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.
By the way, no one was more surprised by that temperature than I was. I went out to fill the bird feeders - no great task - and came back in unavailable to feel my figures. (Oops. "unable to feel my fingers".)
That was sort of a "yikes" moment.
Da…
You might use our own database search to browse for options. It's Accipiter's Miraculous Multi-search. Pick a category (diversified Asia/Pacific) and you'll see all of the funds. Returns are color coded (cool colors are good) and it's sortable by f…
The article was written by John D. Markese, president of the American Association of Individual Investors, and first published in April 1997. That's the "evergreen" part of the URL; reprints of what they consider classic articles. He wrote regularl…
Two quick notes.
1. Essentially every academic and professional analysis I've read which looks at GMO's asset class projections concludes that they are reliable and actionable. That is, they tend to be right both about the ordering of performance …
THDIX, being quite large, is outside of our normal universe so I haven't followed it closely though certainly I should have done so earlier. Our universe is about 6200 funds, roughly all of the funds too small to be worth Morningstar's attention. Th…
The question are these: how do you pay for the services of first-rate, well-trained journalists and how do you give them the resources (time and money) needed to pursue really first-rate stories? The traditional answer is: you charged people for acc…
If readers want competence, they're going to need to become reconciled to paying for it. If they want everything for free, they need to become reconciled to the adage "you got what you paid for."
Go to Marketwatch.com. At this moment, one of the to…
I always liked watching Kangas because he was so darned ... how to put this delicately, hmmm ... he looked sort of like ... ummm, like he'd never met a Kardashian and had never been in a place where he even could have met one. Gave you the impressio…
The new guys at Thornburg aren't all that terribly new. Here's the corporate bio for each.
Ben Kirby, CFA, a managing director of Thornburg, has been a portfolio manager of Developing World Fund commencing in 2015. Mr. Kirby joined Thornburg in 200…
Hi, Mike.
The report is that he's building a new team, Artisan's seventh. I haven't seen anything describing how his team's mandate will differ from Team #6's.
If I can arrange conversations with him, either one-on-one or on a conference call, I'l…
Hi, Derf.
One simple expedient would be to drop a note to Seafarer and ask. In general, expense waivers are almost never revoked although many contain a "clawback" provision. At base, advisers sometimes subsidize a fund until it hits a breakeven po…
Hi, Crash.
Typical of Andrew's caution, he posted a warning about the source of the "caught fire" period. An Indian pharma company popped 70% in a week, making it the firm's largest holding. Here's an excerpt of Andrew's special letter to sharehol…
Hi, Mona.
There's not much overlap between the two funds, so it's hard to call one a substitute for the other. MAPIX is about 50/50, emerging and developed with a 25% stake in Japan, 70% large to mega cap. Seafarer is about 70/30 with the 30 beginn…
Jim Cramer: "Mutual fund investors are hosed, much like the hapless thousands who have followed my advice."
Okay, perhaps he didn't actually admit to that last part, but the record is painfully clear.
David
The firm's PR consultants shared the news with me earlier today. From an investor's perspective, there is no news: no new products, no manager changes, no fee reductions. It might broaden the resources available to Salient's (the buyer's) high net w…
If "making sh** up" disqualified folks from appearing on TV, the airwaves would be silent. Sadly, I think that most of these folks are delusional: they've repeated their stories so often to such rousing applause from the glassy-eyed believers that …
Hi, Andy!
That is my complaint. I'm willing to allow that Mr. Swedroe might well be right (I haven't read the book) and that Mr. Solin might well be right. I'm just mightily irked that editors aren't even a little embarrassed to run advertisements,…
There was a time when news divisions were viewed as "the crown jewels" of large broadcast corporations. They weren't expected to turn a profit, they were judged on the prestige they brought, the honors they earned and the service they performed. The…
It came up in a late question. Roughly, "forever."
Two keys: (1) GAINX was the guys' initiative in response to their CIO's challenge to design a winning strategy, so they're personally committed to it and (2) there's $120 million in the European ve…
Heigh ho!
And sorry about the delayed response. I had to dash off to teach just after the conference call ended.
International exposure: the managers seem to suggest that they have a high level of exposure to the US because that's where they're fi…
They were actually a case study that Chip pursued in the course of earning her MBA. She had the sense of a company that couldn't explain, even to itself, why it existed. Apropos JC's comment, she had a sense that they needed something like Apple's…
Seafarer turns three this month (Feb. 15) and will receive a star rating (and, I suppose, an Owl Assessment) in March. I'm hopeful of having Andrew join us for a conference call in April so that we can catch up with developments and outlook.
He's r…
I was actually wondering if they might not be looking for talent to run their current e.m. fund? A fair asset base ($250M) but performance that was never better than index-like (2006-early 2010) and noticeably worse of late. It's also the only fund…
Hi, Mo.
No problem. As I say in the recap of our conversation with Bernie Horn, a lot comes down to how you weigh 2008 and how you assess their response to it. It's a strategy that's worked exceptionally well in 15 of 17 years and really poorly in…
Uhhh ... Chuck asked me about these funds as he was writing the column. His email suggested that he'd already concluded that they were the wrong solution to a non-problem. In response I wrote:
The research is pretty consistent that low-vol stocks o…
Hi, Whak.
Meridian Growth (MERDX) and Mairs & Power Small Cap (MSCFX) are among Charles's small cap Great Owls. Meridian Small Cap Growth, run by the guys who managed Janus Triton to a brilliant record, has also taken off like a rocket. Admitt…
I'm working on how reading the prepared answers to cherry-picked questions off old 3x5 cards qualifies as "a conference call." Here's a hint: it's almost impossible for answers given spontaneously to survive compliance review (advisers have tried i…
Uhhh ... reportedly much of the net deposits came from Gross to Gross. Let's say he transferred a half billion dollars to himself and that he invested it in JUCIX, the institutional class of his own fund. The expense ratio there is 0.83%.
(mumble,…
Thank you, sir.
Chuck and I had an interesting chat yesterday. He's fired-up about the quality of guests he's attracted lately and is working on what sounds like an interesting story on small, independent funds. It should be done today and live, pr…
We appear to be a sort of standard line tacked on to the end of a number of her stories, including one this week about the importance of knowing what a "benchmark" is. I mostly nod and think "well, she is spelling our name right."
David
Hi, Matt.
Do you have another browser (Chrome or Firefox) on your computer? If so, would you please try that and let us know if it works?
We'll try to figure this out.
Best,
Chip
Death Wish Coffee, David. How could you not be intrigued by a product that gets reviews like:
Here's a general rundown of my experience with the first pot of Death Wish Coffee.
1st cup - Hmm, this aint bad. Tastes pretty good. I like it.
2nd cup …
In approving the renewal of the adviser's contract last month, the board of trustees noted that while the fund lagged just about everyone for the past 1, 3, 5, and 10 year periods, 75% of the money in the fund was the manager's so he had all the inc…
Yuh ... pompous, pedestrian and vacuous thoughts generally precede pompous, pedestrian and vacuous letters. If you're looking to trust your money to someone who is pp&v, these letters are a great place to find leads!
David
Hi, guys.
We're open to tweaking the text. I'm under a fair amount of pressure from folks with "J.D." after their names to take "certain sensible, conventional precautions" as our visibility grows. It's new stuff to think about.
David
My latest note(s) to "Joe" and Carly mention that they're wrong on the AIP minimums for both Artisan (which does waive the minimum, contra Morningstar) and Vanguard (which doesn't, also contra Morningstar) and encourages them to try to make any sens…
