Bogleheads

* I abhor the use of leverage, in any form.
* I detest shorting as a concept.
* I want all of my investments to be as close to 'first order' or 'native' products as possible, that is -- they do ...

If you believe in efficient markets and MPT you can't get a higher return without taking on more risk. Razz

Actually it would be more correct to say you don't get higher expected returns without acc ...

Wherever possible, I am not investing based on 'trust,' at least not in individuals. I am attemtping to invest based on facts and objective information, as much as can be determined. To the degree ...

when you make a choice like Sammy did it says nothing about inefficient markets just that for him taking on some more risk makes sense.

Or maybe just different risks, not really more.

Come ...

I plan to hold these and live off of the dividends. Only selling them if necessary, so at that point I imagine that the activity comes into play.
In that, if they are thinly traded, I would have to ...

. Unlike Vanguard bond funds, you don't know what you are getting and you are paying a lot more in fees. The bond allocation is not the place to take risk; there is plenty of risk.
Adrian, I think ...

I have been waiting for these.

At Fidelity however, the symbols are unknown.

VCHS, the short term corporate, I am considering instead of CSJ.
They follow different indexes. The Vanguard is the ...

The only way Sammy's trade can earn more money is if the CD has more risk be it duration, liquidity or inflation protection. Of course if you believe there is such a thing as a free lunch please ignor ...

The problem is if you sell what do you buy as a replacement.

I sold some 4/2011 TIPS and bought ST CD's with around 2.6 nominal yield.
In about five months even Morningstar will consider the 4/2 ...

The sensitivity of ERs to the size of Vanguard funds is a good thing for investors, an indication that economies of scale are being passed on to investors.
Or maybe it's a bad thing because managem ...

The one good reason to sell is to switch interest income to capital gains which could be advantageous for some. Hmnn. Maybe me. Thanks grayfox.

I've been considering this but I don't quite know wha ...

Right now, using Google Finance, I see that my favorite US Small Value fund, RZV, has a market price of $29.57 and an IIV of $29.61. Remember, though, that IIV is merely an estimate and not a real ...

In fact the 2011 and 2012 have negative real yields!

And the 11/18/10 nominal bond has a 0.25% nominal yield (Bloomberg). By comparison a real yield of minus 0.46% for the January 2011 TIPS look ...

They have increased their holdings a good bit, I guess the yield now at 1.44% (Caveat, not sure how to handle repos)

PIMCO has the portfolio on their website. http://www.pimcoetfs.com/FundInfo/Page ...

Apparently FSIPX is an in house only fund.

From the prospectus:The fund has no exchange privilege with any other fund. The fund has no limit on purchase transactions, but is only offered for invest ...

Bond Tier / Tier 1/ Other Bonds
Also: Risk/Price
Secondary bonds offered are subject to a Price Test and a Risk Test*. The Risk and Price Tests are specific quantitative observations that compare a ...

Back to the subject of the thread, I wonder how much "added value" active management can add to an ultra-short term bond fund? What ever amount that is, would it be worth the risk of los ...

I think the best option would be to sell the older (higher priced) lot of 100 shares, generating a tax loss. Wait 30 days, then buy 100 shares of the fund in your Roth.
This advice may be better th ...

Thanks Rick.

The "bad" was forgetting to put in the reference and making me go to all the work of copying the quote into the google window and pushing the search button. That wore me out for the rest of ...

Near as I can tell, about a momth ago, Fido's spreads shrank to less than 1/2 of what they were. I don't know why.

I've been tracking the spreads since January because they went way high last ...

I checked Fidelity's TIPS quotes today, and they look unusual; only 15 offerings came up and some don't have bid prices. What's up?
here is link I used:

I think you may have looked after the mark ...

MINT a potentially attractive solution for investors who want to preserve capital while seeking higher yields
Let's see... higher return without higher risk. I've heard that before.

Seems like th ...

MINT a potentially attractive solution for investors who want to preserve capital while seeking higher yields
Let's see... higher return without higher risk. I've heard that before.

Seems like th ...

A bit pricey but interesting.
I take this as an alternative to an Ultrashort bond fund. This ETF's e/r of .35 does not seem pricey to me. According to M* the median e/r of the Ultrashort Bond categor ...

Past returns can be misleading and meaningless. The last 10 years include both severe drops in 2000-2002 and 2008-? and these drops are reflected in Total Stk Mkt -- and it represents the overall mar ...

I don't need to understand the exact nature of the risk to accept it. Remember, there aren't too many kinds of "risk" in stocks. They either go up or they go down.
There is an old ada ...

No matter where you go, you have to come back to Vanguard for bond funds.
Nope. Although Vanguard funds are among the best there are many alternatives. There are some very good active funds and many ...

No matter where you go, you have to come back to Vanguard for bond funds.
Nope. Although Vanguard funds are among the best there are many alternatives. There are some very good active funds and many ...

My take on VTI vs. SCHB is more basic, but with the same conclusion. I consider the expense ratios, commissions, and tax issues to be a wash between the two funds, or close enough that we're splittin ...

My take on VTI vs. SCHB is more basic, but with the same conclusion. I consider the expense ratios, commissions, and tax issues to be a wash between the two funds, or close enough that we're splittin ...

Those of us who have repeatedly researched and selected funds/families based on all the information available to us, and subsequently underperformed substantially in most cases, can either conclu ...

Rick,

Thank you for your analysis. I understand all of your comments, with one exception...

...and then there will likely continue to be a slight tax benefit for VTI due to the structural advan ...

The TIPS market is liquid enough to absorb a few $B of new money (though not as liquid as nominal bonds). This is puzzling ...
May not be true. Take a look at how TIPS tanked last October as nomi ...

It is healthy (and profitable) to view things with an open mind. For instance - and just for dicussion purpose - doesn't a 4.6% differential annual return over 10 years deserve mentioning?

Sur ...

It looks like a lot of people use one service for investing, and another service for basic banking. I think this is a good security precaution, too. You don't want any details (or even the identity) o ...

Yup, M* growth charts are not reliable for ETFs, only for mutual funds. Some ETFs seem to display correctly but not all.
I'm confused. Is the problem that the default ETF chart does not have an optio ...

Doc wrote and

I am confused at this statement? Do you mean Vanguard is no longer the low cost leader in a few funds or all together? If you meant all together I can tell you for a fact that isn ...

Those of us who have repeatedly researched and selected funds/families based on all the information available to us, and subsequently underperformed substantially in most cases, can either conclude ...

Do I assume that the M* growth charts reinvest dividends?

Yes, when "Growth" option is selected. It's a very good way to appreciate Wellesley's performance against other asset classes ove ...

Looking at the expense ratios on the Total Bond Market Index at Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab, some folks prefer staying loyal to VG:

VG Admiral .14
VG Investor .22
Fidelity .32 (temporar ...

First, is there any validity to her concerns? I only see extra fees and pain when I think about that split. Any help with some solid logical ammo would be appreciated to put her mind at ease. Hopef ...

Doc wrote:

We have accounts at all three. The one that is the least likely to allow us "to stick with (as best one can in certain cases) the Boglehead philosophy (keeping costs low and passive ...

These Vanguard/Fidelity/Schwab/you name it threads always seem to pop up from time to time. The "platform" one uses is not the question, it's rather if the "platform" used allows ...

I see the auction schedule to be 2/18/2010 and was wondering if there is a way to predict what the coupon rate will be.

The existing 30 Year TIP in Bloomberg has a coupon of 3.75. It matures in 203 ...

I plan to follow a TIPS shifting strategy similar to that advocated by Larry Swedroe. Based on present yields, I'm overweight Long Term TIPS and need to make a shift.

I figure the full-time experi ...

Vanguard's muni and treasury bond funds are not indexes, but are passively managed with low turnover to keep expenses down.

Paul
I used to think this also but I was strongly advised by most of the ...

I disagree with the comments about missing an important opportunity with the Roth because it will only be three years of lost Roth. The savings in interest will make up for the lost money.

I don't ...

Thanks to all those who weighed in. Just to close the loop, I decided to go with the Spartan ST Treasury fund mainly due to simplicity/cost and am now down to about 50% of fixed income in TIPS with a ...

Of my fixed income, 70% is in TIPS and wgt avg maturity is around 13 years. I accumulated most of my TIPS when yields were >3% last year. Now they're in the 1-2% range.

I plan to follow a TIP ...