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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.
  • Did I miss the memo? Emerging Markets Bonds
    Yup, it's currency effects and some bad carry trades being unwound, far beyond my pay grade to fully understand:
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-11/carry-trades-collapse-as-emerging-market-yield-advantage-shrinks
    The duration effect remains rather striking (to me). If dollar-denominated with a short portfolio duration (as many MFs were not), there has been limited damage. e.g. DLENX. Of course, the longer a big shift plays out, the less likely it is that any fund will escape; it will reach the most sheltered, as well as their little dog, too.
  • Lipper apparently begins its 1-5 ratings at 3y of performance, like M* [edited]
    I misspoke in using the word 'star'; Lipper does a 1-5 rating, no star graphic. If you go to www.lipperleaders.com now, you indeed find results for the two DoubleLine Cape Enhanced, so their ranking start point must be 3y, same as M*. Don't know why it did not turn up on Marketwatch, should doublecheck. Ah, today they do show up. So 3y is there answer to my query, and never mind :) .
  • The Closing Bell: U.S. Stocks Post Longest Slide Since 1980,
    @Old_Skeet
    If this down draft continues,you might have to revive these threads.Your observations and insights were appreciated and well recieved by many of us.
    From January 2016...............
    Day Six & Day Seven ... Recent Selling Stampede Might Soon Be Ending
    It's Day Eight /// Surprise ... Surprise ... Surprise!!
    It's Day Nine ... Selling Stampede Continues ... Perhaps Plunge Protection Team Will Step In
    Market Day Eleven ... It's Off to the Races
    http://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/profile/discussions/472/Old_Skeet
    ARBITRAGE CREDIT OPPORTUNITIES ACFIX
    Q3 2016 COMMENTARY
    With several quarters of positive market performance
    behind us, the fourth quarter could introduce new
    volatility and opportunities given the upcoming US
    elections, increased news flow detailing the UK’s plan
    to exit from the EU, and the specter of December
    interest rate hikes. As we saw during 2014 and 2015,
    market gains can quickly reverse as investor
    sentiment and direction rapidly change. While we may
    not be able to predict political or economic outcomes
    with certainty, we are aware of the risks and
    outcomes that can result from changing events
    https://arbitragefunds.com/restricted/get/Credit_Opportunities_Commentary.pdf
    The death of retail isn't a problem for Starbucks
    Nov. 4, 2016 3:50 PM ET By: Clark Schultz, Seeking Alpha News Editor
    Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) CEO Howard Schultz delved into some interesting large-scale retail issues during the company's earnings call yesterday.Schultz first noted that FedEx CEO Fred Smith shared some research with him confirming the significant drop in store traffic globally amid the 'Amazon Effect" across industries -- before he really turned up the retail bear rhetoric.
    Q and A from SBUX conference call. Earnings Call Transcript (page 14-15)
    John William Ivankoe - JPMorgan Securities LLC
    Hi. Thank you. Howard, I was going to ask you to maybe apply the current environment in terms of what we're seeing both in the U.S. and around the world in the consumer environment,
    Howard S. Schultz - Starbucks Corp.3rd Q
    I was talking to Fred Smith just a couple of weeks ago about his situation at FedEx and he shared with me a piece of research which showed a significant drop in foot traffic on Main Street and in malls, not only domestically and around the world, as a result of e-commerce, the Web, and what I'll loosely describe as the Amazon effect. As a result of that, you're certainly seeing large companies and small companies not only not open new stores, but announce closures.
    And let me just speak to that. I know this is a little long-winded but I think it's important. There's no doubt that over the next five years or so, we are going to see a dramatic level of retailers not be able to sustain their level of core business as a traditional bricks-and-mortar retailer, and their omni-channel approach is not going to be sustainable to maintain their cost of their infrastructure. And as a result of that, there's going to be tremendous amount of changes with regard to the retail landscape.
    We believe, as we look down that pipe and look at the future, that our ability to maintain our growth in terms of new stores domestically and internationally, coupled with the fact that Starbucks still maintains a very special place in terms of a sense of community, the third place environment, and people looking for and seeking out human contact and a place to go, that as these store closures occur, and they will, that we are going to be in a very unique position five years, 10 years down the road because there's going to be a lot less people competing for those customers. I'm not talking about the coffee category; I'm talking overall.
    But we are in the very, very early stages of a tremendous change in the bricks-and-mortar footprint of retailers domestically and internationally as a result of the sea change in how
    people are buying things, and that's going to have, I think, a negative effect on all of retail.
    http://seekingalpha.com/article/4019416-starbucks-sbux-q4-2016-results-earnings-call-transcript?page=15
    Highlights of the Week:© 2016 Payden & Rygel
    Equities Investors have been risk averse in light of the macro uncertainties, ignoring the first positive quarterly earnings growth in seven quarters.
    Corporates: Corporate fund flows had a $2 billion out flow from mutual funds and ETFs
    Securitized highlight of the week’s deal flow was the
    $1 billion refinance of the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas by Blackstone Real Estate
    High Yield despite short-term volatility, the economic fundamentals that drive capital markets’ performance remain solid.
    Municipals: Municipal issuance in October totaled approximately $53 billion, the largest total in 30 years and up 57% year-over-year...demand remained robust and municipal funds received approximately $1.7 billion of inflows during the month
    .https://www.payden.com/weekly/wir110416.pdf
  • AA for a retiree on SS.
    I disagree, fwiw. And not only w/ Edmond's #3 and the likelihood of an adviser "sniffing around for business." You could go to Vanguard and everyone here would cheer yay for you and not impugn --- and you might well get identical advice.
    It all depends on her wishes and goals, such as she has them, and presumably in part on yours for her. If she is truly well-covered cashflow-wise by the current situation, and one goal might be to grow the nut, and if at 76 and reasonable health the horizon seems distant enough, then there is no reason ("logical") whatsoever not to increase the equity portion, depending on sleep-at-night. If unanxiety is paramount, leave as is. If not paramount, and all is well-met for now as static, then sure, increase equities, prudently, in low-vol etfs or value-oriented etfs, perhaps all-US, and perhaps algorithmically churned, like CAPE. Lots of options.
    But I disagree with the advice above and the presumptions about the adviser, I think. Is derisking an actual goal?
  • The Next 10 Years Will Be Ugly For Your 401(k)
    Jeremy Siegel's research paper challenges the CAPE approach to forecasting returns:
    Link to his paper:
    The Shiller CAPE Ratio:A New Look by Jeremy J. Siegel
  • The Next 10 Years Will Be Ugly For Your 401(k)
    Hi Guys,
    Please don't overreact to this headline. It is only a forecast made by the Reseach Affiliates outfit. Maybe they're prescient, but maybe not.
    The Reseach Affiliates forecast is grounded on the assumption that a regression-to-the-mean of the CAPE ratio is imminent and will take that ratio to below or near below its historical average. That's possible, but is it likely? I surely do not know.
    The Research Affiliates are saying that the CAPE downward adjustment will be so dramatic that it almost totally neutralizes the positive inputs of demographic growth and productvity growth in the US marketplace. Their prediction is that US equities would be marginally positive in this next 10-year cycle and small US equities ( Russell 2000 ) would deliver zero positive inputs. Meanwhile foreign markets will produce positive rewards that exceed their historical averages.
    I fail to see this major disconnect between the US and foreign markets, especially with emerging markets. Our economies are just too intertwined. Although we now have a lower percentage of the world markets, we are still the dominant player. If we sneeze, foreigners will catch a cold.
    I interpret the Research Affiliates projection with more than a few grains of salt. For the most part, forecasters accuracy records are miserable. As usual, buyer beware.
    Best Wishes.
  • Not Boring Enough: Investors Leave "Low-Volatility" Funds
    @Sven, yes indeed, most of our nut is there. And now that I have bailed from the Yackts and Parnassus, even more.
    I have never owned CAPE on its own. I just track it irregularly, and am always (a little, but decreasingly) surprised to see it outperform all the other ones I like, or used to --- the half-dozen smart secret-sauce LC div / value etfs, e.g. And now SPLV.
    @BobC, was not comparing with their benchmarks. SPHD has been superb at shorter times and also overall; I wish I had been in it.
    As for ups / downs, just go to M* 10k-growth graphs (put in an mfund to start, like TWEIX or some Vanguard or some other that you favor), and then select time windows of, say, dips that made you jump. Myself, I do not see enough smoothing to matter with SPLV vs CAPE (which for some reason M* refuses to show today, hmm).
    But notes from yesterday: over the pothole starting ~9/18/14, SPLV was notably better. The one starting ~8/13/15, pretty much equivalent. And the one starting before last xmas, meh, with SPLV slightly better.
    So given the greater bucks I wind up with from holding CAPE, I would take it over SPLV if I had to choose b/w them only. That's all. I learned long ago (partly anyway, he claimed) not to sweat market potholes, or at least to ride them out and not flinch, or not do anything much more than flinch.
  • Not Boring Enough: Investors Leave "Low-Volatility" Funds
    @davidmoran, as I recall you invest in Doubleline Schiller CAPE fund, correct?
  • Not Boring Enough: Investors Leave "Low-Volatility" Funds
    Fwiw, CAPE has seriously outperformed SPLV (also SCHD and similar) the last 4/3/2/1y/ytd, and if you track closely during drops, much less jumps, you give up effectively nothing in terms of 'volatility.'
    I myself ended flirtation w/ low-vol etfs some time ago simply because of subpar performance.
    So maybe that is some of it. (Of course I was not in SPHD.)
  • Parnassus Statement on Wells Fargo
    @rforno
    Totally agree re their excellence, but have been so satisfied with DSENX / DSEEX outperformance persistence that I am not missing Parnassus yet.
    (Was reading recently about DOD, SDOG, RDIV, DTD and others in the uncovered-value space, and CAPE mostly matches or beats them as well. So that algorithm, if that's the right term, is working fine.)
  • How Do You Compare With The Typical Mutual Fund Owner?
    Hi Old Joe,
    Your recent attempt at subtlety totally escaped me,
    indeed it was wasted on the wrong person. I am by training and practice an engineer. A failed design is not an option. Consequently, I attempt to be very direct and linear in my communications. To be somewhat trite, I say what I mean and mean what I say. There is surely enough uncertainty when investing to unnecessarily add communication misunderstanding to the mix. Clarity is a primary goal in my postings.
    I sure was not expecting subtlety from your submittal. You have strong opinions and clearly document them. In the past you were precise about specific word selection and challenged a few MFOers on their choices. Nothing subtle about that.
    Every submittal,or a portion of it, need not be a powerful truth or carefully nuanced insights. The MFO membership has a diverse set of investment wisdom and experience. What is trite for one member might be a revelation to another
    I learn whenever I access these postings. I am a happy warrior and want to contribute. I sometimes wonder if that disturbs some MFO members.
    Best Wishes..
  • Parnassus Statement on Wells Fargo
    Thanks for the post. I guess P. figures they don't know all they need to know, and they're being cautious.
    Frankly, though, I don't think WF deserves any points for ripping off customers and then giving some of the proceeds to charity, and I doubt those 5,000+ employees who got scapegoated and fired are thinking of their former employer as running "a positive workplace."
  • Americans' Median Net Worth by Age -- How Do You Compare?
    Hi Catch22,
    I thank you for reading my post, however I do not see any contradictions in my several sratements that you quoted. Interpretations can and do differ.
    I was simply summarizing that I do not believe that the disappointing chart reflects something endemic to the culture, or teachings, or anything else imposed by the USA as a national standard.
    I attribute the chart findings to individuals alone. Period. When summed nationwide it is not an encouraging picture. It is a ""cumulative failure" caused by individual bad decisions.
    It appears you take issue with my word choice and not my baseline conclusion. You seem to be missing the forest because of the trees. When investing that's a recipe for the Loser's Game. I've managed to escape that game.
    Thank you so very much for reading and reacting to my post. That's a signal that my post satisfied my goal of submitting an interesting post.
    EDIT: Not only does the data not reflect a national goal, it runs contrary to it. Saving a fraction of an income is a prudent policy advocated by most everyone, including the government. We may talk that talk, but we sure don't practice it. Too, too bad since it makes us vulnerable to rather minor unexpected negative happenings.
    Best Wishes.
  • Is the Value Premium Disappearing?
    >> You buy stocks for less than their fundamental value, wait until that value is recognized by the market, profit, then rinse and repeat until you’re rich.
    The CAPE algorithms seem to be bearing out the value premium, if I am understanding either side correctly.
  • MFO Ratings Posted Thru August ... Surprise, Up 10% Plus Past Year
    It would be real nice to have the Symbol column stick (stay) when scrolling horizontally.
    Here's an exercise for US LC div / value types. Examine mfund PRBLX against the usual etfs SPHD, CAPE, NOBL, OUSA, HDV, SCHD, VYM, DVY, with IJH for a side entity. (Some are 'high-div', yes.) Observe that the UI range is over an order of magnitude for these similarish funds, with DVY by some measure the worst. Is this chiefly because it is older than all the other LC etfs save one? Examine the various risk columns. Check which are GO (CAPE!). Then do a $10k-growth graph at M* for 1/3/5/6/7/8/9y when available, with changing start points, looking at the the fall 08 dip and recovery the next spring or later, ditto for more-recent dips, and see if you can fathom the UI range noted above.
    All very puzzling and for me not such a helpful screen. Why would anyone prefer DVY, for example, based on this? Or IJH? It is as though we are ranking by recovery months (say) when one has had mild allergic rhinitis and the other whopping pneumonia. Gosh, the former has to be a healthier person, right?
  • Morningstar 2016 ETF Conference - Day 3
    Thank you @Charles for your summaries! They've been quite interesting and valuable. In Thursday's summary you mentioned O'Shaughnessy's presentation would be about assets vs. alpha and several questions immediately came to mind.
    If Leigh Walzer is right and we're only half way to passive options totally dominating the landscape, doesn't the quest for assets over alpha almost define eventual dissolution? It seems like a lot of these highly paid fund managers are eventually going to be out of work in a scenario like that and they're best chance of surviving would be to limit AUM and work as hard as possible to deliver alpha.
    Do they believe it'll take long enough for Walzer's scenario to play out that they're best off milking their cash cow as long as they can and they'll still be able to retire rich even if there won't be much left for the next generation? Do they believe the idea that some have promoted and that I think you mentioned in another comment that the increased dominance of passive options will eventually lead to it's own disaster, so if they stay "closer" to the benchmark and minimize surprises they might still survive and collect fees all along? Do they believe Leigh and others are wrong? There are any number of other possibilities but even Leigh's comments this month about the stock prices of publicly held asset managers suggest the market has expectations about the future that aren't great.
    It seems there are a handful of fund companies that have taken pretty aggressive steps to limit AUM, like Grandeur Peak and their hard closes, like Andrew Foster and Seafarer and like Vulcan Value who has written quarterly commentaries that recommend existing investors shouldn't add to their positions, at least in their small cap fund. I'm sure there are others but it seems like the investing public is still willing to support the thousands of funds that Dr. Snowball suggests could disappear without anyone being worse off... for now.
  • Where to put proceeds from sale of home for dividends/interest?
    Yes, if feasible do push back SS start date; indeed, any CFP or CPA or similar would almost certainly tell you to live on this $250k instead. If you can push it back to age 70, all the better. The cashflow difference is very large.
    That said, I would put at least some of the nut into div-paying US LC equities, as others have promoted, the usual suspects being DVY, NOBL, OUSA, SCHD, SPHD, HYD, and there are others of course. I also like the value etn CAPE and the fund based on it, DSENX / DSEEX, which includes special bond sauce.
    For diversification, add FRIFX. I see no need to look overseas.
  • "Outlier" Funds in Your Portfolio
    tnx, v interesting
    Most of my own large DSENX / DSEEX holding is in Roths, but not so for my kids.
    Would probably be worth crunching the actual numbers for them vs TWEIX, PRBLX, also div etfs like NOBL, SPHD, DVY, etc.
    Still can't discern whether CAPE etn risk is actual (may be a contradiction in terms).