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To: upanddown who wrote (87717)	2/19/2001 3:47:47 AM
From: energyplay	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

Bought my BEGBX in Nov & Dec, also RPIBX So I'm still up. It is a short dollar play. A place to park money before moving to gold. Back during the Russian crisis (or LTCM ?) when there was a large than normal discount between on the run 30 year treasuries and one a year older (for about 6 weeks), there was also a small dip in the value of FannyMae / FreddyMac near governments. Also, Greenspan or Summers tried to position themselves away from one of them (the mortgage lending agencies), saying they did NOT have a direct call on Government credit. Many Money Market Funds are stuffed full of paper from these near government entities, and some commercial paper. The higher yield Money funds may have even more commercial paper. My guess is that the people (I think they tend to be young people in most cases) running most money market funds aren't capable of judging default risk of commercial paper the way the experienced people running a junk bond fund would. I would bet that the money fund boys & girls could carry out a yield calculation to 8 decimal places, however. That works great for governments with full faith and credit. You may wish to check what sort of stuff your fund can buy...

To: upanddown who wrote (87717)	2/19/2001 11:28:26 AM
From: Don England	Respond to of 95453

john, actually, i am happpy with begbx. the up and down percentages can, as usual, be made to say what one likes to hear. it was my luck to buy in around 9.3, when the euro as at .83, so i am up 8% so far. was up 12% in early jan. but there's a touch of volatility here. the return isn't as important to me right now as the perceived safety. i rather expect the worst for the dollar going forward, though the unwinding may be somewhat protracted. the only place to make money is in stocks. i've had over a 500% return in four years of doing this on my own; i'll confess i did make more in the bull cycle than i have in the bear. bonds seem sort of like parking garages. one hopes the lights stay on and the watchman remains awake. (ah, just read e.p.'s reply, etc. and see we are all in the parking garage mode now. they can be dreary places.) don

To: upanddown who wrote (87717)	2/19/2001 1:54:04 PM
From: Tommaso	Respond to of 95453

"Down 10.4% in 1999, down 1.2% in 2000 and down 1.95% YTD, " Well, of course, since the euro did the same thing. If you can find a no-load euro-denominated fund with a lower management fee, please let me know. They have a high rate of turnover and are invested in bonds of different countries, and that may account for some of the expense ratio. I am up 7% still on my BEGBX, which I consider an unleveraged hedge against dollar decline. I'll be content with a 10% return for a year if I get it and can count it as long term capital gain. Somewhat better than losing 10% on a stock. Let alone 90%. By the way, my biggest holding, San Juan Royalty Trust, just declared what amounts to a 2% dividend for the latest month, or 24% uncompounded annual rate. Won't stay that high, probably, unless they start making better deals with their agents who sell their gas.