EDV question: Two-thirds of our retirement money is stuck in a restricted Fidelity account. We can move up to 50% of that into BrokerageLink, but even there, we cannot buy ETFs or individual stocks, only funds. (My husband is a programmer at a big law firm.) With lots of help here, I chose FLBAX (F...

PowerShares just rolled out an ETF (SPHB) that is a high-beta version of the S&P 500.  I have not studied it yet but it is 100 stocks from the S&P 500 with the highest sensitivity to market movements. MCSquared - Many thanks for the post.  I'm going to watch SPHB for a while.  IMO, it has s...

In addition to the points above, I think buying a broad index is more in keeping with HB's views about the difference between investing and speculating. FWIW -- During the 1980s & 90s I periodically reviewed the mutual funds HB suggested as stock investments for the PP.  As a group they general...

Clive and moda, I thought we all agreed that the PP's historical returns have been along the lines of inflation + about 4%. MT, Simba's dataset reflects inflation + 4.5% (or so) since 1972 for the HB PP.  Note that this is a US investor and it is not an exact replication as the Vanguard Long Bond d...

Why not just use the XIRR function in Google Spreadsheets (I assume Excel has something similar) across all positions/dates?  This works fine for me. Do you have an example by chance? The documentation doesn't list any... what the heck are "payments" and "dates"? Thanks! Here is...

Why not just use the XIRR function in Google Spreadsheets (I assume Excel has something similar) across all positions/dates?  This works fine for me. Do you have an example by chance? The documentation doesn't list any... what the heck are "payments" and "dates"? Thanks! Here is...

I just started with the idea that the 35% treasury allocation in PRPFX needed some additional treasury exposure to make it more HB PP-like.  A 10% slug of EDV seemed to fill this hole in the most compact form possible. Take a look at the BH PP thread.  Someone posted a few charts of the effect of a...

I'm curious if any of you have experience using the Sell Direct feature for rebalancing LT Bonds.  Specifically whats the cost?  I found the following information on the Treasury Direct website: Do you want to sell a Treasury security prior to its maturity? TreasuryDirect can help you do it, quickl...

BUMP. Just thought there's some useful information here people may not have seen. The key is using the flexibility these things have to offer.  Roth IRAs: you can pull your principal out, HSAs: you can pull money out for medical expenditures. Any questions or comments are welcome. Thank you for the...

I missed Harry Browne and John Chandler’s old radio show so much that I decided to do my own. It’s big shoes to fill but I’ll try my best. Look to the future as I’ll have on special guests and co-hosts that I’m sure you’ll enjoy. This show I introduce myself and discuss my investing background. I a...

Fidelity updates treasury holdings.  I use a google doc that does the same thing though. How do you do it in google doc? I assume you need to input a formula that takes into account the maturity and yield compared to the day's date and current market yield.  I think you can pull that data into Exce...

When I start my PP I will be holding individual treasuries.  Probably at Schwab but maybe at Vanguard.  Do all brokerages mark my holdings to market each day?  That would be really nice to be able to calculate how much what I have it worth on a daily basis for purposes of rebalancing.  I wont be ch...

Interesting visual(s) Gumby.  Thanks for the work on this.

Ha, got to love the Yogi Berra quote... I can't really find any 1-5 year bond ETFs or funds. Closest might be ITE, SPDR Barclays Capital Interm Term Treasury. Most others seem to be either 1-3 years or 5-10 years. And 5-10 years feels a bit too long to me, for this purpose. jmourik, I have used FSB...

This implies to me that I was better off having switched into foreign currencies (and maybe buying domestic stocks in those currencies) than I would have been had I used the funds to buy into the UK FT100 with its 70% of foreign earnings. [/quote] Interesting point Clive.  I have been pondering thi...

My own allocation is pretty close to what Tex mentions as well. About 80% in Vanguard Total Stock Market Index and about 20% in Vanguard FTSE ex-US international index. I'm not big on loading up on international stocks for the currency risks already stated. Craig or MT, given that PRPFX holds 10% s...

My own allocation is pretty close to what Tex mentions as well. About 80% in Vanguard Total Stock Market Index and about 20% in Vanguard FTSE ex-US international index. I'm not big on loading up on international stocks for the currency risks already stated. Craig or MT, given that PRPFX holds 10% s...

Thanks. As someone just beginning to educate himself on portfolios, let me play devil's advocate for a moment as best I can. Please critique me. My main concern is that the gains from the risk in the PP have been dangerously obfuscated in favor of magical portfolioism. The PP is sold as something t...

Clive, I have not looked at the British gilts but generally the longer the duration (weighted average term to maturity of the bond cash flow) the more price volatility relative to interest rate movements.  Zero coupon bonds do not issue interest payments but mature at par so duration and maturity a...

I don't see much difference in volatilities between our 50 year and 30 year durations There may be a cut-off point when long is long no matter if its 30, 40 or 50 years. Clive, I have not looked at the British gilts but generally the longer the duration (weighted average term to maturity of the bon...

EDV offers 1.5 times the volatility of TLT. I wouldn't commit the entire LT treasury piece of the PP to EDV (that might produce TOO much volatility relative to the other PP assets), but I own some and I like the protection it offers when everything else goes haywire. MT, there is also the fairly ne...

As laid out in Fail Safe Investing, the Permanent Portfolio is actually more than just four equal slices in certain asset classes.  There are a number of provisions, ideas really, that one is supposed to follow with it.  I personally break many of them. For example I have no money outside the U.S.,...

admin wrote: Welcome to a discussion forum that focuses on the Permanent Portfolio. Please keep your conversations civil. The board is just starting so some modifications may be forthcoming.

Thanks,

-- CraigR

Thanks for this forum!

MC