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.
WisdomTree also has a new U.S.-$ EM corporate bond etf like the iShares etf in that headline - EMCB. It's just under $60mm in assets with a volume of ~ 18,000 and a bid-ask of 0.12%.
EM bond etf's are popping up like edelweiss in the high meadows …
Reply to @Skeeter: There have been tons of complaints at M* about misclassification in X-Ray. From the level of dissatisfaction expressed there, I'd be really cautious about X-Ray results, for anyone who decides to use it at all.
The second half of the interview was played on the 13th. Here's the transcript:
http://wealthtrack.com/transcript_04-13-2012.php
It's more investment related, as opposed to the more macro content of the first half.
Here are Andrew's answers to three questions about the portfolio, including the Vietnam ETF:
http://www.seafarerfunds.com/ask-seafarer/
I think it's pretty impressive that he anticipates questions about the portfolio and sort of preemptively answe…
I'd want to ask Dan F. whether he thought the same thing in early '04, before the last rate rise, and what he thought when after a few years, rates came right back down again.
Reply to @CathyG: Or consider that all bonds are not the same. Most of the super-scare talk tends to extapolate from long-term Treasuries to the entire bond market, which is really misleading. Multi-sector (strategic) bond funds are a pretty good pl…
Reply to @Investor: I took a look at FMIJX a while back and decided it looks great, but not different enough from ARTKX to be very attractive for this house's portfolio. It has roughly the same mix of geography (significant U.S., loads of UK/W. Euro…
It's kinda interesting to see the difference in returns between the etf and the oef for the first month; I'm curious to see if it persists in the next few months. (Sure, not definitive for a short period, but interesting nonetheless.)
The etf (TRXT…
Reply to @MikeM: Mike, the way I've heard SS, pensions, annuities and any work income addressed in one bucket method is that they're a prequel you have to figure in before you structure the pots of $: quick and dirty, it's to come up with an annual …
Reply to @tgeno: If you dig into it, the bucket thing as applied specifically for retirement is primarily for people who use their savings or income from same for living expenses, which doesn't really apply if there's pension etc. income adequate to…
Christine Benz, one of the bright spots at M*, writes frequently about the bucket approach. As income circumstances are looking likely to change at our house in the fairly near future, I recently tracked down several of her pieces, and it really ope…
Catch, Grandma always said not to go out naked in a northern "spring." (Maybe she meant it was okay in the summer by the swimming hole?)
I saw a line somewhere, sorry no attribution remains in the memory cells, that there might even be hedgies and …
Not yet, though it's high on the watchlist. (I'd need to sell another fund, and I haven't made a decision on that yet.) I've never owned Fairx.
A couple of months ago I put up a post here asking the same questions, and got all but zilch for replies.
M* just in the last couple of weeks has botched the "load" figure on the quote pages for funds that have early redemption fees: many? most? all? funds with erf's have those shown as loads on the quote pages for the funds.
M* motto: proudly botchin…
I guess we'll have to see what the Pttrx portfolio looks like as of 3-30, but as of the end of Feb., he wasn't practicing what he's preaching now: his gov't bond holdings were of the long-ish variety (37% of market value, 44% duration-weighted).
H…
DBLEX/DLENX is a conservative (maybe the most conservative) EM bond fund; Pimco has a stable of five foreign and global bond funds, and one multisector that goes pretty heavily into foreign (PDIIX); Templeton's got the cef's GIM, global bond, and TE…
Rono, since your b-i-l is conservative in the investment schtick, if he wants a one-fund solution, I'd prob'ly pick the most conservative of the Price one-funders: Personal Strat Conservative or Retirement Income. Price has pretty substantial alloca…
Reply to @prinx: Prinx, my question and ibartman's answer were about a very specific return-risk plot tool; neither of us suggested in any way that it was the only tool an investor ever needs to use.
M* is screwing up again. They're showing early redemption fees for a lot of no-load funds as loads on the quote page. I noticed a discussion thread on that issue at M* earlier today. This is apparently a new error that's just shown its face in the l…
Hank,
That's what happened in the last Fed-initiated rate rise, mid-04 to mid-06; the phenomenon is called "bear flattening," i.e., the yield curve flattens from rates rising at the shorter end. Vanguard had a good paper on it that was published on…
Reply to @Old_Joe: OJ, I take it you remember the "How about a nice Hawaiian Punch (bam!)" commercials, which for accuracy would now need to feature a guy swinging his fist underwater.
Reply to @David_Snowball: Imho, Vanguard is the go-to brokerage for Pimco I-funds (Pauix, Pttrx, Pimix, Pdiix, etc.): $25k minimum in taxable or IRA, with a transaction fee, which is $20 if you have $50k or more with Vanguard in total, or $35 if les…
Reply to @ibartman: That's the ticket, very much like the defunct Lipper tool, plus you can do etf's alongside traditional mf's. Good sleuthing. Gracias.
Reply to @prinx: Thanks, prinx, but no, the Lipper tool was essentially a more interactive version of the Smartmoney tool that ibartman mentioned above. It's a graphic, rather than a set of tables, using coordinates on x-y axes to depict risk-adjust…
Reply to @ibartman: That's a great one, which I use frequently to get a first snapshot of a fund I'm not familiar with.
Another plot tool I used to use a lot was a Lipper "interactive" tool using the same coordinate system as the one on Smartmoney…
Dtrainer, that was not the case at all. I tried a wide variety of funds, and their ratings were just as I stated in the previous post. Sorry, if you don't have a more plausible explanation, I don't care to spend any more time on the site, or have a …
I visited New Constructs today to check it out, and entered a couple of dozen tickers in the free analysis screen. All U.S. large and mid-caps were rated 3 stars, and all small caps were rated 2 stars. (There were no ratings for any of the foreign f…
Arnott: "In Pimco All Asset and All Asset All Authority, we invest in stocks [in the U.S. and other developed markets] purely as a tactical asset. We don't view it as a core vehicle."
I'm not sure I've seen him express this so clearly before.
Goo…
As far as the subject of off-topic posts goes, I recall that Roy spent a lot of time policing the board because things got kind of wild and woolly on occasion, and there would be a flurry of argument once in a while over what was on-topic and what w…
Haven't followed Icmax since Eric C. left, or the other two funds on your list, but Artsx is kind of interesting - after a total manager shakeout in '09, a good team came in (largely as I understand it) from Artisan's pretty successful Mid Cap team.…
Sold a short term (2 month) position in VGT, Vanguard's tech ETF, and a longer term position in a clone of VEXAX (small-mid index) in the 401k. Also reduced muni exposure a bit and added to PTTRX (Pimco Total Return: the fund, not the ETF).
Also ad…
Reply to @tgeno: In the last 'graph of my post, I meant the currency denomination of the bonds the fund holds. The fund's actually only ~ 8% cash as I recall. Not looking again, from memory, I think the figures were ~ $15 mm total assets with $1-2 m…
Speaking of Mainx, the note David included that the E.R. has been reduced to 1.0% is good news.
The news, however, is expressed a little oddly on the Matthews site. The E.R.s are shown as 1% for institutional shares and still 1.40 % for investor s…
That's great, David. Your interview and Andrew's responses are much appreciated. I'm really interested to see what will be in the first published portfolio.
The investment web site reviews are a nice new feature, too.
Gracias - AJ
HILO is another EM dividend fund, screened for low volatility, which results in way over benchmark allocations to telecom and utilities.
These custom indexes the various ETFs use seem to result in concentrations of one sort or another, many of them…