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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Senior who wrote (31392)	7/5/2008 3:45:48 PM
From: Jurgis Bekepuris	Respond to of 78728

>I'm in losing positions with AGC, TRAMX, and IF. IIF/INP have dropped 50% from their highs, and I seem to be very wrong in not having sold at those better times. The problem with funds is that it's pretty much impossible to value them. Yeah, sure, you could potentially look at holdings, P/Es and P/Ss, but still that would be very general and perhaps wrong numbers, since holdings change and their prices + ratios change too. So one is stuck with either holding them forever or buying/selling on macro picture. I am mostly in "hold forever" camp though, like you, I missed great opportunity to sell IIF at the toppish valuations. I am trying to minimize the number of funds I hold though because of the reasons above. I only have small positions in Third Avenue funds for Marty's letters and his deep-shit (pardon my french) value investing. I hold some IIF and some TDF. I may actually exit TDF, since nowadays I have quite a bit of China exposure directly and I don't like Mobius that much. I sold EWZ. I am getting out of IGE and converting into direct energy holdings or exiting totally. I have very small positions in coal KOL and nuclear NLR funds, since I did not see what companies to buy in those areas. Mostly for sniffing though. ;) I may get some TRAMX if I can get it with no fee - I think Fidelity charged a fee to get it when I looked. I thought about Korea and Indonesia, but I don't see very strong macro reasons to buy them, so I'll skip IF and EWY. I have to hold mutuals in some of the family retirement plans and it is a constant headache since it is very difficult to find great funds, especially given a limited choice imposed by the plan. Maybe buying S&P500 index now is not that bad, since it has been falling a lot.

To: Paul Senior who wrote (31392)	7/7/2008 11:54:07 AM
From: Madharry	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 78728

any idea why aib is getting hammered today? down 7%+.

To: Paul Senior who wrote (31392)	7/28/2008 12:59:37 PM
From: Paul Senior	Respond to of 78728

Upping my losing position in Advent/Claymore Global Convertible Securities & Income Fund (AGC) a little now. 1. It's the only way I'm holding convertible securities. 2. I'm not looking for much capital gains from an AGC stock price rise. More for the dividend yield: Currently .1458/sh. per month, that's about 14.4% annually on $12.10 fund price. According to AGC 2007 tax filing, none of the dividend was "return of capital". I consider that a positive. AGC trades now at about a 13% discount to NAV (about $13.82). (That NAV number's been declining as the underlying securities in the fund have dropped.) The average discount to NAV over the past year has been 8.8%. The fund is 25% leveraged. I don't like the leverage aspect - I've seen higher though on other funds. Perhaps obviously, I'm not going to get a 14% yield off a diverse group of preferred stocks (even bought at 13% discount to NAV) without having management employ some sort of leverage. Not thrilled with management expenses either (1.6%), but for what I am getting - the yield - if it holds up and isn't chiefly just a return of my capital - I will take and hold a position in the fund. adventclaymore.com etfconnect.com