Pros and Cons of TradeKing Online Brokerage

TradeKing is among the top online discount brokerage with its flat rate commission of $4.95 per trade. TradeKing provides two platforms such as a standard web based trading platform as well as a mobile trading platform. In 2010, TradeKing is also rated number 1 in customer service category by SmartMoney.

TradeKing Logo

Pros of TradeKing

• Has one of the best customer services via chat, email or phone.
• Has great online community network 
• Tons of excellent educational resources
• Provide mobile trading support
• Offers DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment Plan) for free
• There is no annual IRA maintenance fee
• There is no minimum to open an account
• It has low margin rates compare to other online brokerages
• Free Maxit Tax Manager for Tax purposes

Cons of TradeKing

• Need to improve its trading platform 
• Little support on mobile trading
• It doesn’t offer Forex and Futures Tradings
• Extra fees for cash management service
• No support for international applicant/ investors

Note: For details about TradeKing, I have updated the best brokerage 2011 page.

Fidelity Low-Priced Stock Fund (FLPSX)

The next fund has a very interesting approach in investing in Mid Cap stocks. This Fidelity fund usually invests in small and mid cap companies. This fund may be more volatile than other large cap or big cap stock funds. Compare to its category (beta=1.12), this fund is less volatile (beta=1.08).

Investing in this fund may provide additional portfolio diversification. You may also check other Kip 25 fund in Mid Cap stock category such as Akre Focus, Meridian Growth, and Vanguard Selected Value. Rule of thumb is to have 5-10% total asset in this category.

As one of the Fidelity Fund Pick, the Fidelity Low-Priced Stock fund also has the longest tenured manager managing this fund. This fund also has assets totaling $36.42 billion. This fund was closed to new investors in December 2003 and has reopened in December 2008. This fund also received variety of awards such as Kiplinger’s 25 Best Funds, Bronze Award for Mid Cap Domestic Equity by Standard & Poor’s 2010 Mutual Fund Excellence Awards, and Top Value Line Overall Rank.

Fidelity Low-Priced Stock (Ticker: FLPSX)

Fidelity Low-Priced Stock fund seeks for capital appreciation. It normally invests the majority of the net assets in common stocks and low-priced stocks. This Fidelity Low-Priced Stock fund usually buys the stocks whose price is at or below $35 per share and most of these stocks are part of small and medium sized companies (i.e. small cap and mid cap). It may invest in stocks issued by either domestic or foreign issuers, either growth or value stocks or both. This fund may also invest in stocks not considered low-priced.

FLPSX Fund Details

• Fund Inception Date: December 1989
• Ticker Symbol: FLPSX
• CUSIP: 316345305
• Beta (3yr): 1.08
• Rank in category (YTD): 51
• Category: Mid-Cap Blend
• Yield: 0.37%
• Capital Gains: 0.0%
• Number of Years Up: 18 years
• Number of Years Down: 3 years

Updated on 5/14/2011

This fund is managed by Joel C. Tilinghast since its inception in 1989. The minimum initial investment for this fund is $2,500 for brokerage and IRA account. There is no minimum subsequent investment. If you are interested to invest in this fund, it doesn’t have any management fee (12b1) and any transaction fee (i.e. no sales-load). The expense ratio of this fund is 0.99% yearly. The fund can be purchased from 68 brokerages, include JP Morgan, T. Rowe Price, Schwab Institutional, TD Ameritrade, Vanguard, Schwab Retail, etc.

FLPSX fund has returned 18.29% over the past one year, 7.20% over the past three years and 4.94% over the past five years. With 4-stars rating from Morningstar, this fund performance has been very consistent especially over long term horizon. It has experienced 18 years of positive turnover and 3 years with negative turnover. The worst turnover was experienced in 2008, recorded at -36.17% and its best was in 2003, recorded in 40.85%.

As of March 31, 2011, the top 10 holdings of this top mid cap blend stock fund are United Health Group Inc, Fossil Inc, Next PLC, Metro Inc CL A SUB VTG, Oracle Corp, Abercrombie & Fitch Co CL A, Coventry Health Care Inc, Ross stores Inc, Seagate Technology, and Eni SPA. These ten holdings make up to 15.18% of the total net assets from the total of 884 holdings. The top 5 countries include USA (66.5%), Canada (6.64%), Japan (6.41%), United Kingdom (2.77%), and Netherlands (2.54%). Top 6 major market sectors are consumer discretionary, information technology, health care, financials, industrials, and energy.

Disclosure: No Position

Details about other Kiplinger's 25 Best Mutual Fund can be found in my main page.

Merger Fund (MERFX)

Merger Fund (MERFX) is one of the best alternative mutual funds for financial investing. Its objective is to provide capital growth.

This next fund can provide an alternative investment strategy to many investors. As part of market neutral category fund, Merger Fund invests in announced merger companies. This type of fund is usually less volatile and has a set of guarantee return. This fund is also featured in Kiplinger’s 25 Best Fund. This fund is being added recently in 2010 and will replace the previous Arbitrage Fund (Ticker: ARBFX) in Kip 25. Arbitrage Fund is removed due to it is closed to new investor.

According to its website (www.mergerfund.com), Merger Fund is the first mutual fund dedicated entirely to merger arbitrage. This fund has been around since 1989. As discussed, it also has one of the lowest volatility for stock funds with beta of 0.10. This fund is also very popular to retail investors and institutional investors with $4.53 billion asset.

Altenative Mutual Fund

The investment in Merger Fund is seeking for capital growth. The goal is achieved by engaging in merger arbitrage. The major net assets investment of this Merger Fund (at least 80%) is in the equity securities of merger-companies. The companies are involved in publicly announced mergers, tender offers, liquidation, spin-offs, takeovers, leveraged buyouts and other corporate reorganizations. This is a special investment approach to gain the most profit from the companies in such conditions.

Merger Fund MERFX Details

• Fund Inception Date: January 1989
• Ticker Symbol: MERFX
• CUSIP: 589509108
• Beta (3yr): 0.10
• Rank in category YTD: 12
• Category: Market Neutral
• Distribution: 0.32%
• Expense fee: 1.40%
• Turnover Rates: 182%
• Capital Gains: check website
• Number of Years Up: 19 years
• Number of Years Down: 2 years

Updated on May 2017

The Merger Fund was the first mutual fund devoted exclusively to merger arbitrage. Roy D. Behren has been the lead manager for this fund since 2007. Should you plan to invest in this fund, the minimum initial invest for either brokerage or IRA account is $2,000 and no minimum subsequent investment. This fund applies a 0.927% of management fee. MERFX is considered as a no sales load fund. The fund can be purchased from 81 brokerages, include T Rowe Price, DATALynx, JP Morgan, E Trade Financial, TD Ameritrade Inc, etc. This fund has no other class.

MERFX Fund

The annual report of expense ratio is 1.41%, which is lower than the average in the category (1.96%). Since its inception in 1989, this fund has experienced a total of 19 years up performance with the best total return in 2000 (17.58%) and 2 years of down period with the worst total return in 2002 (-5.67%). This fund receives 4-stars rating from Morningstar. MERFX fund has returned 4.09% over the past year and 3.46% over the past ten years. The year to date (YTD) return is 2.41%.

• Year 2017: 1.47% (YTD)
• Year 2016: 2.61%
• Year 2015: -0.82%
• Year 2014: 1.43%
• Year 2013: 3.61%

As of December 2010, the top 10 equity holdings of this fund are Alcon Inc, Bucyrus International Inc, McAfee Inc, Qwest Communications International Inc, King Pharmaceuticals, Inc, Alberto-Culver Company, Western Coal Corp, Genzyme Corporation, Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan and Undisclosed UK Media. The top countries in this fund include United States (77.14%), Europe (12.70%) and Canada (7.63%). The top 5 sectors include health care (18.90%), industrials (17.98%), materials (16.18%), financials (11.71%) and consumer discretionary (11.55%).
Investing in this Merger Fund involves principal risks such as:

• Reorganization risk
• Foreign investment risk
• Foreign currency risk
• Hedging risk
• High transaction cost due to high turnover rates

Disclosure: No Position

For details about this Merger Fund information, please check my Kiplinger’s 25 Best Fund page. Other Kiplinger's Best Mutual Funds:

• Harbor Commodity Real Return Strategy (HACMX)
• Loomis Sayles Bond Fund (LSBRX)

This Merger Fund (MERFX) was part of Kiplinger's 25 best mutual funds before.

Dodge & Cox International Stock Fund (DODFX)

Dodge & Cox International Stock fund (DODFX) is one of best foreign equity mutual funds. It invests in international companies stocks.

The next fund, Dodge & Cox International Stock fund, is a well known international stock offered by Dodge & Cox. The fund has been available for retail investor and institutional investor for the past decade. The fund performance has been great over the long term period. The following article will provide all the details about the fund information and performance in general. This Dodge & Cox International Stock fund is also part of Kiplinger’s 25 Best Mutual Funds.

Dodge & Cox International Stock (Ticker: DODFX)

While US companies have dominated the world economy for long time, international companies also provide additional value for world economy. The foreign companies provide about 55% contribution to world economy. These international companies can include companies in Europe (United Kingdom, German, France, Spain, Eastern Europe, etc), Japan, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Emerging Markets (Brazil, China, India, Russia), and South East Asia countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore).

Investing in these international companies stocks definitely will provide true representation of asset diversification. One of the ways to invest in these companies is investing through mutual fund. If you are interested in exchange-traded fund (ETF) or closed end fund (CEF), please check my future article.

The investment objective of Dodge & Cox International Stock fund is seeking for both long term principal growth and income growth. It generally invests mainly in a diversified portfolio of non-U.S. companies’ equity securities especially medium to large well established companies (based on standards of the applicable market).

Best Performer High Yield Bond Closed End Funds 2011 Part 2

If you miss my first part of this Top Performer high yield bond CEF, please check the article. The following is the second part article. Investing in high yield bond funds may not be for every investor either long term or professional. There are several reasons to invest in this non investment grade bond funds:

• The fund may provide high current income due to its high interest rates
• It has priority of legal rights over preferred stocks and common stocks
• It has potential for capital appreciation if the bond is upgraded by credit rating agencies due to improvement in company business
• The bond fund is also less volatile than equity fund

The following is rated by its fund market performance up until May 6th, 2011. You will find the fund information below.

The 10 Top Performer High Yield Bond CEFs 2011: Pt 2 (until May 6^th, 2011) are:

1. Pacholder High Yield Fund
2. PIMCO High Income Fund
3. Credit Suisse High Yield Bond
4. Pioneer Diversified High Income
5. BlackRock Debt Strategies Fund
6. DWS High Income Trust
7. First Trust Strategic High Income
8. Managed High Yield Plus
9. Western Asset High Income Fund II
10. Wells Fargo Advantage Income Opportunities

updated on 6/1/2011

Baron Small Cap Fund (BSCFX)

One of important asset class for portfolio diversification is small cap growth. Barron Small Cap fund has been among the best fund in this class over the long term period. The fund has provided a slow and consistent approach to small cap investing. Cliff Greenberg has been the manager since its inception in 1997. This fund is also featured in Kiplinger’s 25 Best Mutual fund list. Most of the small cap fund can provide additional performance boost in your portfolio diversification, though higher return also meant higher risk.

Baron Small Cap (Ticker: BSCFX)

Baron Small Cap fund is looking for capital appreciation. At least 80% of its net assets are invested in equity securities. The investment is in the form of common stock of small-sized growth companies. These companies must have less than $2.5 billion of market capitalization measured at the time of purchase. This fund seeks to as well buy the securities that are expected to have a 50% value increase within two years judged by BAMCO Inc.

BSCFX Fund Details

Baron Small Cap fund details

• Fund Inception Date: September 1997
• Ticker Symbol: BSCFX
• CUSIP: 068278308
• Beta (5yr): 0.85%
• Rank in category (YTD): 52
• Category: Small Growth
• Distribution: 0.0%
• Capital Gains: 0.0%
• Number of Years Up: 10 years
• Number of Years Down: 3 years

updated on 5/10/2011

Top Performer High Yield Bond Closed End Funds CEF 2011

Closed End Funds or CEFs are traded like stock. It is traded in variety of global stock exchanges like New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), NASDAQ, etc. One of the CEFs categories is High Yield Bond Fund. You will find the top performer high yield bond closed end funds such as Pacholder High Yield Fund, PIMCO High Income Fund, Credit Suisse High Yield Bond, etc.

Top Performer High Yield Bond Closed End Funds

Finding fund to invest can be a challenge for any investors or traders. The challenge can become more daunting when you want to invest in closed end fund (CEF). Closed End Funds have been popular even before the introduction of Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). They are very similar but there are some differences. Both funds were traded in stock exchanges such as NYSE, Nasdaq, and AMEX. You can trade these funds like stocks. Both funds can be either a bond fund (fixed income fund) or stock fund (equity fund). The differences include:

• CEF only has a fixed quantity of shares after its initial IPO
• CEF market price can be traded either on premium or discount to its Net Asset Value (NAV)
• Most of the CEFs are actively managed by manager or advisor

The following article will look into the top performer high yield bond closed end fund 2011 (YTD). High yield bond can provide a steady income to investor. These high yield bond CEFs, also known as non investment grade bond CEFs, pay its distribution regularly either monthly or quarterly. These funds were rated based on its fund performance until May 6th, 2011. Most of these funds also use leverage to enhance its fund performance return. Several reasons to invest in high yield bond funds are:

• It pays higher distribution regularly
• It is less volatile than stock funds
• It can provide additional tools to combat an interest hike environment due to its low average duration bond

Note: These high yield bond funds may be more volatile than investment grade bond funds. The 10 Top Performer High Yield Bond CEFs 2011 (until May 6th, 2011) part 1 are:

1. Pacholder High Yield Fund (PHF)
2. PIMCO High Income Fund (PHK)
3. Credit Suisse High Yield Bond (DHY)
4. Pioneer Diversified High Income (HNW)
5. BlackRock Debt Strategies Fund (DSU)
6. DWS High Income Trust
7. First Trust Strategic High Income
8. Managed High Yield Plus
9. Western Asset High Income Fund II
10. Wells Fargo Advantage Income Opportunity

updated on 5/8/2011

You may also find my latest article, Top 10 High Yield Bond Closed End Funds of 2012.

Pacholder High Yield Fund

As the top performer high yield bond CEF (YTD: 17.63%), Pacholder High Yield Fund seeks to a high level of total return through capital appreciation and current income. The fund will invest most of its asset primarily in high yield lower, rated fixed income securities of domestic companies. The fund’s sponsor is J.P. Morgan Investment Management Inc.

As May 2011, the fund total net assets are $161 million with 26.66% effective leverage. The fund annual expense ratio is 2.37%. The fund market price is traded at 5.81% premium from its fund’s NAV. Morningstar rates this Pacholder High Yield fund with 4 stars rating. The fund is managed by William J Morgan (lead portfolio manager), James P Shanahan (portfolio manager), and James E Gibson (principal trader). There are 3 investment strategies such as

• The fund will invest in all types of high yield. High risk securities
• Fund will focus on value of individual bonds compare to broader market factors
• Focus on positive and negative credit development using regular discussion with senior management of issuer

As of April 2011, the fund’s top 10 holdings are Liberty Mutual Group, CoBank, JPMorgan Prime Institutional, NewPage Corp, Clearwire Corp, Unipac IX llc, MGM Resorts International, NRG Energy Inc, Michael Stores Inc, and Sprint Nextel Corp. The top 5 sectors are consumer discretionary (29%), Financials (13.1%), Industrials (11.2%), Materials (9.7%), and Energy (8.8%). The fund also pays a dividend of 8.7% per year. This dividend is paid monthly and recently it has been increase from $0.06 per share to $0.07 per share.

PIMCO High Income Fund

While famous for its bond mutual fund, PIMCO also provides variety of bond closed end funds. The PIMCO High Income fund objective is to provide high current income and capital appreciation. This PIMCO fund will invest most of its asset in corporate debt obligations and income producing securities. This is also one of the largest high yield CEFs in term of asset with $1.58 billion. The fund charges 1.24% annual expense ratio. The fund is managed by Bill Gross, the legendary bond manager, since 2009. The fund market price is traded at 49.7% premium from its fund’s NAV, this is a significant premium compare to other high yield bond fund.

This fund also receives 2 stars rating from Morningstar. As May 2011, this PHK fund yield is 10.29% per year. This dividend is paid monthly. Since its inception, the fund market price has returned 14.07%. As of April 2011, the fund top 10 sectors are insurance life (21.7%), miscellaneous (19.8%), banks (18.8%), non captive consumer finance (17.2%), electric utility (8%), non captive div finance (5%), insurance P&C (4.9%), wirelines (1.3%), airlines (1.2%), and automotive (1.2%). The fund consists of 349 bonds and it has 4.45 years average duration.

Credit Suisse High Yield Bond

As part of Credit Suisse Asset Management fund, the Credit Suisse High Yield Bond fund seeks high current income through investment in non investment grade US fixed income securities or debts. The fund is managed by duo managers, Michael Gray and Martha B. Metcalf. This closed end fund current total net asset is $302 million. The fund also charges 2.09% annual expense ratio including 1.55% baseline expense and 0.53% interest expense. The fund market price is traded at 4.85% premium from its NAV. It also has 3 stars rating from Morningstar.

Top 10 High Yield Bond Mutual Funds 2011

This high current yield fund market price has returned 33.31% over the past year and 8.56% over the past 5 year. The year to date performance is 15.11% (until May 6th, 2011). The fund top ten holdings are AMC entertainment, Real Mex Restaurant Inc, Energy Transfer Equity LP, MTR Gaming Group Inc, International Wire Group Inc, Ship Finance, Coffeyville Res llc, Jacobs Entertaintment, Comstock resources Inc, and PGS. As of November 2011, the top 5 sectors are High Yield Corporate bond (91.9%), Short term debt (10.1%), General Debt (2.9%), General Equity (0.8%), and Preferred shares (0.14%).

Pioneer Diversified High Income

The Pioneer Diversified High Income fund seeks high current income with capital appreciation through investment in preferred stocks, floating rate loans and insurance linked securities. The fund net asset is $237 million with 27.35% effective leverage. The annual expense ratio of this Pioneer fund is 2.23%. Since May 2007, this fund has been managed by Andrew Feltus, Charles Melchrit, and Johnathan Sharkey. The fund market price is traded at 7.33% premium from its fund’s NAV. This fund also receives 4 stars rating from Morningstar.

As May 2011, the fund yield is 8.52% per year. This dividend is paid monthly. Part of this dividend is return of capital (ROC), about 17%. Since its inception on May 2007, the fund market price has returned 9.91%. As of April 2011, the fund top 5 sectors are high yield corporate debt (40.90%), bank loans (24.6%), emerging market / international high yield (27.3%), event linked / cat bonds (15.9%), and commercial mortgage backed debts (1.7%). The fund consists of 420 bonds and it has 3.30 years average duration.

BlackRock Debt Strategies Fund

The BlackRock Debt Strategies Fund objective is to provide high current income to investor. This BlackRock closed end fund invests in lower rated corporate debt instruments (junk corporate bonds). The fund is managed BlackRock Advisor. This fund was formerly known as Debt Strategies Fund. The expense ratio of this BlackRock fund is 1.23% per year. It also has an effective leverage of 20.16%. The fund has returned 21.89% over the past year and 2.69% over the past five year. This fund is rated 2 stars by Morningstar.

Best High Yield Municipal Bond Mutual Funds 2012

As of January 2011, the top 5 industries are communications (16.6%), capital goods (15.4%), consumer non-cyclical (14.7%), consumer cyclical (14.7%), and basic industry (12.9%). Top 5 debt issuers include IntelSat, CPG International, CIT Group, Clear Channel Worldwide holdings, and Vodafone Americas. This fund has 362 holdings in its asset. The modified duration of this fund include 2.54 years.

Disclosure: No Position

Note: As discussed above, you can trade these CEFs using your brokerage. For best brokerages, please check my latest Best Brokerages 2012 page. more funds on my next article.

Fund Performance

For part 2 article, please check Top Performer Junk Bond CEF Part 2.