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.
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
CNBC points to (i) short squeeze in silver and (ii) low silver inventories in exchange/dealer vaults. Some silver has to be flown by air to make good on deliveries.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/29/silver-hit-record-highs-in-2025-and-still-has-furthe…
Different technologies are noted in passing in this LONG article.
Tesla relies on visual/optical technology only. As a result, it may fail where visuals may fail - bad weather (rain, snow, fog), poor or too-bright lighting (driving against the Sun…
Keep in mind that searches are separate for MFO Discussions and MFO Home. So, if you are looking for a fund mentioned in a monthly MFO issues, you will find it only in the latter search, not the former.
Search works for keywords, poster names, fund…
It's useful to look at prices of gold and silver as well as their ratio.
The ratio now is 75, and the last major turning point was 73, so a change in gold:silver relationship may not be that far away.
Of course, there are wild price targets for b…
It's the same exchange issue.
M* Quote for DVY defaults to US DVY (XNAS exchange). Don't know why the Watchlist suddenly uses Berlin exchange (XBER). There is a note at M* website and may be these problems will go away naturally,
"Morningstar Inves…
From the news, it's hard to understand the issue. How can a software update be more vulnerable to solar flare vs the previous version. The fix suggested seems to be to go back to the previous software version. It could be a buggy software update, bu…
@Junkster, although AAII Sentiment was the most bearish recently on 11/12/25, the combination of sentiment and indicators seemed most bearish to me on 11/19/25 - OP for this thread. You correctly called that out.
Not only one should look at more th…
Gold:Silver ratio peaked at 105 in 04/2025 (gold was hot) and is now 76 (silver has been shining for months). Recent low for the ratio was 73 in 11/2024.
Edit/Add: Gold:Silver chart (E.O.D.) https://schrts.co/pNJHhiAh
May be the question to ask is which billionaires are without media outlets? Some media control is probably self-protection for them - not just in US, but overseas too.
Eric JACOBSEN is VERY INFLUENTIAL at Morningstar.
Those familiar with history may remember that after a leak/tip to him about 2009 about Jeffrey Gundlach firing from TCW, he forced a REVOTE of 2009 Bond Manager of the Year and the result was change…
https://www.morningstar.com/etfs/XMEX/FLOT/quote
I hope it's temporary, and fixed soon, but wow! It's returns should be very close to FLRN. I noticed this while rearranging the deck chairs in the IRA
Ticker FLOT is found in many foreign exchanges …
If you reinvest with mutual funds, the brokerage OR the fund firm will keep track of cost-basis. You may have to do it yourself if you change the cost-basis method - there are rules for that.
Because reinvesting for mutual funds is simple and done …
The very unusual situation of poor sentiments and indicators near market highs has been noted in the media and at MFO. The K-economy explanation sounds reasonable.
AAII Sentiment is survey based (and so is the UM sentiment - not included here), but…
@rforno, yes, I transfer out from Schwab BANK to another bank through auto transfers. However, the link could work for transfers into Schwab Bank too.
There was one problem that I (and maybe others) complained about and they fixed it.
When money t…
@Crash, I do recurring transfers at Schwab. I just checked Fido too and under Transfers, it also offers recurring transfers.
Unfortunately, Schwab doesn't offer m-mkt fund as core, so money have to be shifted as T+1. Fido offers SPAXX as core, Vang…
Cloudfare outage is affecting lot more than MFO - X/Twitter, ChatGPT (OpenAI), Shopify/SHOP, NJ Transit System, etc.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/18/cloudflare-down-outage-traffic-spike-x-chatgpt.html
Looking at Bitcoin/$BTCUSD with StockCharts, 2 yrs,
Candlesticks https://stockcharts.com/sc3/ui/?s=$BTCUSD&id=p97097155654
Solid Lines https://stockcharts.com/sc3/ui/?s=$BTCUSD&id=p90427907898
1. Bitcoin is volatile, even when tre…
@Rbrt, FADMX is a middle-of-the-road multisector bond fund. It may not be as exciting as PONAX / PIMIX, PYLD, LSBRX / LSBDX, BINC. Even Vanguard has VMSAX / VMSIX.
@Crash, there is QLAC from T-IRAs. There are no RMDs on the amount used for QLAC, but there are limitations on the total amount.
Also, from taxable accounts, there are CRATs - Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts. You get some tax deduction upfront,…
Backdoor Roth is only for $7K / $8k new contributions in 2025, $7.5K / $8.6K in 2026. That too requires clean T-IRA (i.e. without deductible/pretax contributions).
But to reduce future RMDs, consider QCDs from T-IRA and regular Roth Conversions fro…
351 exchange ETFs are offered by Cambria, Alpha Architect, etc. Not sure if Vanguard is into this specialized etf game. It may not be what you think it it is.
https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/thread/762/351-exchange-etfs
The basic problem is that companies are allowed to keep 2 sets of books.
Isn’t that how the mobsters ran their business?
Well, mobsters are playing with revenues, not just depreciation, amortization and tax calculations.
BTW, cryptos are in a bear territory already. It's said that speculative cryptos and Nasdaq have a good correlation.
Broad market briefly rallied on the expectations of the end of the longest DC shutdown, but has sold hard on the news.
Sentiments …
