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.
Mr. Berkowitz's background reminds me a bit of John Montgomery's. The latter trained as an engineer at MIT and worked in public transportation before founding Bridgeway. That shop's "quant" methodology, which no outside commentator ever got to see, …
In 2013, all distributions were income, in 2014, most were ROC, as you pointed out. This year, all are ROC. It is quite possible that the MLPs held by CEM have passed through capital. The ROC affects the basis, so it becomes a tax headache when I se…
@Kaspa: In a way, I have a momentum portfolio, but I've never called it that. It's that portion of my non-retirement savings that I trade pretty actively, using MFs, ETFs, CEFs, or stocks. I agree with you that Emerging Markets have lacked momentum…
Get What's Yours by Kotlikoff, Moeller and Solman. This is a Simon and Schuster e-book on Social Security. Despite the seeming dryness of the topic, it's fascinating and very helpful.
You can be sure that Janus 40 bears Doug RAO's signature. In a previous post here I pointed out that the fund's shareholders received massive distributions in 2013 and 2014. I opined that he must have done a lot of selling.
I held MFCFX and made good money when Doug Rao managed the fund. I sold soon after he left. The fund was never a "flexible capital" fund at all as the bond and alternative holdings to stocks have never made up a significant portion of the fund. It's…
I subscribe to the NY Times and WSJ and Barrons and I read a lot of different stuff online, sites others have mentioned. Best financial writing I often find is in Vanity Fair, particularly the most recent issue.
@old_skeet. May I ask if you pay loads on all the funds you hold? Without checking previous posts, my impression is that you frequently cite A class funds in your sleeves. Thanks.
PCYC is a real winner for the Medical Technology Stock Letter (bioinvest.com). The McCamants have had the company in their recommended portfolio since the early days. The newsletter subscription is pricey, but lurkers can easily identify the stocks …
Barrons in this article certainly side-stepped the controversial nature of these buybacks, a topic that exercised many on this board when I brought it up.
Thanks for this exceptionally intelligent posting. From the title, I thought I was going to be ducking salvos from unknown combatants, but this was not the case.
Charles McCarry is indeed a great writer. If you like spy fiction, he's well worth exploring. I'll spare you all the 50-minute lecture on my other book recommendations.
@Old_Joe- I hanging on to CEM, the Clearbridge MLP CEF. Price of this fund irrationally follows the price of oil, even though the MLPs in the fund are in the business of transporting oil and gas, not exploration or production. The yield is good and …
Added SFREX and GLOFX. Sold most of HDSPX because it's too heavy in Texas and Trinity Industries (just not my type of company). Reduced GPEOX. Lightened up on WSCVX but kept big position in WSVIX.
When I was a Bridgeway shareholder, I couldn't help offering management my take on their plodding style and presentation of the reports. To their credit, they were not spending my nickel on glossies. Contracts have been written on paper napkins, aft…
Holders of the Bruce Fund will never be blown away by their stodgy web site or their strip-mall quality paper shareholder reports. As for the returns, however, thassa some spicy meat ball.
msf mentioned the legacy Schwab card that turned into a BOA. The Schwab was 2% on everything and the money was deposited directly into the brokerage account. I had to drop BOA because of the frequent interruptions due to bad security. Using CapOne 1…
ARYVX annual report shows 2014 turnover as 275%, 2013 as 392%, and 2012 as 264%. That suggests a lot of trading and explains the large distributions. I'm not sure what to make of this.
Think of Jim as providing relatively unattractive bookends that enhance the beauty of one truly attractive book. Jim is on in the morning and then again in the evening. In between, there is Kelly Evans, who is really worth looking at. BTW, I usually…
http://csinvesting.org/tag/david-iben/
David Iben is touting uranium, gold, and coal according to the linked article. Not surprising that KGGIX hasn't done anything since he opened the fund. Thanks to kevindow for the CS white paper. I have a positi…
Good point about Don Hodges dying. Craig and two other Texans joined the HDPSX team in 2007. It's hard to know how much Hodges père was contributing in his later years or how much his absence will affect the funds.
The discussion and suggested readings above are evidence of the astuteness of MFOers. Civility has reigned here even though the topic could unleash a less-than-civil reaction. The comments on The Atlantic's site, running to some 1100 already, are of…
I have held HDPSX for a while, but I am concerned about its asset bloat (approaching 2 bil). Other than what's on M* and the Hodges website, I don't know much about the new fund. It did very well last year. I agree with you about new funds from succ…
HDSVX, Hodges Small Intrinsic Value, has about 57% in microcaps. The average market cap of the fund's holdings is around 849 million. Seems to be same management team as the successful HDPSX, but with way fewer AUM.
I have to wonder how Evered, Haywood, and Steinik, the International/Global team at Brown Capital, with a modest performance record, can become adept in the international small cap arena. I dare say that a comparison their qualifications to those of…
I assume the ban applies to electronic filing of state tax returns. I have always printed my MI return and mailed it because of the exorbitant fee charged by TurboTax.
I sold PVGFX not so much because Horn had a terrible 2008 (-4% vs. World Stock bogey), but because that loss came on top of an even worse relative performance in 2007 (-15% vs. the bogey). Horn did respond personally to my complaints, to his credit.…
