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
Thank you. Largest outflow from US equity, and into mostly bonds and muni bonds.
Vanguard picked up most of the business. Surprisingly DoubleLine is doing quite well.
Reply to @scott: What is Marketfield investment strategy? I see it is shorting foreign equity by 17%! Is this real that they are so bearish on foreign equity?
Reply to @scott: There are other fund managers who are more flexible and manage their funds through the up and down cycles. One I particular like is Steve Romick of FPA Crescent.
Reply to @kevindow: I agree that many diversified ETFs have the edge on ER over the average actively managed mutual funds. Same goes to index funds. However, lower ER is only one of the many criteria for constructing a globally balanced portfilio.…
Reply to @MaxBialystock: Depending what brokerage you are using for the institutional shares:
Vanguard requires $25K with $20 transaction fee, $2 additional purchases (2 required)
Fidelity requires less than $1M with $75 transaction fee, $5 addition…
Apparently Chuck Jaffe is not a big fan of Facebook. The article pointed out several valid arguments against Facebook IPO.
http://www.marketwatch.com/Story/story/print?guid=72B2FD36-4E07-11E1-803F-002128040CF6
We have been using Fidelity as our primary brokerage for long time. Their website continues to improve year after year and that is important to us since we do all transactions online. Customer service is excellent and they have branch offices near…
Reply to @MaxBialystock: Bear in mind that this asset class is not without risk - high volatility compared to domestic government bonds and higher correlation to equity. On the plus side, EM bonds provide >6% dividend and potentially high singl…
The 'fear factor' is fading somewhat compared to December 2011 time frame. This morning the unemployment figure improved considerably, but even at 8.3% is still too high. Housing market is still depressed... Hopefully the confidence among average…
Reply to @Investor: Often the employers failed to explain the concept of 'vesting' and their consequences in clear and understandable language to new employees. Company matching is what many companies like to boost.
Thank you. Wish the commentary includes more details on which stocks did well and those didn't. For example, they picked Hewlett Packard because of the valuation. Is this another 'value trap' given the recent flops...
For the month of January, both domestic and international equities have done very well. Is this the "risk-off" environment and the Europe crisis is far from resolved?
This article is really dated! Gross changed his tune on "New Normal". In addition to investing in treasury and muni bonds, he is also buying emerging market bonds.
Reply to @VintageFreak: The prospectus is available FPA funds website. The International fund, FPIVX, is a no load with ER at 1.35% after fee waiver.
Please note that both managers came from Harris Associates as international equity analysts. I…
Reply to @Investor: If Fairholme gets cash out a significantly higher price, it would be good for the Fairholme's shareholders, assuming the average purchase prices are much lower.
Hi Catch, As I recalled you are invested in Utah 529 plan, right? If there is only 6 years of investment time left, your current 80/20 equity/bond allocation is too aggressive in my opinion. At this point the emphasis should shift toward capital …
Reply to @Kenster1_GlobalValue: Thank you for the reminder. The conference calls will be recorded and make available 72 hours on their website for those who cannot attend.
Reply to @bee: Thanks for your input on USAA muni funds. Why are the yields are considerably higher than the respective Vanguard fund with respect to duration? For example, Vanguard Intermediate term tax-free fund, VFICX yielding 2.03% while USSTX…
Reply to @Ted: "ETF's with greater flexability and lower cost will replace mutual funds in total assets within the next five years."
Are ETFs available for 401(K) and 403(b) accounts? We have asked our company retirement administrators and the a…
Thank you for the update. Pimco Total Return ETF "isn't an exact clone of the mutual fund since it won't be able to invest in some derivatives." and this is a sizable component of the fund strategy.
Reply to @Maurice: Excellent comments. For sake of simplicity, why not consider a "balanced" index fund? Admiral share of Vanguard Balanced fund, VBIAX (ER = 0.12%) provides a yield of 2.10%.
https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?Fu…
Reply to @msf: Not exactly sure why Vanguard makes such a distinction between their brokerage services and funds. Could it be how their company structure itself comparing to Fidelity, for example?
Reply to @fundalarm: Thanks for heads-up with closed-end funds on floating rate funds. Although Fidelity has one in this asset class, Vanguard does not. Do you have the trading symbol ? thanks.
Reply to @Investor: He stated earlier that the Asian convertibles are not growing as it used to be, and this is reflected in the current % allocation (20%). The convertibles provided lower volatility for MACSX and consistent returns. Now he has …
The old M* rating is backward looking; thus, it provides little value going forward other than for advertising purpose.
In addition, he is also avoiding mentioning his prior performance record as part of the lawsuit settlement with his former emp…
Reply to @Maurice: The actual Mayan date is December 12, 2012 - that is 121212. Nevertheless, thank you for the u-tube footage. Animation is so realistic these days.
Cathy, our deepest condolence to you and your family. I hope your diligent will pay off in the near future. Along the same vein, we are facing similar situation with our father-in-law as he is insecure to let the family involved in the estate plan…
I sold my entire position with VIPIX in spring when yield went negative, but the total return continues to move upward - YTD is over 11%! Who know what TIP funds hold for next year.
Reply to @Kenster1_GlobalValue: Thanks. That is a sizable loss in asset considering that MACSX is doing better/losing less than the typical Asia-specific funds.
The answer is "no". All active managers have periods of under-performance and 2011 is one of those year. He will likely bounce back next year.
Quote from the article.
"Still, Mr. Gross's fund continues to beat the benchmark index on three-,…
Reply to @Maurice: That is too bad. I have a 10 year old workhorse Epson scanner (SCSI) and all. Epson continues to upgrade their drivers for each OS upgrade. In the meantime a newer Epson scanner that cost a lot less than the old one, broke afte…
If most of your daily activities involve MS Office and email, then middle-of-the road laptops equipped with System 7 will do. Surprisingly Amazon offers very competitive pricing than those from the major PC makers (Dell, HP, Acers, and Lenovo).
