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.
Well, after taking a deeper dive into the BulletShare idea, I'm finding data that would be pivotal in reaching a conclusion about them (MTM yields, granular look into exactly how they're structured) to be mysteriously hard to come by, including at t…
I wonder if defined maturity bond indexes could be made to work in the mix? Not the HY varieties, but rather the corp bond varieties. They better allow for more discrete control of duration, and have reduced volatility, vis-a-vis conventional bond i…
@Ted With all due respect, Ted, Memorial Day is not "especially" about those who "gave" their lives in service to the USofA. That is all it is about. It is only about those Americans--- both military and civilians--- who lost their lives in service…
@msf Thanks a bunch. Got it! As someone who once managed a branch office of a not-for-profit law firm for several years, another example that one should always go first to the opinion before proceeding elsewhere, to avoid confusion and the risk of b…
After this decision was released, I read two short legal blogs about it, and both of them speculated this could lead to the reassessment of many fund fee charges, possibly including a reduction or elimination of 12b-1 fees. Not sure I followed the "…
Tallying up the cost of short interest expenses. Depending on your sources, it may not always be tallied. In a MF, the costs will depend on just what is being, or has been, shorted.
http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=698476
The trade is used to achieve negative duration and benefit from rising rates, and is often coupled with low-credit junk bonds of the same maturity as the shorted Treasuries.
@TSP_Transfer Thanks for the post. I would have missed it.
1. "same maturit…
@Ted Well, that's really embarassing, and there are no plausible excuses that would apply. Obviously, the couple of issues preying on my mind today are preying a bit more than I realized. Yikes-- I'm taking the rest of the day off! Since the post is…
A long and much more thorough review, FWIW, by Michael Kitces.
https://www.kitces.com/blog/the-incredible-shrinking-alpha-what-was-once-alpha-is-now-five-factor-beta/
@hank That seems like an awful lot of trouble for a gallon of milk and a pint of strawberries at Whole Foods. But I certainly understand the desire to use cash to avoid the paper trail back to you. Once The Man comes to knows which hygiene products …
http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=15022
Moody's would appear to be less than optimistic. The downgrade was almost Matrix-like; prosecuted ahead of time for the crime you're just thinking of committing.
Perhaps your wife could open her own Roth IRA, and use your RMD to fund that. By putting it into a Regular, she'll be paying taxes on the money (again) when she withdraws it.
@Ted Your city is a mess. Now that you've "retired," and have achieved financial independence from just about everything, don't you feel a compulsion to offer your unique talents in service to your community, in its time of dire needs? :)
There is one fact that I don't think is part of common knowledge, is only occasionally mentioned here and there, but has been acknowledged by the SSA itself (when pressed):
most SS beneficiaries die before receiving, in cumulative monthly payments, …
If you want to gain a smidgeon of flexibility on cash flow re. unexpected bigger ticket items ($1000-2000) for dental/vision/hearing/dermatology care, I was offered a CC when my mother needed a hearing aide in December that does the trick for many t…
@Puddnhead
Yeah, last year was really bad with this; I think it was something like over 50% of all auto loans were subprime, to people with FICOs in the 400-500 range. Guess they had to move those cars off the dealer lots one way or another, so the …
@JohnChisum @Ted As a matter of fact, I do not designate Google as my default search engine, and I also have a doo-dad on my computer that blocks them from following me whenever I click on a link that a Google search generates for me (and they not o…
@Ted For some reason, it isn't working for me. I click on your link and it takes me to a Google search list. I click on the article at the top of the list (to which you have "linked") and it takes me to Barron's and that's what I get. What am I doin…
Though ya wouldn't expect it, the high cash position phenomenon is not exclusive to stock funds.
RNDLX= 26% cash (just noticed last night; wondered why the monthly dvd had been a bit depressed as of late; well, wonder no more)
http://www.rivernorth.…
@David_Snowball Is he having you on for a general chit-chat, or is there something specific he has seen (in your writing, on the board, or elsewhere) about which he would like your take? Just curious. Surely, he won't ask pointed questions about cer…
After sweating it out for 3 years, I decided to liquidate all real estate hldgs and MFs several weeks ago. The trend was my friend, but I never really understood those 3 years. Rather have had what I had in Jan, but instincts got me most of it (and …
"Covenant-lite" corp junk and the impact of second-lien debt issuance. Be cautious; this asset class has a tendency to get crazy-stupid, just before it "gives it (overvaluation) up."
http://www.businessinsider.com/martin-fridson-junk-bonds-are-in-ex…
@hank. Ha! Well, Ted can get testy (sorry, @Old_Joe, I know I promised, but couldn't resist). But it's possibly a faux persona, his cover as a NSA proxy: every so often, he offers up an innocent-looking test and then the NSA vacuums the data for our…
@msf I agree. The Moment of Truth for corp junk, circa 2010-2011, was supposed to be a big crunch in 2013-14; given the ultra-low interest rates, demand, and lowered barriers to obtaining credit, corporations with low ratings were able to refinance …
@Dex Saw on a blog last week that "over 30%" of all outstanding HY municipal bonds were PR debt. (sigh) Given your note that HYD municipal index has PR debt at 3.4%, the dude obviously has a problem with zee decimal points.
Quite a stretch this is n…
@hank So, with a solid 50% score, does that mean you're a good guesser, a bad guesser, or just average at guessing? :) And since Ted got a perfect 100%, does that mean he is twice as good at guessing as you are? I dunno, quite the outlier.... almost…
@Ted Whoa, take me to school, will ya? That miss was so wide of the mark it is a wonder there were no bystanders injured. My sincere apologies to all living descendants of his lordship Thomson. And now, it's time to go figure out the source of that …
