BestNoLoadFunds.com : May 2008

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Thursday, May 29, 2008

Funds News Update

6 Mutual Funds for the Long Haul - New Money (usnews.com): "...Goldberg highlights a handful of funds he'd trust with his own long-term money. Here are six picks, with descriptions in his words:"
17 Commodity ETFs to Help Hedge Your Portfolio | ETF Trends: "Americans are being hit by rising inflation and the subsequent explosion in commodity prices where it hurts most—at gas stations and grocery stores. Right alongside this growth have been the opportunities available to investors to hedge these rising prices by way of exchange traded funds (ETFs)."
How Do I Get Back Into The Market?: "I sold my funds late last year and the first quarter results convinced me I made a smart move. Now that the market has recovered I'm not sure whether I did the right thing but I'm sure the day I decide to go back in, the market will go down again. What should I do?"
International Investors May Want to Come Home - WSJ.com: "Investors last year craved international exposure thanks to the double-digit gains of many overseas markets. Now, it looks like the sweet spot may be in the U.S. as domestic stocks, if not the broader economy, show signs of recovery."
Switching from Index Mutual Funds to ETFs: "While index mutual funds are a great option for small portfolios, ETFs could be an even cheaper option for larger portfolios."
New Wind ETF « Office Rumors: "First Trust has registered a new ETF that will invest in the wind energy industry (based off the ISE Global Wind Energy Index), which is the first of its kind."
Mutual Funds Continue Shift To Fee-Based Sales: "A study by research firm Strategic Insight says that advice in the mutual fund business is increasingly provided through fee-based accounts. In 2007, about 60% of new fund sales through intermediaries occurred without front-end sales loads."
Why large mutual funds under-perform the market - Thicken My Wallet: "Statistics show that the over-whelming majority of mutual funds under-perform the general stock market index; a study found 78% of actively managed mutual funds lagged the Vanguard 500 Index fund (which tracks 500 large cap stock in the U.S.). Why?"
Buying a Piece of the Market - WSJ.com: "Think you're savvy enough to bet on the markets? Consider the competition. Several years ago a hedge-fund firm, Citadel Investment Group LLC, hired not just one but four meteorologists to make sure that it had the edge on how weather patterns will affect energy prices."
On Index Funds, Target Dates, and Fees - New Money (usnews.com): "Recently, I talked with Steven T. Goldberg, a former Kiplinger's Personal Finance writer (and a former colleague of mine), about how to pick funds. I figured he'd have some good tips, now that he's in the money management business."

(permalink) -- Posted by KenW

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Funds News Roundup

With ETFs, Sometimes It's Good to Be the Middle Child | ETF Trends: "...perhaps it's time investors give mid-caps a look, because for the last three months, they've been handily outperforming both the large- and small-cap ETFs."
Fidelity, Mutual Fund Industry Feel Shareholder Heat on Darfur | the CRO: "Fidelity Investments finds itself facing the mutual fund industry’s first shareholder resolution campaign, a drive generating a lot of heated rhetoric and investor protests."
A Guide To Different Type of Mutual Funds: "People hardly know which mutual fund is right for them. Here is a simple advice that one can follow to pick the right fund."
ETF Investing and Trading: The Best Days to Trade or Invest in ETFs: "For the past 10 years research suggests Mondays and Tuesdays are the most consistently bullish days of the week for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Thursdays and Fridays are the most bearish."
Should My Portfolio Have More In International Stocks?: "At the end of the last decade the U.S. stock market represented 48% of the global market capitalization. By the end of 2007 the percentage fell to 31%."
Mutual Funds - Index Funds for High Returns and Low Fees | Hittrafficer.com: "Although mutual funds can be sorted into a number of different categories, one of the most useful types of mutual funds is the index fund. This type of fund is very popular and widely held and for good reason."
Frequently Asked Mutual Fund Questions: "Mutual funds are so popular nowadays that there are actually more mutual funds available than there are stocks of individual companies. Below we present some of the most popular questions about mutual funds along with some short answers to the questions."
Planning for Your Golden Years With ETFs | ETF Trends: "A recent study found that baby boomers aren't as well-prepared for retirement as they may believe."
Leveraged ETFs Take Center Stage Of Industry | ETF Trends: "Leveraged exchange traded funds (ETFs) are taking center stage of the industry as one of the fastest-growing segments."
Best ETFs in April Were Narrowly Focused | ETF Focus Feature Article | ARBA BHH DIG EWZ GXC KOL UCR - TheStreet.com: "Several narrowly focused exchange-traded funds were at the top of their class in April."
TSC Ratings Begins Coverage on 7 Fixed-Income Funds | Mutual Fund Investing | BNRAX FNM FRE HFLAX XACSX - TheStreet.com: "There is something for just about any bond fund investor in the seven fixed-income funds that attained sufficient history in April to be graded be TheStreet.com Ratings."
The Warren Buffett Mutual Fund: "The good news is that you can get more affordable access to Buffett and his collection of subsidiaries and equity holdings -- a lineup that recently included Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT), United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS), Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), and US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) -- for smaller sums. How so? Via mutual funds that hold Berkshire shares in their portfolios."
ETF or Fund Better? Depends Who You Ask... | MAXfunds.com: "We prefer a mix of lower fee actively manged open-end funds and index funds to an all-ETF portfolio."
It’s The Dollar, Stupid!: "The value of the almighty dollar (or lack thereof) is driving the value of crude. Think about it. If your national currency is the Euro, and the U.S. dollar is dirt cheap compared to the Euro, and crude is priced in U.S. dollars, aren't you going to buy (or import) as much crude as you can regardless of whether you need it or not?"
Fast Money University - Mutual Funds Vs. ETFs - Inside Fast Money - CNBC.com: "When should you buy a mutual fund over an ETF?"

(permalink) -- Posted by KenW

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Funds News Roundup

ETF Expert: The "3 Rs" in ETFs: Resources, REITs and Retail: "Recognize that there may be beaten-down value in the unloved areas of a stagnant economy. What's more, as powerful and as energetic as Resources ETFs have been, the possibility of "irrational commodity exuberance" requires your attention."
Best-Performing Stock Mutual Funds | COP CSCO CVX ENPIX FNINX MRVL SLB XOM: "The best performing open-end stock mutual fund in each objective is listed below, ranked by the average one-month total return for each fund category."
Investor's Business Daily: Finding Dividends In Unlikely Places: "Financial stocks' share of dividends has grown steadily for years. It was 18% a decade ago, and about 7% in the decade before that."
Mutual Funds: Cash Levels and Active Management - Seeking Alpha: "When clients want active management (i.e., the explicit pursuit of alpha through some combination of outperformance in strong markets and capital preservation in weak ones), we think they should get it in a framework that's meaningfully different from the typical mash-up of active and passive exposure delivered by conventional long-only funds."
Top Hybrid Funds in April: CGM Mutual | BHI LOMMX PBR RIG SLB TOT: "Although the list of the 10 top performing equity-fixed income "hybrid" mutual funds is dominated by six asset-allocation vehicles, a traditional balanced fund captured the top spot by a comfortable margin."
The ETF Invasion: "There was a time when the list of best stocks right now, according to more than 100,000 investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, consisted of just stocks. ...But I never expected to see the day when ETFs would make up fully six -- yes, six -- of the top 10. Yet here we are."
How ETFs Have Changed Investing | C GS IVV MER PLK PMA SH SKF SPY STT: "ETFs enable individual investors to engage in investing strategies that are more sophisticated than ever before. Many of these strategies wouldn't have been feasible from a practical standpoint 15 years ago for most investors."
Fund fees may seem small, but they can add up - USATODAY.com: "Last year, the average fee charged by the mutual fund industry was 1.22%, Wolohan says. That would be $1,220 on a $100,000 portfolio. Vanguard funds, on the other hand, had an average expense ratio of 0.2%, or $200 on the same $100,000. Over the years, that difference mounts, especially when subject to compounding."
Brain-dead Mutual Fund Selection | How To Plan Your Retirement Funds: "Choosing a mutual fund, all the research data show, is actually very straightforward and simple."
Experts Advice » Investing » Questions and Answers About Mutual Funds: "Below we present some of the most popular questions about mutual funds along with some short answers to the questions."
Disciplined Approach to Investing: Exchange Traded Fund Assets Grow 28%: "As of March-2008, assets in exchange traded funds grew 28%. The Investment Company Institute reported assets in ETFs grew to $571 billion as of March-2008. This compares to $444 billion in March-2007. During that same time period, the number of exchange traded funds increased to 644 funds versus 454 funds at the end of March 2007."

(permalink) -- Posted by KenW

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Fund News Weekend Update

Which Is Better: Fidelity Or Vanguard?: "One huge advantage Vanguard has over Fidelity is lower expenses and that appears to be the main reason for the difference in their returns."
Mutual fund and ETF performance, analysis and more: "U.S. markets have been on the march since, well, mid-March. The good news: investors are beginning to take more risk, moving out of Treasury bonds and other financial security blankets and into the stock market. The bad news is that there's still a lot of risk to take."
XAM.BE - Trane Inc most newly added United States stock: "MFFAIS.com updated and released the list of Top 10 Newly Added United States Stocks by United States Mutual Funds/Institutions."
Storied Sequoia Fund to reopen, but has the glory gone?: "Investors are being offered the chance to drink from the Holy Grail of mutual funds, buying into a mysterious vessel with legendary powers, and yet the very opportunity to use the great chalice may prove that the whole idea is more fantasy than reality."
ETF Rotation Strategies: "One interesting development that was made possible by the vast increase in the number of exchange traded funds available is the possibility to devise a profitable ETF rotation strategy..."
Principal's Nordhus taps Zoll, Texas Industries, BE Aerospace: "There's more to a good bargain than just an attractive price tag, and that's a key component to the strategy Phil Nordhus uses when picking stocks for his small-cap stock fund."
Buy on the Upside: High-Yield Exchange-Traded Funds Are Attractive Additions to an Income Portfolio: "Low fees and high yields make income-oriented exchange-traded funds attractive to income investors.The following seven income ETFs are down in price, so their yields are historically high."
Reasons Why I Like Index Funds | HarvestingDollars: "The benefits of index funds are numerous, but I’d like to discuss a few of the big ones for me today."
8 Reasons Mutual Funds Are Lousy Investments - Don't Get Trapped in the Long Term | The Net Fool: "Many people think that investing in mutual funds is the way to go and the best method for getting rich. I think mutual funds are horrible investments."
Moneycontrol: "Moneycontrol's mutual fund Best Picks is based on the corpus of the scheme and relative performance of the scheme within its peer group..."

(permalink) -- Posted by KenW