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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.
  • American Beacon liquidates three funds
    https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/809593/000080959320000021/0131_fye_funds_liquidation.htm
    American Beacon Acadian Emerging Markets Managed Volatility Fund
    American Beacon Crescent Short Duration High Income Fund
    American Beacon GLG Total Return Fund
    497 1 0131_fye_funds_liquidation.htm
    Supplement dated March 5, 2020
    to the
    Prospectus and Summary Prospectuses dated May 31, 2019, as previously amended or supplemented
    The Board of Trustees (the “Board”) of American Beacon Funds has approved a plan to liquidate and terminate the American Beacon Acadian Emerging Markets Managed Volatility Fund (“Acadian Fund”), the American Beacon Crescent Short Duration High Income Fund (“Crescent Fund”), and the American Beacon GLG Total Return Fund (the “GLG Fund,” and together with the Acadian Fund and the Crescent Fund, the “Funds”) on or about April 30, 2020 (the “Liquidation Date”), upon the recommendation of American Beacon Advisors, Inc., the Funds’ investment manager.
    In anticipation of the liquidation, effective immediately, each Fund is closed to new shareholders. To prepare for the liquidation of the Funds, Acadian Asset Management LLC, the sub-advisor to the Acadian Fund, Crescent Capital Group LP, the sub-advisor to the Crescent Fund, and GLG LLC, the sub-advisor to the GLG Fund, may need to increase the portion of the relevant Fund's assets held in cash and similar instruments in order to pay for that Fund’s expenses and to meet redemption requests. The Funds may no longer be pursuing their respective investment objectives during this transition. Each Fund will distribute cash pro rata to all remaining shareholders who have not previously redeemed or exchanged all of their shares on or about the Liquidation Date. These shareholder redemptions may be taxable events. Once the shareholder redemptions are complete, the Funds will terminate.
    Please note that you may be eligible to exchange your shares of a Fund at net asset value per share at any time prior to the Liquidation Date for shares of the same share class of another American Beacon Fund under certain limited circumstances. You also may redeem your shares of a Fund at any time prior to the Liquidation Date. No sales charges, redemption fees or termination fees will be imposed in connection with such exchanges and redemptions. In general, exchanges and redemptions are taxable events for shareholders.
    In connection with its liquidation, each Fund may declare taxable distributions of its net investment income and net capital gain in advance of its Liquidation Date.
    If you own Fund shares in a tax deferred account, such as an individual retirement account, 401(k) or 403(b) account, you should consult your tax adviser to discuss a Fund’s liquidation and determine its tax consequences.
    For more information, please contact us at 1-800-658-5811, Option 1. If you purchased shares of a Fund through your financial intermediary, please contact your broker-dealer or other financial intermediary for further details.
    ***********************************************************
    PLEASE RETAIN THIS SUPPLEMENT FOR FUTURE REFERENCE
  • Self-Directed 401(k) Investors Finish 2019 Strong With Average Account Balances up 19% Year-Over-Yea
    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/schwab-report-self-directed-401-140000346.html
    Schwab Report: Self-Directed 401(k) Investors Finish 2019 Strong With Average Account Balances up 19% Year-Over-Year
    According to Charles Schwab’s SDBA Indicators Report, an industry-leading benchmark on retirement plan participant investment activity within self-directed brokerage accounts (SDBAs), the average account balance across all participant accounts finished 2019 at $294,105, a 19% increase year-over-year and a 6% increase from Q3 2019.
  • Bond mutual funds analysis act 2 !!
    @davidrmoran
    When I say 4.5% including inflation it means exactly that. These numbers are based on 3% inflation. In 2010 I planned my retirement date to be at the end of 2017. I postponed it by one year because private healthcare (ACA) triple in price. So, from 2010 to 2018 I gradually decrease our portfolio % in stocks and increase bonds. Since 2018, I mainly invest in bond + make several trades in riskier stuff(stocks,ETFs,CEFs) for days and weeks.
    I used to own a large % in PIMIX for years from 2011-2018. This is the performance of PIMIX vs 50/50 SPY/BND (link)
    The 6% is just a goal but I happened to make more in 2018-2019. According to my Schwab account, my portfolio SD for 2018-19 is 1.7. In Q4/2018 when the SP500 lost almost 20%, my portfolio was down less than 1%. In the last 2 weeks, when stocks lost 12+% my portfolio made money every day.
    Let's stay on the topic of this thread Bond fund analysis.
  • Need an opinion
    Hi sir...imho if you have long term horizon >10yrs probably keep trucking and keep place your new monies into lifecycles etf funds or sp500/dows/qqq etf.
    This is what we did before and continued after 2007 crash and we did extremely well
    If short term horizon few yrs til retirement probably best to speak to fidelity or Schwab advisors./vanguard advisors and decide best actions maybe placed to high bond portfolio/cash/monies-CD high quality corporate bonds. We rebalance mama portfolio 16 months ago (she retired now high 50s%bonds and 40%stocks) ; she lost 1.5% over past 5 wks but lots Dividends from Corp bonds come in tomorrow so she maybe happy in next few days
    Her few top holdings DODFX /fidelity contrafund(we stop distributing to these fund),
    But continued to add to fbnd, phk, jnk, fidelity2015 lifecycle fund, poncx, lsbrx
    Very conservative portfolio
    For mine portfolio highest holdings are in brk.b, dows etf, vti vanguard primecap core, vgstx, spy, eem...we continued to add to these recently
    2%in gold, 1% cash
    We added vde energy oil etf late friday
    Regards
  • Need an opinion
    @MikeM: It seems to me that you promote of recommend target date funds from time to time. Do you own any TDF's ? I have a small % of taxable TDF's at Vanguard & recently added to Retirement income.
    Have a good one , Derf
    P.S. Do you live in the recent snow zone?
  • Need an opinion
    Not sure what your goals are, but the best diversified fund over time may be a retirement target date fund. A lot of these balanced or allocation funds mentioned are focused on US domestic stocks and bonds. It has been for a while, but it won't always be the case that domestic outperforms. My 2 cents. Consider a TRP target date with the equity-bond allocation you're comfortable with.
  • BUY - SELL - OR PONDER February 2020

    Yup. See my previous post above yours. Will continue to nibble as appropriate
    lots folks especially near retirement has bailed long time ago. probably best to have 50/50 if near retired/retired
    anyone buying today or next few days once the dust maybe settling down?
  • BUY - SELL - OR PONDER February 2020
    lots folks especially near retirement has bailed long time ago. probably best to have 50/50 if near retired/retired
    anyone buying today or next few days once the dust maybe settling down?
  • Investors prospered by staying the course
    Investors prospel by staying the course
    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.stltoday.com/business/local/report-investors-prospered-by-staying-the-course/article_8a368181-c1ac-5665-9ce9-e1c4335ec5d4.amp.html
    Investors in “allocation” funds, which hold a mix of stocks and bonds, earned more than the funds themselves, indicating that the majority of investors put more money in the funds when prices were low than when prices were high. Target-date funds, which fall into this group, are likely the main reason for the category’s better performance. These funds, which invest in a mix of stocks and bonds that grows more conservative as investors near retirement, are predominantly held in workplace retirement plans, in which investors tend to hold for the long term and invest at regular intervals.
    Investors showed the worst timing when they invested in alternative funds — investments designed to provide returns that aren’t correlated with stock or bond markets. Those funds didn’t benefit from a general upward trend, surrendering an average 0.61% annualized return over the 10-year rolling periods. But investors fared much worse, losing 2.05%
    Tdf maybe good ways to go long term
  • Bond mutual funds analysis act 2 !!

    This tread intention is to discuss only open-ended bond funds.
    Not stocks vs Bonds
    Not CEFs vs bonds
    Not asset allocation
    Not how anybody invests currently and in the past.
    Not about retirement or accumulation phase.
    If you like to discuss the above non-related topics please start a new thread.
    + 1
  • Bond mutual funds analysis act 2 !!
    “I can make 20-30+%“
    Funny thing about quoting percentages is that seem higher than they appear to be.
    Say if a bond fund returns 3%, a 30% increase amounts to less than 1% increase in return.
    Is the effort worth it for a tiny 1% increase in return?
    Are other assets classes (stocks) or asset allocations (stock to bond ratios) better to target?
    @BigTom
    Nope, it's not only 1% increase it's much more than that.
    Several examples:
    1) PIMIX vs BND (link)=in the last 10 years PIMIX made 5% more annually with higher SD(but still low) and much better Sharpe+Sortino
    2) IOFIX vs BND (link)=IOFIX made almost 8% more annually with similar SD and much better Sharpe+Sortino.
    3) A relative used to invest in MM, I told him to use SEMPX instead after I explained it to him. In 5 years SEMPX made 4.4 while VG VMMXX made 1.2%, this is more than 3% annually.
    4) I told another relative to use HY Munis instead of some of his MM/CD and he made over 7% in the last 3 years instead of 1.5-2%.
    This tread intention is to discuss only open-ended bond funds.
    Not stocks vs Bonds
    Not CEFs vs bonds
    Not asset allocation
    Not how anybody invests currently and in the past.
    Not about retirement or accumulation phase.
    If you like to discuss the above non-related topics please start a new thread.
    It's a pretty simple concept, you post a bond fund and we discuss it generally and compare it to other funds.
    So, do you have a bond fund in mind you like to discuss?
  • Barron’s Top Fund Families of 2019
    Vanguard #10 TRP #20 AKRE Primecap not ranked because
    "To qualify for this ranking, firms must offer at least three active mutual funds or actively run exchange-traded funds in Lipper’s general U.S. stock category; one in world equity; and one mixed-asset—such as a balanced or allocation fund. They also need to offer at least two taxable bond funds and one national tax-exempt bond fund. All funds must have a track record of at least one year"
    These rankings have made little sense for years. If you do not use a "Supermarket" and stay with one firm maybe if that firms lags for years you might switch.
    I assume Barron's continues to do this to appeal to institutional investors and retirement plans who can point to the fund families they use relative ranking to their client
    It is far more helpful to compare funds to each other is a single class, along with risk statistics and ratios etc, ie at MFO Premium
  • How to Pick a Target Fund
    A would suggest pick a target date fund for the year when you will need it and fund it to meet that need. If you are saving for college...what year will your kid enter and how much will you need? If you are saving for an income source when you retire...what year will that be and for how long will you need to fund that income and most importantly how much will that fund need to have in it? I think target date funds can serve many target date needs...not just the generic approach of picking a fund according to what year will you retire?
    If you don't need the money at retirement ask yourself the questions:
    - when will you need it? and,
    - for what? and,
    - how much will you need?
    I can imagine someone selecting many target date funds that meet many target date (financial) needs. Just align the date of your financial need with a target date fund.
    Not a bad approach to managing risk/reward/asset allocation at a reasonable price.
  • How to Pick a Target Fund
    https://money.usnews.com/investing/investing-101/articles/how-to-pick-a-target-fund
    How to Pick a Target Fund
    These funds simplify retirement investing.
    "You pick which target you want, and then the rest of it is taken care of by the portfolio manager of the asset management firm."
    TARGET-DATE FUNDS ARE popular offerings in 401(k) plans, offering a nearly "set it and forget it," all-in-one way to invest.
  • How's your 401(k) doing-401(k)s hit records as workers sock away more, stocks jump
    “The average 401(k) balance rose 17% last year to $112,300 from the end of 2018, according to a review of 17.3 million accounts by Fidelity Investments. The average individual retirement account, or IRA, balance rose the same percentage to $115,400”.
    - Socking away more ? The balance increases reported don’t reflect that, since the S&P rose 31+% in 2019 (according to the article).
    - Are these numbers for only Fidelity’s clients? Or are they referencing data for the total of all U.S. retirement savers? If only Fidelity, numbers may not be representative.
    - Do the reported balances represent all retirement plans - or just those where the holder hasn’t yet retired? (Let’s hope it’s the former.)
    - I contended a while back (some other thread) that worker contributions tend to increase when markets are richly valued. Fidelity’s observations might support that.
    By whatever means it takes to increase a 401k value. Doesn't matter what the market valuations are. It is simply picking the correct investment for one's age and retirement horizon.
  • Longtime bull (Ed Yardini) says he’s sitting on cash ahead of a possible market correction
    stillers: And I never understood your "All bonds all the time/bond OEF momentum" investment strategy when markets have gone up FOR 10 YEARS.
    It should be noted that you posted on M* that you sold all of your stocks near/at EOY 2019, you have not reported any stock buys since then, staying 100% in bond OEFs. So despite you reporting that data, you have not participated in any of the 2020 YTD stock market gains.

    The above was your usual inaccurate agenda. I owned stocks constantly several years in the last 10 years. In the last 2 years and especially since retirement, I'm invested mostly in bond OEFs and I trade stocks/ETF/CEF several times annually. That fits perfectly with my goals which I exceeded easily
    I don't post most of my trades and holdings anymore.
    In the past, you said several times that
    1) I will never retire but I did
    2) I will never have enough but I already have more than 30 times our annual expense without drawing social security.
    and now you said, "So despite you reporting that data, you have not participated in any of the 2020 YTD stock market gains." I didn't claim that I used "sell trailing stop" it was just a generic post. There is no way for you to know if I owned stocks and how long.
    I can't find where you posted your holdings, their % and trades in the last 1-2 years. Your quote said "markets have gone up FOR 10 YEARS" while you were holding a huge % in CD and bond OEFs for years

    @Gary1952 Of course there is a correction coming......................someday. There always is.
    No correction is needed unless you can find something wrong I said.
    My comment about sell trailing stop was a generic one that I used to do years ago. I do trade riskier funds short-term, usually days to 2 weeks.
    I suggest that you guys stay on topic and not rehash Morningstar posts, after all, this is MFO.
    FD, please take a breath, relax and re-read my post. I did not comment on your investing. The correction I posted about was a MARKET correction, about the OP. I had the misfortune to post after a derogative post. My post had no quote attached. No apology needed.
  • Longtime bull (Ed Yardini) says he’s sitting on cash ahead of a possible market correction
    stillers: And I never understood your "All bonds all the time/bond OEF momentum" investment strategy when markets have gone up FOR 10 YEARS.
    It should be noted that you posted on M* that you sold all of your stocks near/at EOY 2019, you have not reported any stock buys since then, staying 100% in bond OEFs. So despite you reporting that data, you have not participated in any of the 2020 YTD stock market gains.
    The above was your usual inaccurate agenda. I owned stocks constantly several years in the last 10 years. In the last 2 years and especially since retirement, I'm invested mostly in bond OEFs and I trade stocks/ETF/CEF several times annually. That fits perfectly with my goals which I exceeded easily
    I don't post most of my trades and holdings anymore.
    In the past, you said several times that
    1) I will never retire but I did
    2) I will never have enough but I already have more than 30 times our annual expense without drawing social security.
    and now you said, "So despite you reporting that data, you have not participated in any of the 2020 YTD stock market gains." I didn't claim that I used "sell trailing stop" it was just a generic post. There is no way for you to know if I owned stocks and how long.
    I can't find where you posted your holdings, their % and trades in the last 1-2 years. Your quote said "markets have gone up FOR 10 YEARS" while you were holding a huge % in CD and bond OEFs for years

    @Gary1952 Of course there is a correction coming......................someday. There always is.
    No correction is needed unless you can find something wrong I said.
    My comment about sell trailing stop was a generic one that I used to do years ago. I do trade riskier funds short-term, usually days to 2 weeks.
    I suggest that you guys stay on topic and not rehash Morningstar posts, after all, this is MFO.