This page documents any changes/updates to Fund-Track and provides any news that may have been missed on the Fund-Track MSN Community discussion site.
2004
January 05 - Lots of new stuff for 2004!. 1. New ETF ranks are out, This system will initially be updated twice a week. See the ETF's page. 2. A new Trading strategy for the Fidelity Select system - has been developed and shows some promise. It can be seen on the new Fidelity Select Averaging . 3. 2004 Fund Changes - There are 47 fund changes for 2004. To see what was dropped and what replaced it check out the 2004 Fund Changes page.
2003
December 22 - Fidelity Select Model Portfolio Trade Alert - Sell Medical Delivery (FSHCX) - Buy Energy Service (FSESX). Medical Delivery was held for only 17 days and lost - 0.6%. Medical delivery started off fast with a good gain for a few days, but then faded in a slow decline until it was finally triggered out.
December 12 - Trade alert Trade Multi-Fund Model Portfolio (2 trades)- Sell Royce Opportunity (RYPNX) and Buy Gabelli Utilities (GABUX). Sell Meridian Growth (MERDX) and Buy RS Global natural Resources (RSNRX). Royce Opportunity was held for 28 days and lost 2.6%, and was hit with an additional early redemption penalty of 1%. Meridian Growth was held for 21 days and gained 2.3%. Both of these trades were made into the surging funds in the Natural Resources and Utilities sectors.
December 07 - Trade alert initiated for RYPNX on Dec 05 was made in error. Distributions for this fund (Cap gains and dividends) were reported late by Royce and not included in Friday Dec 5th's rank. This has been corrected and RYPNX now is ranked 27th and still in the top 20%, and thus not triggered to "sell" yet. Fidelity Select Mod
December 04 - Fidelity Select Model Portfolio Trade Alert - Sell Home Finance FSVLX - and Buy Medical Delivery FSHCX. FSVLX was held for 64 days and gained 10.8%.
November 25 - Trade Multi and Single Fund Model Portfolios - Sell Matthews China (MCHFX) - Buy American Cent Small Cap Quantitative (ASQIX). MCHFX was held for only 28 days and lost 3.1%. It also lost another 2% as the result of a early redemption penalty (listed on ranks for this fund).
November 21 - Trade Alert, Multi-Fund Model Portfolio Nov 21, 2003 - Sell RS Information Systems (RSIFX) - Buy Meridian Growth (MERDX) . RSIFX this time around was held for 63 days and gained 1.3%
November 14 - Multi-fund model portfolio Trade Alert Nov 14 - Sell T. Rowe Price Japan (PRJPX) and Buy Royce Opportunity Fund (RYPNX) . PRJPX was held only 21 days and was hit for a small -0.3% loss.
October 27 - Vontobel US Value Fund (VUSVX) has been dropped from Fund-Track. It closed, merging its assets with the Janus US Value Fund (JVVAX). It will replaced by another appropriate Mid Cap Value fund for 2004.
October 28 - Multi-Fund and Single Fund Model Portfolio Trade Alert. Sell Royce Technology Value (RYTVX) Buy Matthews China (MCHFX) RYTVX was held for 74 days and gained 17.5% in the Multi fund portfolio. It was less successful in the Single Fund Model portfolio where is was held for 39 days and lost 2.2%.
October 24 - Multi-Fund Model Portfolio Trade Alert - Sell Rockland Small Cap Growth (RKGRX), Buy T. Rowe Price Japan (PRJPX) RKGRX was held for 185 days and gained 43.3%.
October 10 - 2 Funds on
Fund-track have closed and will be dropped from Fund-Track.
NPLGX - Navellier Large Cap Growth has closed merging its assets to the
Touchstone Large Cap Growth fund (TEQAX). DRAPX - Driehaus Asia
Pacific Fund, has closed merging its assets with the Driehaus Emerging Markets
fund (DREGX) which is currently not on Fund-Track but will probably be picked up
for next year.
October 01 - Fidelity Select Model Portfolio Trade Alert - Sell Select Gold (FSAGX) and Buy Select Home Finance (FSVLX) Gold was held for only 6 days and lost 5.9%. As it has in the past the move to gold proved to be a costly one.
September 24 - Fidelity has dropped the 3% Front End load fee for its Select Family of Funds. For those of you not familiar with this fee, Fidelity in the past has charged a one time 3% front end load fee when first getting into a Select Fund. You didn't have to pay this again as long as you traded into any other Select fund. As soon as you traded out and tried to get back into a Select fund you would be hit again with the 3% fee. On the Fidelity Model Portfolio included this 3% front end fee when it first started trading (first trade at beginning of 1997) Great move by Fidelity!
September 24 - Fidelity Select Model Portfolio Trade Alert - Sell Electronics (FSELX) and Buy Gold (FSAGX). Electronics was held for 30 days and gained 1.7%.
September 19 - Single and Multi-fund Model Portfolio Trade Alert Sep 19 - Single-Fund Model Portfolio - Sell Matthews China (MCHFX) and Buy Royve Technology Value (RYTVX), Multi-Fund Model Portfolio - Sell Matthews China (MCHFX) and Buy RS Information Systems (RSIFX). Holding MCHFX in both model portfolios didn't work out so well in this case. Matthews China started out strong early into the trade then seem to fizzle and then sink in the rankings. It was held only 38 days for a 1.2% gain which includes a short term redemption fee of 2% which was incurred due to not being held longer then 90 days. This is the first short term trading penalty assessed this year. The upgrade (into MCHFX) was made back into RS Information systems which was narrowly "sold" back in August when it dipped below 40th place for only one day (8/12). Had both of these portfolios held onto RSIFX they would have current returns of 44 and 45% respectively each.. But hindsight is 20-20 and rules are rules....
August 26 - Results for the Conclusion of Round 8 of MSN's Strategy Lab have been posted on the Performance page. Round 8 concluded on August 15th. The Fund-Track multi-fund model portfolio for the 8 months of the this round gained 13.5% 2nd best of the 6 experts tracked.
August 26 - Fidelity Fund-Track Model Portfolio Trade Alert - Sell Industrial Materials (FSDPX) - Buy Electronics (FSELX). FSDPX was held for 21 days and gained 3.6% . Another short move as this trade gets another 0.75% redemption penalty assessed.
August 15 - Fund-Track Multi-Fund Model Portfolio Trade Alert -- Sell Green Century Balanced (GCBLX) and Buy Royce Technology Value (RYTVX). GCBLX could not ever get really on track but still managed a small gain of 0.6% over just 23 days.
August 12 - Fund-Track Model Portfolio (Single & Multi) Trade Alert, - Sell RS Information Technology (RSIFX) Buy Matthews China (MCHFX) . RSIFX had a good run for the Fund-Track Model portfolios being held for 144 days and a gain of 39%.
August 05 - Trade Alert Aug 05, Sell Biotechnology (FNINX) -- Buy Industrial Materials (FSDPX). Biotech was held only 13 days for a -4.% loss.
July 28 - Last camping trip of the year. Will be unable to update until this Saturday (8/2). Therefore I am leaving with Monday evening (7/28) update.
July 21 - Fidelity Select Model Portfolio Trade Alert - Sell Air Transportation (FSAIX) -- Buy Biotechnology (FBIOX). Air Transportation was held for 27 days and gained 3%.
July 08 -
A review of Fund-Track for the 2nd quarter this year has been added which
includes some reports. It is on the Performance page in the Year-To-Date Review
section. In summary, over all a pretty good quarter as market
stability returned and a strong rise produced sustained trends to take advantage
of. The model portfolios did just that gaining 25.6% in the quarter for the
multi-fund portfolio and 33% for the single fund portfolio.
A review for the Fidelity Select Fund-Track can also be found on the Fidelity
page under the "Past Performance" section. This system did not fare so
well and is still struggling with sharp and short lived trends in the Select
sector funds. Movements in a lot of these focused funds continues to be somewhat
erratic compared to the market in general. Hopefully we can get back on track
this quarter.
July 07 -
In performing a mid-year review of all Fund-Track funds I uncovered the
following:
- Meriden Funds (MERDX and MVALX) are no longer offered on Schwab or Scottrade
(except to institutional investors)
- NINQX also is no longer offered on Schwab or Scottrade
- MNSGX was taken over by Wells Fargo and is no longer offered on Schwab or
Scottrade
- TREMX implemented a redemption a 2% fee I held less then 360 days
- DNLDX has implemented a front end load of 5.75% and thus is no longer a
no-load fund
- HAINX has implemented an initial investment minimum of $100,000.
- RHJSX has closed to all new investors
- CSVFX has implemented a front end load of 5.75% to all “new” investors and
thus is no longer a no-load fund
The changes in these nine
funds will cause them to be dropped from Fund-Track at the end of the year.
July 03 - Fund-Track Multi-fund Model Portfolio Trade Alert - Sell Pimco RCM Biotech (DRBNX) - Buy Green Century Balanced (GCBLX).
June 29 - Another fund bites the dust. The Northern Northern Global Communications Fund NOGCX has been closed and its assets merged into the Northern's Technology fund which is not carried on Fund-Track. This makes the 2nd telecommunications fund to be dropped from the ranks in June.
June 27 -
The Performance page has been updated with the latest returns for the MSN
Strategy Lab Pros and the Fund-Track Multi-Fund model portfolio. (from last
month) Link
HERE.
June 25 -
Fidelity Select Model Portfolio Trade Alert --Jun 23, Sell signal on
Brokerage/Investment Management FSLBX -- No Buy's (move to Money Market)
No fund was showing positive short term momentum. FSLBX was
held only 11 days and took a -4.3% loss. Jun 24 Buy signal
for Air Transportation FSAIX. Buy was triggered as this fund
moved back to positive short term strength. These 2
signals were not updated until this evening as some out-of-town model problems
were uncovered. Sorry.
June 12 - Posted a Business Week recent commentary "Mutual Funds: Is Your Broker Ripping You Off" that talks some about what goes on behind the scenes at full service brokerages concerning mutual funds that most investors don't know about. See Weekly Update Page
June 12 - Fidelity Select Model Portfolio Trade Alert --Sell Electronics FSELX and buy Brokerage/Investment management FSLBX. Electronics was held only 10 days for a very slight gain. The short term redemption fee (0.75%) actually turned into a net loss of 0.7%.
June 10 - The Montgomery Global Telecommunications Fund (MNGCX) has effectively closed, being merged with Wells Fargo Special Technology Fund (WFSTX). This fund carries a 5.75% front end load and is not carried in the Fund-Track ranks. MNGCX will be the 2nd fund eliminated from the ranks this year reducing the total tracked to 198.
June 03 - Fund-Track Multi-Fund Model Portfolio Trade Alert: Sell FBR Small Cap Value A (FBRVX) and Buy Pimco RCM Biotech (DRBNX). FBRVX was held for 70 days and gained 14.4%.
June 03 - Fidelity Select Model Portfolio Trade Alert: Sell Energy Service FSESX and Buy Electronics FSELX. Energy Service was held for only 13 days for a gain of 4.0%, continuing the trend of short lived trades for this year. Its gain of 4.0% was also relatively poor considering what some of the other funds have been doing in the last month.
May 30 - The "Fund-Track vs. MSN Strategy Lab Pros" Performance section has been updated. - I try to update this section about once a month. The Fund-Track 3 fund portfolio has managed to climb back into 2nd place amongst the set of portfolios created by the panel's investment experts.
May 20 - Fidelity Fund-Track Model Portfolio Trade Alert - Sell Air Transportation FSAIX, and buy Energy Service FSESX. Air Transportation was held 22 days, for a gain of 1.0%.
May 16 - Columbia Real Estate Equity (CREEX) has closed to new investors.
May 09 - Slight Change in Method of "Return" calculation for the Fidelity Select Model Portfolio spreadsheet. I have updated the way that "Return" for each trade is calculated. If an early redemption fee (0.75%) is assessed, it is now taken off the "Return" for the trade and seen in that column. Previously it was reflected in the "Start $" amount for the following trade. The overall return for the portfolio has of course stayed the same.
April 28 - Fidelity Fund-Track Model Portfolio Trade Alert - Sell Multimedia FBMPX, Buy Air Transportation FSAIX. Multimedia was held only 12 days, and thus picked up another short term redemption charge (.75%). It inched out a 1.5% gain.
April 25 - 2 Funds to be dropped from Fund-Track: Berger Mid Cap Value BEMVX and Excelsior Latin America UMEAX - Berger was bought by Janus and has merged all its funds to Janus funds. The Mid Cap Value fund was merged with the Janus Mid Cap Value fund. Excelsior closed its Latin American Fund and merged its assets to their Emerging Markets Fund UMEMX.
April 23 - Change to Fidelity Select Fund-Track - As the result of some successful testing with the Fidelity Select System, a new non Fidelity select fund has been added to this ranking system. The Bear market fund (Profunds Bear - BRPIX) serves as a timing indicator (not a valid fund to trade into) as to when to exit the market (go to cash or the Select money market fund). Please see details on the Fund-Track Discussion Board. Link Here .
April 22 - Trade Triggered: Multi-Fund Model Portfolio, Sell PBHG Large Cap 20 (PLCPX) and Buy Rockland Small Cap Growth (RKGRX). PLCPX was held 35 days for a 2.7% return and was traded on relative strength because it fell to 43rd place on the Fund-Track rank.
April 16 - Fidelity Select Model Portfolio Trade Triggered Health Care - FSPHX to Multimedia - FBMPX. Health Care was held for 16 days and took another loss of -1.3%.
April 04 - Posted 2003 1st Quarter Reviews for Fund-Track on Performance page and for Fidelity Select System in the Performance section of the Fidelity Select page.
April 02 - Sorry about how late the Fidelity Select ranks have been posted the last few days. I have run into a data input problem that is not letting me access the days closing prices until late in the evening. Should have it worked out soon.
March 31 - Trades Triggered: Fidelity Select Model Portfolio, Sell Electronics FSELX - Buy Healthcare FSPHX. Electronics was held only 14 days and took a 7% loss. Another losing trade caused by a whipsawing market heading up and then back down very quickly.
March 21 - Trades Triggered: Single-Fund Model portfolio from American Cent Intl Bond BEBGX to RS Information Age -RSIFX. Multi-Fund Model portfolio from American Cent Intl Bond BEBGX to RS Information Age -RSIFX and from T-Rowe Price Intl Fund - RPIBX to FBR Small Cap Value - A - FBRVX.
March 18 - Trade Triggered in Fund-Track Multi-Fund Model portfolio from Prudent Safe Harbor-PSAFX to PBHG Large Cap 20- PLCPX
March 17 - Trade triggered on March 17 in the Fidelity Select Model Portfolio from the Money Market fund to Electronics FSELX. Geopolitical events and rumors have fueled this brief but strong rally the last couple of days and triggered a trade out of the money market fund now held over a month. Will this rally last is the million dollar question? Similar conditions have caused previously held funds to be whipsawed in this portfolio so far this year. Nevertheless an objective systematic trading strategy should be adhered to as witnessed by this latest trade.
March 5 - A couple of new Business week articles were posted on the Weekly Update page about the turbulent market conditions as of late with some why and what to do about it. Cover article March 10: "Whipsawed by the Market - Volatility is back big time. There are basic changes under way in the stock market. hers what you can do about it."
Feb 24 - On the Weekly Update page, I added a link to the Mutual Investor. com's Weekly Fund Wrap page. This page offers some good information about the previous week in the market but is not published until Mondays. It should be more dependable source of information then the previous link I had to CBS Marketwatch's on again off again weekly mutual fund summary.
Feb 22 - Three funds were dropped from Fund-Track as of the latest rank (Friday Feb 21) and replaced with 3 others. The 3 dropped were: 1. Deyfus Emerging Markets DRFMX (Intl - Emerging Markets) - It added a 5.5% front end load for new investors. 2. Wasatch Ultra Growth WAMCX (Small Cap Growth) - Closed to new investors in January. 3. Federated International ISCAX (Intl - Foreign Stock) - Added a 5% front end load. These 3 were replaced with: 1. Harris Insight Emerging Markets HEMAX - (Intl - Emerging Markets) 2. FBR Small Cap value A FBRVX - (Small Cap Growth) 3. AXA Rosenberg Intl Small Cap RISIX - (Intl - Foreign Stock) I believe these to be good additions to Fund-Track, have been watching them for a while, and looking for an excuse to get them into the ranks.
Feb 14 - Trade triggered in Fidelity Select Model Portfolio from Energy Services FSESX to Cash (Money Market) Energy Services was held for only 4 days for a -4.9% loss. No where to turn in this set of Funds with all showing neg price strength.
Feb 10 - Trade triggered in Fidelity Select Model Portfolio from Gold - FSAGX to Energy Services FSESX. Gold was held for only 16 days and took a 9.2% loss. Already 2 trades and 2 substantial losses year to date. This portfolio is off to a very poor start this year!
Feb 08 - Back... In doing the ranks for the week gone trades were triggered in both the Single and Multi-Fund model portfolios on Friday Jan 31. Both Gabelli Utilities AAA GABUX and the Gabelli Global Telecom GABTX Funds were upgraded to the Amer Century Intl Bond BEGBX and T. Rowe Price Intl Bond RPIBX funds. The rank for Jan31 can be seen on the Past Ranks page.
Jan 24 - Updates on Hold for next 8 days. Sorry but I will be traveling out of the country and unable to update Fund-Track for the next 8 days. The next update will occur next weekend (Feb 8-9). I have updated the TopFunds page with the latest rank (Wednesday Jan 29) and provided a PDF for the whole rank. Hold funds you have, or if they are near trading thresholds and showing weak price strength think about upgrading them. A week is not long, and most funds do not move much in that time.
Jan 24 - Trade triggered in Fidelity Select Model Portfolio from Networking & Infrastructure - FNINX to Gold - FSAGX
Jan 24 - Wasatch Ultra Growth (WAMCX) - Closed to new investors. It closed 12/31/02. It will be replaced with another fund.
Jan 21 - Correction to Ranks and Multi-fund model portfolio. I detected a data problem with one of the funds being held in the Multi-Fund portfolio, Wasatch U;tra growth (WAMCX). A small year end distribution was erroneously added to this fund, which lifted its price strength a few 10ths of a percent and kept it in just barely in the top 40 on Fri Jan 03. Correcting this (removing the distribution) dropped Its price strength and re-ranking dropped it to 48th place and thus out of the top 20%, triggering a "Sell" on Jan03. The corresponding Buy would have been to PSAFX (the same fund it is now holding). I have put in a safeguard in to prevent this from happening in the future. This correction has not done much to help the poor start of the model portfolio for this year.
Jan 21 - How To Use page updated. - This page has been re-written a little and some new information has been added. The Trading Tips section has been moved up to the main menu, and a new section How Not To Use Fund-Track has been added. These two important sections should be re-read. Have a look.
Jan 15 - Starting this year any short term redemption fees that would be assessed on Fund-Track trades in the Single fund and Multi-fund model portfolio returns. These are the fees seen in the last column for each fund that were added late last year. I will still not include brokerage transaction fees because they are widely different depending upon the brokerage being used. Short term redemption fees have always been included on the Fidelity Select model portfolio.
Jan 14 - Fidelity Model portfolio trade triggered from gold fund FSAGX, to Network and Infrastructure FNINX on Jan 14.
Jan 14 - The Fund-Track Single-Fund Model Portfolio for year 2000 has been corrected. NN a good contributor Fund-Track found this while back testing ranks for previous years. The Vanguard Health Fund (VGHCX) being held at the end of the year was not corrected for the unusually large distributions that were taken at the end of the year. (total 0f $10.64) which equated to per share multiplier adjustment of 1.084. This raised the return for the year for this portfolio from 14.2% to 23.8%, and in turn raised the 4 year total (1999 - 2002) from 289.9% to 322.4% and the annualized gain from 40.5% to 43.4% thus surpassing the Fidelity Select portfolio as the top Fund-Track porfolio over the last 4 years. The 2000 portfolio can be viewed in detail in the Historical Performance section of the Performance page. A discussion of this correction is on the MSN Fund-Track discussion board under the "Single Fund top 15% Experiment" thread. Thanks again to NN! ..
Jan 14 - A measure of Risk (Standard Deviation) has been added to the Ranks for each Fund n a new column. Standard deviation is a measure of the past (over the last 36 months) price volatility of a fund. The MSN Fund-Track Discussion board has a more detailed overview of this measure.
Jan 09 - The 2002 Review page has been completed with a look back at 2002 for Fund-Track.
Jan 09 - WMCVX was replaced with the FAM Equity Income fund (FAMEX) This fund I consider to be a very good small cap value fund Morningstar' gave it its highest rating of 5 stars. It is still small in size ($60 Million in assets) and returned 20.2% in 2000 and was down only -2.2% last year. No redemption fee's and widely available on most major brokerages. It does have an initial investment minimum of $10,000.
Jan 08 - Trade Triggered in the Single and Multi-Fund Portfolios on 1/07 from Icon Energy Fund - ICENX to the Gabelli Utilties AAA Fund - GABUX.
Jan 06 - WMCVX - Wasatch Small Cap Value - Has been closed to new investors. This fund which recently re-opend was just added back to Fund-Track. It will be replaced soon.
Jan 05 - New updated Performance Page for Fund-Track and the Fidelity Select Fund-Track (Past Performance) including year end review of 2002, for ranks and model portfolios. It's not completed yet. Also Fund List page has been updated with new funds for 2003 and changes that were made from 2002.
Jan 03 - New Rank for 2003 - The new Rank for 2003 is up and running. It has 200 funds and includes 38 new funds replacing 36 funds from last year. To see why funds were replaced and what they were replaced with see the Fund List Page
Jan 02 - Corrections to Model Portfolios Some independent review by NN (a Fund-Track follower and discussion group member) resulted in the detection of a few errors that were made in in the Single fund and Multi-fund model portfolios. Some trades were not made according to the Sell and Buy recommendations when they were issued, primarily in the August to October (2002) time frame. After correcting for these errors the return of the Single Fund Model portfolio increased to 27.9% for the year, and the Multi-fund portfolio to 7.7% for the year. These funds and their trading history for the year can be seen on the Performance page. Ranks for the year can be seen on the Past Ranks page where they are posted at the end of every week.
2002
December 30 - Trade triggered in Fidelity Select Model Portfolio from Energy Service (FSESX) to Gold (FSAGX)
December 20 - Trade Triggered in the Single and Multi-Fund Portfolios on 12/20 from RS Information Age RSIFX to The Icon Energy Fund - ICENX.
December 12 - Correction to Fund-Track Single Fund Model Portfolio - A mistake was found in the trading record of this portfolio which has altered returns YTD. On 6/21 a trade should have been made into the Potomac US Short fund (PSPSX) instead of BTTTX. The model portfolio will be corrected for this and be posted on Friday's (12/13) update. Thanks to Nervous Newbie for spotting this!
December 06 - Vanguard Utilities Income (VGSUX) - has become the Vanguard Dividend Income (VDIGX)
December 06 - Trade in Fidelity Select Model Portfolio triggered. - Sell Software/Computer Systems (FSCSX) and Buy Energy Service (FSESX). Software/Computer Systems was held for 45 days for a gain of 11.9%.
November 29 - Trade in Multi-Fund Model Portfolio triggered. - Sell Pimco RCM BioTech (DRBNX) and Buy Wasatch Ultra Growth (WAMCX) DRBNX was held for 42 days fro a 3.9% gain.
November 27 - What's New Page Added - What's new? Well this What's New page is. Actually it is the old "Fund-Track News" section within the Weekly Update page (where no one seem to notice it).
November 26 - Brokers page added - A “Brokers” page has been added to Fund-Track. This page evaluates major discount brokers on 2 fronts. 1. A chart that compares their fee structures, and 2. A list that exhibits which Fund-Track funds are offered with what broker. Note that this list is for the 198 funds that will be followed for 2003. The Nasdaq index and the Fund-Track Money market fund (see post below) to round the total up to 200. This information was collected from Morningstar via one stop shopping on their “purchase information” tab, for each fund, which I believe to be somewhat up-to-date. If anyone wants to verify this list and/or add to it for brokers that have not been included it would be welcomed. I will try to add more brokers in the future. All the information on this page is of course subject to change, and updates to it will be made accordingly. I could use help If anyone sees any corrections to this information. Thanks.
November 26 - The initial list of new funds for 2003 is out - I have compiled a list of funds that will be dropped for 2003 and those replacing them. Replacement Funds for 2003. In summary, There will be an exchange of 36 funds primarily for reasons of closures and excessive redemption fees. A few funds are also being replaced because of poor performance. Two funds will also be added, one called the Fund-Track Money Market Fund. This is a hypothetical fund that I will peg with constant value of $1 and thus a constant price strength of 0% to serve as a proxy for cash. If this fund ever reaches the top of the ranks it will serve as a pretty good indication to get out of all funds and switch to cash via the money market account with your broker.
Of note you may notice that I have dropped all the Gold funds. If you want to trade gold, it is being tracked over on the Fidelity Select System, and will probably be part of an ETF system when it comes out. Funds dumped because of “excessive” early redemption fees were those with any fees of 2% or more with minimum a hold time of 90 days or more. This follows Fund-Track policy as outlined on the About page. You will note that a few funds added have redemption fees under this threshold. The total % of funds with early redemption fees (not including the discount brokers) will be 15%. Overall I have pared some of the balance funds and added funds to the small and mid cap categories. All new funds added can be found on most major discount brokerages and were required to be on Scottrade, which seems to be a favorite among Fund-Trackers.
November 23 - Transaction costs of Multi-fund Model Portfolio spreadsheet created - Having been asked how early redemption fees and transaction costs would affect the Model portfolio I added these to the Model portfolio spreadsheet which shows all trading costs (including any short-term redemption fees for the Model Portfolio to date for the year. Se the following PDF file: Multi-Fund Model Portfolio with Trading Costs. In summary, total trading costs have subtracted 1.5% from the total gain (14.2%) for the year-to-date.
November 21 - Discount Brokers table Created. This table shows the popular discount brokerage out there and their fee policies. This spreadsheet table an be seen as an attachment in the Fund-Track MSN discussion area under the discussion "Redemption Fee Column Added" it will be part of new page titled "Brokers" which will be created in the next couple of weeks.
November 02 - Redemption Fee Column Added to Rank. This column shows what the redemption fees for a fund are if any or if the fund is closed to new investors. It will be updated twice a year. Check yourself with your own broker before deciding to trade a fund or not.
October 31 - UAM FBR Crescent Institutional FPACX - has changed its name to UAM Crescent Institutional.
October 28 - Correction to Model Portfolio Returns made - In adding a new column "why Traded" I uncovered an error made near the close of 2000 where distributions were not added to ranking system for funds being held then. Correcting this improved returns for this year, and very slightly for 2001 and 2002 YTD, and increased overall returns. See The note on the MSN community for details.
October 22 - Fund-Track Top 40 Funds now updated Tuesdays in addition to Friday's - With the market being very turbulent these days and with some users calling for it I have decided to update the Fund-Track general rank on most Tuesday evenings in addition to the end of week updates. Nothing has changed at all for those users who review once a week and wish to remain doing that. They just now have the opportunity to look to see what is happening twice a week now to get a more up-to-date picture of what is moving in the rank.
October 15 - Fund-Track Single Fund Model Portfolio Unveiled - A new Model portfolio to follow has been created that holds just one fund at a time and like the 3 fund portfolio trades according to the recommended rules, Link: HERE
October 14 - Fund-Track vs. MSN Strategy Lab Performance Final results Posted: - The most recent round (7th) for the MSN Strategy lab has concluded. I have been tracking Fund-Track's performance against the performance of the "experts" in this investment contest. See the results on the Performance Page, Link: HERE
October 07- 3rd Quarter 2002 Fund-Track review completed - This review of a dismal quarter with reports, analysis an some links has been posted on the performance page. Link - HERE
October 4 - Fidelity Select Fun-Track Rank, Up and Running - This new Fund-Track ranks Fidelity's family of Select Funds on a daily basis. Back testing this system produced gains averaging 49.9% a year for the last 5 years (1997 - 2001) Check it out by linking here: Fidelity Select Fund-Track
August 20 -
Deutsche European Equity Invm
(MEUVX) - has changed its name to Scudder European
Equity Investment.
August 16 - Added Site Map Page - As this site has grown, this new page can be helpful to find certain items in this site and to understand the hierarchical structure of information here. Hope it helps..
August 14 - Updated "How To Use" Section - This section has been rewritten. After adding the Rules-Based Recommendation column to the Fund-Track ranks on August 02 (as described below) I thought it appropriate to rewrite this section to reflect the new Buy, Sell, and Hold recommendations that now appear with each fund. This section explains in detail the logic behind the recommendations. That logic has not changed from prior to adding new "down market" rules. New trading rules have just been added concerning when Fund-Track is experiencing a declining market.
August 09 - New Funds and New Fund
Categories Added.-
In light of the current
market conditions six more funds were added to Fund-Track this week. I have
always waited until the end of the year to do this as it takes some work, but I
thought the market conditions justified the addition of a couple more Bear
market funds and a few international bond funds, asset classes that have been
doing relatively well this year. These funds are:
1. Prudent Bear - BEARX
2. Prudent Safe Harbor - PSAFX
3. Hussman Strategic Growth - HSGFX
4. T Rowe Price International Bond – RPIBX
5. American Century International Bond – BEGBX
6. Loomis Sayles Global Bond - LSGBX
The Hussman Strategic Growth Fund is not a "Bear Market" fund but is not afraid to short the market, and has been doing very well since its inception. With the addition of them funds 2 new Fund-Track fund categories have been created. 1. Bear Market funds, and 2. International Bond Funds. These new funds can be seen on the Fund List Page and near the top in this week's rank. See the recent postings in the Fund-Track group discussion for details of these new funds and why they were added. Fund-Track Discussion and/or the "New Funds" section of the 2002 Fund Changes Page
August 02 - New Rules Based Recommendations Column and Top 20% Short Term Average Strength Added to Ranks - Based on research and analysis that was recently posted, some new items have been added to the Fund-Track ranks. A column has been added that shows a Buy, Sell, or Hold signal that is based on all Fund-Track mechanical trading recommendations. This simplifies the rules for those that want to follow them for trading. As part of this, the top 20% Short Term Average Strength is now being calculated and shown on each rank and on the Top Funds page every week along with the Top 20% Average Strength. These indicators have been recalculated removing all funds usually track counter to the "stock" market direction (i.e. The short fund, bond funds and gold funds)
For details concerning these new additional trading recommendations in down market conditions see the postings in the Fund-Track discussion group Link: Fund-Track Discussion
July 26 - Links added for each fund on Top 20% List (7/26/02) - Links have been added to each fund's ticker symbol on the top 20% rank within the "Top Funds" page. Selecting the ticker symbol will take you to Morningstar's analysis page for each fund where all kinds of detailed information about each fund can be reviewed.
July 20 - New Scottrade PDF spreadsheet - Exhibits for Scottrade what funds are not offered or are closed. Thanks to Jane for this information! This spreadsheet can be seen within the Fund-List page
July 17 - Boston Partners Small Cap Value (BPSCX) has re-opened to new investors. - This fund which is not on the rank this year did very well last year and closed to new investors late in the year and was thus dropped from Fund-Track. It is on the list to add for next year.
July 17 - Buffalo Small Cap (BUFFS) has re-opened to new investors. - This fund was recently reported closed in February. Its return YTD is a horrid -24.7%. With still over 1 billion in assets, this fund is still rather large for a small cap growth fund.
July 12 - Check Out The New Fund-Track "What To Expect" Section. - Link: "What to Expect" section on the About page.
July 12 - Credit Suisse Global
Technology Comm (WPGTX) has closed to new investors. - This Telecom Sector
fund is down 31.5% YTD as of July 12. Its total assets hover just above
$100 Million, dropped over 38% in 2000, and 28% in 2001 and is down -31%
this year. Why close with these numbers? It will be dropped from
Fund-Track if it remains closed at the end of the year.
June 28 - Wasatch Ultra Growth Fund (WAMCX) has closed to new investors. - This fund is down -18% for the year to date and currently has assets worth about $375 million (as of 6/28/02). It will be dropped from Fund-Track if it remains closed at the end of the year.
June 28 - Scudder Latin American Fund (SLAFX) has closed to new investors - It will be dropped from Fund-Track if it remains closed at the end of the year.
June 10 - Regent Eastern European (EUROX) has changed its name to US Global Investors Eastern Europe. - This revision is a result of the recent change of the sub-adviser's name from Regent Fund Management Limited to Charlemagne Capital Limited. will continue to be managed by Stefan Bottcher and Andrew Wiles. The investment strategy will remain the same, focusing on dynamic companies that have most favorable currency rates, GDP growth, interest rates and political stability in the emerging markets of Eastern Europe, including Russia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
May 24 - ABN AMRO Latin America Fund (RLAEX) - folded and liquidated all assets. This actually happened a couple of weeks ago. It has been dropped from the Fund-Track ranks.
May 17 - Artisian MidCap (ARTMX) has closed to new investors. - This fund is down -3.96% YTD, asset size = $1.7 Billion. This fund should have closed long ago and has suffered because of its size. It will be dropped from Fund-Track if it remains closed at the end of the year.
May 06 - Oakmark International Small Cap I (OAKEX) has closed to new investors. - This good international small cap fund was good to Its managements word of closing when assets hit the 500 million mark. It will be dropped from Fund-Track if it remains closed at the end of the year.
May 01 - Bjurman Micro Cap Growth (BMCFX) re-opened to new investors. - It had closed late last year after a very successful run. As a result of its closure it was dropped from Fund-Track. If still open at the end of the year it will be included back into Fund-Track.
April 30 - American Gas Index (GASFX) has changed its name to FBR American Gas Index
March 03 - T Rowe Price Latin America (PRALX) has implemented a 2% redemption fee on it if sold within 365 days. Given the volatile nature of these country funds and the likelihood that one will rarely hold these funds for that length of time, I would stay away from this one. Per my policy (as seen on the About page) I will drop this fund at the end of the year.
March 03 - Montgomery Emerging Markets (MNEFX) has closed to new investors. - It will be dropped from Fund-Track if it remains closed at the end of the year.
March 01 - Fund-Track website is born - Fund-Track is up and running. For those that I have emailed these ranks to for years, it is your turn to "come and get it". Creating a website is something completely new to me but was (and is) a real learning experience. Please let me know what you think.