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 dislike the Trump administration's policies and actions.
In my opinion, Donald J. Trump is an illegitimate president because he fomented the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Instead of "Making American Great Again," he has caused great harm—some of which may …
Jim Paulsen made the following statements in a recent Barron's article.
"For retirees, it’s natural to become more cautious when it comes to investing.
'I think as people get older, you get more scared,' Paulsen, 68, tells Barron’s."
"But don’t l…
"Just a week ago, Trump had voiced his support for Carney on the China trade deal.
'That’s what he should be doing. It’s a good thing for him to sign a trade deal.
If you can get a deal with China, you should do that,' Trump told reporters
at the Wh…
"'The tariffs have been overwhelmingly borne by domestic businesses and consumers,
rather than by foreign producers,' John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,
told the Council on Foreign Relations just days ago.
Williams est…
The current VGWIX Fact Sheet indicates 57.1% of the fund's bond allocation was in U.S. bonds.
Foreign bonds comprised 42.9% of the fund's bond allocation as of 12/31/2025.
https://advisors.vanguard.com/assets/corp/fund_communications/pdf_publish/u…
I don't often utilize Active Share statistics when analyzing funds.
Funds which exhibit high Active Share could be excellent funds or the funds could be terrible.
Active Share doesn't appear to be an effective indicator of potential alpha.
Having sa…
I use the free version of Perplexity AI as kind of a "supercharged" search engine.
It works pretty well in this role when good input parameters are provided.
I've had mixed results seeking historical market/mutual fund/ETf information.
Sometimes Per…
"The vice president also denied his words from January 8, when he said of Ross at the White House:
'You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action.
That’s a federal issue. That guy’s protected by absolute immu…
"Vice President J.D. Vance was in Minnesota for the administration today,
trying to regain control of the narrative about the violence perpetrated there by agents
from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP)…
"Buy low, sell high."
I don't invest in individual stocks (except for one stock) but I would heed the following advice if I did.
Bolding was added for emphasis.
"Don't gamble; take all your savings and buy some good stock
and hold it till it goes …
SMEAD Capital Management was previously headquarted in Seattle before moving to Phoenix.
The firm's founder, Bill Smead, was sometimes a guest on a locally-produced finance show.
Bill Smead's thoughts and comments were often very insightful.
The fir…
"As Trump’s dementia worsens, several axioms are useful for interpreting his increasingly incoherent bloviation."
Axiom #1: Whatever he asserts to be a fact is either a wild exaggeration or a bald-faced lie.
Always disregard.
Axiom #2: Whatever he…
"ICE agents have kidnapped a 5-year-old child to use him as 'bait' to arrest his parents.
The child and his father are now in a detention center in Texas,
although no one knows their exact whereabouts. They were in America legally."
"This is only t…
"But then Trump went on to say: 'People will soon be prosecuted for what they did.
It’s probably breaking news but it should be. It was a rigged election. You can’t have rigged elections.'"
"This is an astonishing threat. It says he intends to pros…
"Later, Trump backed off on the tariffs he had threatened to impose on the countries
standing against his seizure of Greenland, claiming he had just had 'a very productive meeting'
with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and had 'formed the framework…
"At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this morning, a visibly exhausted president
of the United States of America rambled in angry free association in a speech before the world’s leaders.
At one point, speaking of North Atlantic Treaty…
Excellent speech from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at Davos yesterday.
Here is the full, official transcript.
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/o-canada
From Markets A.M. newsletter by Spencer Jakab.
On this day in 1980, gold hit a then-record price of $850 per ounce.
Gold dealers predicted that the price would hit $1,000 per ounce by July,
and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury G. William Miller said,…
The Week in Charts (01/19/26)
The most important charts and themes in markets and investing...
00:00 Intro
00:18 Topics
00:31 The Reversal of Everything
05:22 The Low-Hire, Low-Fire Jobs Market
12:16 The Big CPI Lie
18:20 Powell's Last Stand
24:20 …
"The account’s posts suggest they are worried about Trump’s declining popularity.
It launched an attack on Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook,
whom the administration is targeting for alleged mortgage fraud,
just before it claimed that Trump was…
"Then the account turned to reposting long-debunked lies about the 2020 presidential election.
It reposted claims that there was voter fraud in Nevada (there wasn’t),
that Dominion Voting Machines flipped 435,000 votes from Trump to Biden (they didn…
"Yesterday Tom Fairless of the Wall Street Journal reported that, contrary to Trump’s repeated assertions,
U.S. consumers and importers—not foreign countries—are the ones who have paid for Trump’s tariff war.
The Kiel Institute for the World Economy…
"Mr. Trump’s hunger for wealth is brazen.
Throughout the nation’s history, presidents of both parties have taken care to avoid
even the appearance of profiting from public service.
This president gleefully squeezes American corporations, flaunts gif…
After being snubbed for the Nobel Peace Prize, European leaders have unanimously decided
to present a very prestigious award to President Donald J. Trump.
"The post–World War II rules-based international order prevents authoritarians from grabbing land and resources that belong to other countries. But Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, for example, is eager to dismantle NATO and complete his grab of U…
""Today three top American Catholic cardinals, Blase Cupich of Chicago, Robert McElroy of Washington, D.C., and Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, issued a joint statement warning the Trump administration that its military action in Venezuela, thre…
[snip]
@Observant1 - I went through a similar exercise a year or so ago looking for global stock funds w/o much Mag7. Not easy to find.
FPACX might work. Many people seem fond of it. And it holds only three of the Mag7 - Alphabet, Meta, and Am…
The U.S. could often claim the moral high ground on the world stage.
Those days are now behind us and reclamation will take concerted time
and effort after the demise of Trump's lawless & corrupt regime.
"to reinforce what Mark just said- just when we think that he can't get any dumber
or stupider he over achieves. Quite the moron."
Indeed.
I'm ashamed to acknowledge that Donald J. Trump is the president of our country.
I can't think of anyone less…
You bring up a good point.
I recently researched allocation funds (primarily Global Moderate Allocation funds).
I discovered two or three funds—I don't recall the specific funds—with fine mid-term
and/or long-term performance along with several othe…
"This time it isn’t Bull Connor and his racist goons.
It’s Donald Trump, JD Vance, Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller, and their fascist goons.
It’s armed agents of the president of the United States who are bullying and brutalizing people.
Committing a co…
Market Inflection Point?
As is often repeated here on the forum,
I've done my best to have a reasonable plan, and then stick to it.
[snip]
This is a really good way of approaching the problem.
Don't try to "outsmart" the market by making large ta…
"The Board of Peace set up by Donald Trump to oversee Gaza will have a broader mandate that could allow it
to rival the UN and mediate in other global conflicts, according to the charter sent to prospective members."
"Trump has long been hostile to…
