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.
(That was actually my attempt on humor on a sort of tough morning.)
One evidence of asset allocation work comes from Morningstar's assessment of the glidepaths in the various firms' target-date funds. Morningstar rates Price as one of the best as…
Chuck quite agrees that pretty much no one needs a bear market fund and few people need more than a sliver of gold. I think Chuck's point is that, for all our bold talk, just about everyone blindly chases performance. If that weren't true, we'd b…
Take great care. I'd urge you to enjoy life, but if you're taking up golf you've pretty much surrendered yourself to the whims of the universe, sharp language and even sharper thoughts.
We'll be here and we'll leave the porch light on for you.
Da…
Reply to @bee: Baron Partners was a successul hedge fund for years, and one of the early converts to a mutual fund. I held it for several years, shortly after opening, but sold it when - as Scott notes - it became clear that they weren't actually w…
Reply to @andrei: The load is the key short term issue. The prospect that MainStay will need to bloat the fund in order to make back their purchase price is the longer term one. I agree that it is, especially for "grandfathered" investors, a very …
Thanks, Ranter!
For folks who haven't looked much at GMO projections, I'd make four quick notes.
1. GMO has a pretty good historic track record for getting these things right.
2. the returns shown are "real," that is, inflation-adjusted. The nom…
There's a nice essay from Wasatch on using long/short funds as a core portfolio holding.
I did interviews with or profiles of a series of long/short managers last summer and fall. My general impression:
1. this is a very old strategy, actually. …
I suspect that Accipiter will, when he next drops by, weigh in on this question. A. has done a huge amount of custom programming for the board and is the person most able (and most likely) to say what's possible and how. You might just need to be …
Well, that is a fascinating NAV chart, isn't it. Thanks for the lead. They weren't on my radar for good or for ill, and I'm always intrigued by boldness!
David
Heigh ho.
I talk pretty regularly to fund folks - managers, media reps, executives. They occasionally say interesting things which might be off-the-record. In that case, I always try to check on what I'm allowed to attribute to them in public. S…
Reply to @Investor: Heigh ho! The interim location, until we have the new comprehensive page built and the file hosted on our own server, is http://78449.choruscall.com/dataconf/productusers/mfo/media/mfo130305.mp3.
David
"Long awaited" might be the key. It's possible that bonds face not a correction but an extended bear market. When that might occur remains speculative.
I suppose if it were me, I'd start by thinking about my asset allocation: why 50/50? T. Rowe …
Reply to @Investor: Hi, guy! I'm glad you found them useful. I'll mention my appearance there in the April issue. If you or OJ come across posts there that you think about worth folks' attention, I'd happily highlight them and credit your acuit…
Heigh ho, and thanks for asking.
So far as I know, we do not. I'll send a query through the Associates link to see if I can confirm or disconfirm that.
More soon,
David
Reply to @Ted: I'll note that, as I write this, there is one reader who just reached the board by searching Google. For what? "Ted FundAlarm" is what brought him (or her).
Hey, I'm doing my part to anesthetize the masses!
The Amazon Money & Markets blog solicited responses to the question, "what should investors do about sequestration?" My response is entitled "Don't Just Do Something, Stand There," and begins, …
"Unique funds"? Uhhh ... about three.
Walk through the Morningstar screen:
Distinct portfolios = 6915, but that does count Fido Emerging Markets twice (Advisor and retail apparently have just enough differences...)
Qualified access = "no" leads…
Yikes.
The gap between the market price and the NAV is breathtaking. Last year it posted a 20% return on NAV but only 12% at the market. In 2001, it was reversed: 4.5% at NAV but 14% at the market price.
Don't even want to think about 2009.
Hmm…
Hi, guys.
I also mention this in my March commentary, but since this thread is what led to my questions, I thought I'd share it here first. I talked with the folks at FPA yesterday, a bit about Source Capital (their CEF, which I'll highlight in ou…
Reply to @Mark: Which would be 4.3% of the outstanding shares. At $32/share, he stake is something like $320 million of the $7.4 billion in the fund.
Which also implies that he lost . . . oh, $10 million on Monday.
David
Ahhh ... the value of patience. The estimated revenue from their 2011 IPO offering was $250 million, which was withdrawn because of hostile market conditions. The same $250 million was the guess November 2012 when word of this became public. Thei…
Reply to @BWG: On the list for April or May, depending on how April's focus feature - an extended focus on CEFs - plays out. I'm working on a piece about Oakmark alumni, which certainly covers Mr. Jackson.
As ever,
David
Reply to @BenWP: Hi, Ben. I'm very sympathetic to your curiosity. Occasionally you can get pretty close to the truth (as when the guy with the enormous ego knows that he can go from a mere millionaire to fantastically rich, snags four analysts and…
I'll note Gateway's founding manager, Peter Thayer, ran the fund for 20 years (1977-97). For the last three of those years, Patrick Rogers was his co-manager.
Patrick Rogers managed the fund for almost 19 years (1994-2013). For the last seven of …
Reply to @andrei: Given that Andrew ran MACSX for eight years, I'd guess that looking at its distribution history would be more instructive. Over the past 10 and 15 year periods, MACSX investors have lost about 2% per year to taxes, at least if Mor…
Reply to @andrei: Matthews has a comparable fund in registration, by the way. I'll do the quick profile of both new Matthews funds in the March Funds in Registration.
Take care,
David
Emerging Asia seems to be a frontier markets fund managed by a relative newcomer. Focus will invest in 25-35 stocks managed by a long-time Matthews employee. Both (and several other intriguing new launches) will be highlighted in the March Funds i…
