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rjb112
Well thanks for all your great instruction and telling me about it.
Well, as usual, I just shot my mouth off without worrying too much about the actual numbers, so when I looked into it, I was happy to see that I was correct.
@dryflower, Morningstar just came out with an article on the subject.
h…
I guess At least Fartiromo has left CNBC and he is not fawning all over her. Incidently I think that was the reason his fund didn't do well in 2011. He wasn't focused. I guess I should owe Fartiromo.
VintageFreak, did Berkowitz do an interview wi…
@chrisw, great report, thanks.
Had no idea regarding Scottrade: Excellent selection of institutional funds with low initial investment (often $100).
- Summary: A must have for institutional share class access (I hate 12b-1 fees).
What do you mean …
I think if you wanted you could use the historical information from the Fed to graph or create a table of what has historically happened to 10 Years when the Fed Funds rate changes, or pretty much any other comparison you'd want to do.
federalres…
I'll call BS. I do not see rates at 3.75 by end of 2017.
I agree with this.
Lets say they start raising in June 2015. That would mean 2.5 years to run it up to 3.75. The economy would have to be doing very well for that to happen.
I agree wi…
I think Berkowitz is going off the deep end with respect to Sears, St Joe, having 49% of the Fairholme Fund invested in one stock, AIG, owning Fannie and Freddie which supposedly are going to "end" as companies.
Hmmm......Bruce Berkowitz has always…
@JohnChisum, the bond fund you went into has a manager that is actively doing things to prepare. A lot of bond funds never do that, because by prospectus they have to stay pretty close to an index, like the total bond market index, which is based o…
John, the Fed also says they will raise rates in 2015....2016....and 2017. So it would be a steady raising of rates once they start. If it happens, and if the longer term rates follow suit, most bond funds are in trouble. The expected raise in 20…
Until a few month ago I paid little attention to these funds. Since then I researched some especially Arnott and the RAFI fundamental index, in particular the offering from Schwab. FNDF. It's on my watch list.
Having more choices is always better.…
Thanks Old_Skeet. Your explanation is clearer than Teds.
John, I didn't open any of the links, but this year I've read several articles about "smart beta" or "strategic beta". What I've learned from those articles is basically that any 'index' wei…
@mrdarcey, question for you. This is off topic, because it does not apply to Vanguard ETFs vs. Vanguard Traditional Index Funds. Vanguard has a patented, unique structure so that their ETFs are simply a different share class of the identical trad…
In the mini selloff in junk munis in early July, HYD sold off over 4% early that month (closing highs to intraday lows) while HYMB sold of over 3%. Yet the open end barely sold off over 1% while EIHYX didn't even sell off 3/4 of a %.
HYD has …
Fairholme Allocation (FAAFX): Bruce Berkowitz has 10% of the assets of this mutual fund in Sears (SHLD) which is new to the portfolio as of 5/31/14. So Berkowitz continues to like Sears very much. Sears makes up 6.97% of Fairholme Fund.
http://www.bondbuyer.com/news/markets-buy-side/foreign-investors-build-muni-market-clout-1066282-1.html
Nice move today so far in the junk muni ETFs (HYMB and HYD - neither of which I would touch with a ten foot pole) and some of the open end junk …
... MIT’s unitized pool of endowment and other MIT funds generated an investment return of 19.2 percent during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014.
Not a bad year. 19% is pretty outstanding.
MIT Fiscal 2014 Results
Looks like the S&P 500 w…
@rjb112: "The Fed just revealed yesterday that the Fed Funds rate, currently 0% to 0.25%, is expected by the Fed to be at 3.75% at the end of 2017. If the corresponding rates of the bonds that the DoubleLine Long Duration Bond Fund will invest in al…
The Dow 30 is oddly, a price weighted index, not a capitalization weighted index like the S&P 500 and most (but not all) other indexes.
Here's a look at the weightings of the top 25:
OK MFOers, what am I missing here?
"Source ETFs Unveils Euro Stoxx 50 Fund as Initial U.S. Offering"
But I already see 2 SPDR etfs that seem to have that ground covered:
SPDR STOXX Europe 50 ETF (FEU)
SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF (FEZ)
Did we need a t…
Actually, there's a way to sort of "have your cake and eat it too." It's called File and Suspend. Gives one tremendous flexibility in claiming. If one takes SS at age 62 and later regrets it, one can go a long way towards 'undoing' it.
If one pl…
One thing we don't often discuss at MFO is Social Security claiming strategies. Take someone just about to reach what SS calls "Full Retirement Age", which is age 66 for most people looking at this question. If that person delays taking SS from …
I.
Bond Funds
PIMCO Total Return Admin-----------PTRAX
I would suggest PTTRX in place of the Pimco Total Return share class listed above. Expenses much lower, and it's the same fund. And a good core bond fund by Gundlach and also one with Dan…
"Guess it depends on if you forecast the economy doing better and recovering better.......or needing to stay on life support."
All of this is starting to sound more like gambling than investing.
There does seem to be a significant element of 'gam…
Is Gundlach looking for an eventual inverted yield curve? He has been outspoken about how he thinks the economy is not all that strong and an inverted yield curve would imply a recession. I can't see the Fed allowing an inverted yield curve though…
I wonder if he ever had a exit plan in case it all went south? Is he going to hold it to zero?
Ten years is plenty of time.
Wonder if Bruce Berkowitz has an exit plan for all the Sears he has in Fairholme Fund? Just keep holding it? Same with h…
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.
What didn't you like about TD Waterhouse, Scottrade, We…
I don't know JohnChisum.
I do know that Bill Gross does not believe that the Fed Funds rate will be 3.75% after rates have normalized. PIMCO believes in the "new neutral", and says the Fed Funds rate will be about 2% after rates have normalized. A…
Another factor I thought of is that many actively managed funds try to focus on higher quality names, and this year's market has been one in which low quality has outperformed.
@dryflower, appreciate if you can reference that, provide a source that …
Thanks JohnChisum.
There's still a mystery here. Why a Long Duration Bond Fund now?
Gundlach gave his most recent views this very month, and they seem to be slightly different than in the article you referenced. Not huge, but he would have to thin…
Me too. Is Gundlach thinking that long duration bonds are best at this time?
Of course, these bonds have the greatest interest rate risk.
The fund is supposed to have an average duration of at least 10 years, meaning that if the corresponding inter…
Sears (SHLD) down another 5.28% today.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sears-shareholder-alert-andrews-springer-llc-is-investigating-sears-holding-corporation-for-possible-violations-of-securities-laws-2014-09-18
"ESL Investments, whose sole stoc…
Interesting that John Bogle personally does not own any international stock funds. He feels that the overseas earnings of the large cap US stocks is sufficient international diversification.
Also, he no longer believes that the Total Bond Index is…
@MOZART325, see above, the 1, 3, 5 and 10-year total return of VTSAX vs. VTI.
You don't pay the bid-ask spread as a separate fee or cost. It is reflected in the total return performance. The separate fee is the commission, less than $10 at a disco…
While not a fan of TD Ameritrade, I did come across this page on their website. New funds at Ameritrade
@Maurice, what is it you don't like about TD Ameritrade?
Thanks.
Vanguard Total Stock Market (VTSMX) and other broad market averages are putting in extremely high showings relative to other mutual funds for the year-to-date. What might be the reason for this, and what might this portend?
Your thoughts appreciat…
In my experience E*Trade has been the worse brokerage. Next worse is Ameritrade. Followed by Merrill Lynch. I'm not going to even talk about E*Trade and Ameritrade. Too painful.
I've been happy with TD Ameritrade. One thing I particularly like ab…
rjb, I've owned the fund since inception. I guess that would imply that I have confidence in the manager. While he's had a few blowups, including some that appear to be with his people skills, I can't complain on the returns in the FAIRX fund.
No fa…
Does this give anyone on MFO confidence in Bruce Berkowitz and the Fairholme Fund?
He owns a lot of Sears, and has 49% of his money in AIG. St. Joe is a risky stock. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack may turn out to be home runs, but Congress also may …
