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.
In my experience the products we buy don't fail often. I've never been disappointed with the many Apple and Honda products we have bought. OTOH, a GE microwave has let us down and two Lennox air conditioners did not last 10 years. A came-with-the-ho…
Of note is that SPFLX, featured in a Barron’s article by our own Lewis Braham, and mentioned in the article @johnN linked, is an MFO Great Owl. Well worth a look.
@Old_Joe: I plead guilty to reading two papers without comics daily as well as a bunch of other stuff that would not pass muster with those who attend the rallies we all see and read about. My mother got me started on the Times when it really was th…
At 9:00 AM EST, it looks as though this might be a day when one could put the theory to the test. All arrows, here and broad, are way down or predicting way down.
M* has a laudatory profile of PRIDX out today. I have always tried to avoid small-cap funds, foreign or domestic, whose assets exceed a couple of $B. This fund is a rule breaker, clocking more than $9B. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.
If there's a seasoned investor on the board, it is you. I appreciate your perspective.
My sense is that the market could drop on a "political" development rather than a "economic" or fundamental swing. Such a drop could be ugly and of indeterminat…
I couldn't do the research to prove it myself, but I do wonder if the share buy-backs haven't been yet another factor in shifting wealth away from wage earners in favor of high salaried and wealthy people. The latter are more likely to see their net…
@Crash: It sounds as though you are an former President. Those guys would also have a hard time getting an interview! A former neighbor, PhD industrial psychologist, got great satisfaction out of working during retirement in the electrical departmen…
I think @hank raises a crucial question:
"When one starts excluding from their investment portfolios stocks of companies with whom they have basic moral / ethical disagreements, where does it stop?"
It is such a slippery slope and the individual i…
It seems to stay in the family, at least in Denver. Doug Rao moved from Marsico to Janus where he's managing the VIT Forty and Forty funds. He made $ for me at Marsico Flexible Capital.
I look at and take action from time to time on those assets in individual stocks, MFs, and ETFS that I manage myself. However, my retirement portfolio I touch only after consulting with my TIAA advisor, usually once per year. I could look at the lat…
I have been doing some browsing on Lipper and M* after receiving my update from Grandeur Peak. Their larger-cap funds (Reach, Stalwarts) have started to creep ahead, and while GPMCX and GPGOX (my holdings) are not doing badly, they're slowing a bit.…
The motto, if that’s the right term, of the previous Administration was, “When they go low, we go high.” Not always an easy example to follow in our personal or public dealings, but it is worth emulating. Before clicking the “post” button, I count t…
@hank. We have the same car, last year's model. Honda sedan sales have been reported disappointing despite the very high ratings of their cars. Americans prefer pick-ups and SUVs, but tariffs can't possibly spur sales.
I can't time purchases of bi…
Initiated position in APFDX (same team as ARTRX) and re-entered CAPE when price seemed favorable in late June. Sold final slice of long-term holding WSVIX recently as I believe better options exist in small value/blend (FTHNX, for example). Sold DBC…
@Ted makes a good point. It continues to amaze me that smaller fund shops, that may have had some success in one domestic niche, make forays into international investing seemingly for the sake of having another fund. Brown Capital surprised me with …
I've been a member for some time and find I'm much more inclined these days to skip vast portions of MFO long posts and particularly those containing multiple links. Linking may be useful at times, but it is not an effective way of developing and pr…
A friend's late stock-broker father apparently advised, "Buy big companies that pollute." Unfortunately, mutual fund investors probably do own such companies unless we apply some rigorous screen.
@davidmoran. My daughter uses Venmo, which seems to offer what zelle does. I suppose I could sign up, too. She just paid a sub-lease with it. One cool banking improvement is taking a picture of a check in order to deposit it.
Line 9: "Qualified business income deduction (see instructions)" If you think putting the infamous pass-through income on one line is a simplification, you may be subject to believing alternative facts. I hate to think what those instructions are.
The banks are raising fees in the same way that the airline industry is. Just went to transfer some dough to my daughter from our BOA checking to find that there's now a $3 fee for a 1-3 day ACH transfer. Our Schwab brokerage accounts remain free fo…
@willmatt72: I am holding my CVS also. Every now and then I buy a M* five-star stock if the value thesis makes sense. I am at about break-even also, having lost the 7% gain of the last couple of weeks.
I don’t think Amazon can replace the local phar…
@Catch22: I have blithely skimmed that language in the MI 1040 since it first appeared and wondered how I could honestly comply, having no accounting in April of what we may have bought online for the previous calendar year. Amazon has been collecti…
I feel very lucky that my public employer paid 10% of my gross earnings into a really good retirement program from the day I started work. I didn't know squat about money and for a few years I made the mistake of choosing too great a percentage into…
Interview with Jeff Jones covers only one micro-cap stock. I have been very happy with my position in DVSMX. It’s relatively new but run by the guys who have done very well long-term with DMCRX, Driehaus Micro Cap Growth.
As the article states, UC is one of quite a few selective colleges and universities to make standardized test scores a requirement for application for admission. As UC now admits only 7% of its applicants, no admission policy change that university …
I think @Old_Joe is probably right. It seems as if everyone feels entitled to be rude, crude, or hostile because that's the tenor of interactions on social media and cable TV. In our household, I tend to spend more time watching cable news and I now…
Two other funds that flopped badly despite the apparent good pedigrees of the managers are SEEDX (ex-Oakmark guys, now defunct) and GOODX (ex-Fairholme guys, now 1 star). It seems hard to predict how a manger will do based on where s/he trained.
We have GPGOX in an two IRAs at TDA and I seemed to be able to add to my position without being barred. I didn't click the final button, so maybe I'm missing something. FWIIW, I have a bigger position in GPMCX and sold GPEIX several months ago as pa…
I'm glad that my inclination to hold DSENX (it's in more than one account) is confirmed by the wise counsel who chimed in. I don't pay anyone for the good advice I receive here, but that does not detract from its value.
Many good points have emerged in this discussion. As to conscientious objectors, I recommend Adam Hochschild's "The War to End All Wars," an account of how those who objected to WWI were terribly mistreated, or simply shot.
I came of age in the Vi…
@VF: here’s the link to the broadcast I cited:
https://the1a.org/shows/2018-06-06/artificial-intelligence-in-journalism
In fact, a quick Google search pulled several articles on AI in journalism and the frequency of articles written by other than …
