If you could only have one mutual fund ...

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TallPaul

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for all your stock investments, which would it be.

Without reservation I would go with Tweedy Browne Value Fund. You get good returns, good diversification (including foreign), excellent downside returns, the investment principals of Ben Graham, and five guys who own fortunes are invested right alongside their investors money. Go to their site and read the commentary in their annual report.
 
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for all your stock investments, which would it be.

Without reservation I would go with Tweedy Browne Value Fund. You get good returns, good diversification (including foreign), excellent downside returns, the investment principals of Ben Graham, and five guys who own fortunes are invested right alongside their investors money. Go to their site and read the commentary in their annual report.

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I beg to differ. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pm?s=TWEBX

I'll take Fidelity Leveraged Company Stock
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pm?s=FLVCX

It's just too easy to be diversified anyway.
 
Yes, you are right, it is way too easy to be divesified. I look at the diversification here more with having some foreign and a decent proportion at this time (about 25%). The Fedility Leveraged Company Stock may be an excellent fund, but I would not want all my eggs in a leveraged company stock fund. Too risky in my opinion.
 
"the one with the highest returns."

Easier said than done. Besides I was thinking of long term holding.

Not necessarily true to just go with the S&P index. In the long, long term perhaps, but in shorter term, you can take a beating on the downside. Around 2000 when he market took a major correction, loosing 20 or 30 percent, my Tweedy fund had no loss.

Anyway, this is the kind of fund for those who want to invest and forget about it. I had my fund flipping days and it usually turned out that you got in too late, or got out too early.
 
"I had my fund flipping days and it usually turned out that you got in too late, or got out too early."
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That's a technique that's easy to perfect.
 
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That's a technique that's easy to perfect.

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I think statistically it is a loosing technique. Yes there will be a few that make it big for a long time, but eventually it's got to catch up with you--unless you have a crystal ball. But if it is so easy, you must be very wealthy by now.

I'd go with a closed end fund before an EFT. Nice thing is Tweedy Browne is as good as a closed end fund since they will not hesitate to close their fund if they are getting too much cash when there are not good investment opportunites (one is closed right now, the other just re-opened).

The other thing about Tweedy is their "since inception" return is essentially the same as the S&P500; however, they acheived that return with substantially less risk than an index fund of the S&P500.
 
My main problem with Tweedy Browne is their lack of upside performance and their not so good performance during bear markets. Frankly the Fidelity Lev. Co. Stk. fund is BETTER in bear markets (way better)....I don't see the love. To each his own. I think you can do much better, and I have.
 
Well, now you have given me something solid to think about.

The love is that these guys are totally committed to the shareholder of their funds. They do play a very cautious game, noting in their latest report: "we like an investment to be supported by what in our best analysis are belts and suspenders."

Yeah, I have other funds, and more risky, like Legg Mason Opportunity. Also have another "belt and suspenders" type fund, Oakmark Equity and Income, which is one of the best performing balanced funds out there. Other funds too. Yeah, I know there are better performing funds out there and performance varies over time between different funds, but I am tired of fund flipping and tax implications. I can flip my retirement money, which incidently is in index funds, SP500, Smaller Company, and International.

When I bought an ounce of Platinum around the late 90s for $375, I blew it by not buying 10 or 50 ounces. I sold that ounce a couple years ago for $975, then watched it go up to about $1200.

Tweedy may not be the best performing fund out there, but it has decent returns and low risk.
 
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"the one with the highest returns."

Easier said than done. Besides I was thinking of long term holding.

Not necessarily true to just go with the S&P index. In the long, long term perhaps, but in shorter term, you can take a beating on the downside. Around 2000 when he market took a major correction, loosing 20 or 30 percent, my Tweedy fund had no loss.

Anyway, this is the kind of fund for those who want to invest and forget about it. I had my fund flipping days and it usually turned out that you got in too late, or got out too early.

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Not sure why you are so high on Tweedy. Take a look at its performance since 1999 vs total stock market:

http://finance.yahoo.com/charts#chart11:symbol=twebx;range=19980901,20070607;compare=vtsmx;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;logscale=off;source=undefined

Sorry if that link doesn't work, but if you factor in expenses (1.36%), it is even a bigger loser.
 
For the best mix of diversification, decent bull market performance, and awesome bear market performance, you can't go wrong with the T-Rowe Price Capital appreciation fund. 12.5% lifetime avg annual return, and lost hardly nothing during the 01 to 04 time frame. It's been around a while as well. A great fund for a set and forget approach to an IRA.
 
Again, low risk level at Tweedy. The Fidelity Leveraged Company Stock is high risk. Yeah, you have made money and it looks easy, but it could turn into a disaster if the economy goes belly up. I don't care to take that kind of risk, not with all my eggs. Remember this discussion pertained to all your stock assets being in one basket. Do any of you have only the Fidelity leveraged fund? I bet you have a lot of other funds besides. Need to take a look at your total performance averaged over all your stock investments.
 
Ido believe no other fund has trounced the S&P like this for so long!

Long-Term Performance & Daily Prices


Standardized Returns
as of March 31, 2007 (updated quarterly)
Dodge & Cox Fund/
Comparative Index 1
Year 3
Years 5
Years 10
Years 20
Years
Stock Fund 14.52% 14.39% 12.14% 14.15% 13.86%
S&P 500 Index 11.84% 10.05% 6.26% 8.20% 10.76%
 
Having only one would be stupid. Better off with 3. Asia, Europe and North America. FIEUX (Fidelity-Europe), VEIEX (Vanguard-Emerging Markets). I'll defer on the U.S. North Americam).

The reason I like Oversees is that I'm afraid of U.S. DebT/Dollar)

One of the problems with Vanguard is that some of their International Mutuals are just combinations of their other funds so you pay twice on a single Mutual fund. Fortunately the costs of their funds are low to begin with.
 
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The Fidelity Leveraged Company Stock is high risk.

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That may very well be, but since the question is limited to mutual funds, I assume we are talking about buying and holding. 10 or 20 or 30 years - I'll take the market risk to the bank any day of the week. Frankly my wife has her roll-over IRA's in two fund companies. DWS Scudder and Fidelity. With DWS she has all her money in the Latin America fund and with Fidelity all in Fidelity Leveraged. She has been kicking butt. Does she even look at the funds once every 6 months? No...maybe once a year she checks! (She's crazy like a fox......)
 
Quote:

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The Fidelity Leveraged Company Stock is high risk.

Click to expand...


That may very well be, but since the question is limited to mutual funds, I assume we are talking about buying and holding. 10 or 20 or 30 years - I'll take the market risk to the bank any day of the week. Frankly my wife has her roll-over IRA's in two fund companies. DWS Scudder and Fidelity. With DWS she has all her money in the Latin America fund and with Fidelity all in Fidelity Leveraged. She has been kicking butt. Does she even look at the funds once every 6 months? No...maybe once a year she checks! (She's crazy like a fox......)

Click to expand...


Well, a lot depends on how long one has to retirement and or a need for the money. Still, the Fidelity leverage fund is one that I doubt can sustain it's pace in the long run. Sure it has about a 5 year record (IIRC) but that means it never went through a major market correction like we had around 2000. I would not put all my money in such a fund, but it seems worthy of a portion that one is willing to gamble with. Still, if one bought in now, they might be just in time to see a major loss if the fund takes a dump. Too easy to jump onto a skyrocket just before it peaks out and starts coming down. Something about this fund, at least superficially, reminds me of the scheme where people keep flipping credit card balances to new cards that offer an interest free period, hoping the actual debt will never catch up to them, but eventually they get burned. Maybe I am all wet on this, and if so, please inform me.

As for Tweedy, their investment style is excellent and has produced good historical returns. They probably are at their worst looking point right now, which does not help my case.
 
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