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.
DBEU is another hedged option. Its weighted by market cap, and maybe more importantly it includes Switzerland and the UK (46% of the portfolio). I'm not sure how stocks in Switzerland and the UK are valued compared to the Eurozone, but my guess wo…
I have a couple of related questions. Wisdom Tree's hedged ETFs for both Europe and Japan, HEDJ and DXJ, respectively, are focused on dividend paying companies, so a value tilt I guess, but also on companies that derive more than 50% of revenue out…
Thanks John! It seems to go well with the overview we get from JP Morgan's Guide to the Markets each quarter. Unfortunately, I don't have Europe covered as I minimized my exposure a bit less than a year ago and the majority of my domestic exposure…
IMHO I think its a reasonable thing to do and one of my hopes next year is to carry a bit more cash that I can use when the ultimate pullbacks come. I think one relevant question, since you're a fan of seasonality is whether you follow the January …
I think the reality is that stocks of the developed world should do well. The Japanese are pumping something like 3 trillion yen (about $25 billion) in stocks and roughly $750 million in Japanese REIT's on an annual basis. At the end of October t…
I bought one stock, Ford, and wish I had done more, but I was getting beaten up so bad that I just wasn't willing to put the cash I had to work until and if the decline became more serious. I did sell the strength in the Euro and Yen on the futures…
This was the last vote for Mr. Fisher and Mr. Plosser as the former is retiring next year and the latter won't be a voter. The Fed is going to be more dovish than it has been and that's likely to err on the side of keeping rates low, probably for t…
Another thought that I haven't really seen anyone answer specifically is where all the money goes from QE in Japan and eventually Europe. Everyone is saying that stocks will do well, and they already are, at least in Japan. Everyone is talking abo…
@BobC, have you found any general truths about SRI funds compared to non-SRI funds? I'm sure there are SRI funds that have done very very well, ETAGX is a good example. But have you found that they do better on average? I could imagine there's so…
The fight is lost. No one in Russia wants to keep Rubles and those who didn't get out before are doing so today. I thought the Central Bank might have been able to defend the currency for a few days, but apparently not. Russia is going to collaps…
The Ruble was just a little higher than 30RUB/USD at the beginning of this year!! The decline has been swift and the problem as I see it is that the larger population is being taken advantage of over and over again in Russia for as long as anyone h…
I don't invest in the fund but have a couple of thoughts. First, I believe the fund's N class shares, ETGLX, are available at Fidelity, Schwab and others with no load and a 1.5% ER. I didn't check that, but its what M* says on their page for the c…
I also read that some had speculated on the election going poorly by selling the yen, so they are unwinding those positions and bidding the yen up a bit, which should not last long. I would think the weak oil market should be good for Japanese stoc…
@scott, a valid point! Russia, Iran, Venezuela among others. In Russia it will be blamed on us and the people won't be as likely to protest, but in most other places, it could get ugly and that won't be good for anyone, but it will raise the price…
Here's my concern about the oil industry. Really big producer Russia and significant producers Iran, Venezuela and Iraq can't balance their budgets on low oil prices but they also can't cut back on production because they need cash. Saudi Arabia, …
Some good points made I think, but I wonder what happens with all the liquidity Japan is and Europe presumably will add to the system. From what I've read Japan's QE is much bigger than what the US did and I wouldn't be surprised if Europe's has to…
I think POAGX just recently hit the 10 year mark or it will very soon. That probably means the risk statistics just haven't updated yet and/or should soon.
I also received a reply from Matthews confirming their numbers for Asia's share of global market capitalization but indicating their numbers were not free-floating market capitalization (MSCI's numbers) but total market capitalization. They also sa…
@catch22, yes, venture capital, although somehow "venture capital" makes me think of professional investors who invest in these kinds of companies, whereas here I think most of the investors are family and friends of the founders, or people who have…
I'd agree with Kopernik's David Iben. I look forward to reading his commentaries more than anyone else since I read about him here and on M* earlier this year. For my interest, I would tell any manager to avoid the attribution analysis and this st…
I think this is a great idea!! I think it is so great I want to put a "blue button" in the hallway with a sign below it that reads "Understanding that I love you and respect you more than words can describe, I will never be perfect with my word cho…
Well I think the market has been assuming the Swiss would reject the referendum so I wouldn't expect this to have a big impact on the price of gold, but maybe a little at the margin because of those who were playing the roulette wheel. Gold is up t…
@catch22, thanks for all the explanation!! I hadn't connected with the idea that your 5% threshold is essentially one-quarter of your "floater" money, so my question about double counting is a bit irrelevant because you wouldn't take the healthcare…
Hi @catch22, I agree!! I have PRHSX in an account at E*TRADE where its NTF. I was just trying to offer some thoughts related to the idea that the fund was showing as closed.
I have a question for you related to your points here and in another pos…
I suspect showing PRHSX as closed is a mistake because there's no general indication that its closed and I'm able to process a buy past where I would normally be told I couldn't buy if its closed in non-Fidelity accounts. In fact, Fidelity doesn't …
@Accipiter you are brilliant and I am very lucky :)
https://google.com/search?q=Estimated+Distributions+2014+Grandeur+Peak
https://google.com/search?q=Estimated+Distributions+2014+Kopernik
@LewisBraham,
I agree completely and funny enough we were discussing the same about healthcare not too long ago.
mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/comment/50872/#Comment_50872
Obviously Emerging Global Advisors wasn't able to generate in…
Roughly 18% is in Russia as well. He has the headwinds of Russian foreign policy and deflation in his way so I think he's right broadly speaking but he was too early. His AUM are down 15% in the last few months and some of that has to be withdrawa…
@JohnChisum, thanks!
It seems to me that Horrocks didn't make the best judgment not only from a return perspective but from a tax perspective as well. The 3 year returns for the fund are now below the category average and although I don't normally…
Thanks to everyone for the discussion! While it may not all relate precisely to my original thoughts, the reality is that it was a somewhat open question about Matthews and there's a lot of value here.
@mrdarcey, like you I have a long-term time…
Hi Old_Skeet,
I think Ted normally posts the Guide each quarter as that's how I became aware of it. I thought about posting it early October but didn't want to step on any toes and then I forgot about it and maybe he did too.
I think your spiff w…
Just wondering with no opinion because my choice during the summer was to eliminate bonds from my portfolio, but wouldn't there be an option to allocate some of the fixed income portion of a portfolio to dividend focused funds or etfs? I read in JP…
A lot of valuable resources, thanks @Ted. Just disappointed in his description of MFO because I think he missed the boat. Hope he wasn't as far off on his descriptions of the other links.
The nice thing is that if you had purchased pretty much any of these funds 15 years ago you'd be very happy today even if you hadn't chosen the absolute best one. Likewise, if you think you can tell me which one will have done the best 15 years fro…
