosed.
Here, for example, is another method -- Gurufoc…
The other thing that would give me pause about investing in the new Asia fund is that JD himself is going to be the manager. He's had some success with the other funds he runs in their lineup, but the better funds in the shop are the ones he doesn't…
The only new thing even remotely in the crosshairs here is Artisan Global Small Cap, ARTWX, whenever they decide to open it; an Artisan rep said today they still have no official word on when that'll be. I'll want to see how it's positioned before i…
Reply to @Charles: The progress to this point has been only in stopping the hemorrhaging, and that occurred three years ago. It's good that we're keeping up with adult population growth now, but that's not making a dent in the job deficit created du…
