Facebook is what many believe will be the most highly anticipated IPO since the recession. Whether people are bullish on what will be an inevitable IPO for Facebook or bearish is somewhat irrelevant because there is one definitive winner in this future (and not-yet public) transaction: Goldman Sachs. Oh, and the equity investment funds that [...]
Financial mutual funds and other equity funds that invest heavily in financial instutions could endure the volatility that comes with increased investor anxiety in the weeks to come. It makes sense for investors to worry since the FDIC just announced on Friday January 7, 2011 the closure of the first two banks of 2011. Whenever [...]
Gold and gold mutual funds have seen their share of disappointment already this year. To date, the value of gold has dropped since its closing price at the end of 2010. But this does not necessarily mean that investors need to dump the precious medal, their gold mutual funds or even equity mutual funds that [...]
A slew of bad press has been unable to knock Boeing Co. out of the skies, which is great news for the equity investment funds (including the Franklin Growth fund, our top mutual fund pick for 2011 which lists Boeing among its top 5 holdings). Some of the bad press facing Boeing these days includes [...]
In our recent post about the views of Phil Maisano, of Dreyfus Investments (an “average” mutual fund company that ranks in the low 30′s for market share among other investment fund companies based on assets under management), the third item on the “Dreyfus test” spoke to the large amount of cash that corporations seem to [...]
Okay, so it has only been a couple of days since the new year began. Equity mutual funds, for the most part, have fared well, particularly Large Cap Value funds that have remained in the green all day today (January 4, 2011). But a two-day approach is insufficient for most investors… even short-term investors. What [...]
Equity mutual funds have been something of taboo for the year. Through to November 30, 2010, domestic equity funds have let go of $43.5 Billion, according to the latest information released by Morningstar. And possibly for good reason. According to its close on January 4, 2010 and December 17th close, the S&P 500 has gained [...]
Taking cues from equity mutual funds is nothing new; independent investors have done this for years. And while it may seem like a tedious “read-between-the-lines” process reserved solely for straight equity investors, regular folks who invest in mutual funds should also take note of what some of the biggest and best funds around are doing… [...]
In our expository look at the holding similarities in top performing equity funds, we saw that a few funds actually shared some overlapping top security holdings as well as the obvious overlaps in sectors (remember, many funds hold Financial Services as a top holding with Industrial Materials being a favorite “second” or “third” top holding). [...]
Five days ago, Morningstar published its October monthly fund flows report. Those five days have allowed us to sit back and pat ourselves on the back while we mull over our shortlist of domestic equity funds that are competing for the most-coveted title of “Mutual Fund Site Top Mutual Fund Pick of 2011.” And then [...]
In our look at the similarities in top performing mutual funds, there were a few individual securities in the top 3 holdings that stood out as potential favorites. One of the most popular holdings was Apple, Inc., a strong company in our view based on several external coverage pieces and write-ups. We believe there are [...]
Of all of the 39 equity funds that we have reviewed so far in 2010, there are some fairly interesting conclusions to be drawn. Now, these funds include domestic, international, emerging markets, dividend and small cap funds that we have reviewed. Overall, however, two overwhelming trends that we noticed are the following: 16 of 39 [...]
An interesting piece in the October 30, 2010 publication of the Economist the suggests that China may not be as big a deal as we are all making it out to be. The article, titled The Indispensable Economy? China May Not Matter Quite As Much As You Think, makes a strong case for not investing [...]
Target Date Mutual Funds have recently taken on a lot of bad press. That terrible year, 2008, did not help; many people with 2010 target-dated funds saw big losses. Stories of postponed retirements, massive wealth loss, even broken financial dreams filled the press. We all read about them. And to be honest even we have [...]
The idea of using dividend funds as a way to protect against potential pressures in the fixed income area of one’s portfolio makes a lot of sense. But not everyone wants a mutual fund that pays a dividend yield. These people feel that if you want an income fund, you look at bonds or other [...]
