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3 weeks ago | 
mutualfundobserver.com | David Snowball |Charles Bolin
By David Snowball Welcome to the April Mutual Fund Observer!My mom used to say, “March sometimes comes in like a lion.” She never added, “and then it eats you.”March, named for the God of War, strikes me for two reasons. First, it is the month that has encompassed a whole series of catastrophes in the financial markets and beyond. March 2025 marked:The fifth anniversary of the COVID lockdowns and flash crash, in which the S&P 500 lost 34% in 33 days.
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3 weeks ago | 
mutualfundobserver.com | David Snowball |Charles Bolin
By TheShadow CrossingBridge was recently named “Best Fixed Income Small Fund Family Group” at the 2025 U.S. LSEG Lipper Fund Awards Ceremony. As of February 28, 2025, CrossingBridge managed over $3.6 billion, specializing in investment grade & high-yield corporate debt with an emphasis on ultra-short & low-duration strategies as well as credit opportunities. The Firm’s core philosophy is “Return of Capital is more important than Return on Capital”.
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1 month ago | 
mutualfundobserver.com | David Snowball |Charles Bolin
By David Snowball Dear friends,Welcome to the March issue of Mutual Fund Observer. I am surprised, sometimes, at how much I now appreciate some of the stuff that I found most mindless and annoying in high school.
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1 month ago | 
mutualfundobserver.com | David Snowball |Charles Bolin
By David Snowball Investors are increasingly skittish. They are warned frequently that the top of the US equity market is feverishly overpriced and might bring the rest down when it falls. And, too, chaos in the national government is making them worried if not yet ready to abandon their lovelies. Interest is growing in finding ways to book gains independent of the stock market.
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1 month ago | 
mutualfundobserver.com | David Snowball |Charles Bolin
By Charles Lynn Bolin Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that are designed to be used in bond ladders with target maturities have been around for over a decade. They come in Corporate Debt BBB-Rated, High Yield, Inflation-Protected, U.S. Treasury General, and Municipal Bond Lipper Categories. They have the advantages of simplicity, diversification, liquidity, flexibility, and low expense ratios.
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1 month ago | 
mutualfundobserver.com | David Snowball |Charles Bolin
By TheShadow Parnassus International Equity Fund is in registration. The fund, managed by Ken Ryan, CFA, will be a large cap fund that invests in equity securities of non-U.S. companies. Expenses have not been stated. Profunds has launched its Ether ProFund. The fund does not invest directly in ether, but rather ether future contracts. According to the prospectus, the fund has a net expense ratio of 1.46%, and Alexander Ilyasov and George Banian will serve as the portfolio managers.
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1 month ago | 
mutualfundobserver.com | David Snowball |Charles Bolin
By David Snowball “We believe the pre-end period will be filled with unprecedented opportunities for profit.” — New Yorker cartoonWhen we published “Not Built for This: The Argument for Infrastructure Investing in an Unstable Climate” in January 2025, our thesis was straightforward: climate destabilization would drive urgent, massive infrastructure spending as aging systems fail under environmental pressures they were never designed to withstand.
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1 month ago | 
mutualfundobserver.com | David Snowball |Charles Bolin
By David Snowball In the investment world, there’s an old saying: “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Yet the latest crop of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offering both daily liquidity and exposure to illiquid assets might seem to promise just that—a financial equivalent of eating decadent cheesecake without gaining an ounce. Alternately: we keep waiting for The Wizard to save us.
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
seekingalpha.com | Charles Bolin
Jan. 14, 2025 12:36 AM ET, , , , , , , , SummaryMunicipal bonds are most suited for higher income investors who want to reduce taxable income yet have some fixed income. Here are some tips to see if they are appropriate. This article covers ten exchange-traded funds in five Lipper Municipal National Bond Categories and explains why investors might be interested in each category. I expect interest rates to stay higher for longer which favors intermediate duration funds.
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Jan 7, 2025 | 
seekingalpha.com | Charles Bolin
Jan. 07, 2025 6:28 AM ET, , , , , , , , SummaryFranklin Senior Loan ETF FLBL is an actively managed, highly diversified fund with $742M in AUM that invests in senior-secured floating rate loans. FLBL seeks a high level of current income with a secondary goal of capital preservation. FLBL has a strong risk adjusted performance compared to peers over the past five years. The expense ratio is 0.45 and the 30-Day SEC Yield is 7.23%.
