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.
Hi, john!
I'm doing what I pretty much always do: adding regularly (almost all of my accounts are set on auto-invest) to my established portfolio. Artisan, FPA, RiverPark, Seafarer, T Rowe ...
Morningstar's market valuation estimate is construct…
Reply to @MaxBialystock: Hi, Max!
As Andy's note implies, it's not terribly difficult to get answers from Stephen. Drop him a note and you'll get an honest reply. We've talked about the railroads stake, for instance, which came down to "I think I…
If you haven't done so already, you might look at http://www.ftportfolios.com/Retail/Cef/CefPriceHistory.aspx?Ticker=FEO. It displays the NAV/market/discount by month, but you can download the history of the fund back to June 01, 2007. The "blood …
Nice people. Really solid performance. Probably a limited amount of distinctiveness in the approach. No assets. Inexplicably high minimum. Wouldn't make sense to launch an institutional fund only if you had, well, institutions lined up and wait…
Reply to @mnzdedwards: (chuckles) I think you're safe on that front.
I have been thinking of marketing a nice line of MFO-branded linens (Owl Towels?), small household appliances and cookware. Maybe an upscale print pub, MFO Living?
David
Reply to @Old_Joe: Value captures substantially less downside than the market does (70-90% of downside, depending on the time frame) and Equity Income captures substantially less than that (40 - 65%). But Value captures 85-90% of the upside while E…
Curious, indeed. I met at Morningstar with Mr. Yockey, who seemed relaxed and in good spirits. He wasn't able to discuss a fund in registration (and, on principle, I did not ask) but our general conversation didn't seem to signal anything terribly…
Reply to @Old_Joe: A thought rather than a recommendation: perhaps American Century Value (TWVLX)? Same manager, better returns, one-fifth the size, lower yield, lower turnover, comparable cost. Mr. Davidson helps run four funds for American Centu…
Reply to @Charles: That is always the question with a portfolio hedge, I guess. You can always keep 5% of your long-term money in (say) a bear market fund, bleeding annually until it's suddenly brilliant, or you can make a timed purchase just at th…
It's not "PIMCO Real Estate."
It's PIMCO Real Estate Real Return. The difference is more than semantic. All of the PIMCO Real Return funds are designed as inflation hedges, investing in TIPs and another asset class that might benefit from rising …
Reply to @BobC: I had a chance to listen to David Herro answers a few questions at a breakfast last week, sponsored by Litman Gregory. (Bracing coffee - about the consistency of motor oil - but sucky snackage.) Herro notes that he had 20% of his fl…
Reply to @Old_Joe: Always fascinating to track these statements back.
Uwe Parpart is a heavyweight in international finance and formerly of Kantor Fitzgerald, which sued him when he and three colleagues left for ReOrient. (He won). He's also auth…
Reply to @BobC: "[T]here is no denying they are smart ... "
Uhhh .... a PhD alone certifies that you know almost everything about almost next to nothing. Some folks with PhDs are also brilliant, curious, reflective, thoughtful and wise but mere po…
You might check under the "Funds" tab. With few exceptions, the funds were profile represent the universe that's off of Morningstar's radar: records of less than three years and/or fewer than $100M AUM when they're first profiled, often though not …
Investment News decorously eliminates all of Bogle's references to his disagreements with the current management of Vanguard; there were several in the talk. Vanguard has been lobbying, for example, against the proposal for a floating NAV for money…
Reply to @MikeM: Guts are dangerous things. We're forever telling ourselves stories, often at the expense of the facts.
One of the guys I met is wildly successful, but I might be hesitant to let him in my house. One seemed an earnest, dedicated n…
Reply to @MaxBialystock: Actually we talked about our children a lot, MIchelle's inability to cook (she mostly warms things up) and Andrew's passion for it (it's a major stress management tool thought he, like me, hates to bake) and the fascinating …
Reply to @Investor: Hmmm ... not exactly.
Mr. Sherman has been clear from Day One that RPHYX is a limited-capacity strategy. Depending on market condition and whether we was willing to add strategies to the portfolio, he had $600M - $1B of capacit…
Reply to @Charles: The key might be the source of the return. Sextant positions itself purely as an income fund which might provide consistent and substantial income distributions. The manager I spoke with (there are two: one plays defense, the ot…
Heigh ho!
MAINX strikes me as an entirely different creature that either of its equity-oriented brethren. So I guess if I were keeping two, it would be MAINX and one of the others.
Here's the picture of the three since MAINX's launch:
Not a hu…
Yuh ... one of the downsides to being, effectively, a monopoly is that you lose some of the visceral incentive to excellence.
Mr. Rekenthaler, who is celebrating a quarter century as one of the Wizards on Wacker, remains pretty adamant about the ne…
hi, Catch!
JR shared the story with me, with a friendly exchange of emails, before it ran. As of late last evening about 250 people had clicked through. (Update: 278 as of Thursday night, plus 61 from their discussion forums.)
I still think I'm…
Insert "Snowball growls" about here.
The NASDAQ list is the same messed up NerdWallet piece that I wrote about in June. These are not the worst mutual funds - they're the highest-expense share classes of funds with over $125 million in assets and,…
Reply to @Investor: Hi, guy.
Ryan, in an email, agrees that the promotion is part of the fund's succession planning but more in a "steps in front of a bus" than a "walking out the door" way. Mr. Romick is about 49 and, I'm told, excited to come to…
Arrowpoint runs hedge funds now. After the acquisition, Arrowpoint will run the Meridian funds. Arrowpoint's plan is to have Chad and Brian become the new managers for MERDX. Given that they're capable of managing rather more than $2 billion, one…
Ariel Discovery (ARDFX).
"Gem."
Uhhh ... you know, I'm driving this used white 2010 Corolla these days. Really a nice little car. Economical (my style), reliable (ditto), comfortable. Will's willing to be seen riding it, though that might chang…
The argument seems to be that Mark and Brian have been co-managing the Strategy (i.e., the private money) and now deserve recognition for co-managing the fund as well.
I've got time set aside to talk with the FPA folks at Morningstar and I'll ask a…
Hi, Bobpa!
The ony portion that we've released so far is the list in my cover essay. Because Charles has generated such a remarkable richness of information, I was concerned that a full release would swamp more people than it would help. So the p…
Reply to @3yards: Hi, 3!
For now, the only chart is in my cover essay as part of the lead story. In it, Charles highlights the lowest risk-category funds from among those with at least a 20 year record. We'll share more in July, we hope. The key…
Reply to @VintageFreak: Nah. My bad. I'm in the midst of my monthly writingfest and I only intermittently connect with reality from here.
Off I go!
David
Reply to @VintageFreak: Help me with this. I can't find any record of such a fund. I do have Asia Focus and Emerging Asia just launched, but can't for the life of me find a Strategic Dividend.
Where'd you track it down?
David
Hi, Max.
I saw your original post last night but, after the call and a meeting about the future of Will's Little League team (not good, not good at all), I was too tuckered to write.
My impression, in my sleep-depraved state (trust me on that one)…
Reply to @VintageFreak: Yep - Jerry is dad. One almost had a sense of a sort of relief in being out of the nest and out of Jerry's shadow.
It seems to me that these owner-operated funds are rather more tenacious than other small ones. A "family" …
