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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…
GTAA is Faber's baby. Below is how he described it prior to launch, on his own web site. I owned it for a few months, and recall that the AdvisorShares site had more information on the actual strategy early on, but then that info was scrubbed a bit …
Norway has stayed out of the EU and the euro monetary zone; they don't have any particularly overwhelming attachment to Europe officialdom.
I recall that one of the reasons for keeping out of the EU was that they wanted to be able to have a nationa…
Reply to @Old_Joe: I've had a good laugh at that series of on-demand-truthiness Doones strips, but I've also been thinking it might not be a bad model for a real business, ya know? I mean, you can't rely on Fox to "cover" exactly what you need at th…
I've got a prominent place reserved for it on the watch list, but I generally don't buy any new fund until at least the first full report/commentary/portfolio holdings comes out.
Nearly all my EM stock exposure is with Matthews right now; I recentl…
At the IRS, there's a new form 8949, replacing the D-1 continuation sheet as the feed-in to the Schedule D. You have to file separate forms 8949 for covered and uncovered shares. So for some sales starting this year, the proceeds and cost basis will…
Reply to @David_Snowball: Thanks, David. Just to be clear, I doubt there's much to be learned from probing about his leaving Matthews; both parties are rightly being politely mum about details, as pretty much anybody would do in the same situation. …
As I understand it (from M* "Management" pages), Andrew F. was lead manager for just shy of two years at Macsx, after having been second in command to Paul Matthews for about four years. However, he was also lead manager at Mapix for more than four …
Hmm. So the etf at 0.55 will be a bit more expensive than PTTRX (the institutional shares held by many through Vanguard & other brokerages) at 0.46, and even a tiny bit more than the derivative-lite HABDX (0.53).
Didn't realize the no-derivati…
As of 12-30, mortgages are the top holding by market value, followed by Treasuries, U.S. corporates, ex-U.S. developed, emerging markets, and a much smaller muni stake.
The asset breakdown of all the Pimco funds is available every month at http:/…
Followup: The rep told me that no, First Trust doesn't aggregate net currency exposure as Aberdeen does with its own funds, and you can't really compute it from the holdings because of the various currency contracts in the portfolio.
So it's hard …
Reply to @Kenster1_GlobalValue:
Thanks; enjoyed the EM bulletin. I have a call in to First Trust asking if they keep a currency breakdown anywhere in their documents like Aberdeen's own CEFs do - I see the notation in the report but I'm too lazy to…
Reply to @Kenster1_GlobalValue: Ken, I've been watching FEO myself & am close to opening a small position.
A couple of questions: Do you have any concerns about the thin trading?
And have you found a breakdown of currency exposure? The only …
I use Vanguard Ltd Term Tax Exempt VMLTX now (which Bob mentions above) & have used the V. short bond index VBISX (a lot of Treasuries) and the short term investment grade fund VFSTX (mostly corporates) in the past.
There's no wall between Vanguard fund accounts and brokerage accounts. You can buy Vanguard MFs with the same MM fund you use as the holding tank for brokerage transactions - as long as the registration of the accounts is the same. Not being able to…
Well, while that's incredibly stupid of BNY Mellon, you CAN get around the crapola through an ACH setup between your bank account and the Matthews account, plus it's even easier to navigate than with an "OR" joint account minus the ACH. Doing busine…
Reply to @Investor: Hi Investor, my post wasn't about star ratings; as you say, there is no star rating on it. The point I was trying to make, maybe not that eloquently, is that they used their miscategorization of the fund (which is partly a produc…
I used to do Matthews in Mapix and Macsx at 1:1; now it's about 2:1, exactly for the reasons Investor cites.
I also added a tiny chaser of Maptx just for fun; as of December, it had the best 1-year Sharpe of the Matthews regional funds.
It'd be …
Per the category issue, M* has DBLTX/DLTNX as a regular ol' intermediate bond fund, which it decidedly isn't, but it doesn't fit in multi-sector bond either (because it sure isn't multi!). I guess they could call it high-yield, and it would be super…
Reply to @Anonymous: I totally agree with Jim about the value of JG's webcasts. They're done with slides accompanying his commentary, and many of the slides make for quick, easy to understand visuals on aspects of current economic happenings, his ou…
A quick comment on the "time in the market" meme: I can't recall the sources now, as this was in the financial news several years ago now, but there was a thorough debunking of the "x best days" argument, due to the fact that a large percentage of "…
Reply to @CathyG: I think that's a good list for statistics in your last paragraph, Cathy.
I like Google for 1-year statistics; haven't found those anywhere else. Haven't been to MaxFunds in a while; I'll have to go look at what's going on over th…
There are definitely times M* lags in reporting NAVs. I have a separate portfolio set up at Yahoo, and it frequently has closing NAVs before M* does. There are also occasional cases where the current NAV shows up on the M* quote page for the fund b…
JG does a risk-balancing act with DBLTX: he has GNMAs, which did fine during the meltdown, balanced against riskier private mortgages - very little in subprime, mostly Alt-A and prime, bought at bargain prices. The beaten-down private mortgages are …
I guess I'm lucky too; only one mail snafu in the last year - regular mail that took a month to get to its destination about 500 miles away.
My postal carrier says, and I've read this a couple of places besides, that Congress required that USPS pre…
2012 plan:
1. Consolidate funds moderately,
2. No short-term trades (we'll see how that goes),
3. Cut back on volatile investments (in relation to category),
4. Limit trading to strategic moves within allocation bands and occasionally replacing a…
Watch out for that MoneyMorning site. There are a lot of ideological buzzwords in that article, which is usually an indicator the author has a narrow view and can miss a lot of good info that doesn't fit his/her fixed ideas.
Reply to @Anna: Hi Anna, They're going with the tried-and-true Econ 101 notion that the employed do pay payroll taxes, and with the temporary cut in the rate, those people will spend more (it's more likely a tax cut will be spent, rather than saved,…
Great discussion, Ginko and Scott and Max. I'd add a couple of things around the edges about fed budgeting:
1. A surplus/lower deficit in good times allows an uptick in spending support for the economy when it needs it the most, without building u…
The one absolutely hilarious assertion in this thread is that Bloomberg has now or has ever had "a leftward bias." I truly appreciate the laugh-out-loud start to my day!
Hi Bee,
It seems to be in a range - every time it dips below $40, buyers appear.
It may be good to keep an eye on it (I am), but I seriously doubt the last shoe has fallen on euro banks, and it could get ugly. Plus the austerity approach by the …
The funds in question are largely, in effect, a leveraged bet on emerging markets. The strategy will work sometimes, and won't work sometimes. Individual investors can decide themselves if that's what they want in their portfolios, and if they do, i…
