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.
Let me echo Lewis's bewilderment. As a practical matter, most funds will toil in anonymity for 3-5 years regardless of how good they are. Advisor screens routinely, I'm told, exclude folks who don't yet have a three year record. So "not much tractio…
You're struck by the fact that the board decided that the cost of being a publicly-traded company was greater than the value, so they went print?
The silliest element of the story, speaking of costs and benefits, is the size of the stake in First W…
His calculation is a rougher version of GMO's. Investment gains are dividends plus earnings growth. An optimist would say 2% and 6%, respectively. Bogle thinks the 6% is too optimistic and pencils-in 5%. You then inflate or deflate the investment r…
Hi, Gary.
A SICAV, société d'investissement à capital variable, is one of two common forms of mutual fund in Europe. It's equivalent to an open-end fund. Seafarer runs a SICAV, roughly translated as Rising Asia. A SICAF is structured like a close…
Dear friends,
Ted is dealing with serious health issues. We don't know when he'll be well enough to return to the board.
We wish him Godspeed on his recovery.
David
It's been a fine fund through four sets of manager changes. It's made good money this year through its e-tail investments. And Price doesn't encourage silly risk-taking.
One quick reminder, though: based on Charles's inception-to-date data, it took…
Hi, Catch.
About 90% of our media use is for social purposes: we want to appear to be "in the know," hence respected, and we want to be able to talk about the stuff that other people in our lives are talking about. Neither requires profound underst…
Not much to choose from. Andrew Foster argues that in the emerging markets, value hasn't worked because the corporate structures are so intertwined that the catalysts to unlock value never appear. He thinks that's changing, but slowly.
Pear Tree Po…
No, no, Dex. Don't repress your feelings. That's unhealthy. Tell us what you really believe.
For what interest it holds, we mostly agree. There are some organizations whose reporters have, at least in working with me, been held to consistently high…
Malkiel's credo: "A portfolio of securities selected at random will outperform a portfolio of consciously selected securities about 50% of the time."
That's not directly supportive of the application that MJG makes of it, but neither is his point u…
I suppose if you were writing this article in 1980 or 1990 or 2010, the question would be "what kind of fool wastes his money on U.S. stocks?" Indeed, the ICI 2015 Factbook suggests that much of the apparent U.S. dominance was driven by the performa…
Adding fuel to the fire, Rob Arnott's group - Research Affiliates - has entered the debate. They are, mildly put, not optimistic about US stocks. Like Leuthold and unlike Blodget, they're actually charged with finding way to invest billions ($174 bi…
You might first want to read our July 2014 story about Mr. Gross's apparent imbalance, then the opening lines of the lawsuit:
Driven by a lust for power, greed, and a desire to improve their own financial position and reputation at the expense of in…
Most fund groups that push for insider ownership allow a little wiggle room. Managers might be required to place "substantially all of their investable assets" in the firm's products, or "all of their equity exposure" in their own fund, or invest th…
One the the F P A folks admitted that they were amazed by the reaction of F P A Paramount (FPRAX) investors to the fund's conversion a couple years ago. They replaced the manager, raised the management fee, did a 180 degree turn on the portfolio, un…
I've been lecturing this week on financial journalism in my News Literacy class, one of the gateway courses for students interested in our Multimedia Journalism major. In many ways, it's more depressing than the week on coverage patterns for global …
Artisan's manager ownership stats are consolidated in a single Statement of Additional Information. The link is http://hosted.rightprospectus.com/Artisan/Fund.aspx?ProsID=5816&DocType=S. The manager ownership stats are on pages 57 and 58.
At a…
Hi, Press.
The firm is supported by several minority owners:
From today"s news: "Lovell Minnick Partners is almost home after a trip through Asia. The firm agreed to sell a portion of its stake in investment management firm Matthews International …
Uhhh ... dude? It's October. You know, past the date of the autumnal equinox and onto the baseball playoffs.
Our October commentary will be posted quite late this evening. Chip is away on a job interview today (IT folks, as it turns out, don't rel…
Sometimes you get what you pay for.
Since inception, Grandeur Peak Emerging Opportunities has outperformed its average peer by 9.5% annually. Global Opportunities has outperformed by 6.5%, Global Reach by 5.0%, and International Opportunities by 4.…
Deep cleansing breath, deep cleansing breath ...
Eric Heufner, GP's president, writes:
Sorry for the confusion. We have three large buckets of clients: individual investors, institutions, and financial advisers.
The “DIRECT PURCHASERS” sectio…
Hi, guys.
Finally had time to take a breath (yesterday was really full) and check. msf is quite right: two funds, one large cap (GLDLX) and one small cap. Large Cap Core is steadier with regard to relative performance. Both are ten year old, five …
Yep. The past five years have certainly been ... uhhh, golden for them. Here's their 10-year record versus their peer group:
2006: (4.2) - that is, they trailed the pack by 4.2% that year
2007: (2.1)
2008: 0.1 - that is, 0.1% better than their peer…
They're struggling. American Beacon was American Airlines retirement system once upon a time. The share class that they're eliminating, AMR, points to the ticker symbol for American Airlines' parent company. American Beacon is eliminating most of th…
Hi, willmatt!
And "nuts." I wrote a response a couple hours ago, hit "post" and ran off to a meeting. Upon return, I discovered no-post. Nuts.
GLDSX has all of the trappings of a friends and family fund. Golden Asset Management runs 10 strategies,…
Their follow-up email:
With the recent market volatility we have decided to accelerate the launch of the Grandeur Peak Global Micro Cap Fund (GPMCX) to Tuesday, October 20, 2015. Due to shareholder interest and our intention to keep the assets ver…
Hi, guys.
Kind of a busy day at the college - two meetings over recruiting new faculty (14 searches are beginning, about usual), one on helping transfer students retain and prosper, then my News Literacy class - so I'll be quick.
Not sure why the …
The reference is to Steve Dunn, one of the more active participants at Brill's Mutual Funds Interactive in the 90s. That was back in the golden days when mutual funds were hip, Ted was roaring around town on his Harley and mutual fund managers were …
The short version:
talked a bit about the piece on a family's first fund and the notion of slow, steady, manageable gains. Highlighted the James Balanced: Golden Rainbow profile that Charles did and TIAA-CREF Lifestyle Conservative piece of mine.
…
Just as a reminder: RNDLX is very different from RNCOX. If you haven't, you might want to glance at the Observer's profile of RiverNorth DoubleLine Strategic Income. RNCOX allocates between CEFs and ETFs, depending on the opportunities available. RN…
Hi, golub!
In the September 2015 update, I left the description of the two portfolio sleeves alone since they haven't changed and I thought they were reasonably clear. The most substantial parts of the rewrite were my attempt to explain that the op…
It was interesting to click on the author's name and pull up his other contributions to IBD. "Why is Obama importing Muslims who mutilate little girls?" "A real strategy to defeat to Islamofascist enemy." His books include Muslim Mafia and The Great…
The total E.R. is rather more variable than most. They have a strategic asset allocation with a tactical overlay (neutral might be 60/40 with 3% e.m. but in a given year it might be 65/35 with a tilt toward emerging markets). They then ask whether t…
Sorry. Schwab is in Boston this year, Morningstar is in Chicago.
The question would be something like, are there people at the conference that we really need to meet, interview and/or network with. That might require a more-or-less formal arrangem…
Hi, Whak!
In fairness, it's a market neutral fund so you should expect market-like returns, up or down. In general it captures 40% of the upside and 20% of the downside. Since the strategy launched, it's captured 80-some percent of the S&P. Sin…
Sure would have been nice to include some evidence in support of that claim. Barry's evidence seems to come down to two things. First, computerized selling created Monday morning's disconnect between price and value. SBUX was down 22%. Some ETFs wer…
I agree with BobC's endorsement of OSTIX. The Zeo and RPHYX folks often point to Osterweis as both their "real" peer group and the area's most distinguished performer.
Here's a point that seems worth stressing: across a number of time periods, OSTI…
As I try to avoid thinking about my 2:30 class, here are the one month returns for liquid alts and the alts to liquid alts.
Ultra-short term bond funds (0.08%)
Best: Oppenheimer Ultra-Short (OSDIX), up 0.15%
Worst: PIMCO Short Term (PSHDX) (0.41%…
