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 @LarryH: If you want to break it up into components to figure your whole portfolio's asset allocation, I'd do it ~ like this (like you probably do with any other allocation fund in your portfolio):
Jot down the asset allocation for the pas…
Reply to @fundalarm: Straight from the horse's mouth, as they say:
http://www.allianzinvestors.com/Products/Pages/631.aspx?ShareClassCode=ARTIFICIAL
45.83% effective leverage, through reverse repurchase agreements ... isn't that the Pimco way, to …
Reply to @Accipiter: Imho, Accipiter, there are more variables, though, that you can't isolate with a simple poll like this to be able to draw conclusions on the order of what you've stated above.
One category that will really muddy the relationsh…
Reply to @Mona: Hi again Mona, DBLTX and TCW's TGLMX are all-but-entirely mortgage funds, and both do a AAA/junk barbell act to limit price fluctuation while providing pretty remarkable yield. I'd say you could safely and profitably trade in all you…
Reply to @Mona: Hi Mona, I own PIMIX too, but added to PDIIX to bump up $ in foreign bonds, which is more of a core strategy at PDIIX. Since I own both PIMIX and DBLTX, I've got plenty of mortgages ... plus Gross has jumped on the mortgage bandwagon…
The Dreifus funds are, I think, the only Royce funds I'd consider since they went over to the dark side. I had RSEMX on a watchlist for a while, but it hadn't then quite measured up, and still isn't measuring up, to other conservative, risk-controll…
Good idea for a thread, Scott.
I've just been rearranging a bit over the past month or so: reduced municipals, beefed up my stake in Gross's BOND and Pimco's multisector PDIIX, reallocated some EM from MACSX to SFGIX, and added some to MAINX and D…
I don't see all that much redundancy in the funds you own.
At first glance DBLTX-RNSIX looks like some redundancy, but really, not so much. The kinds of bonds in BERIX, you've got plenty of exposure to in the Pimco funds, when the Pimco gang sees …
Reply to @CathyG: Hi Cathy, Long term T's are the classic place to run during recessions because they have been, and for the most part still are, the place a whole lot of people want to be when stocks are being crushed, and they want to own safe ass…
Reply to @hank: Good data, Hank. Look at that PRHYX figure -- wasn't it about half that, maybe a year ago? That's rough recollection, could be off, but I used to watch it from time to time. No wonder they closed it.
Reply to @scott: Diversified bond funds, even a lot of just regular ol' intermediate core-ish bond funds, have a fair bit more on the menu than gov't & high-grade corps. One current example of a hot bond sector (in which many diversified and som…
Bee, if a fund like YACKX appeals, rather than an aggressive fund, there are a few funds that more or less fall in that category of pretty steady and risk-controlled, like BBTEX, PRBLX, VDIGX, FMIHX, & AMANX and AMAGX, and you could probably als…
Or you can buy it in an IRA. You can buy DBLTX (the cheaper I shares) in an IRA for $5k directly from DBL, and I assume the same minimum applies to at least some of the brokerages that handle it:
http://financials.morningstar.com/fund/purchase-info…
I don't follow either of those funds, so won't offer an opinion on them directly, but I'd point out as possible alternatives the new breed of multi-asset, yield-oriented ETFs, of which I've picked IYLD for a moderately significant investment with a …
From the M* performance pages, it looks like it's done really well in risk-on times and hasn't fallen far behind when it's risk-off; it's only had one negative month out of 11, and that was only -0.25%:
http://performance.morningstar.com/fund/perf…
Reply to @MikeM: I wonder (?) if the timing was dictated at least partly by the contract with the umbrella group; i.e., was there a provision that said the fund would shift the capacity to non-institutional investors if the projected institutional A…
Reply to @Charles: Class act, amen. For anyone who's interested in the fund at all and hasn't caught the conference call of July 12, it's a great window into the fund and the strategy, and AF's approach: organized, succinct, thematic, straightforwar…
Good article. I was interested in the brief mention of Build America Mutual, which is a new organization that will insure munis. The National League of Cities has already endorsed it:
http://www.nlc.org/find-city-solutions/savings-and-solutions/bui…
Reply to @johnN: Not that there aren't kernels of truth in places on the site, but you do realize, John, that anybody can write an article for Seeking Alpha? It's not all expert opinion, by any means. Not to ignore it, but it certainly goes into the…
According to this piece (a Yahoo-Breakout interview with Lee Munson):
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/warren-buffett-investor-trader-115118306.html ---
Buffet hasn't stopped using CDS on munis, he's cut his position in half. Per the articl…
What I've never understood is the duration positioning of HSTRX: why, if he's been thinking stocks are dangerous, would he have a mostly-bond fund in such short duration? He's had the tools at his disposal, but has largely missed this run in bonds. …
Reply to @romroc: Just curious, romroc, but do you mean your son the banker thinks the stock market is about to tank, and if so, did he say why he then would be selling "his bond fund"?
Another lower volatility possibility, if you want to stay wit…
Reply to @kevindow: Not a problem; thanks both of you for the replies. I can't quite square the (short term) higher standard deviation of AQRIX (1 year = 10.3 vs. ABRIX at 8.1, per Google Finance) with the portfolios - seems like from the asset make…
Reply to @kevindow: Kevin, as someone who owns both, do you have a sense of the different approaches and strengths/weaknesses as you've observed them? TIA, Mac
Good catch, Scott; definitely one for the read, research, and watch list. There'll be a fairly large 401k rollover at this house in the next year or so, & I'm working on a shopping list for a Fido IRA.
PB,
It is a tough decision, so much so that I've got both for now, with SFGIX in audition mode as a small position.
I agree with you on the pros and cons ... he made a good case for his approach, I thought, in the conference call, and the divers…
Reply to @Old_Joe: Great context, OJ. It's easy to forget how rare really good, easily available investment information was, of the kind this board gets into daily, only say 15-20 years ago.
While I don't see a compelling case for this particular fund, I also really appreciate David's, and MFO contributors', efforts to keep the board current about new, small, unique, and/or under-the-radar mutual funds. Thanks.
