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's exactly how ETFs are designed to work. Only Authorized Participants can redeem shares "in very large aggregations [creation units] worth millions of dollars". Retail investors "buy and sell [] ETF shares in the secondary market [on exchan…
There may be a way around that. Mins are typically reduced when one goes through third parties. Though as yogi mentioned, that likely means working with an advisor.
For example, Schwab shows a $1 min. But if you try to place an order, it says:
…
If a fund manager invests in a fund, it is possibly because they have confidence in their work. (If you want something done right, do it yourself.) Perhaps, or perhaps they overestimate their skills. Or perhaps they view investing in their fund …
With no price discovery, what else would you call a price but a guess? Perhaps an educated guess or a best guess?
Swedroe cites to this Investopedia piece on Level 3 valuations:
asset values based on models and unobservable inputs. Assumptions fro…
It's not just that CCLFX is an interval fund. It's also that the supposed lack of volatility of the NAV is due to the somewhat fictitious fair value pricing of a mostly illiquid portfolio (typical of interval funds).
The Fund calculates its NAV o…
He’ll probably correct something I said here.
Is that a challenge? :-)
I suppose sometimes I nitpick, but I usually just respond to things that, as I wrote, seem "weird".
Not necessarily. There are actually several production methods for making steel- for example, the electric-arc method.
There's also cement manufacturing to deal with. Cement manufacturing is already efficient (see section 2.1 in link below) and car…
A little more detail: Prior to SEC Rule 6c-11 in 2019, every ETF had to apply to the SEC for "exemptive relief" because ETFs don't follow every single rule governing OEFs. Even now, Rule 6c-11 still requires funds that want to offer an ETF share c…
Definitely wasn’t knowingly providing false information.
I appreciate that and wasn't suggesting otherwise. Just that the numbers looked weird. Thanks for the response.
Vanguard's patent for mutual fund ETF share classes — which applied only to index funds
It applied only to index funds when the patent was approved because there were only index ETFs in 2003. But the patent was generally applicable to all funds, …
It has underperformed both VWELX and VBINX
???
PRWCX 5 year performance (through 9/26/25): 11.65% (annualized)
VWELX 5 year performance (through 9/26/25): 10.52%
VBINX 5 year performance (through 9/26/25): 9.25%
Portfolio Visualizer gives similar…
We have an overhead fan but it just filters air back into the kitchen. Opening windows helps a little.
Our city recently started requiring gas detectors near (but not too near) gas appliances. This is primarily to detect gas leaks regardless of w…
In the case of housing upgrades you’re looking at higher costs for insurance, heat & utilities, maintenance, property taxes, and probably other.
Housing extensions could very likely trigger higher taxes and insurance. Upgrades, maybe not.
…
There's a fair amount hidden under the covers here. Not that the conclusions aren't sound, but some of the reasoning bears scrutiny.
Thinking in terms of COLA annuities, I agree with the conclusion that "buying" more SS by delaying benefits is bet…
Nice proposal - wording changes that help clarify SS benefits.
And something one sees too rarely these days:Earlier this month, the House Ways and Means Committee advanced the Claiming Age Clarity Act, a bipartisan bill, in a 41 to 1 vote
I had fun with the query
Exactly! That's a big motivator in commenting on some threads.
I may have a sense of what Observant1 is looking for. As I tried to prune my portfolio I sought a reasonably behaved solid bond fund to anchor the fixed in…
Here are several funds which are/were being considered ... WCPBX
I was going to ask how you would purchase WCPBX, or in the alternative say wow, I'm impressed, $1M min in most places.
But upon checking, I see that Vanguard offers it with a $500 m…
Corporate Notes are something slightly different. They don't offer daily liquidity at par. E*Trade even calls them "medium-term-notes"; at least that's part of their URL.
During ZIRP, a number of corporations offered (uninsured) accounts similar to savings or checking accounts backed by the corporation but with higher yields. One that might ring a faint bell was GMAC Demand Notes, later Ally Demand Notes (still unin…
the IRS is looking to restrict retirement savings
The IRS had little to do with this other than restate what Congress required. Give credit where credit is due.
SECURE 2.0 introduced two notable changes to this system:
mandatory Roth treatment fo…
I know that a Roth conversion is a taxable event, of course. But, does it also count as unearned income, as it pertains to LTCG tax treatment. Or is it more of a "unique" event?
If you're asking about the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax on investmen…
If I am reading it correctly (probably not), my spouse still gets more than her current benefit (claimed at 65 and much lower earnings), when I claim at FRA and she switches to spousal benefits, just not as much as it might've been had she also wai…
His perspective is primarily on dollar differences; breakeven points are almost incidental. If one is focused on breakeven points, one ignores nominal dollars altogether. His "Level 2" adjustment just straightens out the green nominal dollar line …
"What you don't know can't hurt us."
Well there's that, but more to the point there's the positing that if you don't observe a problem it doesn't exist. A variant of "if a tree falls in the forest ...", but more insidious:
“If we stopped testing r…
The ages you posted suggest that you'd come out better waiting.
The breakeven point (assuming one gets the same after tax returns with investing as with inflation adjusted, state-exempt SS) is around 81, give or take, depending on which two ages …
And the wife, who took her benefits at 65, gets a bigger (spousal) benefit at the same time
FRA = full retirement age, PIA = primary insurance amount
Wife spousal benefit (if less than her own benefit) =
1/2 (or less, if taken before her FRA) x …
Several large conversions include DFAC, DFAT, DFAS, DFAX, DFIV, DFUS, DFUV, FELC, JIRE, JMTG.
I'd looked at the Dimensional Funds. These are not conversions but clones. For example, DFAT (US Targeted Value, ER 0.28%) and DFFVX (ER 0.29%) coexist…
Do you mean your FRA was 66+ (born between 1955 and 1959 inclusive) or actually 67 (born in 1960 or later)? Those born after 1959 haven't yet reached FRA, so at least one of us is a bit confused.
As yogi's chart above shows, a plurality of peop…
$8.7785 (as of Sept 19) for RSIIX. Interesting. Thanks.
I've not seen that before and CrossingBridge only quotes its fund price to the penny. It looks like Schwab shows four decimal places for other CrossingBridge funds as well, e.g. CBLDX.…
So Gretchen Morgenson wound up at NBC. For many years she was a muckraking business reporter at the NYTimes. Mostly excellent, though IMHO she occasionally latched onto something so much that she went over the top. There's some of that here.
T…
Can SEQUX be far behind? It's up to 215~
Sequoia a whole 'nuther beast. While all OEFs can redeem in kind, Sequoia actually does this. As they wrote to the WSJ in 2016:
For many years Sequoia Fund has clearly disclosed that we can and do pay la…
Some VAs display prices with 4 decimals
Some VAs (e.g. TIAA) even display prices with six decimals:
Fund Name Current 30 60 90 120
Unit Days Days Days Days
Value Ago Ago Ago Ago
Calamos Growth & Income 64.6400…
OTOH, which sounds better: my fund went up a buck today ($1 on $100/share), or I made a dime (10¢ on $10/share)? If we're talking appearances, it looks like easy money if the share price is high.
Do people here even look at the share price of an O…
With SS benefits to be cut in 2033, unless more money is found to finance it, may also play into your plans for when to take SS
This is discussed in the piece as one of several risks in deferring:
https://www.kitces.com/blog/discount-rate-delaying-…
Unnecessary? Yes. Useless? No, at least not according to D&C that offers this explanation:
Why is Dodge & Cox conducting a share split?
New mutual funds generally launch with an initial NAV of $10.00 per share. Given their earlier incept…
I'm trying to understand how adding a screen reduces turnover as claimed. Since the proprietary index starts with the investible US equity universe and filters out the 14% least fundamentally sound securities, it seems to me that any turnover compa…
Giving some more thought to risk and needs ...
Derivatives - in a sense, insurance policies are derivatives - they value depends on the state of the asset being insured. Insure a car against vandalism and the value of the car plus policy is consta…
Since you're retiring mid-year, you don't have any choice in the matter. You have to front load to get full benefit from your 401(k). But others who are working a full year, have a choice whether to front load (if they're maxing out).
The plu…
Morningstar Category for Funds Definitions (April 2025) can also be found here (download not required):
https://advisor.morningstar.com/Enterprise/VTC/MorningstarCategoryClassificationUSFunds_April2025.pdf
PDF Host does seem to be working for me t…
I agree that securitization per se does not create derivatives, at least the way many (me included) think of them. While securitization can create (or diminish) risk via structuring (e.g. tranches), risk in securitized assets also comes from the u…
