dt, thanks for your post.
I, like yourself, work through Schwab (I also am with Vanguard). I have had this discussion with my Schwab Pinnacle Representative in Indianapolis. Besides the short term redemption fee that the fund may impose, based on how Schwab processes orders with a fund family, he does not know how the fund would know that it is "you". I gather that if the fund is "small" and it receives a huge order from Schwab, it might trigger something.
I guess an analogy would be purchasing x dollars in a fund to qualify for institutional shares and then turning around and selling a bunch of shares. I have done this countless times with Schwab and Vanguard Brokerage and never heard a peep from either. This seems to support that the fund family did not know. If my representative at Schwab is correct, I wonder how American Beacon knew it was you.
On the related, what I also do not understand is that if for example American Beacon has a short term redemption fee and you are willing to pay it, what is the problem. If they do not have a short term redemption fee, then what is the problem. When I purchase and then sell a Vanguard fund, the trading policies are transparent.
Mona
Mona, I have not experienced the trading warning at Schwab, but I have not traded very often at Schwab. The personal experience I incurred was when I was at Fidelity, and it was Fidelity who contacted me, on behalf of American Beacon, with the warning about frequent trading from American Beacon. I had recently upgraded SPFPX to SPFLX, and I then had made a sell out SPFLX shortly thereafer, and that apparently triggered the warning.
Regarding DHEIX/DHEAX, I have not experienced that personally at Schwab, but I have only owned DHEAX a few months. However, I do recall another poster stating the "Diamond Hill Boys" frowned on his trading frequently in and out of the fund.
I don't understand the dynamics of the interaction between the fund companies and the brokerage companies, but I was clearly left with the message that it was American Beacon who had flagged my trade actions while I was using the Fidelity Brokerage

I noticed that the Sharpe Ratio for RPHYX is much lower than it used to be 3 yr 0.75 and 5 yr 1.41, according to Morning Star. Is this cause for concern? I currently own DHEAX as a lower risk bond fund. I was thinking of adding more cash to it or starting a position in RPHYX now that it is open. Thank you for your thoughts.

Hello,
I’m looking for some help on these two bond funds, PIMIX and PUCZX. For my bond side I currently have DHEAX and PIMIX. I’ve been thinking about moving from PIMIX to.PUCZX. It looks like PIMIX and PUCZX have some similarities and I have heard PIMCO raised their fees quite a bit on PIMIX. Does anyone see an obvious reason to make or not make this change? Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

For cash, I would look at SEMMX or DHEAX/DHEIX. SEMMX has lower rating bonds and better performance than DHEAX (Investment grade > 80%). I call these funds "cash sub" for investors who are willing to take a calculated risk.
See PorVis(link)
I hardly ever hold cash/MM/CD but that's what I do and what suites my goals.

DHEAX has been discussed well back into 2019 at M*. Not sure if you are referring to MFO only.
================================
Well, that's the thing about the internet...
According to this M* search, the first post about DHEAX was on 10/30/2019:
https://community.morningstar.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?q=dheix&noSynonym=false&collapse_discussion=true
According to this M* search, the first post about DHEIX was by yogi in a Barron's Summary on 04/29/2019:
https://community.morningstar.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?q=dheix&noSynonym=false&page=2&collapse_discussion=true
The majority of posts about them, here and there, have been in the last TWO months, yet posters like to celebrate them (and hundreds of other funds) as though they knew about them/owned them during the period they refer to them as the better/best.
So what's your point again?

DHEAX has been discussed well back into 2019 at M*. Not sure if you are referring to MFO only.
================================
Well, that's the thing about the internet...
According to this M* search, the first post about DHEAX was on 10/30/2019:
https://community.morningstar.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?q=dheix&noSynonym=false&collapse_discussion=true
According to this M* search, the first post about DHEIX was by yogi in a Barron's Summary on 04/29/2019:
https://community.morningstar.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?q=dheix&noSynonym=false&page=2&collapse_discussion=true
The majority of posts about them, here and there, have been in the last TWO months, yet posters like to celebrate them (and hundreds of other funds) as though they knew about them/owned them during the period they refer to them as the better/best.
So what's your point again?

Why so testy? I was only commenting. I have been considering DHEAX for much longer than a couple of months. One will never know how long it was discussed on M* because the forum changed less than a year ago. Cheers.

Regarding DHEIX/DHEAX, I am not sure when it became a frequently discussed fund at M* or MFO. I first heard about it in 2018 from FD, who was talking about a couple of short term bond oefs, that could be a safe harbor in that turbulent market period. FD had mentioned both DHEAX and SEMIX as short term bond oefs, that were available to him at Schwab. When I moved my brokerage account from Fidelity to Schwab in early 2019, I took a close look at both DHEAX and SEMIX, but did not choose to invest in them at that time. Toward the end of 2019, when I was doing some end of year portfolio adjustments, I decided to put some money into DHEAX. I have been pleased with it so far, but I think there are a number of short term bond oefs in addition to DHEAX, that would be good choices for a conservative bond oef investor.

"Gary1952">SDMZX appears somewhat unique. It is named a multi-purpose fund with low duration. I would say DBLSX and SDMZX are not directly comparable. DBLSX focus is on low duration.
Gary, as I said in my comments above about these 2 Schwab recommendations, I consider PSHYX similar to DBLSX, but SDMZX is a longer duration bond oef. I would put SDMZX in a category more similar to FIJEX--more aggressive short term bond oefs. I have read a number of posts, in which SDMZX and FIJEX have similarities to some multisector bond oefs with their diversification in their holdings. If you want to pair a couple of short term bond oefs, that are different from each other, I would think a fund like SDMZX would be a good complement to a less risky fund like DHEAX and DBLSX.

DHEAX has been discussed well back into 2019 at M*. Not sure if you are referring to MFO only.
================================
Well, that's the thing about the internet...
According to this M* search, the first post about DHEAX was on 10/30/2019:
https://community.morningstar.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?q=dheix&noSynonym=false&collapse_discussion=true
According to this M* search, the first post about DHEIX was by yogi in a Barron's Summary on 04/29/2019:
https://community.morningstar.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?q=dheix&noSynonym=false&page=2&collapse_discussion=true
The majority of posts about them, here and there, have been in the last TWO months, yet posters like to celebrate them (and hundreds of other funds) as though they knew about them/owned them during the period they refer to them as the better/best.
So what's your point again?

Correction (as long as the above analysis is correct) : DHEAX WAS the better fund.
The daily obsession with some posters (especially one) looking back at prior performance and deeming a given fund as the better/best is mind-numbing.
Had a poster, THREE YEARS AGO, stated that DHEAX will perform better than another similar fund over the next three years, and it did, now that would be something.
But truth be told, the first post about DHEIX/DHEAX that I EVER SAW on on ANY board by posters who now hail it as the better/best over the last three years was made within the last TWO months.
The last TWO months.
----------------------------------
To wit...
This MFO search history for DHEAX shows for that VintageFreak and willmatt72 posted about it in April-June 2019.
ALL other posts about it, including by those who hail it NOW as the better/best, were made between Dec 2019 and today.
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/search?Search=dheax
This MFO search history for DHEIX shows for that willmatt72 posted about it in Feb 2018.
ALL other posts about it, including by those who hail it NOW as the better/best, were made between Dec 2019 and today.
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/search?Search=dheix

DHEAX has been discussed well back into 2019 at M*. Not sure if you are referring to MFO only.

@Gary1952, I believe Diamond Hill funds have a transfer fee at Schwab. One reason I don't consider them.

DHEAX is NTF $2500 min, with short term redemption fee and it appears that DHEIX is not sold by SCHWAB. But I would guess it would have the $49.95 fee attached if it was sold.

Correction (as long as the above analysis is correct) : DHEAX WAS the better fund.
The daily obsession with some posters (especially one) looking back at prior performance and deeming a given fund as the better/best is mind-numbing.
Had a poster, THREE YEARS AGO, stated that DHEAX will perform better than another similar fund over the next three years, and it did, now that would be something.
But truth be told, the first post about DHEIX/DHEAX that I EVER SAW on on ANY board by posters who now hail it as the better/best over the last three years was made within the last TWO months.
The last TWO months.
----------------------------------
To wit...
This MFO search history for DHEAX shows for that VintageFreak and willmatt72 posted about it in April-June 2019.
ALL other posts about it, including by those who hail it NOW as the better/best, were made between Dec 2019 and today.
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/search?Search=dheax
This MFO search history for DHEIX shows for that willmatt72 posted about it in Feb 2018.
ALL other posts about it, including by those who hail it NOW as the better/best, were made between Dec 2019 and today.
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/search?Search=dheix

DHEAX beats DBLSX for 1 month and all the way to 3 years (chart).
DHEAX has also better Sharpe + Sortino (PortVis)
Both funds invest at high % in securitized/MBS, both have mostly IG(investment grade) bond rating.
Just my opinion: DHEAX is a better fund

Schwab recommendations for Short Term Bond oefs are interesting. We are familiar with frequently discussed short term bond oefs like DBLSX and DHEIX, but neither of those funds made the Schwab recommendation list. The 2 short term bond oefs that Schwab recommends is:
1. SDMZX, a short term bond oef from PGIM. This fund has a BBB portfolio rating, has a M* risk of above average, has a standard deviation of 1.15, a duration of 3.5 and expense ratio of .39%. Its portfolio has 36.4% in securitized holdings, 20.25% in corporate holdings, 19.4% in government holdings, and about 14.5% in derivatives, and about 9% in cash and equivalents. Its 1and 3 year total return of 6.47%/3.85%.
2. PSHYX, a short term bond oef from Pioneer. This fund has a BBB portfolio, has a M* risk of low, has a standard deviation of .79, and a duration of 1.76, and an expense ratio of .46%. Its portfolio has 62% in securitized holdings, 29% in corporate holdings, 6% in government holdings, and 3% in cash and equivalents. Its 1and 3 year total return of 4.87/2.81.
Comments: It appears PSHYX is very low risk and has some similarities to DBLSX. SDMZX is a higher risk short term bond oef, but is well diversified with a low standard deviation, but its total return appears to be related to its longer duration holdings of 3.5, which is much longer than most funds in this category. SDMZX has a higher than average yield distribution, which makes it more attractive for dividend harvesters. For me personally, SDMZX is a very interesting option in this category. I sold DBLSX at the end of 2019 because I wanted a little better total return, and so I replaced it with DHEAX. I do think SDMZX provides that better total return and looks like a nice complement to DHEAX.

@FD1000

DHEIX is the only one with 80+% in investment-grade rating. I can't buy DHEIX at Schwab but I can buy DHEAX with no fees.

I'm pleased that someone mentioned DHEIX at this point in this discussion and its performance. It has outperformed RPHIX lifetime, 3yr., 2yr., and 1yr. (Also, I note that it has a negative correlation, although a small one, to RPHIX.) I do own DHHIX, the HY offering, and have been considering DHEIX for purchase. Both funds are $20/TF at Vanguard.

I put more emphasis on the last 3 years. When I compare RPHIX,ZEOIX,SEMMX,DHEIX(link)
RPHIX has inferior numbers to the other 3.
DHEIX is the only one with 80+% in investment-grade rating. I can't buy DHEIX at Schwab but I can buy DHEAX with no fees.

It seems that there has been a lot of interest Muni bond options for taxable accounts recently. It is hard to generalize about whether it is best to purchase a Muni bond fund, or if a taxable bond fund might be a better, or at least an acceptable choice. For some years, I have used Tax Cost Ratios of each fund to help decide if I want to seriously consider it. In case you are not familiar with Tax Cost Ratios, here is its definition from the M* Glossary.
"Tax Cost Ratio
The Morningstar Tax Cost Ratio measures how much a fund's annualized return is reduced by the taxes investors pay on distributions. Mutual funds regularly distribute stock dividends, bond dividends and capital gains to their shareholders. Investors then must pay taxes on those distributions during the year they were received.
Like an expense ratio, the tax cost ratio is a measure of how one factor can negatively impact performance. Also like an expense ratio, it is usually concentrated in the range of 0-5%. 0% indicates that the fund had no taxable distributions and 5% indicates that the fund was less tax efficient.
For example, if a fund had a 2% tax cost ratio for the three-year time period, it means that on average each year, investors in that fund lost 2% of their assets to taxes. If the fund had a three-year annualized pre-tax return of 10%, an investor in the fund took home about 8% on an after-tax basis. (Because the returns are compounded, the after-tax return is actually 7.8%.)"
You can find what the average Tax Cost Ratio is by category, with Munis being 0, short term bonds being .88 Nontraditional bond oef being 1.38, HY bond oefs being 2.06 etc. but you have to go to each fund to find out the Tax Cost Ratio specifics for it. Here are a few examples of TCR for some funds in various categories:
HY Munis: NVHAX and SDHAX (0)
NonTraditional Bond OEFs: MWCRX (1.36), SEMPX (2.13)
Short Term Bond OEFs: DHEAX (1.38), DBLSX (1.13)
HY Bond oefs: ZEOIX (1.20), RPHYX (1.01)
The above TCRs are for 3 years, but at Schwab you can also get them for the last year.

"fundly">@dtconroe.
I have thoroughly, again thoroughly, enjoyed your post and was able to evaluate some of your named funds to add to those I currently keep in my portfolio. Each post I believe has value to someone and some repetition is no problem at all, as in the end,the next post usually has some newly added value or information. Do not be offended by any ones opinion about your methodology, as it is only an opinion. The only true arbiter of this forum is Dr. Snowball and his minions. If it has to do with investing keep it coming!! Dr. Snowball only rarely gets involved and typically only with character assault issues.
I am retired also, and keep a 30% equity, 50% bond 20% cash portfolio and use a barbel type philosophy with the portfolio, with aggressive funds balanced by conservative ones both OEF's and etf's. One of my favorite HY Muni funds is VWALX. On my Wells Fargo platform this Admiral fund has a minimum purchase of $0. Yup. $0 instead of the 50K at Vanguard.This could be available similarly at certain other brokerages. If not VWAHX is available with a $3000 minimum and an ER of .17% This is a HY classified Muni fund but in actuality is mostly investment grade with an average BBB bond portfolio and with great metrics for what it is. Highly rated by M*.
I liked what I saw with DHEIX and at Vanguard it is available with only a $2500 minimum. Even with the $20 purchase fee, with a reasonably sized purchase it is far cheaper to keep for a year than DHEAX which is ntf. I made the purchase in my Vanguard account.
I do not post but rarely ,so keep up the good work and welcome to the board.
fundly
fundly, very encouraging post. Thanks for letting us know what you are doing and the reasons. Sounds like you have a good handle on what you are doing and could be very helpful in sharing your knowledge and experience with other posters. I look forward to other posts from you in the future. One of the things I personally get from posts like yours, is what is available through other brokerages that I am not familiar with. I envy you being able to get DHEIX so inexpensively at Vanguard.

@dtconroe.
I have thoroughly, again thoroughly, enjoyed your post and was able to evaluate some of your named funds to add to those I currently keep in my portfolio. Each post I believe has value to someone and some repetition is no problem at all, as in the end,the next post usually has some newly added value or information. Do not be offended by any ones opinion about your methodology, as it is only an opinion. The only true arbiter of this forum is Dr. Snowball and his minions. If it has to do with investing keep it coming!! Dr. Snowball only rarely gets involved and typically only with character assault issues.
I am retired also, and keep a 30% equity, 50% bond 20% cash portfolio and use a barbel type philosophy with the portfolio, with aggressive funds balanced by conservative ones both OEF's and etf's. One of my favorite HY Muni funds is VWALX. On my Wells Fargo platform this Admiral fund has a minimum purchase of $0. Yup. $0 instead of the 50K at Vanguard.This could be available similarly at certain other brokerages. If not VWAHX is available with a $3000 minimum and an ER of .17% This is a HY classified Muni fund but in actuality is mostly investment grade with an average BBB bond portfolio and with great metrics for what it is. Highly rated by M*.
I liked what I saw with DHEIX and at Vanguard it is available with only a $2500 minimum. Even with the $20 purchase fee, with a reasonably sized purchase it is far cheaper to keep for a year than DHEAX which is ntf. I made the purchase in my Vanguard account.
I do not post but rarely ,so keep up the good work and welcome to the board.
fundly

"Crash">I continue to read this thread with interest. My household situation is such that I can manage fine (along with wifey,) together here with extended family, though my portfolio is surely much smaller than many or most who participate here. Therefore, I have streamlined and consolidated my portfolio prior to our moving out here. Conservative bond-OEFs? Well, I actually can't afford to be too conservative. I'm happy with my TRP bond funds, along with PTIAX, which has been mentioned by several people already. My goal is to generate BETTER than plain-vanilla monthly dividends, without going overboard re: risk. I have become accustomed to what I would characterize as moderate risk; and of course, with regard to BOND funds, volatility is much less pronounced than with stocks. I have my eye on the sister-fund to PTIAX, which is the Perf. Trust Muni bond fund. I might end-up buying into that one. Wife's 403b will be directly rolled-over from VEIRX into VLAAX...And she's starting her new job here very soon. I hope there's a 401k or 403b which is not a pile of dooky. It's some sort of Nursing Home. And she tells me that employees have their medical insurance paid for by the company (?) Holy pennies from heaven, Batman! Can that be true?
Crash, that is interesting and sounds like you have established some strong conviction for what you are interested in. What is "conservative" for one investor, could be "risky" for another investor--it is all in understanding your own risk tolerance. My wife has a relatively small amount in her Traditional IRA account, and about 50% of our joint taxable account comes from her inheritance from her deceased parents. Her desires is to be much less risky than funds I put into a relatively broad conservative category. She would prefer CDs and short term bond funds as her investments of choice. Over time, I have shown her visually on performance charts how her desired short term bond funds look like compared to slightly more risky bond categories such as nontraditional bond funds. Now in her Traditional IRA account, she is comfortable with MWCIX and IISIX for an account of about $100K. In our joint taxable account, we own several of the lower risk bond oefs that she is comfortable with (funds like DHEAX), but about half of the joint taxable account consist of funds that fit my risk level (funds like SEMMX and PUTIX). You just have to develop your portfolio to fit you needs and investment style, and believe in the criteria you used to select them.

"Gary1952">What is too conservative? I have a basic AA of 50/50. But the 50% bond OEFs have 50% (25% overall) in low duration/lower yielding "safer" type funds. The other 50% (25% overall) is in higher yielding multi/non-traditional funds. I own no "ballast" funds such as core/core plus OEFs. Is this too conservative or not conservative enough? My goal is to target 3-4% yearly income from divs, CDs and growth.
My market correlation for 10 years is .35%. The max draw down is -.42% for the bond OEFs.
I know it is my judgment but I am curious what others think.
Gary, In a more specific response to your post, you and I use very similar kinds of funds, although I break my funds down into funds for my taxable account, and funds for my tax exempt (IRA) account. In my taxable account if use more of the "safer" bond oefs, but with a wide variation if diversity. So, for example, DHEAX is the short term bond fund I use, but I consider it more risky than DBLSX and less risky than FIJEX. There is an argument that you could use just one of these short term bond funds, or you could use more than one of these funds for more diversification. I use 4 very different nontraditional bond oefs in my taxable account because they are all "conservative" for me, but they don't always perform the same in a given set of market conditions. PUTIX is my most risky nontraditional bond oef, MWCIX is my least risky nontraditional bond oef. I also own a municipal bond oef which is a HY MUNI (AAHMX) and this is one of the least risky HY Munis you can own. I used it to replace BTMIX, which is a very good short term investment grade muni bond oef, but I felt I was ready to move up in risk. I have considered NVHAX, but it is more risky than AAHMX, and NHHAX has some history of significant peak to trough losses and a larger "worst 3 month performance period" than AAHMX. I am still considering adding NVHAX to my portfolio in 2020, but if I do, I will probably make it much smaller position than AAHMX. In the past I have used MMHAX as longer duration and more risky bond oef, but I am not inclined to use it right now because I am not comfortable with its risk level. I am very clear that many investors will use much more risky bond oefs in their taxable account because there are a lot of pundits thinking they will sail through 2020 in the same way they sailed through 2019--that may fit their conservative criteria, but not mine.
When it comes to my IRA account, I use several multisector bond oefs that are more risky than what I will use in my taxable account. I rank order multisector bond oefs in roughly the following low to higher risk: ANGIX, VCFAX, PIMIX, PTIAX, JMUTX, JMSIX, PUCZX, IOFIX. All investors can make an argument for these funds being "conservative" based on the criteria they use. For me, I have chosen to only use VCFAX and PIMIX, but I don't dismiss the rationale from others to use some of these other funds. For me, I would not touch IOFIX with a 10 foot pole, but there are many others who believe this is the next great multisector bond oef.
At any rate, it appears to me that you are using relatively conservative bond oefs, but you could very easily change your criteria for other bond oefs to fit your investing roles you have defined for each fund.