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.
A related concern, one which we've discussed in other threads, is proxy voting. Many mutual fund companies say they are most effective via direct engagement as opposed to voting for shareholder initiatives. Their "engagement" apparently doesn't …
How many Biden supporters would wait in line 5 days to see him speak? Be worried ...How may Trump supporters would wait in line 5 days to see him speak? All I've found are reports that the number is greater than zero. More people than that line…
You left out FMIYX, the institutional class of FMIJX (which barely misses out with its 2 star rating due to its longer history - its older performance was quite a bit better).
Mutual funds may invest directly in private offerings. One of the only startups I worked at that successfully went public (I made somewhere in the low 4 figures on that, whoopee) was approached by a fund firm before its IPO. Not being one of the…
I regard this Blackrock page about two of its funds as a sales blurb. Still worth keeping posted here as it can serve as a starting point on how to examine these pitches and how to examine numbers.
It says that IYLD "maximize[s] yield per unit of…
This is great. Janus Hederson has a number of good funds, and for years nearly the only way a new Janus investor could purchase shares was to pay an extra 10 basis points for T shares though a brokerage (NTF).
DIY investors do also have an optio…
"Unfortunately it does not appear that there are many with her or Ervin's moral leadership in Congress today."
That's a joke son, I say a joke.
States Senate (1954-1974)- On one hand, Ervin earned a reputation as the Senate's leading constitutiona…
Looking at the prospectuses (something one should always do before investing in a security), there are at least three differences that would make BulletShares®'s numbers seem better. Call risk looks to be the most significant, and is even greater …
Tying the two together, AFAIK in NJ, that Flag Day flag should be flown at half staff " in recognition and mourning of all those who have lost their lives and have been affected by COVID-19."
https://nj.gov/state/dos-flag-status.shtml
I provided the comment and the link about premium bonds because I thought I might have sounded like I felt that there was something wrong with paying up for a higher coupon. (In a sense part of the coupon comes out of principal.)
I was trying to …
Those interest payments are being spun at a cost.
Cash is cash. Principal and dividends are fungible. If I buy a bond at $103 and it pays $2 in interest (coupon) for three years until maturity, what have I really gotten? $6 in interest and a…
Some people like posting narratives. I prefer hard numbers.
Start with $1,000, withdraw $40 (4% real, i.e. inflation adjusted) annually over 30 years. Do this with declining equity portfolios (e.g. 100% down to 0%) and with rising equity por…
Call it confirmation bias, but I generally agree with Clements. At least a couple of years ago I wondered (and posted) whether low rates coupled with interest rate risk rendered the value of bonds over cash dubious. I've written favorably about …
I listed the funds because they meet the performance and risk parameters I was describing. Some I'm more familiar with than others. Generally I try not to say what I own because each person's needs are different, but I'll go so far as to say tha…
Over three months, this fund with an SEC yield of 0.15% is going to return around 4 basis points. With a duration of 1.9 years, a 2 basis point increase in rates (+0.02%) could wipe out the total three month return. (A small decrease in rates co…
Many foreign and global bond funds hedge currency. The thinking, as espoused by Vanguard, is that one buys fixed income outside of the US to reduce volatility, and exposure to different currencies runs counter to this.
In theory, this diversificat…
You're being quite reasonable with a 2% target. Without substantial junk or going long (except for corporates and world hedged), it's not that hard to find solid bond funds with SEC yields at least that high. I've identified a reasonable represe…
It doesn't look like they're making ROC payments. These aren't forms I generally look for (because funds I invest in return little if any capital, as is the case for most OEFs), but here is what I know;
Section 19(a) of the Investment Company Act …
The fund is changing focus from opportunistic ("event driven") value investing to intrinsic value investing, and adding an explicit requirement that 65% of its portfolio be invested in income-producing securities. As it migrates its portfolio, it e…
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words.
I had observed "Actually, if both April and May numbers were adjusted as suggested (to 19.7% unemployment in April and 16.3% in May) the reduction in unemployment, such as it is, would be 3.4%, far better…
TRMCX is now open. A spot check suggests that it remains closed at most brokerages.
Closed: Fidelity, Schwab, TD Ameritrade, Vanguard
Open: Merrill Edge (according to its website)
Here's TRP's page showing funds that are closed, and funds that w…
I was addressing the comment: "Perhaps the lith-ion battery, which elicits environmental concern, has encountered some new recovery tax or delivery fee?"
A quick search turned up these couple of paragraphs:
Li-ion and most other chemistries yield …
If inflation is an individual matter, than shadowstats must be wrong because it is no more individualized than the CPI-U data it purports to be improving upon. This view of inflation as purely personal doesn't support rono's suggestion that shadow…
I finally tried this out a week ago. A nuisance to trade on a mobile device (the only platform Fidelity supports for fractional shares). But since I had already loaded the application to deposit the infrequent paper check, it wasn't that a big d…
See my comment here.
How do we know the published job numbers are not fabricated?
It appeared there is a miscalculation from BLS, and the actual number reported is 3% higher than that of April number. Taken that in its totality, the employment pict…
Why all the agitation over BLS misclassification errors this month, when similar ones last month were arguably worse? Something that @Rbrt pointed out.
Actually, if both April and May numbers were adjusted as suggested (to 19.7% unemployment in A…
AFTER President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he reportedly turned to his press secretary and lamented that Democrats “have lost the South for a generation.” Johnson's judgment was optimistic.
The Economist, Nov 11, 2010. htt…
Lipper, unlike M*, does have all-cap (which it calls multi-cap) categories. Lipper concurs that ZVNBX is a multi-cap growth fund. Top rated (5) for all attributes except preservation (rated 3) - no surprise there.
You could purchase one of the Zevenbergen Funds (Growth or Genea) investor class for $2,500.00 which is the same for the "A" class of Virtus Zevenbergen Innovative Growth Fund minus the load (maybe different if using a brokerage). Both Growth and Ge…
It should be obvious to all peace loving protesters that they need to do all of their marching and chanting in the daylight and go home for supper and stay there. There will be another day, tomorrow, but not if you are shot. Unfortunately there is …
Looters strike several NYC stores — but curfew appears to curb chaos (NY Post)
https://nypost.com/2020/06/03/looters-strike-several-stores-in-nyc-but-curfew-appears-to-curb-chaos/
Looters struck in Manhattan again on Tuesday, though the damage appea…
Typo. The Timothy Plan fund in Israel is not TPIAX, but TPAIX. Israel Common Values Fund.Timothy Plan’s Israel Common Values fund invests solely in companies either domiciled or incorporated in the country of Israel. One of the only funds of its…
For those who absolutely must have an Israel fund, be of good cheer. There's still TPIAX (NTF at TD Ameritrade). 60 stocks instead of 30, $70M AUM instead of $6M.
Years ago, before AMDEX started, there was an Israel fund managed by David Herro.…
Sure, feel free. You might want to make a slight edit - in place of my reference to Lewis' link to the prospectus, you might insert the link itself.
And thanks for asking first.
Fact sheets (compare and contrast before and after):
http://web.archive.org/web/20190411093154/http://alphacentricfunds.com/funds/IncomeOpp/FactSheet.pdf (4Q2018)
http://alphacentricfunds.com/funds/IncomeOpp/FactSheet.pdf (1Q2020)
A few things s…
"For some reason the above link is not working"
It doesn't have a colon between the https and the //
(seeing things like this is a problem with using tiny screens)
Thanks for the clear post highlighting the apples and orange comparisons that appear in the popular press, the low quality of some data, how different figures are collected, etc.
"the 100,000 covid deaths for the most part are actual culture positi…
See 11 USC 547 - claw back provision of the Bankruptcy Code. It's something I pointed out when I was in a small company going bankrupt. Not as advice, but as a suggestion for the company to check with its lawyers before assuming all payments tha…
Here's what the categories return page used to look like (links work but sorting doesn't). Capture is from Nov 14, 2007.
https://web.archive.org/web/20071114083442/http://news.morningstar.com/fundReturns/CategoryReturns.html
