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.
Not perceiving it as a war either. I just provided the reason why I sold the fund as it was becoming risky for me regardless of the performance. It simply was not being managed the way I thought it would be when I bought. It was becoming more and…
@vintagefreak:
Well when I bought the fund, it was concentrated, but not to this extent.
From Fairholme reports:
In Nov 2008, largest holding Pfizer 18.7%, next Sears 6%
Nov 2009, largest holding Sears 10.6%, Berkshire 10.1%
Nov 2010, larg…
That is the argument of indexers. It is indeed hard to find active fund managers who can beat the index over long term. Those who take the most risk would have greater
standard deviations in their returns, which means they may appear to be much be…
I used to own FAIRX, but could not afford the risk of such a concentrated portfolio.
Even Warren Buffett with all his focus on best ideas does not invest close to 50%
in a single stock, or 70% in three stocks. Further Bruce focuses a lot on fina…
To be fair, fidelity is one of the better sites and for my use it works very well. However, some sites (e.g., couple of my prior 401k sites) were so bad, I actually wonder if someone actually spent even a couple of hours going through some kind of …
Similar case here. Started getting some real money only a little after 35. Took me couple of years to figure out that I need to invest in mutual funds vs. just CDs. Learning every year since then.
Teaching my daughter to save and invest wisely…
It has been a while, so don't remember all the details. Move from TD Waterhouse to Scottrade was because of lower trading commissions. Moved from Scottrade to Wellstrade again because of 100 free trades (still have a small Roth at Scottrade). Scot…
I had held FAIRX for a long time (seven years I think) before I started getting uncomfortable with this approach. Around mid-2013 I decided to change my concentrated manager bet to PYSAX, following David Glancy's move. I transitioned slowly moving…
Very satisfied with Schwab and Fidelity. Professional, helpful, good websites, good research, fund availability! Settled at these two after going through TD Waterhouse, Scottrade, WellsTrade.
Of these, I have
SGENX (load-waived through Schwab): Very consistent performer, 1/3/5/10/20year average returns all range in 8.95-11.61% per year.
WASYX - small amount in an old ROTH
FMILX looks interesting -- somehow I had never come across it and…
Junkster: I remember your post. In fact, coincidentally I had also begun to look at that sector in January, but had not pulled the trigger. Started buying shortly after your post after doing additional diligence.
Generally, I don't have good lu…
@Junkster: Totally agree on managing drawdowns. Limit your losses and let your winners run. The skill is how to implement. How do you go about finding the tight rising channels? Do you regularly look at a list of favorite funds/sectors? Looks l…
Just yesterday, I was listening to a podcast discussing this. It was quite interesting.
Don't know how to link podcasts, but I think this is the same one.
http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/321797073/what-is-original
As far as recent trends are concerned, VWO, XLV, VNQ, HDV and QQQ
look good (essentially my momentum portfolio). Been in VNQ, HDV and XLV
for a while. Added VWO a little over a month back and QQQ more recently.
XLE was good for a while and may …
It is the classic debate of skill vs luck. My view is that skill exists, especially in certain
talented and hardworking individuals. However, we (meaning both the experts and
their followers) tend to overestimate our skills. Long term trend is st…
Kaspa said "She has only two decent large-cap funds in her 401k" (prwax, vwnfx)
Thank you everyone for their comments.
Sorry, I did not notice the index fund :-), but it is there.
BobC: With the availability of index fund, would you still prefe…
Is there a LC index fund?
IMHO, LC is the area where indexing makes the most sense. Unless you are looking for a manager that has a mandate to preserve capital first, hedge with cash when stocks look pricey and that is the strategy you want (ala fu…
Thanks Shadow. I had set it up for automatic investing at Schwab to build up to the
intended position over six months and decided to bulk purchase right away.
Ha ha! Ted knows how to get a response from you, even during vacation!
I pulled out early from the NHMAX wagon, but still made good money. Still have about 25% of my position.
I respect MJG's contributions, just like others'. However, I respectfully take issue with dictating the form of communication on this board, or for that matter on any public forum, as long as we are respectful of others. Everyone has their own st…
@Ted
Actually yahoo finance graphs do not account for reinvested distributions. The right graph to compare is
http://quotes.morningstar.com/chart/fund/chart?t=ICMAX®ion=usa&culture=en-US
You can add IWM to compare.
@LLJB
I see your p…
Isn't the overall investing universe mostly closed? Assuming it includes 'all' asset classes (including real estate, cash, gold, etc.), the money has to be in something. One outgoing money is fees. Even if we assume investors spent 1-2%/year on f…
Nice article. I am reading Daniel Kahnemann again -- confirmation bias, halo effect, cognitive ease, finding associations when none exist, ignoring statistics, laziness of System 2....
Although PJP has recently performed better, I prefer XLV which includes healthcare and related service providers such as UNH, MDT, TMO, WLP, AET, etc., in addition to pharma and biotech companies.
https://www.spdrs.com/product/fund.seam?ticker=xlv
That might work, but it is not as clean. People do respond to some links they find interesting. I find that I learn more from the discussions among posters with differing views.
If you are looking at a moderate allocation fund, I prefer FPACX and OAKBX. Some here also like PRWCX. GAINX does not have bonds. Whether adding bonds to your portfolio is prudent, is a different question. If you are looking only for a stock fun…
I have not followed the newsletter and FUNDX, but the last time I looked FUNDX has lot more holdings than recommended by the newsletter. I think the newsletter suggests holding top two funds in the core class. Adding holdings may be necessary for…
My thoughts
1. Self-regulation, while a good guiding principle, does not work in an unregulated
forum, especially with anonymous posters on internet. Vociferous minority can
dominate relatively silent minority. Similar reasons why we have laws i…