Talk:Vanguard STAR Fund

SEC Filings
Here is a page of the complete listing of Vanguard Funds and SEC documents: Vanguard Egdar Documents


 * Searching EDGAR is a bear. That link has a serious problem: It only provides filings starting in 2006. This alternative search is inferior in terms of detail displayed, but at least it leads to filings from 1994 onward. Ken Schwartz 23:15, 1 June 2008 (EDT)

Asset Allocation Reporting
When determining the equity percentages associated with a balanced fund-of-funds, you'll get different results depending on whether you use Vanguard data (in the obvious way) or M* X-Ray. The discrepancy can be nontrivial if active funds are involved. The problem is cash holdings within non-money market funds. If a fund-of-funds invests in Windsor, for example, it's natural to count its percentage in the fund-of-funds as all equity. But M* takes into account the fact that Windsor actually hold some cash. Ken Schwartz 13:52, 1 June 2008 (EDT)


 * Do we really want to list the M* X-Ray data? We all know that it's not perfect and is a moving target. In lieu, we can provide a link to M* X-Ray tool and interested users can look it up. If we are uploading X-Ray data as images, it'll be hard to keep up with the changes for all the funds. Simba 14:11, 1 June 2008 (EDT)


 * I had it as "STAR Fund invests roughly 60-70% in stocks and 30-40% in bonds." I think that's OK as a general statement. The allocation will fluctuate because the underlying funds are actively managed. M* X-Ray data as a snapshot is OK but I don't think we ought to keep it updated over time. Tfb 16:18, 1 June 2008 (EDT)

I don't usually use M* data because Simba is quite right that it's not perfect and is a moving target. I did in this case for the following reasons: I've specified the date of the X-Ray in the article. Upkeep is indeed an issue; there's even a worse problem along these lines for the Excel pie charts I made myself for the Target Retirement Funds article. Ken Schwartz 17:04, 1 June 2008 (EDT)
 * Nowhere else in the article are STAR's holdings broken down into US Stocks, Foreign Stocks, Bonds, Cash, etc.
 * I find the fact that STAR holds almost 5% cash interesting, considering it invests in no money market funds. This feature is unlikely to change radically.
 * I also find the fact that STAR has only 4% of equity assets in small caps interesting. This feature probably won't change radically either.


 * Should that be as of 6/1/2008, not 6/1/2007? Tfb 17:44, 1 June 2008 (EDT)

Sure. I somehow lost a year. I made the correction. Ken Schwartz 18:06, 1 June 2008 (EDT)