I have often heard that smaller funds are able to outperform larger ones because they can be nimbler. This article started as a search for the best performing “core” funds over the past fifteen years, but I started over several times as I challenged my own search criteria to select only large funds. My assumption was that success builds upon success and investors invest more in funds that are doing Continue reading
The Securities and Exchange Commission, by law, gets between 60 and 75 days to review proposed new funds before they can be offered for sale to the public. Each month we survey actively managed funds and ETFs in the pipeline. Summer is a slow time for new fund launches, with the pipeline filling up in November in anticipation of reaching the market by December 30.
Many new funds, like many existing funds, are bad ideas. (Really, you want an ETF that invests in a single AI stock?) Most will flounder in rightful obscurity. That said, each month brings Continue reading
Fidelity converted its “disruptive” funds to ETFs. They are Fidelity Disruptive Automation (FBOT), Fidelity Disruptive Communications (FDCF), Fidelity Disruptive Finance (FDFF), Fidelity Disruptive Medicine (FMED), and Fidelity Disruptive Technology (FDTX). As a group, they are not terribly compelling. They began trading this week.
Next up: the Continue reading
Dear friends,
Welcome to summer.
Had I mentioned that I have the coolest job in the world? I love a challenge. Augustana offers them to me at the rate of sixty a week, approximately the number of students I work with. They often leave me stunned.
(See how important punctuation is? “They often leave me stunned” and “they often leave me, stunned” are two very different observations. Hmmm … both might be accurate, now that I think of it.)
My college started in 1860 with a very humble mission: it wanted to help the children of immigrants build a good Continue reading
Warren Buffet has a long history of sharing sharp, colorful reflections on inflation and its role in controlling your profits.
Before we drown in a sea of self-congratulation, a further – and crucial – observation must be made. A few years ago, a business whose per-share net worth compounded at 20% annually would have guaranteed its owners a highly successful real investment return. Now such an outcome seems less certain. For the inflation rate, coupled with individual tax rates, will be the ultimate determinant as to whether our internal operating performance produces successful investment results – i.e., a reasonable gain in purchasing power from funds committed – for you as shareholders.
That combination – the inflation rate plus Continue reading
A close friend, who I will call Carol for this article, wanted to meet to discuss whether she should get a Financial Planner. Here is her situation and what she is interested in learning:
Carol and her husband were good savers and earned pensions and Social Security. He passed away a couple of years ago after a prolonged illness. Their focus had been on healthcare needs and not on financial planning. She also received an inheritance from her parents. Carol explained that she had savings scattered at multiple banks in savings accounts, Inherited IRAs, Traditional IRAs, and Roth IRAs. She had questions about why she should invest when her living expenses were met Continue reading
Last week I had the opportunity to sit down for dinner with one of our own, the legendary David Sherman. He is no stranger to regular readers of MFO. His funds, public and private funds through Cohanzick and CrossingBridge and the RiverPark Short Term High Yield Fund, for which he’s the sub-adviser, are uniformly first rate. He’s articulated four investing principles that are embodied in each of his portfolios: Continue reading
The Chronology of the Economic Cycle provided by Joseph Ellis in Ahead of the Curve is an interesting chart that shows the ripple effect from left to right of inflation and interest rate increases across the economy over the next six to twenty-seven months. In Figure #1, I added my subjective assessment of whether the indicator level is currently positive (blue +) or negative (red -) for the Investment Environment and the direction of change, whether it is improving (red up arrow) or softening (red down arrow). Most of the indicators are softening, but not at a level to be considered negative (contracting) for the Continue reading
Taylor Swift might be the swiftest young investor of her generation. Ms. Swift, 33, saw her net worth creep up over the past year, from $570 million at the beginning of 2022 to $740 million now. Most of that wealth is driven by the feverish desire of her fans, the 120,000,000 or so Swifties, to transfer their money to her. At the same time, she’s done prudent and profitable things with her wealth. Other young investors can learn from her reasoning and parallel her strategy.
(Well, give or take the “multi-platinum pop Continue reading
Many things in life suck. High on anyone’s list would be:
When it comes to Frankenfood, you’re on your own, but there’s major good news about the other three. It’s called a Continue reading