Bogleheads.org

Avo

Even numerous investors in these 2 "solid" funds below have had their faith shaken hard enough that they can no longer stand to hold on: DODGX: -16.20% / -23.58% (Dodge & Cox Stock) TAVFX: -19.49% / -22.27% (Third Avenue Value) Over the past ten years, DODGX and TAVFX (which I've held...

Avo

ataloss wrote:I think simple interest loans are unusual but I don't see any miscalculation

The calculation would be correct only if the total sum owed were paid at the end of the three years (and not in monthly installments during the three-year period).

Avo

rwwoods wrote:Sorry Avo, but you are wrong. Accounts will be frozen only if no benficiaries have been identified.

You're right. But in general, when you open a bank account or mutual fund account (that's not an IRA), you are not asked to name a beneficiary. So you have to make a special effort to do so.

Avo

kyuss wrote:Did the Notary even read the contract?

Notaries never read contracts. Their role is simply to verify the identities of the people signing.

Avo

If you don't have a living trust, and your sons are not co-owners of the accounts, all your accounts will be frozen after the 2nd of you dies, and what happens to the assets will be determined by a court. If you lived in the US, the court would be the probate court for the state in which you lived. ...

Avo

That's why next generation will ask: "What were they thinking." We've been thinking that way for a long time now. Jimmy Carter tried to get us to move away from oil; as a symbol, he put solar panels on the White House. Ronald Reagan won the next election in a landslide, and took the panel...

Avo

That the value of the US is about equal to the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia and Iran sounds about right to me (rather than completely ridiculous, as the author implies). Without energy, all the technological innovation of the past 30 years is completely useless. The world appears to be enteri...

Avo

In case anyone is still reading this thread, I have been working with a mathematician in regards to how many asset classes to use at one time. To my surprise, the number of asset classes that works the best is actually 6, instead of the 8 I have been using. ... The switch to six positions is the fi...

Avo

Avo, I though this thread is interesting too but your frustration is not your fault, I am quite confused too. ES has just recently changed his system to holding 6 styles from 8. And he's added 2 styles to my list of 15 (which was the total number he said he followed earlier). And there's also REITs...

Avo

OK, so let me see if I've got this. IIUC, you use these styles:

domestic stock:
LG, LV, MG, MV, SG, SV, convertibles

international stock:
LG, LV, SG, SV, EM

domestic bond:
total bond index

international bond:
oppenheimer fund

commodities:
dow index

Is this list correct?

Thanks!
Avo

Avo

As you already derived, dominant means the best returns over the past 6 months. OK, good! That's easy enough. Now, can you list the ticker symbols for the funds (or indices or whatever) that you use as benchmarks for each style that you track? (I'm asking all these details because I really am inter...

Avo

I first divide up the market into style groups. I then use ETF's to find which styles are dominant. What is the definiton of "dominant"? Is it "best percentage gain over the past six months", or something else? After I have established the 6 most dominant styles, I search for th...

Avo

I recently discovered this thread, which is quite interesting. Here is a publicly available academic paper that supports the notion of equity style rotation as a robust technique: http://www.fsa.ulaval.ca/nfa2003/papiers/Kevin%20Wang.pdf Equity Style, I'm somewhat frustrated because I haven't found ...

Avo

It's hilarious (or sad, depending on your mood) that p*** o** is not an allowed topic here at bogleheads, since the worldwide oil supply-demand situation is going to be a key driver for the performance of stocks for the forseeable future.

Avo

Thanks to all who replied; you've been very helpful. Concerning the trustee issue, I was the sole trustee when the trust was created (just a few months ago); at that point in time, my father was no longer capable of handling his finances, and willingly gave full authority to me. So, in my case, ther...

Avo

One fact about Brazil that never seems to get mentioned is that the amount of motor fuel per capita that they use is about 10% of what is used in the US. So, if the US wants to emulate Brazil, step one is to cut motor fuel use by 90%. Then we can discuss what the makeup of the remaining 10% should be.

Avo

Thanks everyone. I will skip moving the trust to the new tax id. For some reason the bank insisted on doing this way, but that doesn't seem to be the norm.

I'm sure I'll be learning a lot more in the days and weeks ahead. It really seems that dying ought to be simpler than this ...

Avo

Thanks Glenn. I'm reluctant to re-register the bonds, because the only way to do it is to send them by mail to a PO box in West Virginia. I did this once, and it was all fine, but I definitely had qualms about dropping off an envelope containing papers worth six figures ... I went to Borders and loo...

Avo

It seems my timing on selling half my VGENX was in agreement with Richard Rainwater, someone who was smart enough to buy in much earlier. He also makes a comment relevant to the current debate here on the role of speculation: http://time-blog.com/curious_capitalist/2008/06/richard_rainwater_turns_be...

Avo

I can't see my lawyer until Friday, so I'm hoping I can get a preliminary answer from knowledgeable bogleheads ... My father passed away a few days ago. I am his only child and sole heir. He had a living trust that was set up just a few months ago that used his social-security number as the tax id n...

Avo

A cogent and well-documented rebuttal to Birger: http://peakoildebunked.blogspot.com/2008/07/366-futures-prices-determine-physical.html The key point appears to be that the amount of benchmark crudes (WTI and Brent) is quite small, making price discovery difficult, leading to spot pricing that is ac...

Avo

Well, according to the material at amazon, he trashes the mutual fund industry, but then praises the Wintergreen and Fairholme funds. Wintergreen has 1.85% expense ratio and nearly 10% of its assets in a Japanese tobacco company.

Avo

I recently went from 43 to 41% energy! Well, that's more in line with what I think is most appropriate. But I've been wrong too often in the past on this sort of thing. The risks of a recession and consequent oil demand destruction, fear in the market of punitive taxes from the Obama administration...

Avo

Well, we'll find out. I recently went from an AA of 20% VGENX to 10% to hedge the risk that oil company prices are headed down, short term. So far that's been an unprofitable decision.

Avo

Yes, I did read that particular article plus many others including this one: Oil bubble You're quoting from the middle of the article, where he's setting up a hypothetical. Here's the conclusion: "But of course, saying this is all caused by the futures speculation is quite inaccurate. If this ...

Avo

Another good article on this subject has just appeared in The New Yorker: Oily Speculations

Avo

I hear lots of "it can't be, it doesn't agree with my theories or love of totally unregulated markets" from the denialists. OptionAl, your arguments are simply not on point. It just doesn't matter if the amount invested in futures contracts has risen from this number to that number. It se...

Avo

How big a contribution could oil speculation be making? Bob, did you read what you linked to? The conclusion of Professor Hamilton is that speculation is not making a very big contribution. I'm a big fan of Jim Hamilton's blog. I started reading it three years ago when he was a passionate defender ...

Avo

[During the last five years, after a series of company mergers (like exxon and mobil) I said to myself: Finally, you guys can now stop competing by bringing all this supply to market, and stop spending so much on discovering new oil. Get the prices up. It has finally happened. I don't think it's qu...

Avo

What is opinion on this guy's views, he is pushing the speculation angle. dothemontecarlo and retired_at_48 have cogently presented the argument against speculation as a driving force in the current price. FWIW, I agree with them. The guy you cite is apparently a cornucopian, someone who believes t...

Avo

I'm actually sorry to see Merriman backing away from their advocacy of market timing. Their articles on the subject are quite worth reading, IMO. One point they make is that anyone who ever tries to do anything like "buy on weakness" is engaging in market timing. And, they say, if you're g...

Avo

Well, we've gotten off-topic here.

market_timer, I wish you every success and hope the current downturn ends soon so that you can get back into a better comfort zone.

Avo

Merriman's articles on market timing are still available at his site, though they are no longer linked from the home page: http://www.fundadvice.com/articles/market-timing.html

Avo

Everything Gregory says is true, but the distinction is hardly ever made in practice. For example, last October the headline in the New York Times read "3 Americans to Share Nobel Prize in Economics", and the article began "The Nobel Prize in economics was awarded today to three Ameri...

Avo

Way back in the early 80s, Merriman was a pure market timer. IIRC, that was his whole business: selling timing signals, or directly managing money with timing.

Avo

I was 20% in VGENX and went down to 10% today (tax free account). I think oil prices are headed much higher long term, but there are many short-term issues that could lead to sharply lower prices for a while. So, I thought about how I would feel if VGENX (a) doubled from here, or (b) halved from her...

Avo

I'm also a UC employee, and the Pathway funds are definitely a better way to go than Fidelity Freedom.

Avo

Ultimately when [fossil fuels] run out, our descendants will have to rely on biomass to cook and to stay warm in cold areas and on draft animals for land transport and wind power for water transport, very little different from the 17th century. Well, maybe. But there's no reason in principle that w...

Avo

I'm not panicking, I have about 20% of my equity investments in VGENX.

Avo

I'm new here, and thought I would take a stab at answering the OP's question. I have both index funds and actively managed funds. In the late 90s, I was looking around for funds to invest in. I was worried about a possible bear market, and wanted value-oriented funds. After much research, I selected...

Bogleheads.org

Search found 1090 matches

Re: In case we were to suddenly die...

Re: P O

Re: Trustee changes

Living trust questions