Fund Info for International Tweak

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grokzilla
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Joined: Tue Aug 16, 2011 8:25 am

Fund Info for International Tweak

Post by grokzilla »

Howdy:

Was hoping someone might have some new fund information or be able to point me in the right direction. I'm with Fidelity and was looking to simplify my international index allocation by going from two funds to one, but am not sure the allocation will hold up. There seems to be little information I can find on the new Fidelity funds I am interested in. I saw an earlier post about exactly what I want to do, but it didn't seem to directly address the amount of Emerging Markets within the funds in question.

I currently have my international allocation of equities 70/30 split between international index and emerging markets index:
FSIIX (Fidelity Spartan International Index)
VWO (Vanguard Emerging Markets Index -- ETF)

I'd like to consolidate into:
FSGUX (Spartan Global Ex US Index)

Does FSGUX have 30% of its holdings in emerging markets? Or, should I also add more of their other new Spartan index fund FPEMX (Spartan EM Index) to balance out the EM percentage? I have no problems with VWO other than the fact that Fidelity charges me a trade fee each time I need to rebalance -- nominal amount but bothersome nonetheless if I can get the same diversification without the fees.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
jimkinny
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Re: Fund Info for International Tweak

Post by jimkinny »

Reading the prospectus seems like a simple way to find the information you want.
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nisiprius
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Re: Fund Info for International Tweak

Post by nisiprius »

jimkinny wrote:Reading the prospectus seems like a simple way to find the information you want.
It's not as simple as that, because the Prospectus merely confirms that it "attempts to replicate the returns of the MSCI ACWI ex USA Index," and does not say what the current composition of that index is. And FSGUX is too new to have issued an annual or semiannual report.

So let's try some things. Morningstar's report on FSGUX, under the "portfolio" tab, has all blanks for FSGUX itself. But it does say that the "category average" (for other funds in the same category) is 91.56% developed markets, 8.44% emerging markets.

If we look up Vanguard's VGTSX, which does not track the mishy acwee exus, but the mishy acwee exus immie, we might hope that it will be roughly the same, and Morningstar says VGTSX is 83.68% developed markets, 16.32% emerging markets.

Aha! I thought iShares might have something, so I went to the iShares site, and there is an iShares ETF, iShares MSCI ACWI ex US Index. ACWX, and--based solely on its name, I'm not digging farther--tracks exactly the same index FSGUX tracks, and ACWX has 82.98% developed markets, 17.02% emerging markets.

Grokzilla, based on this, I think when you get the answer it will turn out that FSGUX is about 16-17% emerging markets, less than you want. But I don't want you to invest based on that! I think it might be a good test of Fidelity's customer service to call them and see whether they can tell you. Or wait for the next annual/semiannual report.

(I wonder if I can get the impenetrable EDGAR site to cough up anything for me? They're supposed to file quarterly holdings reports, but I don't know if the first one is at day zero or three months in. Hoo hah. "FIDELITY SALEM STREET TRUST formerly: FIDELITY FIXED INCOME TRUST Ticker Symbol: FSGUX". Well, that's obviously not what I want. That FSGUX! Actually I guess it is what I want--I guess they recycled a ticker symbol or something. But they don't seem to have filed a quarterly holdings report yet.)
Last edited by nisiprius on Tue Nov 01, 2011 6:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
livesoft
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Re: Fund Info for International Tweak

Post by livesoft »

In the old days, the "Statement of Additional Information" had a fund's holdings at a previous recent time point listed.

As for percentage of emerging markets, one should be aware that different companies classify what constitutes emerging markets differently, so the 30% may actually mean 17%. :)
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nisiprius
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Re: Fund Info for International Tweak

Post by nisiprius »

livesoft wrote:In the old days, the "Statement of Additional Information" had a fund's holdings at a previous recent time point listed.
Already looked. Under the Morningstar "filings" tab, I brought up the SAI but couldn't find any list of holdings in it. Mormingstar shows a "Supplement to SAI" consisting entirely of the fascinating information that "Effective October 14, 2011, Fidelity Fixed-Income Trust was renamed Fidelity Salem Street Trust." And a just plain "supplement" giving the names of the managers.

It does seem as if you really ought to have access to a list of holdings before investing in a fund...
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
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