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.
"Late Monday, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the main center for the trading of derivatives, one of the major forms of financial speculation, announced that it would no long classify short-term Treasury bills as risk-free when used as collateral b…
If the ceiling is raised in a manner that kicks the can down the road, it continues. The price of gold has followed the hikes in the debt ceiling pretty closely.
chart: http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/draghi/GC 1_…
Some CEF/ETFs have K-1's - the United States Commodity Index (USCI) fund, Nuveen Commodity Fund (CFD) and the Ishares Alternative (ALT) are among non-MLP's w/k-1's.
They do generate a K-1 and if one does not mind the implications of that both in terms of taxes and filing issues, then I don't think MLPs are a problem. I own a couple of them, but neither relates to energy.
I don't know who they would sell to aside from Ameritrade or Schwab and I tend to wonder if a merger of Ameritrade and Etrade would result in regulatory issues.
I'm not against the idea of financials turning around (the catalyst for that is beyond me), although the whole sector could always become cheaper. However, if I had interest, I'd view this as a supporting play rather than a large chunk of the portfo…
My issue with the financials is the quality of earnings (how much is moving money from one pocket to the other?) and future catalysts/prospects as well as future regulation. One of the biggest issues is regulatory uncertainty, which is a problem tha…
I'd consider keeping a good portion of money in Asia. In terms of specific names, I think Coca Cola FEMSA (COCSF.PK or KOF) and Arcos Dorados (ARCO) are interesting consumer staples stocks for Latin America that may be more conservative plays. Coca…
I'd suggest looking at Brookfield Infrastructure (BIP), which is a very interesting collection of global infrastructure assets, and pays about a 4.7% or so yield. While things can always change, do your own research, etc etc, it is trading at less t…
I'm not dumping JAOSX because I have a small amount in it (saw the fund was doing lousy this year and thought I'd send some money that way as sort of a contrarian play, I suppose) and have a relatively high degree of confidence in the fund's manager…
Read Cramer's first book, "Confessions of a Street Addict", for a good discussion of this - he thought he'd done really well for his shareholders at his hedge fund for years and that they wouldn't just depart when the fund had to be opened unexpecte…
From Morningstar RE: PETDX
Growth of $10,000 = 26,504.38
Giant divs have eroded the NAV. See a number of other, similar Pimco funds that offer similarly giant dividends (PIXDX w/a 21.66% *listed* yield) for similar results.
I don't think MM's will necessarily be entirely safe harbor, either if this really happens and happens in a sizable way. There has already been a good deal of concern about what some MM funds searching for yield have apparently been investing in lat…
GTAA (Cambria Global Tactical ETF) is quite similar to this, although over the short-to-mid term it can stumble/lag if there's significant volatility; similar to managed futures, it appears to function best when there's a consistent trend. I also o…
I think with the MLPs if you believe in the story (whether it be oil, gas, or one of the other sectors, such as new fertilizer MLP CVR Partners), then why not just hold and collect dividends (hopefully the dividends won't suffer too much in another …
I think what I found distressing about Leuthold was his appearances on Bloomberg last year touting all of the investment opportunities out there while his fund was at or near last place in the category at the same time. Not comparing, but Bill Mille…
I've said before that people can be amazing doctors, lawyers, etc. Brilliant people, but they don't care to be involved in managing their own money. I don't really care for Suzie Orman, but she gave a lengthy presentation recently where she basicall…
Sadly I think a ridiculous amount of people (I wouldn't be surprised if it was 75-85%) of people with financial advisors have little or no idea what their advisor is invested in.
I owned it initially but sold not too long after. The fund is now below the initial price by a couple bucks - I wonder if the hedge fund is showing the same performance over the last couple of years or if there is a disconnect between how they've ma…
My issue with the absolute return fund is that I wish it was more global than simply developed nations currencies. Additionally, with how fast the currency market moves, I tend to wonder if a retail fund can keep up with it capably, and the other is…
I think they may have a place with conservative investors. I'm a little skeptical of "low volatility" (over the long-term), as I would be with "stable value" (to use one of those "believe us, it's conservative"-type terms), but if it works, it works…
Of course. You have congresspeople who talk about how we have to get our house in order, but on the other hand talk about how we have to raise our debt limit. We'll raise our debt limit and then stopping spending will be conveniently forgotten. If w…
FAIRX can become more conservative if Berkowitz desires, but in terms of hedge fund status, the fund cannot hedge against the downside in any manner. I'm not sure if Berkshire can to any great degree, but I do know it can hedge as it does use S &…
I have the Rivernorth/Doubleline fund and have been quite pleased with it. I do not plan to and don't have the space to invest in RNCOX, but would consider it if I had the space. That space remains filled by AQR Risk Parity.
In terms of this kind of issue, you can look at Weimar Germany and Zimbabwe, where the stock markets soared/practically went vertical, but the currency went to zero, so you had significant nominal gains, but in real terms...well... Zimbabwe was the …
This is an excellent interview with Turk. Additionally, as I noted in another thread, this interview with Jim Sinclair (partially on gold, but also on the state of the world) is also really worth a listen and actually a rather powerful discussion on…
"We had some past agreements and disagreements about giving MFO moderation privileges to some active members on FundAlarm. It kind of de-evolved into some discussions about controversial or outspoken members not being best suited for this task." Ah,…
