The Pabrai Wagon Fund Overview and Interview with Mohnish Pabrai

By Devesh Shah

On September 29, 2023, Mr. Pabrai started the Pabrai Wagons Fund (WAGNX/WGNIX), a ‘40 Act mutual fund, offering retail investors a vehicle to invest in his stock ideas.

Mohnish Pabrai, quoting ChatGPT, is a value investor heavily inspired by Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, with a focus on long-term, concentrated bets on undervalued companies. He founded Pabrai Investment Funds, where he manages private partnerships that mirror Buffett’s approach, often emphasizing the importance of patience and low-risk, high-return opportunities.

He has written two notable books: Continue reading →

Trending Funds at the Inflection of Falling Rates

By Charles Lynn Bolin

Investors waited impatiently as the Federal Reserve considered cutting interest rates. Will it be 0.25% or 0.5%? They finally cut rates by 0.5% on September 18th. The S&P 500 is up 20% year to date as investors contemplated whether we would have a recession or manage the elusive soft landing. There have been three periods this year where the market fell 5% or more. The S&P 500 has been relatively flat for the past three months but spiked over 1% after the Fed made the cut.

My survival instinct tells me to sell stocks and buy bonds, but my self-control tells me Continue reading →

Underconsumption Core and Financial Counselors

By Charles Lynn Bolin

In addition to volunteering at Habitat For Humanity, I also volunteer at Neighbor To Neighbor which offers programs in eviction avoidance, utility shut-off avoidance, affordable housing, housing search, foreclosure prevention, and counseling including Financial Coaching, Debt Consolidation, and reverse mortgages, among other services. My role is to prescreen people to get assistance within Neighbor To Neighbor and direct them to external sources of assistance.

As a housing opportunity resource for Northern Colorado, Neighbor to Neighbor (N2N) services are designed to meet each individual where they are now – from homeless and low-income individuals seeking a place to live; to families needing assistance to secure their existing homes; to prospective buyers ready to explore the homebuying process. Our trained housing professionals assist clients through obstacles and develop personalized solutions to help them achieve their housing goals.

Neighbor To Neighbor’s Financial Coaching includes Continue reading →

Launch Alert: CrossingBridge Nordic High Income Bond Fund

By David Snowball

On October 1, 2024, CrossingBridge Advisors launched CrossingBridge Nordic High Income Bond Fund (NRDCX). The fund will invest in high-income bonds issued, originated, or underwritten out of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Those might be fixed or floating rate bonds, zero-coupon bonds and convertible bonds, and bonds issued by corporations and governments. It will be solely managed by CrossingBridge Advisors.

The managers will seek high current income, and the prospect of some capital growth, within the Nordic bond universe. Within that space, they operate with few externally imposed constraints beyond Continue reading →

Briefly Noted

By TheShadow

Updates

SEC slaps GQG: The US Securities and Exchange Commission levied a $500,000 fine against GQG Partners and Rajiv Jain for violations of whistleblower protection laws and issued a cease-and-desist order against the illegal practices. At base, GQG required (some?) new hires and one former employee to sign agreements which would make it difficult for them to disclose wrongdoing on GQG’s part. “Whether through agreements or otherwise, firms cannot impose barriers to persons providing evidence about possible securities law violations to the SEC, as GQG did,” said Corey Schuster, Co-Chief of the Division of Enforcement’s Asset Management Unit.

As of 27 September 2024, GQG’s website did not reflect any discussion of the action. Reports in other media note that GQG “acknowledged the SEC’s jurisdiction in the case Continue reading →

September 1, 2024

By David Snowball

Dear friends,

Welcome to the September (aka “back to school”) issue of the Mutual Fund Observer. The joyful tumult of which has slightly delayed our launch.

Despair is easy. If you ever want an antidote, drop by Augie at the beginning of September. As many of you know, in my day job, I am a professor of communication studies and director of the Austin E Knowlton Honors Program at Augustana College. I am also an advisor to first-year students. I’ve spent much of the last week meeting with and learning about my new charges. I am amazed by them, defying as they do all of the hysterical media headlines about Continue reading →

The Young Investor’s Indolent Portfolio

By David Snowball

An indolent portfolio is an investor’s best friend. It is a portfolio designed to be ignored for a year at a time. Why is that a good idea? Two reasons, really. First, almost everything you do with your portfolio will be a mistake. Morningstar’s long-running series of “Mind the Gap” studies looks at the difference between investor’s actual returns and the returns of the funds in which they are invested.

Those annuals routinely show that investors’ returns Continue reading →

Happy 94th, Warren! In celebration, I did not nothing

By Devesh Shah

The bouncing baby Warren Edward Buffett entered the world on 30 August 1930, the only son of Laila and Howard Buffett. In celebration of this 94th birthday, I looked seriously at my portfolio … and did absolutely nothing.

That was hard, but baby Warren would have wanted it that way.

Introduction

In this article, I look back at the market lows in October 2022. Continue reading →

MFO Premium Introduces ETF Benchmarks

By Charles Boccadoro

Our colleague Devesh Shah encouraged the incorporation of ETF Benchmarks into MFO Premium. Traditional benchmarks cannot be purchased. Similarly, category averages, which are the basis for much of the ratings on MFO Premium, also cannot be purchased. Establishing an ETF “benchmark,” Devesh argues, makes for a more relevant and practical comparison.

Furthermore, the Continue reading →

Launch Alert: Research Affiliates Deletions ETF (NIXT)

By David Snowball

On September 10, 2024, Research Affiliates will launch its first ETF. Research Affiliates was founded in 2002 by Rob Arnott to provide professional and institutional investors with innovative research and product development. Mr. Arnott is iconic, having published 150 or so research articles that received both attention and rewards. His most extensive work is The Fundamental Index: A Better Way to Invest (2008). Most traditional indexes are capitalization-weighted, so they lock in a large/growth/momentum bias. Arnott notes that the bias may Continue reading →