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.
Seriously, I have tons of baseball cards from the '80's/90's and they had no interest from local dealers when I tried to dump the collection. Older cards still have interest, but the '90's is when it became way mass produced and ruined it.
Reply to @MaxBialystock: There are certainly pockets of the fixed income market that have a positive outlook going forward, but I am definitely concerned about the mid-to-long-term outlook for a lot of fixed income sectors. Additionally, it feels li…
I think it's not necessarily "fearful" as much as "reasoned negative" - you believe his reasoning or not. Trying to be contrarian (which seems to be the desire a lot more when people are negative - when everyone's positive, everyone's a lot more hap…
In terms of difficulty for mom/pop investors, I agree with a lot of the letter that's the focus of this article:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/hedge-fund-insider-explains-why-retail-investors-should-flee-stock-market
I don't think that everyone sh…
ICI (Investment Company Institute) follows mutual fund inflows/outflows and ETF inflows/outflows. I'm not sure whether their attempts to follow ETF inflows/outflows are retail only, but their mutual fund inflows/outflows would be a good indicator of…
I think I'll be somewhere in-between on this argument. I do think that one of my goals is to be able to turn off the monitor more next year, although I think that being unaware of what your portfolio is doing until quarter-end is a bit extreme for m…
You have to own real assets (again, I really think that's a 5-10 year theme). You can't be short even if it makes sense. Those who can make charts and technical analysis work for them, that's great, but I don't understand how any of that works in th…
Reply to @MaxBialystock: I think my only concern is that when people get screwed, there's the risk of it going the other way. To use an example, if MF Global screws people in the manner they did (taking from customer accounts to prop up their own ba…
Reply to @kevindow: Lets say it a different way, perhaps. This country spent during good times and it spent during the bad times. Blame whichever political side you would feel better about blaming, but it happened. No one would like to see the US t…
I agree with Kaspa that it's difficult to do well with the 2/3x funds over the long term. I've used the Rydex inverse funds at times throughout the last couple of years, but I haven't in months as I've grown tired of tweaking and timing. As I noted …
Are you looking for inverse index mutual funds (which are offered by Rydex/Profunds) or inverse ETFs (such as direxion, etc) or are you looking for index long funds?
Ameritrade offers NTF/no minimum on the Rydex inverse mutual funds and they are o…
Reply to @Old_Joe: I think there's definitely less activity on the board for a number of reasons, including the fact that the sort of macro (and sometimes political) discussions that became larger debates/discussions haven't happened as much here. …
As Old Joe noted, the way that your portfolio is structured is largely lower-key Asia funds and EM bonds. So, it's definitely not going to always be heavily correlated to developed markets from day-to-day for better or worse. Given the way that my p…
I think the performance of Swiss Francs is going to be iffy going forward, I think the performance of treasury bonds going forward is definitely going to be questionable. I think it is going to rely on the performance of gold, silver and its inflati…
I believe there is a pink sheet/foreign ordinary share version (RITPF.pk), but it is EXTREMELY thinly traded/illiquid (definitely at your own risk) and some brokerages do charge extra (commission + additional fee, which varies) for trading in foreig…
I definitely like Asia, but I think for me it's a matter of comfort and almost "putting away" investments. I have a similar belief to you that Asia will do well over time, but I think rather than being heavily in Asia (which I was about 2 years ago)…
MTA top 4:
1. Jim Rickards: I think the way that Rickards blends geopolitics and finance is increasingly valuable and effective in today's financial markets. Clear, concise and unique in perspective (Rickards' specialty is "threat finance" and he de…
An aggressive retirement portfolio suggestion overweight Asia (just something I came up with as a random suggestion)
15% MAPIX
15% MACSX
15% TEGBX
15% SGIIX (or whatever share class)
15% FPACX
5% PCRRX
10% RNSIX
10% PAUDX
Reply to @MaxBialystock:
I do think that 43% in any one fund is extreme (and having considerably more than 50% in one sector/country/region) and while MAPTX may not be right, you could explore something like Pimco's new Multi-Asset Emerging (EM St…
Reply to @Maurice: Maybe they could have the little animated paper clip from Microsoft Office do a little warning about not taking the computer in water.
Reply to @hank: Thanks. I don't know about homebuilders (especially luxury) as I think you're going to see a change in housing over the next decade, with older people (baby boomers, etc) looking to downsize/move into retirement homes, and a view on …
MAPTX is Asia/Pac ex-Japan, and does not offer the consistent dividend. It would be higher risk than MAPIX and if previous years were any indication, not hold up as well if there was another 2008-style situation/significant down year. I think MACSX/…
The Advisorshares Mars Hill fund was never particularly good and barely ever traded. While actively managed ETFs are the "thing of the moment", Advisorshares is putting out a few too many just to put product on market. The Advisorshares Cambria Fund…
