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.
I like MAPIX and MACSX as much as anyone, but they are NOT emerging market funds. They DO have some EM stocks, and many of their holdings generate a lot of revenue from Pacific EM countries. So maybe they can be considered a 'chicken' way to inves…
I would not get hung up on style boxes. Something like OSTFX is style-box agnostic. Great fund, low volatility, and has held up very well in big market downturns. Also small number of holdings, so less likely to look like an index fund. GSRLX is…
Reply to @greendragon71: We have moved around some in the small cap arena over the years. Funds sometimes allow asset bloat to occur, which almost always means they cannot remain in the small cap class any more. Or if they do, they are a closet in…
We had used the sister fund, OSTFX, for some time when Strategic Income was introduced. Almost without hesitation, after a due diligence review, we began using OSTIX and have been consistently happy with how Carl Kaufman (and later, Simon Lee) has …
The only complaint I have had with MFLDX has been its high expenses, especially given the size of the asset base. And I realize BDMIX is a relative newcomer. But the 1.75% ER is truly high with almost 1/2 $billion dollars in assets. On the other …
It never ceases to amaze me, year after year. I'm not saying these funds are not worthy, but I am sure most of us would have very different names if it was our own list. But, as Reddog noted, maybe it's good that none of my favorites made the list.
The most important aspect of any true long-short equity fund is the experience and expertise of the management. And as we also know, there is often a big disconnect between how a true hedge fund performs and what its "clone" of a mutual fund can do…
Hi MJG. As an RIA, I have always disliked the Assets Under Management as a way to bestow competence. You are exactly right. $2 billion vs. $350 million has no bearing on the competence of an advisor. Unfortunately, using rate-of-return informati…
EMs have NOT been soaring. They have been the poor weak sister among global markets. There are a few individual countries that have had a good year, and a couple of frontier EM funds are having a good year. But the basic EM markets are DOWN for Y…
This is radically awful advice...put everything in equities? I can tell you from actual experience that unless someone has way too MUCH money, they will not be able to handle the volatility of an all-equity portfolio in retirement. And I also know…
This is a very good read and another example of why 'true-isms' can produce inaccurate results, when economic changes, dividend practices, goodwill, and other big factors are not adjusted. I am certainly not saying the current market is woefully un…
While we have used SDY extensively since 2009, we are capturing all gains there through the end of the year, pulling holdings back to no more than the original investment amount. The high-dividend stocks have had a tremendous run, but I am much mor…
These three are good funds, especially Fidelity. Great long-term manager. But if the dollar has a period of extended weakness, funds that employ local currencies will do much better. Unfortunately, and typically, M* lumps all EM bond funds togeth…
What GMO does in their funds is often very different from what they suggest in the regular report on where the best returns will be. Much of it has to do with restrictions on what can be in mutual funds, as well as what the prospectus allows and do…
A number of fee-only RIA firms do pro-bono work, one-time consultations, 'check-up meetings', reduced or no fees for children of clients. Like some others in our area, our minimum fee is negotiable. So before people lambaste all advisors and plann…
There are two ways to beat 'the market'. One is to be a consummate market-timer, being out during the worst days and in on the best days. The other is to be a darned good stock picker or hire a fund manager whose goal is to beat 'the market'. Fir…
Good point, MaxBialystock. As I noted, every situation is different. Using a generic rule-of-thumb approach is so lazy, but that is what is often recommended. The worst one is the old 'subtract your age from 100, and that is what you should have …
I would urge caution with bank loan funds. A safer option might be to go with a flexible fixed-income fund, where the managers are able to adjust allocations. A number of these kind of funds have reduced exposure to bank loan securities recently, …
I find these kinds of 'research' studies to often have very little application to real-world practice. Additionally, these are based on past history, the last 30 years of which included a bond bull market. In some ways, things ARE different for th…
Seems a no brainer that PTTRX is going to have a tough time realizing the same returns going forward that is has in the last 10 years, no matter how much hocus-pocus they do with their derivatives. I think this is their way of admitting this. When…
I am certainly not as intelligent as the folks at Marketfield, and they have usually been pretty good at their fund holding calls. But they have been banging the drum against EMs for a long time now, especially Brazil, Turkey and China. In the mea…
Keep in mind that global infrastructure was a big 'theme' a few years ago, with probably a lot more room to run back then. And also keep in mind that the theme did not play out very well, either. Results were fair to poor for the most part. And a…
If you bought this for downside protection, why sell it after 18 months when there has been NO downside to the U.S. market? The goal of Mr. Arnott with this fund is to beat inflation by 6% over a full market cycle. It has done that so far. Yes, I…
This fund is not really any different than when it was out-performing just a short time ago. It is down a tiny bit this year. Given what has happened to long-term treasuries, commodities, real estate and gold this year, its performance is actually…
I've survived four or five muni blow-ups in the last 30 years. Fortunately these were PREDICTED blow ups that got a lot of attention, then slipped quietly away. Meredith Whitney, that soothsayer of great foresight, threw the muni market into a tiz…
My quick response is that you should not do anything. On the other hand, the 4-week blackout period is the longest I have ever seen. Usually it is 1-2 weeks tops. If your existing holdings are good quality and your history is not one of moving i…
Reply to @Investor: You are so right, Investor. I wrote before I engaged my brain. And I misread the line anyway, assuming it was about regular floating rate corporates. Sometimes my senior moments come all at once.
We have cautioned clients for a while now about these bonds. The lemming herds are gobbling the bonds up. Just wait until we have a credit crunch, and you will see a lot of surprised investors who thought these were 'safe'. Much smarter to use a …
I mean, who really cares? I never watch any of these so-called business channels. The talking heads usually know little more than average investors, and everything said is driven by the need to generate advertising revenue. So the more outrageous…
The NTF designation for a lot of funds is a huge deal. Without it, the smaller companies can find it very difficult to raise dollars and increase assets. Institutional class shares are almost always a better deal, even over short time periods, bu…
IVSIX is a very good option. Co-manager Dan Vrabac retired earlier this year. But remaining manager Mark Beischel has been managing Ivy's global bond offerings for at least 10 years. Ivy has a very deep global analyst team and the fund is managed…
I am not a fan of MarketWatch anyway, but this was so poorly done - both in research and in writing - that I am surprised it was even kept on the site. Really bad selections for the topic and very amateurish commentary.
As several have noted, the manager is the most important aspect of selecting an actively-managed fund. Categories, schmategories. I have talked with and written to M* about this, and have given up. The reasons they give for some of the 'round peg…
Reply to @JohnChisum: FWIW, I would take the 'cash position' with a grain of salt. Most PIMCO funds tend to have a sizeable 'cash' position, but often there is little real cash. Much of what M* calls cash is really the derivatives PIMCO uses to …
I am not inclined to use this fund for several reasons. What works with a small hedge fund often does not work with a mutual fund that requires transparency and liquidity. And understand this fund will eventually be enormous. How might that affec…
If you happen to work with an advisor who can purchase the institutional class shares of the fund - RPHIX, that is a way in. Often times, fund companies allow non-commission advisors to aggregate multiple client purchases to reach the I shares mini…
Hey, Skeeter. Yeah, telling the government to keep their miserly COL benefit is probably not a very good idea. They run up trillions of dollars in debt already. Just think what they could do with $19 per month times millions. Rest assured it wou…
In truth, for the average Social Security recipient, the 'extra' $19 does not begin to cover the higher costs of food and fuel, two things that are not a part of the government's inflation measurement. So there are no 'extra' dollars.
