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.
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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
Today many electronic components in computers, TV, dishwashers, laundry washers and many more, are made in China. Used to be Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Thr tariffs will only drive up the cost of consumer products and thereby the inflation wil…
Today he ripped into Chairman Powell on June's rate hike (two more coming) and strong USD. Certainly this crossed the line of the Federal Reserve being independence. When was the last time you have seen such childish outburst from previous adminis…
@davidmoran,
larryB beat me to it. Vanguard Prime money market offers 2.05% yield. Ultra-low ER allows for higher yield.
Last time I checked PCI the discount was less than 1% - not so attractive. As I recalled from Sam Lee who was a Mornings…
I would say stock picking and portfolio construction are the major contributors. David Giroux's fund holds 25% bond and 5% cash whereas many balanced funds have about 40% bond. YTD bonds are a drag on balanced funds. Also he is investing in utili…
Google Smoot-Hawley and you can find the consequences from the past.
https://marketplace.org/2017/08/24/sustainability/trade-stories-globalization-and-backlash/what-was-one-worst-pieces-us-legislation
The stock price of BRKB jumped 5% today. Having too much cash and few opportunities of reasonable price. Glad he unloaded IBM and bought Apple instead.
@davidmoran, DSEEX is doing well this year and pays out a small monthly dividend. The European equivalent CAPE fund is doing quite as well since it is not hedged to USD.
My long held MAINX is lagging badly this year as the dollar strengthened. S…
@larryB, increasing the CD ladder with respect to rate hike is the right to do. There are two more rate hikes to come this year. Inflation is already here as consumer products including cars, home appliances, electronics are getting more expensive…
I have been moving large cap funds to asset allocation funds such as PRWCX. The increased allocation to utilities is appropriate in this phase of the bull market. A new addition is Vanguard Multi-factor ETF, VFMF which is an all-caps fund. At pre…
Toyota Motor is a sizable component in developed market index. So how the tariff impacts its earning and stock price is qualified as "fund discussion". For that very reason the smaller cap funds are ahead of larger cap funds. When the supply chai…
By the way we limited ourselves to a small allocation in TRP's Global Tech Fund. What concerned us was the heavily weighings in the top 10 stocks. On the other hands, we have more confident with Primecap Odyssey Aggressive Growth, POAGX, and their…
I track a number of alternate funds for several years but never invest in them for obvious reasons - high fees and dismal returns. We decided it was better to have cash/cash equivalent now that the interest rates are more attractive.
The stress to meet the production goal has gotten to him. Last report was that he has not left the factory for several weeks. His recent outburst is concerning...
New Horizon has done well this year. So have to give Henry Ellenbogen credit for his stock picking skills. Unfortunately many of T. Rowe Price smaller cap funds are closed to new investors including New Horizon fund.
what is risk parity ?
I just stay with PRWCX even though it has been closed to new investors for some time. BTW it has been doing well among the asset allocation funds this year.
@LewisBraham,
In spring I have upgraded several old computers. Now we are working on the cell phones. No doubt that the tariff will pass down to consumers in the coming months. So will inflation.
Generally, I take no more than one half of what my five year average total return has been.
@Old_Skeet, Do you have a target range of your cash sleeve? My motivation is most likely different from yours. Mine is more defensive-based given there are…
Nice country to visit including Northern Ireland. Big contrast to major US cites with respect respect to homeless people. Demographic seems quite favorable comparing to the rest of Europe. Also lax tax laws attracted foreign companies to set up the…
Like Rachael Maddow show too. PBS Newhour is pretty good in presenting views from both sides. It take patience for the 30 minutes show with little commercials in between.
Could be the same type of investors who like to take big bets regardless to their potential downside risk.
BTW, Sears is not able to turn around. Another round of store closing was announced several week ago.
Thank you for your monthly update. Smaller caps did surprisingly well while foreign markets are down for the year. Been building up CD ladder lately since I have no confidence on the market. Since end of January 2018 volatility has escalated with …
Only guarantee you get is the poor house with portfolio like that. Total market index is at least positive for he year. The whole point of successful investing is NOT to rack up sizable loss of this magnitude time and time again.
Don't forget the tariff related layoffs.
Harley Davidson's announcement..
fortune.com/2018/06/25/trump-faces-trade-war-fallout-layoffs-stock-declines-harleys-move-offshore/
Auto manufacturers are likely to follow.
https://bloomberg.com/news/ar…
@hank,
In a globally connected economy, the drawdown will likely to spread widely. The steel and aluminum tariff already creating pain in US-based companies such as Harley-
Davidson and others. Even with our allies in Europe and Japan, it is a …
I share catch22's approach on bond investing. Stay away from private bonds that take time and skills to manage and be profitable. Something to be said about risk diversification with professional management.
@STB65, I would stay with FFRHX in the near term. Floating rate funds are high yield bond funds (aka junk bonds), but they tend to do better than corporate, mortgage and treasury bond funds in rising rate environment. Don't know how the transfer f…
Troublesome precedent Harvard had in the past on Jewish applicants.
Harvard today engages in the same kind of discrimination and stereotyping that it used to justify quotas on Jewish applicants in the 1920s and 1930s.
Discrimination against race, …
This year most of my bond funds are down by about 1-3%. Only Osterweis Stragetic Income, OSTIX and Pimco Unconstrainted, PFIUX are up about 1% even after two rate hikes.
