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.
It’s fun to play around in this area for experienced investors. RIO is one of several I’ve played with in recent years. What I’ve learned is gambits like that need to be kept small because of the heightened risk. And in small scale they really don’…
Blackrock increased BCAT's dividend to 20%. They are under pressure from SABA - a hedge fund.
Ahh - Very interesting. I was aware of Boaz Weinstein’s Sabra Holdings chasing Blackrock’s tail on several CEFs. He wants them to convert to open ended…
I wasn’t able to copy BCAT’s portfolio from Morningstar. But here’s the rough allocation as M* presents it.
20% equity
42% fixed income
2% other
47% cash
I believe it’s the use of leverage that allows these totals to top 100%. Also, a high …
Really interesting discussion. I’m swayed by a tough experience in the early 90s where I ended up with way too much credit card / revolving debt. ISTM the bottom was reached sometime after I received a CC that had some type of cash-back incentive.…
Could you gift this to a child the day born? He’d then have reason to take care of his health and try to reach the century mark and enjoy his money.
Haven’t looked at the details. Don’t do CDs. But if this is tradable, than it should behave like …
@FD1000
Thanks. I’ve saved the link to penfed. Just wondered … Do they have 24-hour live phone support? Easy to call? How well do they treat clients who call with inquiries, issues, etc?
I don’t think the live support at Elan is as good as it w…
Microsoft’s AI / Chat gpt offered up these (among other) observations. I’ve edited them a bit for brevity.
“The Return Stacked® U.S. Stocks & Managed Futures ETF (RSST) aims for long-term capital appreciation by investing in two complementary…
October 2016 - The Next 10 Years Will be Ugly for Your 401 (k) https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/comment/81779/#Comment_81779
February 2021 - Waiting for the Last Dance https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussio…
This supposed clone of Louis Rukeyser’s famed show seems to have forgotten to mention the market’s performance last week, even failing to note that the Dow closed above 40,000 for the first time ever. Rukeyser must be muttering to himself somewh…
Will they PERMIT an .87 cent sale of ANYTHING? No.
I can tell you from experience DraftKings allows you to buy and sell positions for as little as 50-cents. So 87-cents might work at Schwab. There are many similarities between online investing an…
@Crash - Can you submit that $1 sell order now? (Use the “sell all” option.) Then it should automatically execute in 2462.
In 1976, you could have mailed a letter first-class for 13-cents
Yep. Trees live for the stuff. Septic system here. Them roots sneak their way inside through where the heavy lid fits on top. Than grow like hell once inside. Ummm … Probably time to close the lid on this one. Maybe I’ll send @Old_Joe a couple r…
I agree @Mark. These events, often poorly moderated, bear no resemblance to academic debate. Never have. JFK & Nixon was pretty good though as I remember.
My favorite was the 1992 VP debate between Admiral James Stockdale and Dan Quayle. A+…
Still have a few rolls of the thin cheap toilet paper left over from the pandemic. Was all you could find in stores for a while. Seems like the thin stuff is what’s used in commercial establishments and public facilities. With everybody staying home…
Difficult to stay patient sitting on an unfilled Limit Buy Order when Mr. Market is rising and rising..... But it cannot go on forever upward in a straight line. Behavioral Economics. Beware of FOMO.
@Crash - You’re more patient than me. I fiddle fo…
”Over the past three decades, SUVs have come to dominate new car sales in America, with other large vehicles like pick-up trucks also selling in large numbers. By 2025, some experts believe that the light-truck segment, including SUVs, will make up …
I’ll have to confess … in several hundred flights over 50+ years I’ve never found myself ordering pizza delivery at 2:30 AM from some outfit in a Chicago suburb. Flight was more than 7 hours behind schedule. Missed a connection home. Booked a room…
Some great insights. The project’s funding (hopefully late summer) was already incorporated into my IRA withdrawal planning. I actually shifted some $$ Friday into cash as I noted on the “buy / sell” thread. If the Fido offer received yesterday b…
It was actually Elan (which I declined to name earlier) that has caused my angst. But honestly, I’ve been treated like royality by them for 15-20 years except for the recent change not allowing domestic travel notes. Sorry to hear people have said u…
Glad to hear you use this card @Observant1 … Thanks for the info.
I use Identity Guard following an identity theft over a decade ago. And, using IG I keep my credit files locked. Probably reason I get so few offers. Fido is obviously reaching o…
Naw @Mike … I prefer generally to pay cash for most things. (Just sent the propane company a $420 check for a tank top-off.) But for airfare, hotels, rental cars etc. I rely on credit. I could make an exception and charge the home project if…
How about when it’s a massive double-tandem rig hauling logs resulting in loss of life? I think we can bet it won’t be the company’s CEO. Maybe some low level underpaid Jane or Joe in the maintenance shop?
PS - Having been rear-ended waiting at a …
I agree with @stillars on the general thrust here. Commodities are a lot riskier than they might appear. You’re at the mercy of weather patterns (coffee, corn, coca); geo-politics and govt. regulatory changes (oil); labor unrest, rising fuel cos…
I also have come to appreciate the crowdsourced comments on SeekingAlpha as well -- many times there's more useful nuggets there from knowlegeable folks like us …
Glad to hear that. I’ve come across some excellent (wonderfully detailed) insights …
@catch22 / Thanks for the comparison chart. My OP’s title wasn’t worded very well. Sounded like I was trying to decide which fund was better or running ahead of the other. That wasn’t it at all. What I was seeking was insight to the degree, if an…
Same reaction here. Vast wasteland. After subscribing I was “entitled” to pull up that buzzy main page. Knocked it out so that when I click on M * now only a search page (fund related) pulls up. I do some free research on MarketWatch. Their bu…
My earlier first thought was Hiroshima (and later Nagasaki). We killed the dirty rats. Ended the war. But at horrific cost to civilians.
War is a bummer. Imagine if all the money spent on such (not to mention human sacrifice) could be turned to…
Yikes. A very broad area. Commodities can be very volatile. I’ve lost more than I’ve made in them over the years, mostly in QRAAX , which Oppenheimer scuttled a decade or more ago.
- A real old timer is T. Rowe Price’s PRNEX, a “natural resourc…
As a bystander, I find a thread like this infinitely more interesting and entertaining than whether or not to buy Mr. Fox’s fund over somebody else’s. :)
(That’s not to say one is more meaningful or valuable than the other.)
Under “Things to Know”
Stock the liquor cabinet in advance. Try to be out of the country if you can arrange it (preferably nowhere on the North American continent).
@catch22 - Nice link. Thanks. I glean from it that that having a better, more inclusive, homeowners policy could possibly make adding umbrella coverage less expensive.
Good points on type of vehicle driven. Population density / average income in …
Catch - I can provide an update when I know more. Possibly the quality & coverage of such policies varies by company?
I’ve long elected to have insurance payments come out of my bank account automatically on a monthly basis. In the early da…
