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 think the increase in market volatility makes active management increasingly difficult. When a company misses earnings by a penny the stock sells off by 15% or when you buy the right stock at the right price and it does not behave as it should (e…
The September rate was finalized this morning at 0.50% by the PBGC. Lowest on record in years. Will be interesting to see what % increase lump sums get as a result from the 60% drop YOY.
Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice........The stock market is much more volatile and moves much quicker than olden days. Things develop before you can confirm things have developed..... so gov't MMF only for me. I was in the Reserve Fund in 2…
I am going to stick with the two MM's I mentioned above because they are the highest yielding gov't funds available in those two brokerage firms. Small difference w FZCXX at Fidelity. The brokerage bank account option is confusing because Scottrad…
I have pondered this dilemma for decades. I have learned that if you ask the "should I sell my $7 cost basis" question to professional money managers or salesmen or commissioned employees or brokers, etc they will ALWAYS advise you to sell. The re…
Based on my initial investment of 7000 shares at $7/sh = $49k I would be getting $9800 each year in dividends. My cost basis would never change and my dividends would never change. The interest earned is not reinvested in shares. All income is hel…
My concern would be I don't think my trading skills are sufficient to double my money over a 20 year time frame every 4-5 years like my $7 cost basis provides me. Not many opportunities present themselves in the stock market to do that. My theory c…
lets put some bad math to it. Bought 7000 shares at $7 in 2008. Rose to$17 in 2013. Roughly $70k profit plus $10k/yr in dividends (@20% yield) = $120k. The fund is choppy up and down since $17 peak but lowest it goes is $10. So at $10/sh I got $21K …
Why not simply move to cash in the sweep? No money market at all? With this much money moving to the same source would negative rates be a possibility.
msf, agreed. Another thought...even if a bear market emerged and your NAV dropped to $55 from $100, (at a 20% cost basis yield) you would double your money ever 5 years perhaps negating the risk of holding through the $45/share loss. IOW's would th…
Wondering as to how the conversation ever got this far? 1. Placing Muni's in an IRA is an unusual approach. 2. MUB (benchmark) is making all time highs right now. IOW's I believe a better approach to investing for total return in any form of bond …
Look at a long term chart of VWEHX to determine the range of potential principal loss or gain in percentage terms you might incur compared to the 5.5% yield during its up and down cycles.
I personally like bond CEF's. They recover quicker than the S&P in hard market selloffs and they provide great yields if timed correctly. I own DSL bought during the oil scare in 1Q16. I do not buy new CEF's. Most trade down over the first 2-3 …
Thanks for sharing your portfolio and thoughts supporting it. VWINX is a great fun. My personal preference would be to go with VBINX or similar w 60% stocks. Why? If interest rates rise the tradeoff between losses in a 60% bond portfolio vs 40% bon…
Brings up a good question...I have used Yahoo Finance's portfolios for decades to keep my daily portfolio values. I have noticed a degradation in response time and message board quality and other stuff over the last year. Anybody know of a service t…
The entire nation is fixated on irrelevant matters. Meanwhile, every man, woman and child (including those under 18 and over 80) owes $60k each in Federal Debt but no one gives a damn talking about it. The best investor known to mankind has bough…
bought 1/4 position in CMG. will buy more if market gives it to me. Pondered taking position but missed the move in GLD as negative rates drives people away from currencies.
Both VFINX (S&P500) and VDIGX are actually categorized by Morningstar as Large Blend but my point was that if you are buying VDIGX for dividend growth it is no better than VFINX which contains a lot of non dividend payers, so as you may not ge…
Yes, I agree. I like VDIGX also. Interesting that Fidelity shows VFINX (S&P 500) has the same dividend yield as VDIGX when VDIGX's purpose is to target dividend growers. RIMHX looks good short and long....it has a better 10 year return than VBIN…
Slick, agree with you on VBINX. Always amazed how that falls out of favor briefly and then rises back to the top 10%. Also VWELX.
I have not bought it and might not.... but I am watching and beginning to research RIMHX. Behaving well last few m…
So if Stanley Drukenmiller (compounded returns of 30%/yr and never a losing year 1986-2009 while at Duquesne) had managed a mutual fund, I should have not consider him worthy of investment because his expense ration is 1% (fictitious) higher than n…
Hi Andy J, my approach is to spend 95% of my time determining which CEF manager to choose or sector?, when is the appropriate time to buy?, why am I buying?, strategy on averaging down and what increments and price?, total return potential derived …
Skeet, my personal choice is to hold them and collect dividends as long as the market wants to pay me. I set a mental stop loss right above where I bought them and let the market tell me when to sell them. To me its not how much you make, its how mu…
One area I have often pondered (for those who bought those CEF near 15-20% yields) is why so many advisors recommend selling for cap gains (once rebounded) rather than simply holding for the 15-20% yields they provide as long as tolerable? Inferen…
@ Art ...Thanx for the tip. I will check SOR out. I find it interesting Romick spent considerable time in his recent commentary about junk funds which I translate to mean he considers them worthy of investment.
There have been some interesting rec…
Closed end funds provided a rare opportunity in Feb during the oil scare. Discounts went to almost 15% on select funds. I got them at 10.5% yield on average and they are up 10% on NAV from where I got them.
"The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. Life is not an illogicality; yet it is a trap for…
Agree with you that Merriman's life work has been to try and maximize the right mix. Might check out his site particularly the withdrawal table scenarios. Interesting stuff.
Thanks. I will pick VMFXX for my brokerage account yielding 0.30% which is almost identical to the 3 month treasury. I am very content with that. Interesting Fidelity has no competitive pure gov't option even near Vanguard's yields. Also noticed m…
