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.
Beyond these long-term issues, there is a near-term issue for #OpenAI & $MSFT.
As their current contracts include sharing IP up to #AGI only, the issue for OpenAI becomes whether to more commercially develop #GPT4, or shift focus to #GPT5 (&…
I track ICI fund allocations monthly, so I looked up the recent history.
In mid-2022, when the Fed just started to raise rates, the allocation to m-mkt funds on 5/23/22 was 14.95%. The most recent report on 9/30/23 had it at 18.37%. That +3.4% shif…
The ICI release came in at $5.76 trillion in m-mkt funds on 11/21/23.
Banks have lot of money just sitting at the Fed collecting 5.4% risk-free. Lending business is slow. So, most banks don't need deposits, although some do and are seeking deposits …
@hank: "mutual fund. One conceived back in the ”dark ages” (1986)."
How about 8/31/1976, the inception date of the first publicly available VFINX? 1986 could be a typo too.
In some retirement accounts, similar indexed funds existed even earlier.
…
AF, the champion of the class-mess, can split taxable and retirement classes of its mutual funds into separate funds, close/freeze all taxable classes, and then turn them into ETFs. So, a multistep, slow process.
Well, it is NOT uncommon for nonprofit entities to have for-profit units. Examples include universities/colleges (athletics, bookstores, arenas/pavilions, auxiliaries), TIAA, etc.
The most famous and controversial may have been Howard Hughes' nonp…
There is news on this thriller - may be a great PR in the hindsight. Sam is back, there is a new Board, almost everyone is happy. Here is my take,
TwitterLINK
Initial "new" Board is all external/independent. Don't know how long this will remain.
In…
QLTY AUM is missing at most sites (M*, Yahoo Finance, Nasdaq, Fido), including at GMO. But I downloaded its holdings as of 11/22/23 from GMO site, added up the market values of all holdings, and that is $8.01 million. May be this is what they mean b…
Resource needs are different for OEFs and ETFs.
When you buy OEF from a fund firm directly, the administration part (account opening, transactions tracking, yearly 1099, etc) is the responsibility of the fund firm.
3rd party brokerage platforms de…
@Sven, see Q&A. Fido has all kinds of ETFs - nontransparent, semitransparent, transparent; also, passive, Active.
Q8: Will these ETFs be “non-transparent” or “semi-transparent”?
A: The ETFs will be fully transparent and disclose holdings on a d…
Actually, the ETFs trade at premium/discounts too, but those are small due to their creation/redemption mechanisms. There have been several instances where that mechanism was disrupted for some ETFs and those started trading like CEFs.
There is a c…
CEFs are tradable securities just like ETFs and stocks. They have the current market values but no liquidation dates. They are subject to M&A by activists. Just look at GIM that will turn soon into SABA.
BTW, CEF structure is one of the oldest …
These CEFs with special term-structures have evolved over 2-3 years. In about 12.0-13.5 years after inception, these CEFs will liquidate, but smaller residual CEFs may continue AFTER all shareholders who want to redeem have been redeemed. Prices wil…
@stillers, you got to the right place. Invesco/VZ is a leader in the equal-weight fund space and has a whole bunch of them. Most are ETFs, but some OEFs also. For the fund you found, there are multiple classes with varying availabilities.
VADAX, In…
Thanks @msf.
Unfortunately, writers in the media often ignore the distinction between MA-HMO and MA-PPO (we have that) and only focus on the lower-cost MA-HMO with its associated restrictions. The Original Medicare doesn't have HMO vs PPO and the d…
@WABAC, German Aldi has 2 parts - Aldi Nord (North) and Aldi Sud (South), run initially by 2 sons of the founder, but now both controlled by family foundations.
Aldi Nord runs Trader Joe's
Aldi Sud runs Hofer, Winn-Dixie, Harveys Supermarkets
@yogibearbull, thanks for your work. Can I ask a couple questions so i can not assume I understand the data?
- the SWR gives the "initial" withdrawal for that period? Does it increase yearly for inflation? And finally, it is the withdrawal that wou…
QRA is an estimate by the Treasury of its upcoming financing needs. There was lot of press on it ahead of the October release because the needs of the US have grown substantially and people feared that a haphazard approach to issuances of T-Bills/No…
And in "exchange", Hyundai will start using Amazon Alexa and Amazon AWS cloud. This looks like an extension of several online car buying services that have tie-ins with the local dealers. Of course, the scale would be huge.
It won't be direct from …
An update.
PV PWR is less commonly used, so I have stopped using it in more recent data.
PV SWR is the percentage of the original portfolio balance that can be withdrawn at the end of each year with inflation adjustment without the portfolio runni…
Some discussions at M* point to issues from Infosys McCamish Insurance software,
https://www.infosysbpm.com/mccamish/about/history.html
https://www.plansponsor.com/infosys-cybersecurity-issue-hits-ascensus-newport-nonqualified-platforms/
May be one of you guys can post when M* recognizes the ticker, QLTY. I am not able to track it in my M* portfolio.
M* Quotes [and M* Portfolio (old), but not M* Investor (new)] do recognize it now but there are lots of blanks, https://www.mornin…
@Observant1 mentioned this high CG distribution earlier - JPEAX, JPECX, JPDEX, JPELX (AUM $853 million)
How can things go so wrong in a "Tax Aware" fund? Of course, heavy redemptions and/or manager incompetence.
JPM is also mad and is just shuttin…
Partial TIAA outage continues. A poster at M* received this email from TIAA today:
"Important Information about a Vendor Cybersecurity Event
Dear Policyholder,
We want to make you aware of potential delays you may experience with the servicing of…
@BaluBalu, from its SAI, QLTY looks transparent.
"The Fund’s entire portfolio holdings are publicly disseminated each day the Fund is open for business through financial reporting and news services including publicly available internet websites. In…
TCIFX is the "Wellesley" version with 30-50% stocks, 50-70% fixed-income. Ticker TCIFX is not recognized by MFO, M*, Yahoo Finance, but Bloomberg shows it as pending. https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/TCIFX:US#xj4y7vzkg
The SAME 2 managers (Giroux, …
@WABAC, it's the non-selectivity of SC indexes that is the problem (not just Vanguard index funds). This is true of R2000 and Extended-Market/Completion indexes (Total market minus SP500 or R1000). In being comprehensive, these SC indexes have lots …
I logged into TIAA again today, Sunday, 12:45pm (Central), 11/12/23..
I see the same message still, "We are currently experiencing an operational outage with one of our vendors, and the systems are unavailable, with no estimated time for resolutio…
One risk with bonds is that they are "contracts" and those can be subject to interpretations by courts and/or governments.
Look at the recent fiasco in Switzerland with the AT1 bonds. These are risky bonds that can be counted as bank Tier 1 capital…
@Crash, there is NO LIMIT to what you can give to your OTHER HALF (but different rules apply for noncitizen spouse).
These rules are for nonspouses - kids, grandkids, relatives, friends, the MFO posters you like (-:).
Those interested in Fido HY FAGIX (not pure HY) and its manager Mark J Notkin may note that he also runs a "leveraged-company" stock fund FLVCX and is also responsible for the HY sleeve of Fido multisector FADMX.
Annual gift exclusion for 2024 was increased to $18K (per individual, per beneficiary).
The same is also the annual contribution limit for 529s , although there is a 5-yr pull-forward provision that can allow 5 x 18K = $90K into 529 right away.
…
