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when we get our portfolio info quarterly from our advisor and also from Fidelity where the funds are held---they always have different info--
sometimes what I want to know is not there and I try to find it using Internet sources but sometimes can't...
what is the optimum breakdown for a portfolio so that you know how profitable it really is and when your advisor is losing his/her touch as far as picking which fund/ETF/REIT to go with....
I would like to know how each mutual/bond fund, REIT, ETF stacks up against others in its own sector--for the quarter and the year and a trailing avg...
how well that sector has done against other sectors and against the Dow in general---
does that make sense--we don't have individual stocks--just funds
I think our advisor is just not good at picking better funds (not saying he has to have the top performing every quarter) but I think they should be in the top quarter of their sector...is that too much to ask...
market is too volitile to hang with a sector that is non-performing for too long...it is too hard to make up lost value...
How much is your advisor charging for this advice?
I answer it that way, because with no offense intended, most of your questions aren't fully coherent enough for me to know what precise question you're posing and give a precise answer.
What is clear, though, is that you're concerned that your advisor isn't picking the best funds. Depending on the advisor, I would also be concerned that s/he is picking load funds, which are in my view lousy investments 98% of the time and mediocre ones 2% of the time.
If you are at Fidelity you can easily do some mutual fund research and see what are the top performers in a given category. Be sure, however, to rule out funds with minimums far higher than you could reach, and to otherwise as much as possible compare apples to apples--in other words, match as closely as possible the sector and risk objective of the funds you're in. You can then sort this list by performance over a given period, and see where your funds stack up.
we are in no-load mutual funds--some of them are the DFA funds--about as low cost as you can get --but we have been in them only since about March...the funds we were in before then were more varied and some were loads and some no loads...
now we also have a Spartan International Index and Spartan Total Market index--but we have DFA funds in those areas too
I just think he is doubling up on some sectors vs having more diversification---
and I would like to see the rolling avg for these funds and their rank against others in their sectors--
a fund that has a load of say under 1% is worth it if you get better than avg results...
Canada fund has done spectacularly in the past 3-5-10 yr cycle--even if it has dropped some this year due to general downturn in market overall
that is something I would prefer based on past performance vs a mediocre general foreign fund...
a fund that has a load of say under 1% is worth it if you get better than avg results...
Canada fund has done spectacularly in the past 3-5-10 yr cycle--even if it has dropped some this year due to general downturn in market overall
that is something I would prefer based on past performance vs a mediocre general foreign fund...
I have never seen a fund with a load under 1%. The definition of a load is a sales charge imposed by the fund itself against the investor, regardless of any fee levied by the broker, either for buying or redemption or both. I have seen funds where the minimum purchase at this or that broker led to a transaction fee of 1% or more, but only as a flat fee. I believe you are thinking of expense ratios or transaction fees.
Can you tell me of a fund with a load of less than 1%? Maybe they exist, and if so I'm curious to see who does this.
If you go to Morningstar.com you can enter your fund's symbol in the top left hand corner and get it's results against the fund's benchmark and category. When you click on Total Return in the left hand menu it gives you the same info broken down even finer.
If you drop a sector when it's not doing well you are losing money and will not be able to take advantage when that sector makes it's comeback. If you have set up your asset allocation it should be for the long haul.
when we get our portfolio info quarterly from our advisor and also from Fidelity where the funds are held---they always have different info--
sometimes what I want to know is not there and I try to find it using Internet sources but sometimes can't...
what is the optimum breakdown for a portfolio so that you know how profitable it really is and when your advisor is losing his/her touch as far as picking which fund/ETF/REIT to go with....
I would like to know how each mutual/bond fund, REIT, ETF stacks up against others in its own sector--for the quarter and the year and a trailing avg...
how well that sector has done against other sectors and against the Dow in general---
does that make sense--we don't have individual stocks--just funds
I think our advisor is just not good at picking better funds (not saying he has to have the top performing every quarter) but I think they should be in the top quarter of their sector...is that too much to ask...
market is too volitile to hang with a sector that is non-performing for too long...it is too hard to make up lost value...
Here is a place you can bookmark, and check each fund by putting it's symbol into the "Get Basic chart(s) for" box, and clicking go.
FBIOX: Basic Chart for FIDELITY SELECT BIOTECHNOLOGY P - Yahoo! Finance (http://tinyurl.com/64muu2 - broken link)
This compares the fund against the S&P 500 in percentage terms, and can be viewed over a variety of time frames (3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, and as long as the fund has been in existance). For some funds or stocks, you can look at a week or a day.
Here is a place where you can sort ETF performance by Name, symbol, or performance over any period (to compare to the market, look at SPY):
when we get our portfolio info quarterly from our advisor and also from Fidelity where the funds are held---they always have different info--
sometimes what I want to know is not there and I try to find it using Internet sources but sometimes can't...
what is the optimum breakdown for a portfolio so that you know how profitable it really is and when your advisor is losing his/her touch as far as picking which fund/ETF/REIT to go with....
I would like to know how each mutual/bond fund, REIT, ETF stacks up against others in its own sector--for the quarter and the year and a trailing avg...
how well that sector has done against other sectors and against the Dow in general---
does that make sense--we don't have individual stocks--just funds
I think our advisor is just not good at picking better funds (not saying he has to have the top performing every quarter) but I think they should be in the top quarter of their sector...is that too much to ask...
market is too volitile to hang with a sector that is non-performing for too long...it is too hard to make up lost value...
For Mutual Funds and ETF's, here is what i do
1) Go to finance.yahoo.com and enter the ticker symbol
2) Click "Performance" on the left hand side. Scroll down to trailing returns, and you can compare the fund with Index, and Category.
3) Click "Profile" and scroll down to expenses. Here you can compare how much you are paying in load fees,expenses, etc against the category
Just be careful that your advisor isn't just picking funds based on short term performance. Its likely those will be outperformed by an index (fund) over the long term.
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