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.
A lot would depend on your tax bracket, age & estimated income in retirement.
If you go for maxing regular 401k, you may gradually convert to Roth IRA in lower income years.
Mixing up may be a good compromise.
And why not start in 2025 - the…
Yield-curve control is something central banks to, not funds.
Most intermediate-term bond funds manage their yield-curve exposure by following strategies such as barbell approaches (i.e. loading up on ST and LT binds but skipping the belly, when ap…
Securitization is a well-defined process that isn't considered among derivatives, but some may do so. Risks of securitization come from tranches of various credit ratings. As the underlying portfolio typically has mid-quality, the traches have ratin…
I have had CEFS for a while. It's a conservative=-allocation ETF of CEFs. Its ER is high even considering that underlying CEFs have high ERs due to leverage. I went into it thinking that it will get some boost from Saba's activist campaigns. But it …
Very old Morningstar risk scores were within the categories and were quite confusing to use.
Morningstar has been tweaking its stats.
Its current MPRS risk scoring system is no longer relative to the categories. It's an absolute scoring system tha…
I have been tracking AAII Sentiment for a very long time - elsewhere before here. But that's only 1 indicator of many, & in recent years, it has been sending negative signals while some other indicators were just the opposite.
Some also differe…
Check MFO Premium (MFOP) for insurance funds (IFs).
https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/thread/539/mfo-premium
"MULTISEARCH can used for fund listed funds (OEFs, ETFs, CEFs) and proprietary Insurance Funds (IF-xxxx). For insurance funds, use A…
OP had a limited question. But posters have included broader solutions that may benefit general readers.
TIAA product that @msf mentioned is available only in TIAA plans and TIAA IRAs (recently made accessible to most). You will need an account at …
Very old Morningstar risk scores were within the categories and were quite confusing to use.
Morningstar has been tweaking its stats.
Its current MPRS risk scoring system is no longer relative to the categories. It's an absolute scoring system tha…
@hank, there are already many +/- 1x & 2x ETFs (some 3x ETNs) on various indexes. Invariably, one of these (+ or - version) will head toward zero and may dissolve or do reverse-split. The fund firms collect the ERs either way.
A report from Chicago Metro area.
There have been reports of National Guards & ICE assembling in an old naval base in the northern suburb of Glenview. See Chicago metro map:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_metropolitan_area
Glenview is a…
AAII Journal has a good article (subscription required) on Budget 2025 tax implications. But it has 2 summary tables that are open.
https://www.aaii.com/journal/article/336923-what-the-one-big-beautiful-bill-act-means-for-your-taxes
https://www.aa…
History is interesting.
Bogle was rushing to launch no-load Vanguard in 1974/75 because he was afraid that Capital Group/AF may beat him to that.
But Capital Group did nothing of the sort. In fact, it became the class champion - tapping all channe…
There are now brand new Vanguard/Wellington ETFs (active): VDIG (ER 40 bps), VUSG (35 bps), VUSV (30 bps).
Subscription link https://www.barrons.com/articles/vanguard-active-funds-38f74fcb
For QUOTES for less traded or illiquid securities, funds can use matrix pricing (i.e. use something similar that traded recently) or 3rd party quote services. So, for better or worse, traded/listed funds will have daily NAV. As such, illiquid securi…
The current SEC rule for funds is to restrict illiquid securities to 15%. But the rule hasn't been tested in the courts.
There was one case where SEC fined a firm for violation of this rule, but the firm countersued that the SEC wasn't authorized t…
Unfortunately, only portfolio position % can be entered in Portfolio Visualizer (PV) and TestFol.
Broker sites may show %, or if the data can be downloaded into Excel, % can be calculated easily.
Prospectus revisions may be sufficient notifications. Many mutual funds are already investing in private-equity. There is boilerplate language on what funds are doing now or may do in future.
DOL only affects 401k/403b, not regular funds. And priva…
In Europe and Asia, where government stakes, golden-shares or board seats are common, companies are also restricted from acting quickly on labor or old plant shutdowns.
US companies are much quicker in taking labor or plant/capital decisions. This …
One concern has been what if the Gov provide all this "assistance" to INTC for its chip foundries & then INTC just sells majority stake or all of its foundries.
After all, INTC efforts to become contract manufacturer for others failed miserably…
FOMC is a public-private entity.
Public part is the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) with 7 Governors that include 1 Chair & 2VCs. All are nominated by the President & confirmed by the Senate.
Private part is 12 Federal Reserve Banks with gover…
Lisa COOK & her lawyer Abbe LOWELL are suing. Fed doesn't seem in a rush to update its website (last update 8/9/25).
https://www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed/bios/board/default.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbe_Lowell
July 7, 2025 issue of Barron's had a cover story on this deluge of ETFs.
https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/board/12/weekly-business-digests
My summary from Weekend Business Digest 1:
"COVER STORY, “ETFs Are Eating the World. The Right – and…
Interesting.
While funds cannot hold cryptos directly unless specifically approved by SEC (e.g. the new ETPs approved in 2024), indirect crypto exposures may come from individual companies that may hold cryptos in their corporate treasuries – MSTR …
Several names mentioned are not really multisector bond funds. Some are core-plus, ST-HY, global HY, nontraditional bond funds. So, keep this in mind when comparing Drawdowns, SD, Sharpe Ratios.
Multisector category includes sovereign bonds, corpor…
Pimco PYLD is a cousin of OEF PONAX / PIMIX and more aggressive and leveraged CEFs PDI, PDO, PAXS.
BINC is in iShares/BlackRock universe and there are also similar cousins.
Vanguard has VGMS and cousin VMSIX / VMSAX.
Fido has rather tame FADMX.
In the past, I have discussed SWRM - SWR modified so that the inflation-adjusted initial lump-sum is recovered at the end of the withdrawal period.
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/comment/169522/#Comment_169522
OP link has interviews with several advisors. Suggestions are typical - foreign stocks and bonds, US multinationals with overseas revenues and alternatives.
When dollar is weak, foreign investments and profits get a boost on currency conversions. S…
@Mona, that won't be a reason, although there may be others.
It's because a fund with several classes is treated as a single pool. If it has an etf class, it will have the same CG distribution as the OEF classes. This has been pointed out as a prob…
Nothing is mentioned in the filing about tax-free conversion from active OEFs to active ETFs. These seem self-standing active ETFs, not the ETF classes of active OEFs.
I am not aware of Vanguard going beyond the ETF classes of its indexed OEFs.
I look at bid-ask spreads that can be 25c-30c for some small ETFs.
If I want to buy right away, I enter the limit price at ask, or in the middle of the spread.
If I can wait a while, I would just enter limit price GTC few cents below the bid. Ofte…
IMO, Fido warning was good for a CEF that trades only about 5,000 shares/day and bid-ask spread is 9c (not that bad). Fido probably has a trigger based on low trading volume.
I haven't run into such situations a lot but I think Schwab did the same …
