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.
Bill Fleckenstein is a virtual encyclopedia on the precious metals and miners. I’d be much wealthier had I followed 100% of his advice going back about 5 years. From yesterday’s ”Daily Rap” (8/09/2025):
”… these tariffs won't impact demand or the…
“For a 'gambler at heart', who likes NEAR and is concerned about inflation, why not VTAPX? It seems to correlate pretty strongly with NEAR over the recent cycle w a bit more volatility and a good bit higher return. Plus, you get bonus inflation prot…
A great example of lying with numbers.
12b-1 distribution 0.25%. Other 0.19% = 0.44%
Acquired fund fees 2.86% (Magical accounting used to ignore these fees.)
TOTAL 3.30%
Ditto!
The FOFs I’ve used in the past (T Rowe Price / Cambrea) did no…
There is a White House clarification (re gold tariffs) in the process of being issued. So don’t do anything rash!
Oh no! I was just driving to a dozen Costcos to pick up my bars…
Hope you have a big enough pickup to haul it all. :)
Thank you very much @Old_Joe for your tolerance.
I followed the early discussions of short-term rates with interest. Being a gambler at heart I’m inclined to roll the dice a little. “Anything but cash” for me. I like Blackrock’s short-term bond f…
Sometimes local groceries have “sale prices” posted on items (in big numbers). But the very fine print on the tag says you need to “clip” a coupon somewhere - I assume with your cell phone at their company website. So I pass on such items and buy…
:) Never been to Mexico
GDL reminds me of GLD. The latter is an etf that invests in gold shares. Widely held.
GDL on the other hand is a CEF that seeks stability of principal + modest returns by investing in mergers / acquisitions that are in t…
@Mark - Thanks. CPZ is a good fund. Owned it early on in the CEF basket (March /April), but it went out the window when I decided to dampen down the risk - leaning a bit more towards fixed income. I’ve long held CPLSX run by the same firm (Calamos).…
Saw a quip today, don't rightly remember where but possibly SA which stated that institutional investors are selling in the afternoon what the retail investors are buying in the morning. Anyone else noticing this?
Interesting observation @Mark. Don…
;) But it really aint funny, is it? William Goulding’s 1950s Lord of the Flies is anything but funny. The novel itself is better than the two film versions that I’m familiar with.
A bunch of pre-teen boys from an exclusive British private schoo…
Sold all GDL. Swapped it out for new position in TRTY.
Gabelli’s (arbitrage fund) GDL wasn’t a bad investment for me. Just moving a few deck chairs around … in anticipation … of what?
Worst case is that you would be on the bad side of ICE and may become 'disappeared …”
@Anna - Catch has it right. Should you somehow “disappear” you’ll no longer need the money. For ideas on proper interview attire take a look at some scenes in L…
Initiated a position in SOR.
My IRA still has toe in equity ...
SOR toe? :)
Thanks for the tip @PRESSmUP - I’ll add SOR to my CEF bench and start following it.
@hank- just what I needed. I'm trying to remember just one, and not doing too good at that.
Yes. Me too. In that case I suggest you just go with #7 on the list, “Forget It”. :)
I feel confident in saying that car payments might be the #1 wealth killer for middle class americans. and I made that declaration 7-8 years ago!
A very close friend of our family back when I was still in high school (60s) held a pretty good job…
Thanks @rforno for the heads-up. The transcript surfaced for me, but not the audio. However, I used my Audible account to listen to the podcast (free).
What a gifted / smooth speaker Page is! I think he could sell ice to the proverbial Eskimo. …
From @msf - “It's a pleasure reading so many knowledgeable comments on how these statistics and statistics in general work.”
Ditto.
My initial post was largely “tongue-in-cheek”. The idea that investors would welcome “cooked numbers” is facetiou…
”Do you really believe that the advisors of many mutual funds who need to decide what securities their mutual funds should buy or sell don't take a real hard look at those numbers?”
I like to think my money managers look at everything. But those i…
I’m trying to figure out how to invest based on this new development. If the new Commissioner of Labour Statistics is able to “cook” the numbers to be better than they now appear, won’t investor confidence rebound and stocks stage a big comebac…
I should add here that Trump says the ballroom will be paid for by donations from “patriots” - whatever that means. But it seems you and me are footing the bill for the bathroom upgrade.
“Another good week for the country.”
Yeah - For sure ….. Off various news wires today …
- The Corporation for Public Broadcasting just announced it is shutting down.
- U.S. just notched its worst 3 months for job growth since the pandemic.
…
Thanks @Old_Joe - The link to the WAP article did work. Circuitous route. Required first accessing the link you provided and then having them email a special one-time link to the “gifted” article to me. Hope works for others. I might enjoy the …
I grew up watching W$W, my parents watched it every Friday night on PBS. The grey haired Louis Rukeyser still looks like George Washington. :)
That grey-haired character above is actually a fake Lou in an SNL video. A spoof of WSW. One of our …
Correction - I had looked at copper prices in the minutes after the Fed news conference and had assumed the steep drop in price (near just 20% today) was a result of the rate call. Posted that above. Actually, as I learned later, it had more to d…
Wonder if he was related to Bill Bonds?
One criticism of the show was that it gave certain “recommended” stocks a temporary boost in value, with the stocks falling-off weeks later. So the naive who bought immediately after the show got burned. It …
Thanks! Always a “must watch.” For a year or two (mid-90s) it was broadcast about an hour apart by 2 different PBS stations. I usually watched it twice. I imagine you could learn just as much today about investing from these old shows as when the…
”Nothing else matters past the best talking point and the timing of the formulation of the memory. “.
Of talking points I am sick of them. From every direction. Robotic regurgitation of what somebody trained them to say and how to say it. Give me…
Here’s an article that appeared on Bloomberg last week. I wasn’t able to obtain a clean link to it until Yahoo republished it.
Yahoo Finance - “Return of Meme Stock Mania Has Traders on Alert for Market Froth”
Related - I spent a lot of time tod…
Japan builds damn good cars from personal experience. Consumers should have ability to purchase what fits their needs. Few U.S. branded sedans even exist anymore. Competition from Japan is what forced U.S. automakers to clean up their act followi…
