Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

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Boglenaut
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Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by Boglenaut »

I think this story in tomorrow's WSJ is of interest:
Joshua Barrickman is the opposite of Bill Gross. But his Vanguard index fund is poised to become the biggest bond fund
http://www.wsj.com/articles/meet-the-ne ... 1426616391
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Toons
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by Toons »

Good Article ,Thanks :happy
"One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity" –Bruce Lee
toto238
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by toto238 »

Interest in Mr. Barrickman is puzzling to one member of the household. His son, Jack, recently told his parents that he didn’t understand why his dad “is such a big deal.”
Love it. Yeah, he's about to be the manager of the largest bond fund on the planet. Does that make him a "big deal"?

I think the big deal is the fact that there's a major financial company out there that can breed this kind of culture. He's a product of the legacy that Jack built, and the American Investor has benefitted from that gift.
HurdyGurdy
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by HurdyGurdy »

Instead of a King, he's like a plumber.
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seeshells
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by seeshells »

Additional thread input from a few months back also. http://blogs.wsj.com/totalreturn/2014/1 ... a-machine/
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corner559
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by corner559 »

Unless you are a WSJ subscriber you can't read the article.
gkaplan
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by gkaplan »

corner559 wrote:Unless you are a WSJ subscriber you can't read the article.
Just Google the title to bypass the WSJ paywall.
Gordon
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Boglenaut
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by Boglenaut »

gkaplan wrote:
corner559 wrote:Unless you are a WSJ subscriber you can't read the article.
Just Google the title to bypass the WSJ paywall.
I did leave and used Google to get it. Even if I log in and out I still get the same link.

Anyone else want to try it?
peppers
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by peppers »

Let's see

Google search worked
"..the cavalry ain't comin' kid, you're on your own..."
gkaplan
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by gkaplan »

The link will work for the individual who Googles it, but it won't work when someone posts the Googled link in a thread.
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by Day9 »

I'm just a fan of the person I got my user name from
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by clutchied »

open the article copy the title then search for it in google.

It worked for me.
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NightOwl
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by NightOwl »

From the WSJ article:
Mr. Barrickman said he doesn’t care to compete for the biggest personality in the business. “That’s not my style,” he said.
Love it.

NightOwl
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BolderBoy
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by BolderBoy »

One comment about the article on one website was (paraphrased), '$140 billion? No thanks, in the MF industry "morbidly obese" funds tend to develop health problems.' ROFL - obviously doesn't understand the concept of the "index fund".
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by bondsr4me »

It's always nice to see the Good Guys win one...

don
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hoppy08520
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by hoppy08520 »

NightOwl wrote:Love it.
bondsr4me wrote:It's always nice to see the Good Guys win one...
toto238 wrote:Love it. Yeah, he's about to be the manager of the largest bond fund on the planet. Does that make him a "big deal"?

I think the big deal is the fact that there's a major financial company out there that can breed this kind of culture. He's a product of the legacy that Jack built, and the American Investor has benefitted from that gift.
+1 +1 +1

I love the Vanguard culture. I'm happy that a good chunk of my FI is in his fund.
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by asset_chaos »

HurdyGurdy wrote:Instead of a King, he's like a plumber.
I think less a plumber and more like a power plant operator. In the plant you want the needles on the dials to stay at particular points, and the operator's job is to continually adjust the plant's controls so that those needles stay on those optimum numbers. So the index fund operator continually adjusts the fund to its cash flow to keep the fund's needle true to its index. It's a skill.
Regards, | | Guy
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by abuss368 »

Thank you for sharing.
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by nisiprius »

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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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by ofcmetz »

Kind of cool that they still spend time on the phone trading bonds. Also, I liked that he wanted people to know that the fund was not run by computers. :D Good stuff.
Never underestimate the power of the force of low cost index funds.
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by bondsr4me »

ofcmetz wrote:Kind of cool that they still spend time on the phone trading bonds. Also, I liked that he wanted people to know that the fund was not run by computers. :D Good stuff.
+1....

It's hard to beat the "human" factor and I like "real people" making decisions.

Something good can be said for when the NYSE trading was in the hands of the "specialists".
I know, I know, they are still there on the Floor; but are they as relevant as they once were....

Have a great day,

don
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by Levett »

I love a guy who doesn't feel compelled to mug for the camera.

Even better, he went to Ohio Northern (quick now: what town is it in?) and Lehigh.

Lev
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by Grasshopper »

Nice, thanks for sharing. :beer
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by hoops777 »

We all know what happens when you anoint someone a king........uh oh.....I hear he has ordered a new desk :shock:
Last edited by hoops777 on Thu Mar 19, 2015 10:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
K.I.S.S........so easy to say so difficult to do.
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by 13characters »

Mr. Barrickman’s job is to make sure a large investor deposit or a bond downgrade doesn’t throw his fund out of whack with the index, which comprises more than 9,000 bonds.
I wonder what it looked like in the office as the fund absorbed those investors fleeing from PIMCO. $15,000,000,000 is a lot of money, no matter what kind of Mr. Roger vibe you may or not give off. :twisted:
“His job is not to beat it,” said Thomas Boccellari, a Morningstar analyst. “That’s what he’s getting paid for, giving you whatever the index is doing.”

One client said he hasn’t heard Mr. Barrickman’s name before and likes it that way.
+1 :sharebeer
At Vanguard, Mr. Barrickman’s compensation is a fraction of what Mr. Gross made, and his desk is the same size as his colleagues.
Unrelated to investing, but the missing apostrophe at the end of this sentence strikes me as more than a little hilarious.
  1. How big are his colleagues on average?
  2. We know the size of his desk, but what about the shape? Is his desk shaped like an average composite of his colleagues (an index, if you will)?
  3. Do his colleagues have desks?
:wink:

-13c
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by C8H18Engineer »

I found the comments after the article interesting - especially the one that says the PIMCO Total Return Bond Fund (PTTRX ER 0.46%, Turnover 227%) beats Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Adm (VBTLX ER 0.08% Turnover 72%) "hands down." I'm sure this is not without additional risk...

Checking with Morningstar I see that the typical investor returns in PIMCO are far lower than the theoretical return if you held it a long time. However, I could not find a reference to Vanguard's VBTLX investor return on the site - anyone know what that is?
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by Barry Barnitz »

Hi:

Here is our wiki page with access to Morningstar links to investor returns for Vanguard indexed bond funds ---->Vanguard index fund investor returns - Bogleheads

Note that Morningstar compiles returns for only one-share class of a fund, in this case investor shares.

regards,
Additional administrative tasks: Financial Page bogleheads.org. blog; finiki the Canadian wiki; The Bogle Center for Financial Literacy site; La Guía Bogleheads® España site.
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Re: Vanguard - The New Bond King - WSJ

Post by gkaplan »

Levett wrote:I love a guy who doesn't feel compelled to mug for the camera.

Even better, he went to Ohio Northern (quick now: what town is it in?) and Lehigh.

Lev
Ada (Great crossword puzzle clue.)
Gordon
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