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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.
  • DSENX = Large Value category according to M*
    This chart is CAPE vs DSENX beginning with inception.
    Click onto the the green/red icon at the far left end of the 350 day slider for a bar graph representation of the returns.
  • DSENX = Large Value category according to M*
    except with a lot of bonds (at a remove). What ratio, is my question.
    This whole thread started with acknowledgment of it as LV, yes. I mean, check out the CAPE index it attempts to surpass.
  • DSENX = Large Value category according to M*
    ha, legs are long broken, partly, metaphorically, investment and otherwise.
    Looks like about half stocks and related. How I read 'other', in other words.
    See
    http://www.thinkadvisor.com/2013/11/22/gundlach-on-shiller-cape-fund-a-better-mousetrap
    Value orientation, in other words.
    And this for the etn CAPE that DSENX also mimics:

    The Index incorporates the principles of long-term investing distilled by Dr. Robert Shiller and expressed through the CAPE (cyclically adjusted price/earnings) Ratio. The index aims to provide notional long exposure to the top four US equity sectors that are relatively undervalued as defined by a modified version of the classic CAPE Ratio and possess relatively stronger price momentum over the prior twelve months. Each US equity sector is represented in the Index by one of the nine S&P Select Sector Indices (the "Sector Indices").

    They also throw one sector out per some criterion to avoid value trap; I will try to find exact language. Ah, Fido summary:
    It aims to identify undervalued sectors based on a modified CAPE ratio, and then uses a momentum factor to seek to mitigate the effects of potential value traps.
    Hence the M* LV designation, or so I infer.
    Possibly interesting take of a hatah:
    http://www.etf.com/sections/blog/20177-inside-professor-shillers-cape-etn.html
    I think Snowball commented recently that the delta over the etn was due chiefly to the bond play.
    A key difference between the ETN and the new fund, according to DoubleLine, is that the ETN’s Treasury bill holding is fully exposed to counterparty risk, while the DoubleLine product is protected against such risk through exposure to its fixed-income structure.
    Thanks for wishes. I am doing this with quite a bit of trepidation but also conviction, whatever that means.
  • How To Maximize Your Income Portfolio Using A Four Sleeve Approach.
    >>>>it really makes no difference how much money you've accumulated to fund retirement, the key is how much annual income this accumulated money can generate.<<<<
    Cant' you get to the point where it makes all the difference in the world and where you don't need any more income from what you have accumulated? Is it a mortal sin to simply draw down your principal (accumulated money) to fund your living expenses in old age?
    </blockquote>
    I suppose if you are an ultra high net worth individual, then my comment is silly. Or if you know precisely how many years you will be on this side of the grass. That's not me, and I don't.
    I need to make sure my money lasts as long as I do, and that requires a bit of planning. I have no problem whatsoever with spending capital...I just don't know how long I will need to do that. I am retiring in May, so I've spent more than a few hours planning this escape.
  • The Incredible Shrinking Alpha
    FYI: Larry E. Swedroe and Andrew L. Berkin
    Excerpted from the book, The Incredible Shrinking Alpha: And What You Can Do to Escape Its Clutches (BAM Alliance Press).
    Regards,
    Ted
    http://wealthmanagement.com/print/investment/incredible-shrinking-alpha
  • 'Welcome': Mutual Funds Reopen Their Doors To New Investors
    You'll simply be buying shares from larger institutional holders as they cash out.
    p.s. Shiller CAPE hit 27.6 on Friday. :)
  • S&P 500 Approaching New Highs
    Awesome! Are we hitting escape velocity yet, on the stairway to Heaven?
    OOOOOOH, you're too good to be true
    Can't take my eyes off of you
    You'd be like Heaven to touch
    I want to hold you so much
    And every day I survive
    I just thank God you're alive
    You're just too good to be true
    Can't take my eyes off of you.
  • Fairholme's Public Conference Call Today - Summary
    How 'bout this...?
    Maybe the Great Recession created more deep value opportunities that, unfortunately, are simply more volatile than in times past. Not to say it's changed always, just now. I also believe he sees financials within his circle of confidence. Often citing savings bank failures in the '80s.
    So, for him at least, the volatility landscape had to change given the deep value nature of his strategy and the opportunities that have presented themselves.
    That simple.
  • Socially Responsible Strategies Largely Absent From ETF Landscape
    FYI: Among U.S.-listed exchange-traded products, 10 “socially responsible” products account for only $1.14 billion, or just 0.06% of ETP assets.
    Regards,
    Ted
    http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20150127/FREE/150129922?template=printart
    ETF Trends.Com: Socially Responsible ETF's
    http://www.etftrends.com/?s=socially+responsible
  • Obama Wants To Reduce Tax Breaks For 529 plans
    From past commentary by Mike M, I would be very surprised if his "GI" comment was not meant sarcastically, especially given the highly dubious proposition that "Poor people can escape Poverty in the U.S........ ANYTIME they WANT TO"
    tb's remarks are interesting to me because of the rather unpredictable mix of reasonable and logical commentary with obvious absurdities such as the above quote.
  • Obama Wants To Reduce Tax Breaks For 529 plans
    Redistribution of wealth has never worked, and will never help the poor escape poverty. And nobody -- whether liberal, independent or conservative -- is amenable to having the government forcibly redistribute their personal wealth to somebody with less wealth, of course after the government takes their cut of the transaction, thereby making it a very inefficient transfer of wealth.
    I agree with the maxims of Rev. William John Henry Boetcker originally published in 1916:
    • You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
    • You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
    • You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
    • You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
    • You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
    • You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
    • You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
    • You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
    • You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.
    • You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.
    Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan had the same thoughts about wealth redistribution. Here is a classic Margaret Thatcher moment:

    Kevin
  • Today A Huge Negative Reversal
    Lower fuel costs stand to hurt Alcoa. Aluminum is an expensive (lightweight) alternative to steel for transportation needs. Expensive to produce. Expensive to work with. That's why Ford's all aluminum F150 is going to struggle. Sure, they'll sell a bunch out of the gate, but it won't be the hit they envisioned until gas gets up over $3. Probably be offering big discounts about the time gas levels off at $1.50 nationwide.
    The following article appeared in April, just three months before the plunge in oil began. At that time there were wildly optimistic forecasts the use of aluminum would spread rapidly among auto makers.
    "Ford's New Alcoa Connection" (April 2014) http://www.post-gazette.com/auto/2014/04/17/Ford-F-150-Alcoa-Connection/stories/201404170089
    It's hard to escape politics in all of this. There are mounting pressures already to ease up on mandated fuel economy standards in coming years.
  • A Favorite Performance Chart
    Hi Tanpabay, Hi Mrdarcy,
    Thank you for reading and reacting to my posts. I really appreciate feedback since that implies that I reached both your minds and your emotions.
    But I didn’t expect the harsh nature of your highly charged replies. I suppose football does cause such sharp reactions from some loyal fans; football touches many emotions and nerves. I’m not one who is so influenced by football.
    I didn’t comment or forecast the outcome of the Rose Bowl game because I simply did not care one way or the other. I had no skin in the game although I have a close relative who has both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Florida State. I try to never forecast since that is a Loser’s game.
    My primary purpose in referencing the Oregon-Florida State game was to introduce the investment reversion-to-the-mean concept in a manner that would attract MFO readership.
    From your replies, I succeeded, but not in the way I wanted. You focused on the peripheral introductory football analogy, and not on the main investment regression topic. I’m disappointed.
    You guys misinterpreted the extent and the thrust of my football analogy. I was surely not writing about the Florida State 2012 and 2013 seasons. They were superb and honestly earned by a superior football squad directed by a Heisman quality quarterback in 2013.
    My comments centered only on Florida State’s 2014 season. The 2014 team did not dominate opponents like in previous years. They fell behind in a majority of their 2014 games by huge negative margins, and were very fortunate (lucky) to pull these games out of the fire. Their escapes baffled handicappers. Professional odds makers estimate that the team had something like a 1 in 10,000 chance of winning all those games. I wanted to illustrate how quickly luck can evaporate.
    Also, the Florida State quarterback in 2014 did not play to the high performance standards he established in his Heisman trophy year. Statistically, the Oregon quarterback possessed a much more impressive 2014 record. That’s why he won the trophy this year. In the future, he too will likely suffer a regression-to-the-mean.
    I’m sorry that you fellows are so sensitive to the Rose Bowl outcome. It neither pleased me or displeased me whatsoever. My posting was designed to direct attention to the random, checkerboard character of major investment classes, their non-predictability, and their reversion-to-the-mean tendency. The football commentary was meant to be merely ancillary.
    By the way, I do Las Vegas about three times a year, and sometimes (rarely) leave with a fatter wallet. I also ran a small consulting firm after retiring as the head of a major research operation. The lesson here is to not make wild guesses or false assumptions. You never know who is on the other end of the exchanges.
    I really take no umbrage from your comments. Once again, thanks for reading my posts.
    Best Wishes.
  • An Emerging Retirement Drawdown Controversy
    Hi Guys,
    Charles’ recent “Irrational Markets - Proof Positive” post prompted me to initiate this topic. That discussion highlighted the discordant opinions and recommendations made by supposedly financial and investment experts. The cacophony is loud, endless, and often much less than useful. Chaotic investing is a likely outcome.
    The Charles post emphasized the mind-bending character of old wisdom saws like “Out of the mouths of babes comes wise insights, yet, only with age comes wisdom”.
    If the latter is true, I have accumulated much wisdom. I guess you should seek investment advice from either young Wharton business school graduates or perhaps from older, more senior graduates. I listen to both, but weight them differently.
    For many years, an industry agreement seemed to have been reached with regard to an acceptable retirement portfolio drawdown rate. Portfolio survival for an extended retirement period is the obvious goal.
    These earlier studies mostly suggested something approaching a 50/50 mix of equity and fixed income holdings. High portfolio survival rates were estimated when withdrawal rates were limited to roughly 4% per year adjusted for inflation. The original work in this arena was done at Trinity University in 1998 and has been frequently updated.
    Here is a Link to one readable update written by Wade Pfau in 2010:
    http://wpfau.blogspot.com/2010/10/trinity-study-retirement-withdrawal.html
    The Pfau analysis didn’t much change the earlier study findings. However, some concern over the current overpriced marketplace, coupled with a very low interest rate environment, has persuaded a few gurus to shorten the recommended drawdown schedule from the standard 4% rule-of-thumb to an even lower 3% annually.
    Now for the controversial analysis and recommendation that wants to upset this comfortable apple cart. It will surely add to Charles’ distress over conflicting and competing financial advice. That’ll never change.
    It is a retirement study from the Director of Research at the Putnam Institute. Here is the Link to this cart upsetting 16-page, 2011 release:
    https://www.putnam.com/literature/pdf/PI001.pdf
    Please give it a road test. It merges portfolio returns uncertainty with life expectancy probabilities for both men and women separately. The methodology deploys a novel Retirement Present Value (RPV) model to project portfolio survival likelihoods.
    The RPV’s surprising and controversial output is that the retirement portfolio that offers the best survival prospects includes a much smaller fraction of equity holdings than does the original Trinity study and other follow-up Monte Carlo analyses. Check it out; controversy is good.
    Personally, I’m not comfortable with the Putnam work product. The manner in which the “optimum” portfolio equity/fixed income mix was determined escapes me. Certainly a portfolio with only a single Index-like equity position is retirement dangerous because of its volatility (standard deviation). But fixed income is likely more dangerous because of muted annual returns.
    The standing answer has been broad portfolio diversification that trades off a little annual return for a major decrease in overall volatility. Outcomes are definitely timeframe dependent, but I still trust this generic and time-tested approach.
    You get to choose your own poison. My head spins off-axis as often as Charles’ does. Let MFO members know your thinking on this matter.
    Best Regards and Happy Holidays.
  • dsenx explainer
    from the DSENX report end September:
    \\ In the six-month period ended September 30, 2014, the DoubleLine Shiller Enhanced CAPE returned 7.39% and the S&P 500 Index returned 6.42%. The DoubleLine Shiller Enhanced CAPE performance was due to a 6.05% return from exposure to the Shiller Barclays CAPE U.S. Sector Total Return Index and a 1.34% return from the fixed income portfolio. Hence the key driver of outperformance was the fixed income portfolio. The Shiller Barclays CAPE U.S. Sector Total Return Index was exposed to the healthcare, industrials, technology and energy sectors throughout the six-month period. All four of these sectors contributed positively to return with technology contributing the largest amount (2.58%) and industrials contributing the least (0.36%). The fixed income collateral pool was primarily driven by a rally in emerging market debt and mortgage-backed securities. The worst performing sector of the bond market was the high yield sector as new issuance was in excess of investor demand.
    Don't know whether to transfer retirement equity fund moneys into this or not.
  • Suggestion re. Est. Distribution Thread
    ok, ok, ok, I see what Ted and IE were getting at now. Forget the locking in as Announcement idea; that still leaves everyone the now unwieldy task of scrolling thru page after page after page to find the fund they're looking for. All that has yet to come in will be but a trickle. Yes, the time is ripe to separate and consolidate.
    @The Shadow. It would entail a lot of copy and pasting, but you could alphabetize as you worked your way thru it. If you and David can settle on a style/format, it could end up being kind of a classy display (and, I suspect, greatly appreciated). Not to mention, the perfect excuse to escape a tiresome family dynamic, if present: "Aunt Mildred [you crazy bat], I do love ya, but I got ob-li-ga-tions; and time is of the essence!"
  • RiverNorth Factsheets Updated, thru Q3
    (Now if someone can explain why DSENX has done well through recent volatility.)
    I dunno enough about how they run it to know, but I'm mildly interested too. I s'pose the bond sleeve helps in stock selloffs.
    Is there any way to keep up with the sectors they're invested in? Utes, real estate, and staples have had the only thing approaching momentum very recently, and maybe they're also lower on CAPE so those sectors made the team for the time being? If Dbl reconfigures the sectors often, maybe they were on top of it.
  • John Waggoner: Can You Retire On A $1 Million ?
    Hi Guys,
    A one million dollar nest-egg is an unrealized dream for most retirees.
    The median retiree nest-egg is shockingly small when contrasted against that illustration number. Different estimates locate a retiree's pot of gold at 20% to 35% of that target.
    The median nest-egg depends on home ownership, on being single or married, and upon sex. Home value represents about one-half of the nest-egg sum. Married folks enjoy a retirement pot that is roughly double that of a single person. Single men save slightly more than women.
    Also, a one million dollar nest-egg might be (a) totally inadequate for one who earned $300,000 annually, (b) comfortable for an individual who earned $100,000 annually, and (c) nirvana for a sole who struggled with a $40,000 annual income. It all depends.
    Nest-egg survival is a challenge for most retirees. I trust most MFO members have escaped or will escape this dilemma.
    Best Regards.
  • Shiller On Long-Term Stock Predictions And What To Watch For In This Wild Market: Video Presentation
    I listened to the whole thing. Sounds like a nice guy. But, like many stock market 'talkers' he leaves a lot to the listeners interpretation and leaves himself 'outs'.
    Basically, he said the stock market valuation is high, not as high as 2000, and could go higher.
    Let's put him in the same class as Art Cashin.
    I also listened to the whole thing. Yes, very nice guy, won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2013 along with 2 others.
    He says the current CAPE is 26, with a historical average of 15. But it was 45 in the year 2000. The current CAPE still suggests positive returns, but not nearly as high as expectations. CAPE in Europe is significantly lower, and much lower still in the PIGS or PIIGS countries and China. He said his theory would be to invest there, in the low CAPE countries, but he hesitated and said he wanted to think about that....Too bad the interview was so short and didn't cover bonds, except for the briefest mention of them. Would like to know Robert Shiller's thoughts on the bond market.
  • Billions Fly Out The Door At Pimco
    FYI: Pacific Investment Management Co. suffered roughly $10 billion of withdrawals following the Friday departure of co-founder Bill Gross, a person familiar with the matter said, a sign of how quickly Mr. Gross’s surprise move is reshaping the bond-investing landscape.
    Regards,
    Ted
    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/billions-fly-out-the-door-at-pimco-2014-09-29/print