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.
Support MFO
Donate through PayPal
Sven
Lynn,
Thank you so much. I am planning on a 3-year ladder since I am a year away from retirement. Lots of spreadsheet work to calculate the income replacement needed. This ladder will create a steady income stream. So thank you for all your help.
I moved back to high quality bond funds this year. Some of which you covered in the SA article. For now, I will stay with agency bonds to the bond ladder. I will pick active managers for corporate bonds.
Sven
My guess is to attract new asset with ETF wrappers since they can be traded in many brokerages outside of Vanguard. Vanguard mutual funds cost $75 to purchase at Fidelity. These new Vanguard ETFs are not clones of their equivalent OEFs. Thanks @ms…
Two scenarios of outcome are possible, soft landing or hard landing (recession). In soft landing case, all bonds will do fine, whereas in recession junk bonds would fall like stocks. Only you as an investor can decide how to position your fixed inc…
@johnN, good to see you posting again. Bonds are low hanging fruits - say 5-7% total return with low to moderate risk. Stocks are richly valued right now. Swings between recession and euphoria may offer long term opportunities.
Nothing fancy here. We have been increasing total bond index fund since spring. Now shifting some floating rate bonds and high yield to BND and other investment grade intermediate term bonds. It is time to dial down the risk in case things get ugly…
@BenWP, in the early days, HACAX has done well for us. These days we focus more on steady growth instead and there are more choices. Lately there has been quite a bit of turnover with Harbor subadvisors. On the international funds, there are few m…
@bee, thank you for the link. Good interview from Giruox. The longer interview provides more discussion on sectors and companies he favors. Utility is a good example. Also why he does not like consumer staples and that new medication will improve …
@yogibb, thank you for the data. The “shorts” position and timing make the fund most interesting comparing to other allocation funds I have. More homework on my part since LCORX has sufficient long enough history through several drawdowns.
Spiros “Sig” Segalas who managed Capital Appreciation fund passed away several years ago. The fund is team managed today. Still very good but no where nearly as good as it used to be. Other Harbor OEFs are so so.
Time have changed and BG’s inves…
During 2022, the correlation between stocks and bonds approached 1.0 when the FED raised rate. Other time period, the correlation was much smaller. Having said that, one has to look at longer periods, 5 years or more to smooth out the year of 2022.…
@MikeW posted a Barron article on QLTY earlier this year.
https://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/comment/176644/#Comment_176644
Good interview in Barrons with Tom Hancock of QLTY. David has highlighted this fund recently. He is not a fa…
Ok, I give it a shot.
Question 1. Leuthold Core Equity. LCORX/LCR does not seem to track passive 60/40 funds. Technology is the largest sector the fund invested in, but is hedged with a short position on QQQ. Having over a 10% in cash shows th…
Things look brighter this week. 50 bps or less for this year sounds reasonable unless the labor market turns really bad with massive layoffs. We see a few but nothing wide spread as in 2008’s GFC.
There is already evidence of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease from his speech with shorter sentences, made up words, and monologues of nothing. Will see how he faces a former San Francisco state prosecutor in debates.
Thanks @catch22 for posting these bond data. The inverted yield curve has been more interesting in last 2 weeks.
Please see @Observant1’s posting from Charlie Bilello.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=LseO6Y4ER4M
The Buy and Sell tread is misleading and does not necessary represents the broader posters here.
We made small adjustments in our in our tax-deferred accounts between different asset classes. No big changes for sure. Changes we made this year incl…
Make two copies of the files on two separate drives for redundancy. If the software gets corrupted on one drive, you will have the second drive to fall back on. Also write down your PIN and store it in a safe place. Keep good record on where ever…
We are comfortable with our asset allocation, and thus made no changes. We took advantage of market downturn and made a small Roth conversion. Don’t think we are out of the wood yet as shown this morning with low turnouts on treasury auction. Who …
Last month there is a WSJ article describing money flow to bonds (behind a paywall). Rick Rieder, who oversees more than $2 trillion as BlackRock’s fixed income was mentioned. Through July 2024, the broad-based total bond index funds and active mana…
Berkshire Hathaway have several insurance business. Geico is the company where they have been very profitable. Other casualty and property insurance business are having issues with wildfires and flood.
Buffet is seeing something we are not seeing…
It is time to have a women minority as a president who is sharp (former prosecutor), bright and articulated. All VP candidates have their pluses and minuses, and I like them all! Whitmer would be a great choice but I am not sure this country is rea…
I would say stay with short and intermediate term investment grade bonds. Buy and hold so you can obtain most of the upswing in bonds. Use the indices above as your starting point.
Thanks again for another excellent show. Several point I like to point out:
1. A 50 Bps rate cut in September seems to be unrealistic. The Fed is in no hurry to cut but Powell made the statement that a rate cut in on the table. The worst is cut…
Thank you, @Old_Joe. Many companies beside the Mag 7 are having earning challenges. LeAnn Sounders and Kathy Jones of Schwab have provided timely and informative perspectives on the market. Next question is how do investors position themselves wit…
Correct me if I am wrong. If the Fed drops 0.25%, the money market yield would be 5.29% (VMFXX for example) minus 0.25%. Several more rate cuts would bring money market yield below 5%. While I am not suggesting income investors to bale from money m…
@Level5, Soon the 5% yield in money market fund will drop too. We have been adding to our bond funds (including ones you mentioned above) and trimming stocks throughout the year. Think bonds can provide 5-7% total return with minimal risk. Stocks …
Powell wants to see more data that inflation is trending downward. September is the earliest for any rate cut but there is no guarantee.
This morning labor market data is not encouraging. In July, U.S. hiring slows to 114,000 job while unemploy…
AAII sentiment is just a snapshot in time. There are many moving parts involved in the economy and they change rapidly. Who would think the 10 year treasury yield dropped between 4.0% since early Feb 2024? Manufacturing data indicates a slowing t…
From another Bloomberg article,
Jerome Powell signaled Wednesday officials are on course to cut rates in September unless inflation progress stalls — citing risks of further jobs weakening. Monthly employment data due Friday will probably add fuel…
Thank you for the summary, @Observant1. In more recent years, we found ourselves using more ETFs (mainly passive funds). The new active managed stocks and bonds are attractive vehicles with lower expensive ratios without minimum investment, and we …
Concur with @gman57 and @yogibb to move to your question to Discussion.
Additional information about yourself with respect to your goals/investment horizon and risk tolerance will help other posters in their recommendation.
