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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.
  • 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).
  • "Outlier" Funds in Your Portfolio
    @davidmoran: CAPE is not hard to trade if you are willing to pay/accept the bid/offer. If you count your pennies, however, it may be hard to get the price you think is fair. Low volume seems to create the wide spread.
  • "Outlier" Funds in Your Portfolio
    @msf
    >> DSENX or any of its ilk belongs strictly in a tax-sheltered account. Holding bonds in lieu of equity, their tax efficiency is horrendous.
    Fido shows before- vs after-tax delta to be no worse than LV category (to the contrary, in fact), unless I misread. Incorrect?
    See
    https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/summary/258620814
    PSTKX slightly lags SP500 since Nov 2013 while DSENX outperforms handily.
    Before 4y ago, though, PSTKX outperforms, as you noted. I wonder why the crossing for the last 4y. You anticipate that that outperformance should resume, sounds like.
    Finally, is CAPE etn worry, and trading difficulty, actual?
  • "Outlier" Funds in Your Portfolio
    @TSP_Transfer: thanks for posting the recap of the February webcast. The last line of that pdf reads, "DoubleLine believes the Fund would be a compliment to other large-cap value strategies." Whether it's a compliment or a complement, only the grammarian curmudgeons will say. These funds are "outliers" for me because I hardly grasp what they try to do and I certainly couldn't do it myself or buy another fund that appears to do it. Do agree that it's a large value strategy and I have replaced some LCV funds with DSENX and CAPE in my actively managed portfolio. CAPE is hard to trade, similar to some CEFs. Limit orders will usually be filled late in the trading day when the bid-ask spread narrows. May not be for everyone.