Wasatch to Reopen Funds

According to Morningstar.com, small-cap specialist Wasatch is to opened several closed funds on January 31st, 2007. If you are looking to add small-cap funds to your portfolio, this may be a chance. However, there are restrictions. Wasatch Fund website says the following three funds will be available to existing investors:

Wasatch Small Cap Value Fund (WAAEX) [...]

Dollar-Cost Averaging: For Higher Return or for Lower Risk?

In the past couple of days, I did some further study on VFINX after I took a look at the market value and shares owned at the beginning of 2007 if I started investment in January 1988 with four different investment schemes (here’s the previous post). In this study, I use VFINX as a dollar-cost [...]

DODFX — Get in Before It’s too Late

If you are mutual fund investors that focus on value investment, chances are you have heard about Dodge & Cox Funds even if you may not own them. Unlike mutual fund powerhouses such as Vanguard and Fidelity which each offers a full line of funds, Dodge & Cox only operates four funds, Stock Fund (DODGX), [...]

So How Bad is Dollar-Cost Averaging? My Own Study of VFINX from 1988 – 2007

First of all, I am a believer of dollar-cost-averaging (DCA) and have been taking this approach ($100 every month) ever since I started investing in mutual funds. The reasons I do DCA are, 1) conventional wisdom tells me that by spreading the investments throughout the year, I don’t have to guess when is the right [...]

Mutual Funds Year-end Distributions

Here's a complete list of my mutual fund year-end distributions:

Symbol
Date
Dividend
Short-termcapital gain
Long-termcapital gain
Total

CSVFX
09/20/06
$0.12
$0.13
$2.51
$2.76

OAKBX
12/14/06
$0.5013
$0
$1.3081
$1.8094

TGLDX
12/15/06
$0.217
$1.122
$3.93
$5.269

PRSVX
12/18/06
$0.27
$0.25
$1.16
$1.68

PRNEX
12/18/06
$0.57
$0.34
$1.21
$2.12

TREMX
12/18/06
$0.42
$0
$1.06
$1.46

TAREX
12/20/06
$0.893
$0.062
$2.568
$3.523

DODGX
12/28/06
$0.54
$0.247
$6.405
$7.192

DODFX
12/28/06
$0.565
$0.144
$0.349
$1.18

CGMFX
12/28/06
$0.81
$0
$2.92
$3.73

Most of the funds I own distribute annually (except DODGX which distributes every quarter), with more payouts in the forms of dividend and long-term capital gain rather than short-term capital gain. The benefit of dividend and long-term gain is that they have [...]

All Good Things Have to Come to an End, Even Bill Miller Can’t Escape

Legg Mason's Bill Miller, the manager of Legg Mason Value Trust (LMVTX), has beaten S&P 500 for 15 consecutive years since 1991. His winning streak, however, is about to come to an end as LMVTX returns only 6.71% as of yesterday compared to the 16.5% gain of S&P 500. According to a Bloomberg.com article, the [...]

Active vs. Passive — My Funds vs. Vanguard Funds in Fees and Returns

Early this month, I posted an entry on my mutual fund portfolio. I also mentioned in the post that all the mutual funds I have in the taxable account are actively managed funds.  A reader asked me the question why I chose actively managed funds instead of index funds which, by common sense, have low [...]

Mutual Fund Year-end Distributions

As we entered the final weeks of 2006, mutual fund companies start to make year-end distributions. Yesterday, another fund in my mutual fund portfolio, Oakmark Equity and Income Fund (OAKBX), paid out annual dividend and capital gain. So far, two of my mutual funds distributed dividend and capital gain (CSVFX distributed on September 20th):

Symbol
Date
Dividend
Short-term
capital gain
Long-term
capital [...]

My Mutual Fund Portfolio

Yesterday, when I was visiting InvestorTrip, I was asked what mutual funds I hold. Actually, my mutual fund portfolio currently has 12 holdings, all of them are actively managed funds. The reason I don’t have any index funds in my taxable account is that when I started investing in mutual funds, I didn’t really expect [...]

Bogel Said There’s “Trouble in Paradise”

John Bogel, founder of Vanguard and pioneer of index mutual funds, is aiming his firepower at ETFs this time, especially the index and sector ETFs. Of the total asset in all index mutual funds is about $900 billion, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) now take a 38% share.
In an article appeared on Bloomberg.com yesterday, Mr. Bogel, the [...]