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.
I felt a sense of civic pride when we got our first two shots. The county health department organized the announcements and appointments online, commandeered a university convocation center to give the shots, and pulled it off splendidly. The appoin…
Fox NFL broadcasts feature gambling odds on games later in the day. There’s a plus-minus number, an over/under figure, and a percentage figure expressing the likelihood of one team winning. Mumbo-jumbo to me as I confine my wagering to the games pla…
We probably haven’t noticed these food price increases because we eat only plant-based foods. I did hear an anecdote on the news about a rib roast costing $100 this year. Shortages in the stores are definitely affecting our shopping, however.
@hank: good point about use of a global fund. Although we don’t know what our daughters are doing with the college money we give to our grandchildren, my advice for the MI tuition savings plan is to use the TIAA global equities option.
@Observant1: the PV charts are really helpful. I had noted MIEIX and SCIEX as good performers when I looked rapidly for LB international funds. What strikes me is how relatively poorly the investor in international equities has been rewarded over th…
@hank: there is still insurance coverage, as I understand it. We have, as you may, OptumRx, the plan offered for retired school personnel in MI. Just Thursday, despite telling the doctor how we wanted the script written, Meijer had the 90-day supply…
WCMIX has $29B in AUM and is quite concentrated, maybe a red light. My preference is PWJZX. For Global, I'd put new money into BGAIX, not MGGPX. Heugh's fund also may have become too large, prompting the soft close. The Baron fund has scorched just …
@Old_Joe: given the run-up in the stock this year, I’m thinking some of those big holders will probably take some profits, thereby depressing the stock temporarily. OTOH, managers who missed out on the performance might window dress at the end of th…
I’m not surprised, @TheShadow. I little style drift is OK, but TSLA in a SC fund? Yesterday TSLA declined 12% dragging some Baron funds down. At one point in recent months, TSLA represented 47% of Baron Partners. I believe Twillo came crashing back …
I took some profits in MGGPX because of its overweight in my holdings, then I added PWJZX. I also reduced ARTYX a bit. As has been noted here before, ARTYX has a big chunk of US stocks, so it can be seen as a global fund.
@stillers: I didn’t intend to bring out the Keith Jackson in you. I transposed the fund symbols on the chart I (mis)used last night. My bad. MSSMX has superior LT performance to DVSMX. The MS fund did have one sickening decline in the past year that…
@JonGaltill: DMCRX is closed, but you can get the same managers in their SCG (DVSMX) and SMID (DSMDX) funds. The performance of the former has been superior to MSSMX.
@hank: thanks for the good laugh. Since it is time to think about taxes, I’m wondering if I could satisfy my yearning to travel by going to NYC or elsewhere to attend a Crypto Conference, with travel costs deducted as an “investment expense.”
I’m also thankful to have the write-up on REMIX. Last year I committed a hefty sum to TMSRX, thinking I’d be satisfied if it out-performed cash. What I discovered was that I was less than thrilled with performance of 0.94% YTD, given that the fund h…
@LewisBraham and @rono: in the case of Manchin, it may not be party affiliation but the state he represents. A close friend, native of SE MI, moved a few years ago to WVA because his spouse got a new job. He says it’s an entirely different world th…
Individual stocks and ETFs that I trade fairly frequently represent 5-6% of our liquid assets. The rest is in MFs and the hard-to-classify TIAA « guaranteed ».
DAPP’s second largest holding is COIN. If @rono bought in a trough, I can see why he might be riding a wave. VanEck has some decent ETFs, including my all time fave MOAT.
Thanks for that link, @johnN. Hard to believe there are 12 ETFs for this “space” and harder to believe that I was able to read a Kiplinger article from beginning to end without getting lost as one does at IKEA.
Today’s M* has an article devoted to contrarian plays, with China one of them. There’s a list of stocks and a couple of Matthews funds for the adventuresome.
https://www.morningstar.com/articles/1062165/3-investing-ideas-for-contrarians
@Derf: Yes, indeed. I organized pickets one year and carried my 2-year-old daughter on the line another. We had a number of strikes.
It's worth saying that before MI became a "right-to-work" state, the consequences for striking illegally (i.e., aga…
Picking up on Old_Joe’s comment about the lack of leadership from organized labor in this new state of affairs, the General Strike, ISTM that the relationship between labor and management has normally been one of bickering and threats followed by an…
TIAA is good about telling me about RMDs. I don’t know if your relative refused to heed the advice or was incapable of doing so. Strikes me that with an account that size he would have been assigned a “wealth manager” as a matter of course. Whether …
The State of MI retired teachers healthcare premiums have actually declined over the last couple of years, but the deductibles and out-of-pocket costs have risen, very substantially. Items like urgent care or ER visits are very costly now, and the …
@hank: I get your sarcasm and share your disappointment. What occurred to me is that the wealthy you describe also have plenty of dough to give to political candidates who pass low tax policies and favor charter schools over those that the general p…
Thanks for that link, @Mark. Very perceptive view of ESG investing and whether or not buying “good” companies or funds actually does any good or leads to higher returns.
The markets would be no more than casinos if they operated around the clock. I can’t imagine individual investors profiting from longer hours because, as in gambling, the house always wins. I believe hedge funds and professional traders can access s…
@rono: there’s a brand-new ETF, MOTE, the VanEck Morningstar ESG Moat ETF. It tracks the M* US Sustainability Moat Focus Index. The original MOAT fund in this series has done great, while the derivatives (MOTI, GOAT, etc) are less successful.
