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.
I believe that both referenced journalists do influence investor decisions, at least those of their large fan base. They are very popular from both their book and journalistic platforms, and have established loyal followings who do and will transl…
Does the "Fog Index" capture tone, or merely vocabulary (syllables) and complexity of linguistic structure?
:-)
Given evidence right here how difficult it is to detect tone, rhetorical devices and intent even by humans within the words, the availa…
1. The first part is conflating a number of different types of experts: from macro economic on which there is no actionable conclusion to investment news letter writers which anybody can be. Is it surprising that over such a wide and diverse group, …
It should be mentioned that nearly all of labor's income derives from the capital invested in the laborer. That's why my labor at that hospital made me so much wealthier than the much greater labor of peasant farmers centuries ago. It sure wasn't…
The true cost of anything can only be arrived at by a bidding process between the producers of the product and its consumers. There is no theoretical way to determine preferences prior to the actions which demonstrate those preferences (which incl…
My plan has a pharmacy deductible of $500. That's definitely subsidized as well. This is Northeast Ohio. No co-pay after that.
Then, I don't see how that plan is HSA-compatible. Something isn't right here.
cman, specifically the plan is fro…
The only scenario where this makes sense is if the amount you need to park and your current income is high enough that ANY taxable dividend you get has significant tax issues beyond just paying the marginal rate on it. For example, starts triggering…
Apologies. Didn't mean to stir up old wounds and baggage.
I think it is much more interesting to discuss why @Mark covets @Old_Joe's toilet.
@MJG, if you would like to get constructive feedback without history/baggage on why your posts (including …
State insurance boards regulate these things differently, don't they? I know that in Ohio insurance companies can't cancel individual policies whose premiums are still being paid, they can only cancel the entire class of policies by not offering …
My plan has a pharmacy deductible of $500. That's definitely subsidized as well. This is Northeast Ohio. No co-pay after that.
Then, I don't see how that plan is HSA-compatible. Something isn't right here.
Regarding co-pay vs deductible, a $…
Not to get into the politics of this, but strictly from an economic perspective, how much do people value the cost of insuring that they can be covered in case they get a serious afflication that may result in their primary insurer canceling their p…
Any clue as to how HSA plans dovetail or collide wuth the ACA?
bee, I know that at least some ACA plans are HSA compliant because I got one of them. There were a lot of choices where I live and I'm not sure but that was the only one that was HSA …
@old_Joe, you seem a bit obsessed with MJG. I understand there is some past history with baggage here. Do you really want ANY anonymous poster on an internet board to affect you that much? Only half joking. :-)
Someone slaps you, you slap them back…
@MikeM, I find the experience reasonably correlated with the size of the portfolio. Without exception, the larger the portfolio, the better services I seem to get. Some of them provide different phone lines, agents and response times based on total…
My core portfolio maintains 40% developed international and 10% EM at all times. Use the play money portfolio to hedge at times with leveraged funds or country funds. For example, currently 2x short positions in S&P 500 and Small cap and China, …
I have been very impressed by Robeco Boston Partners in how disciplined they have been in opening/closing their funds at reasonable levels. I believe they even set forth the guidelines explicitly in their prospectus.
No opinion on the performance o…
I don't own Apple stock only some of its products.
I find the entire financial engineering all at once very odd. Stock split, increased buy back, raising dividends. Seems like they are trying to manage share price concerns. There are rumors that iP…
I still believe opportunities exist for enterprising and hard working American to follow their dreams, at least I hope so.
@bee, I believe that too but the opportunities seem to have become compressed into a few professions and vocations to benefi…
I might also question why it's income rather than wealth that's considered an injustice by the authors of such papers, but this is more than enough. Generally I'd say that income inequality which results from someone solving some problem is good; …
The recent book 'Capitalism in the 21st century' by Thomas Piketty that is currently sending social progressives into orgasms and financial conservatives into spasms takes the reasons for growing disparity in developed nations head on.
I have not r…
@rjb112, it isn't for me to comment why Vanguard uses a particular fund in their fund of funds. Depends on the requirement - marketing, tolerance to volatility, raising assets for new funds, allocation strategy ... It isn't necessarily bad (except f…
Would you include foreign bond funds in this "permanent portfolio" of fixed income allocation?
I didn't include international funds in this particular buy and forget type of portfolio. Developed market bonds don't yield much diversification or yie…
@mrdarcey, thanks for capturing my point correctly.
So is it the unorthodox consensus around here that in fact it is not all that difficult to choose funds that will, on average, beat a relevant index over time going forward?
That is what I seem t…
I really do want Cman to continue his informative postings. I agree with MFOer davidrmoran that his postings are often elliptical, but when decoded with care and when the unsupported proclamations are discarded, the submittals are substance inten…
No standalone active-passive fund management study is conclusive by itself. The issue has far too many dimensions to permit a single, all-inclusive analysis to address and to resolve all the multitude of issues. Since no universal investment Iron…
During my college years, I was infrequently exposed to “the proof is assigned to the student” charge. I hated that assignment then, and I still dislike it today, especially in the investment world. My interpretation: That assignment either comes …
Hi Guys,
This post is very difficult for me. It demands a delicate balanced set of thoughts that just might be beyond my competency reach.
It is always a good idea to start with a jury that is sympathetic. Show of humility, self deprecation and i…
Happy to respond but not what @MJG is likely expecting. He might see this as an attack but given what I am pointing below, and what he has written it is no more or no less an attack than what he practices. Some will see the passive aggressive attack…
@dryflower, the studies along these lines do not model the reality correctly and so come up with incorrect conclusions when they generalize it.
Imagine, if you were to conduct a similar study of multiple choice test scores of all high school studen…
I noticed Twitter listed in a few funds before it went public. I like that there is some flexibility for some funds to do this, but I think it should be more transparent (what %, what holdings, etc.) I'd also like to see investments in names that a…
Relative strength indicator based algorithms depend on short term persistence of performance. But they do have a failure point.
When there is a lot of sector rotation going on, one uninvolved lower but steady sector may actually look good in relati…
Within Fido, I would either recommend a multi sector bond fund like FSICX which is not a bad fund if not one of the top funds in that sector OR a basket of bond funds to buy and hold without worrying about what is happening in the market and making …
I wouldn't recommend @Ted's allocation to my worst enemy :-) And I am saying this as someone who will have a beer with him any day if I ever meet him. He seems what you see, no more, no less. That is refreshing even if I don't necessarily agree with…
@heezsafe, I hear you on the transparency part but mutual funds have never been bastions of transparency, only what the SEC requires. In this case, the listing under illiquid assets may be related to these pre-ipo securities being SEC unregistered s…
Good for momentum trades only, not for core holding. Significant risk of capital.
If you are not sure what mortgage REITs are, you may find this article useful (search for REM on Yahoo finance and click through the M* link there if you have problem…
There are a couple of different things mixed up in this reporting.
Fidelity ventures is an entity in the family that invests primarily in Series B or later and is not associated with any mutual fund. The money for this venture fund comes from the h…
Getting that modularity within the size constraints of a smartphone is hard. Same reason why putting together a desktop PC from parts is easier than an ultrabook where the parts need to be much more optimized with respect to each other
Note that m…
@bee, excellent advice. Sometimes, it is easier to deal with less key lime pie than try to squeeze more juice than a lime can hold. We often forget that.
2) So go ahead and go with indexes only? Or stick with those two (:)).
That is exactly the kind of conclusion one might make if one doesn't look at studies like this carefully. I have recommended both index funds and active funds for different sit…
