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.
Barron's STREETWISE. GOLD had a spectacular rally in 2025 (+69% YTD), but who beat gold? Silver +140% YTD, platinum +133% YTD, palladium +95% YTD. Precious metal ETFs are GLD, SLV, diversified DBP, etc. Next may be Dr Copper +36% YTD. The whole meta…
"The Fund’s investment strategy is to generally invest in equity securities of companies that exhibit strong capital appreciation potential. Snowball Advisors, LLC (“Snowball” or the “Sub-Adviser”) assembles the Fund’s portfolio based on applying fu…
Plan now seems short-end QE (By Fed) & starving the ling-end with reduced supply (i.e. Treasury to issue more ST debt than LT debt).
Interesting to see Fed & Treasury cooperation despite all of the tensions. Or, may be there is a story to b…
Court disputes may now move from contract pauses/cancellations to long-term lease pauses/cancellations.
Some land-leases are for 50-100 years and if they can be pauses/cancelled on short notice, many businesses will be affected.
Ages ago, ETFs SPY, QQQ etc started out as UITs, i.e. ETF-UITs - they didn't know any better.
Later, regular ETF structures proved to be better. So, their firms introduced SPYM, QQQM.
There are important differences between ETF-UITs (rigid) and r…
Fed watchers keep an eye on Fed President who vote at FOMC although all participate in FOMC discussions and are talkative in the media. NY Fed President always votes (more equal among the equals - origin Animal Farm) and the rotation of 4 of 11 Fed …
Janus Henderson/JHG bought by Trian (already owned 20.6%), General Catalyst and others including Qatar Investment Authority, Sun Hung Kai & Co. Limited, MassMutual, etc.
JHG Press Release https://ir.janushenderson.com/News--Events/news/news-det…
Bourbon & Scotch are whiskies. But Bourbon (OP link) isn't Scotch (OP comment).
US exports of Bourbon have dried up due to counter-tariffs or behavior changes as in Canada.
Tariffs have indeed led to higher prices of Scotch imports. Don't know…
I asked Google AI, "How long have CLOs been around". It said about 40 years, but there have been MANY changes: CLO-initial, and CLO 1.0, 2.0 (it emerged after GFC that crushed CDOs), 3.0 (now).
CLO is a subclass of CDOs. CLOs have been battle-modi…
@BaluBalu, while BDCs are under ICA 1940, the listed BDCs report like listed companies (not listed funds). So, quarterly reported NAV for listed BDCs are no different than that for, say, BRK that is almost part CEF, part operating company. Some priv…
Full 2nd para follows.
https://www.morningstar.com/etfs/arcx/jaaa/analysis
"Collateralized loan obligations are actively managed, diversified pools of non-investment-grade bank loans. They are structured investments where various tranches, or slice…
GSR of 60 was considered stable for a long time and it fluctuated widely around that for years. Once it broke away, some thought it would never return. But we are almost there.
K has become the description of this bifurcated economy. Upper-arm of K represent the uber-rich, the lower-arm the poor and middle class (most of us folks).
There was a recent discussion of BDCs vs REITs. Investors see similarities in them, but regulators see their legal differences.
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/64734/alert-on-fund-ers
529 have improved a lot over the years due to regulatory changes and plan improvements (M* rates them and that may be a reason). Posters who looked at them years ago and didn't like them (then) should take another look.
Now, the education is define…
There is a related thread, https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/65101/vanguard-unveils-target-date-series-with-annuity-access
Basically, lifetime income options within 401k via TDFs have been allowed by SECURE 1.0 (2019) & furt…
Look into your state 529. If state incentives aren't offered, you can use any state 529. You can open 529 after granddaughter gets Social Security Number - probably by 3 months.
I track 529 developments at the link below, probably too much info for…
Another potential Fed drama ended early.
Federal Reserve unanimously reappointed 11/12 Fed Presidents for 2026. This annual ritual usually happens in January and there had been talk of this routine action becoming nonroutine in 01/2026.
What about…
Reading the details of Maria Machado's (MM) amazing escape from Venezuela to Oslo, and how it was coordinated with the US, the OP news could have been just for distraction. Or, may be something more serious is coming down.
MM was late by just a few…
Rate & QE Summary: Fed fund rate cut -25 bps to 3.50-3.75%, bank reserves rate at 3.65%, discount rate at 3.75%. A new QE started for buying T-Bills & T-Notes (up to 3 yr maturities). Futures reinvestments for Treasuries & Agencies will…
Writing could be clear, but PRWCX is indicated as closed, not PRCFX.
"T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation and Income Fund (PRCFX)
The fund many people wished they were in is T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation (edit PRWCX), but you can’t have it. The…
From what I read, Todd & Ted were initially given slices of couple of billions to manage. I don't know how much they are managing now.
Todd indicated soon after joining BRK that he wanted to do more, so he got involved with Geico and eventually…
From the old/current document, there is APE = Alpha Potential Estimate that is incorporated into the score calculations, e.g. for active funds, as follows:
(0.45 * People Score * APE) + (0.45 * Process Score * APE) + (0.10 * Parent Score * APE)
= Ex…
What does all this mean in plain English?
I read the OP link and the links within it more than once to figure out what is changing. The current Morningstar (M*) Medalist Rating system is very complex with dozens of inputs (from analysts or computer…
WY is mentioned by Barron's - it trades well below the value of its timberland holdings.
https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/thread/964/weekly-business-digest-december-2025
Stick to Legacy Portfolio as long as possible. It has a feature to reinvest Dividends under Modify. If applied, portfolio is updated in Legacy Portfolio as well as in new Investor Portfolio.
But in the new Investor Portfolio, this feature isn't pre…
Portfolio Visualizer (PV) and Test Fol provide correlation matrix for holdings. It may be useful to glance at them and look for unusual values. One can also check if the portfolio is diversified - it isn't if all correlations are 0.95+.
For portfol…
Situation got so bad that Yieldstreet name was hurting the company, so it changed its name to Willow Wealth last week. Web searches for Yieldstreet lead to URLs for Willow Wealth.
But one thing didn't change - continued investors losses from priva…
Software programmer may have been math challenged.
He/she simply calculated fee on the total amount, whether with or without fee.
Correct procedure for "with fee" is as follows:
Total amount $434, amount without fee X, solve X + 0.085X = 434, so …
Lifetime income options within 401k TDFs have been allowed under SECURE 1.0 (2019) and streamlined further under SECURE 2.0 (2022). It has taken fund firms (with TDFs) and insurers (with lifetime income or out-of-favor-term annuities) that long to i…
@BaluBalu, looking specifically at 2020 and using Whaley's table-row and PV for visualization of data from 12/2020-12/2021, it seems that MaxDD should be in Sept/Oct - PV shows -4.66% for VFINX.
Whaley maybe using the DD for the entire period and …
Fidelity is for-profit and private - so, it doesn't have to file or provide reports on its operations.
TIAA, Vanguard, etc are nonprofits.
But nonprofits can have some for-profit operations. Just look at universities - so the academic side is non…
Make a gift to an existing 529 or start a 529 as gift for kids or grandkids. There may be state incentives for contributions to 529.
I contribute to MFO early in the New Year.
Be aware that Giving Tuesday is so commercialized now. And a big news t…
Vanguard news moved the Bitcoin market. Following yesterday's huge bear-market decline, today's rebound may have printed a double-bottom for Bitcoin.
https://stockcharts.com/sc3/ui/?s=$BTCUSD&id=p07145506619
Treasury announcement came less than 10 min ago. You may have to wait until afternoon to enter orders at brokerages.
Unless there is some other issue...
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/annceresult/press/preanre/2025/A_20251202_2.pdf
