Fund companies are tinkering with these one-stop retirement plans after their bear-market beating. From U.S. senators to government regulators to shell-shocked investors, everyone, it seems, is drawing a bead on target-date funds for producing such rotten results during the 2007-09 bear market. These funds were supposed to be simple solutions for retirement saving: You picked …
Category Archives: Mutual Funds
Commodities ETFs Squeezed by Rules
Some exchange-traded funds have stopped issuing shares as regulators consider limits on commodities investing. Call it collateral damage. Efforts by regulators to curb speculation in the futures markets have created unintended consequences for investors in commodity-oriented exchange-traded funds and notes. Few of these products actually hold physical stuff. It would be impractical for managers to …
Stocks Under Rocks
College students supply many of the offbeat picks for a unique fund. The first thing you notice in Peter Ricchiuti’s office is the stuffed alligator head, its mouth wide open. Ricchiuti, a finance professor at Tulane University, in New Orleans, bagged the gator while hunting in the bayou. A former stock analyst, he now trains …
Chicken Little Growth Gets Cooked
The rapid rise and fall of this gimmicky fund illustrates all the traits of a classic bad investment. From Kiplinger.com: Funds that stink are rarely worth a mention. But when a fund fails on every level — lousy strategy, unproven management, high expenses, a spotty track record, poor board oversight and a cheesy name — …
Managers Who Eat Their Own Cooking
Kudos to the guys at the top who put their own money beside that of shareholders. From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance: Jeff Arricale and David Giroux wanted to show clients they were committed. The duo plowed all their retirement savings into T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation after they took over the fund’s reins last July. “As …