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.
At least I understand the asset backing up securitised car loans. What's the asset behind student loans?
"Consumer ABS are backed by cash flows from personal financial assets, such as student loans, credit card receivables, and auto loans."
https:/…
2008 = Collateralized loan obligations
2008 = Collateralized debt obligations.
More than just substituting one word ("debt") for a seemingly synonymous one ("loan"), these are different types of instruments. Though in some significant ways (stru…
https://www.ssa.gov/manage-benefits/request-withhold-taxes
By paying by credit card that gets 2% back (e.g. Fidelity, Wells Fargo, Citibank) or more (BofA), the government pays me for paying online. Sure it's a petty amount but it's just a minor …
Don't know exactly. That was Anna's phrasing. I figured that it is a modest (mid-range) SS income stream plus a small amount of interest on bank accounts and withdrawals as needed from a T-IRA. I suppose it could also include some part time inc…
From Nationwide's website:
https://nationwide.onlineprospectus.net/NW/921925608NW/index.php
...
"Vanguard Variable Insurance Fund Equity Index
Portfolio"
I think you meant:
https://nationwide.onlineprospectus.net/NW/921925301NW/index.php
The Nation…
TIAA/CREF VAs at MFO are longer than elsewhere, including at the TIAA website
TIAA website shows CREF Stock Account (all classes) back to fund inception, 7/31/1952. Like M*, for newer share classes, "the performance shown prior to the [share clas…
There are no tickers for insurance products because they are not products that are traded or even regulated by SEC. However, there are still symbols for them which M* recognizes. Yahoo doesn't recognize them.
The symbols won't get you to M* fund…
Very old Morningstar risk scores were within the categories and were quite confusing to use.
Like star ratings, risk ratings are subject to distortion with funds that are difficult to classify.
I'm not a big fan of ETFs, feeling that they have as many downsides as upsides. Still, trading high volume ultrashort ETFs seems to be much easier than trading most ETFs. Narrow spreads (a point or two) and good intraday price stability. So even…
Lots of good funds mentioned here. We went through this exercise not too long ago. Here's my post from Aug 9 where I suggest PYLMX (mentioned by WABAC in this thread) and BBBIX and RPHIX (mentioned by Chinfist here). I also commented on the app…
People with working class retirement income get the ability to deduct $1K worth of charitable deductions without itemizing (starting in 2026). Only matters if their income is greater than the standard deduction.
Since their tax brackets are low…
It's all Biden's fault.
Yeah. I thought about pointing out that Biden never had a month where the number of jobs dropped. But it wouldn't be fair to mention that without giving Trump some credit.
Trump handed Biden an economy with so few people…
President Donald J. Trump’s firing of the commissioner of labor statistics ... for announcing that job growth has slowed dramatically
It turns out that he was right. After the firing Trump got what he wanted - another June job growth revision. …
The screener includes filters on (3 year) standard deviation and 3 year Sharpe ratio so that you can prune high volatility funds before you even start reviewing and sorting the search results.
The filters allow you to set any min and max you want b…
Its odd to me that mutual funds would include private equity investments if mutual funds calculate a daily NAV.
We've seen this question before in a different context. Fair value pricing was also questioned by many people (including people here II…
Where are you with illegal redistricting?
Any specific illegal redistricting you have in mind here?
Generally speaking, mid-decade redistricting is not illegal. League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry, 548 U.S. 399 (2006). Redistric…
As a retired investor, "I dislike volatility!", to quote keppelbay. Especially in the current uncertain market and political environment, preserving capital is more important to me than chasing returns on capital. I prefer to err on the side of cau…
Regarding the infrastructure fund, this could be reflective of infrastructure moving into another phase. With all the political noise (e.g. FEMA not funding disaster reconstruction, alternative energy projects cancelled, bridge construction threat…
There's a theory that so long as this "each wronged person must sue individually" rule holds, Trump won't appeal losses.
That's because only the few people, or at most few states, that win in court will have their rights vindicated. So long as h…
If you have the same after-tax starting value at $78K, then a percentage-based tax is a linear operator. It doesn't matter if you double the money first and then apply the tax, or apply the tax and then double the money.
Correct. This addresses t…
I'm currently trying to help a friend plan investments and cash flows for the next decade, when they will go from retirement pre-SS, to retirement w/SS, to retirement w/SS and RMDs. They also have two inherited IRAs, one traditional, one Roth.
How…
Trump v CASA - this is birthright citizenship case. The SC said that while plaintiffs can sue for citizenship, federal courts are not allowed to issue a nationwide injunction to cover all people born in the US. Rather, people born in the US will h…
firmly establishing the four eBay factors would also be necessary
Agreed. Though the Circuit Court seems to be saying that before considering whether an injunction is appropriate here, we must first ask whether the remedy of an injunction is even…
Contrast this with Fido which doesn’t even identify (or have a way of contacting them) a named rep on your account page.
Maybe you just don't rate :-)
On most of my pages, including summary, positions, activity, balances, docs is a little box in t…
Some unconventional thoughts on your allocation/drawdown plans, FWIW:
1. If all the money in your (future) RMDs will be taxed at the same rate, and if your RMDs will (along with other income including SS) will be less than your cash flow needs, th…
Appeals Court seems to have implicitly reprimanded CIT for not directly addressing the four (listed) eBay factors in its original ruling as well as, apparently, not doing so comprehensively in the follow up response.
Here we have another instance o…
Federal judges have lifetime appointments. They cannot be fired. They can only be impeached and convicted - a political process.
Count me among the skeptics about Trump firing federal judges. Attempting, sure. But firing, no way.
Still, it…
If you are thinking about a longer term CD (say a year or more), you might consider streamlining an IRA transfer by using a 60 day rollover (once per year is the limit).
You could withdraw the IRA money into your taxable Schwab account and on the s…
Thats interesting history. You motivated me to look a little further. American Beacon's acquisition of Sound Point Floating Rate Fund was a true fund adoption. The acquiring fund was "newly created" for this purpose.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives…
This case might be summed up simply as the government claiming that "IEEPA [statute] provid[es]ing the President power to impose unlimited tariffs" and the court responding, no it doesn't, not here. The concurrence went further and said in effect, …
Bonds did great during the dot com bust.
Year S&P 500 10 year Treasuries Baa Corporates
2000 -9.03% 16.66% 9.39%
2001 -11.85% 5.57% 8.54%
2002 -21.97% 15.12% 12.14%
https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/datafile/histr…
In the SEC order:
Respondent [Vanguard] shall distribute from the Fair Fund to each client that enrolled in PAS during the Relevant Period an amount representing that client’s pro rata share of advisory fees paid, plus reasonable interest from any r…
Don't believe everything you read on the internet. A link to the full court ruling is below. "We are not deciding" is not to be found. People, please provide links when you give quotes. It's darn hard to find a quote that doesn't exist.
This …
Completion of the proposed Transaction, often called a “fund adoption,” is subject to, among other things, approval by the shareholders of the Fund.
This does not appear to be a typical fund adoption.
(WSJ article from a dozen years ago, subscripti…
Oh. goodie... lots more fun!
That about sums it up. Now waiting for a suit against the entire Federal Circuit Court as having made a "direct assault on the President’s ability to" conduct foreign affairs.
Analogous to the suit against the Mar…
Someone (apologies for forgetting who yugo) mentioned Sallie Mae Bank. It currently has a a top rate of 4.40% APY for a 15 month CD. It also has 4% CDs out to 3 and 5 years,
These are direct from Sallie herself.
https://www.salliemae.com/banki…
Top ten holdings are reported monthly on the website. The most recent ones reported are as of July 31. Though TRP massages its data in producing that list. So it might not be what you're expecting.
This "Top Ten" (for June 30th) excludes MMFs…
What a fund's "top positions" are depends on how one defines them. For your purpose (flight to safety), the number is actually higher than 14%.
The fund's second largest holding according to the fund's webpage is TRP Government Reserve Fund, at 8.…
The "cause" alleged is having "'falsified bank documents and property records' in an effort to gain more favorable loan terms and lower interest rates."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/us/politics/trump-lisa-cook-fed-mortgage-fraud.html
Gosh tha…
Merrill is okay for a one-off purchase and I've considered it, but there's a TF on both buys and sells. Also, Merrill doesn't sell DODEX or DODLX, at least in DIY accounts.
Some alternatives:
Buy D&C at Merrill and do a partial account ACAT t…
