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.
Many final headlines of the articles aren't by their authors, but by some editors.
I see this all the time when many Barron's headlines on Fridays (possibly by authors) are changed for the print version on Saturdays (more flashy, apparently by the …
@Charles, good to see addition of eTF benchmarks (eTF to avoid confusion with MFO Premium ticker ETF - not recognized at Yahoo Finance, Morningstar, etc).
Just to clarify my understanding of the related MFO Premium data, these new benchmarks are us…
2 things happened:
1. BRK has huge operational businesses now and lots of related economic risks.
2. WB has gotten trigger-shy. He didn't act during 2020 or 2022. He may be waiting for a market that isn't there.
BTW, many value investors (WB, H…
It's not necessary to follow Bengen's 4% w/COLA SWR for US moderate-allocations to appreciate its significance.
Before-Bengen, the thinking was to start with long-term stock returns, use 3-4% margin to account for return variability, and use the ne…
Among Bloomberg headlines, I couldn't make sense out of,
"Pimco Sees BOJ Hike as Soon as January, Likes Long-Term (Japanese) Bonds"
Normally, buying bonds ahead of rate hikes isn't a great idea. Does Pimco think that expected bond hits have already…
I don't use "All or None" option.
Limit-orders that get partial execution may get filled more during the day, or the next day, or next...
In the old days with commissions, there was a rule that all partial executions on a single day will be unde…
Not surprising that the 4% Rule fails globally
Wade Pfau has a long 1+ hour podcast (8/1/24), and an early segment within is for testing the 4% Rule globally. It failed for most countries. It almost worked for Australia but it was a 3% Rule instead…
@WABAC, I see your August 2011 numbers for the ratio of price-charts, _USAGX:_GLD. The default StockCharts are for distribution-adjusted-prices, USAGX:GLD. So, at first, I didn't see your numbers, but later I did. Current ratio is the same either wa…
Most indexers pick everything. The ranking above may be just that of indexers by their market shares.
Is Fido missing from the list? NO.
Most Fido index funds are sub-advised by Geode Capital Management, #4 on the list. Geode Capital started out a…
Ratio of GDX:GLD shows how depressed the miners are relative to gold-bullion. The ratio peaked at 0.586 in 2006, bottomed at 0.1089 in 2015 and at 0.1081 again in 2020 (pandemic low). Now it's only 0.167; the recent range is 0.136-0.173. It doesn't …
In the old days, when lot of stuff at M* was free, and several M* article used to include a link to authors' screen runs. But that stopped when much of the M* stuff was put under subscription.
However, this isn't important to me. I read many articl…
@Observant1, the PCE index release is TOMORROW, 8:30 AM Eastern time with est +2.6%, core +2.7%.
Barron's was just commenting on general trends, including the PCE index up to the LAST month. I thought I had missed something, so I double-checked.
Posters familiar with options know what they are doing.
But my concerns are the investors who have poor/no knowledge of options but are buying options-based funds thinking that they are all-weather income funds.
Call-writing (-selling or -shorting…
@BaluBalu, currently, mutual funds report only quarterly after 60 days. You may be seeing lots of N-PORT now, but all those are for holdings as of 6/30/24.
This rule change will require N-PORTs every month & those would be release with some del…
New Rules Press Release,
https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024-110
New Rules Fact Sheet,
https://www.sec.gov/files/ic-35308-fact-sheet.pdf
My reading is that N-PORT filing of month-end holdings will be within 30 days, but those filings …
The FOMC started raising rates in 3/1/22, so here is the run from 3/1/22 from TestFol for LQD, LQDH, m-mkt VMFXX, ultra-ST ICSH. LQDH has definitely outperformed LQD, as expected due to rate-hedging. LQDH kept pace with VMFXX and ICSH until 4/30/23,…
I don't see any direct short Treasury positions.
Basically, it holds corporate LQD & tons of rate-swaps plus supporting cash. Duration is very low. So, the overall effect is m-mkt like returns out of intermediate-term bonds overlaid with derivat…
Real estate (REITs+) & homebuilders (ITB, XHB) are interest-sensitive areas, as are utilities, financials, etc.
FRIFX is a real estate hybrid (unique?) that is less volatile than equity real estate (VNQ, XLRE, etc).
From the article,
"In years where stocks declined, eg the global financial crisis in 2008 or the bear market in 2022, the call options expired worthless but did provide investors with additional income that reduced the drawdowns*."
*(YBB Note) By t…
I see this Edgar/SEC filing dated 8/21/24 announcing these changes for Ben KIRBY and Jeff KLINGELHOFER. They were managing several Thornburg funds. Their bios appear on Thornburg website. Kirby was also managing $13.8 billion TIBAX / TIBIX and Thorn…
Keep in mind that before 403b/401k, 457 and IRAs came along, annuities were the primary tax-deferral vehicles.
Today, if someone has max-ed out on all these (403b/401k, 457, IRAs), then annuities will make sense.
It may not be a good idea to chase…
MFO Premium also supports many VAs under "Insurance Funds or IFs" - use fund family names in Multisearch (Allianz, Fidelity, Pimco, Vanguard, Pimco, TIAA/CREF, etc). I have posted before on TIAA and CREF VAs within 403b, but @msf has posted above ab…
Finominal (2017- ) is a UK-based fintech committed to independent and free financial information (don't they all start that way?).
https://finominal.com/AboutUs?country=US
He emphasized inflation "expectations" several times - it's monitoring or anchoring.
I see 2 common quantitative measures for "expectations":
1. Inflation-"expectation" = Nominal Treasury yield - TIPS yield.
FRED has data for 1, 2, 5, 10, 20+ yea…
Well, some private-equity works out, but some doesn't. X/Twitter was a miss for Fido. But it has been in the news that Fido has been marking down its X/Twitter positions aggressively - without much reported trading on X/Twitter, those Fido valuation…
FWIW, in our IL 529 plan, I relied mostly on balanced option thinking that I couldn't tweak things myself (1-2 trade per year rule; but can redirect new contributions). Basically untouched for 20+ years, it does add up.
@catch22: the 50/50 equity/bond portfolio is reset to 50/50 each September, per the contract
Unclear what kind of "contract"? Did you use one of the 2 annual exchanges allowed to rebalance, or a 529 advisor did it for you?
Was 529 all used up? SEC…
@dpf749, you make good points.
The concerns have been:
1. Status of the M* Legacy Portfolio and it's good that it's continuing.
2. Status of free/basic subscribers who had access to M* Legacy Portfolio until yesterday. And that has now been verif…
I have linked VG account (initiating) to accounts at CU and bank (targets). But the reverse may not work - i.e. initiating process at CU or bank to link to VG (target).
CU and banks are easy to link to other CUs and banks, so no problem linking to…
@Derf, I am not sure how it's for the brokerage cash accounts.
In my margin a/c, I see that if there is cash in the core, it is taken within days after the Treasury Auction day but well before the settlement day; but if the cash isn't there, then m…
What I meant was those that had basic/free signups for M*.
There are 2 reports, one each from M* Discussions and Big Bang, that free/basic access to old Portfolio is still working.
Are people with basic/free old M* Legacy Portfolio able to access their information? Charts?
I cannot check this as I am a subscriber.
But all I see now is a button for Legacy Portfolio WITHIN the new M* Investor/Portfolio.
Path is Home/Tools/Po…
Money for Treasury auctions is blocked off within days of the auction even when the settlement is later. So, after Monday T-Bill auction, expect the money to be blocked off by Monday or Tuesday, when the settlement may be on Thursday. Only exception…
Patelco CU has been in the news for a while - check X/Twitter.
There have been previous posts on data breaches - MOVEit data transfer, Inforsys/MacCamish, etc.
A typical deal offered is 2-3 years of credit monitoring by one of the credit agencies …
Puts are bets on market or stocks falling.
If the market or stocks rise instead, the put buyer just loses the premium, and put seller just pockets the premium. These are small amounts.
It would be different for investors who are short the market/…
