Easy Change

As you might have noticed, I left a mutual fund ticker as a teaser at the end of my one of my earlier posts: DFSAX. This ticker is a mutual fund that is managed in part by Andrew Lo, a renowned MIT professor which is designed as a multi-strategy mutual fund. Multi-strategy funds exist as a mechanism to reduce the overall risk in the market by hedging. Hedging/Multi-Strategy funds allow more freedom within the fund to choose different investments. According to Google, these are the top 10 holdings of the fund as of 1/22/2012: Top 10 holdings Security Net Assets German Euro Schatz Futures Dec11 Xeur 8.25% 10yr Japan Govt Bond Ftrs Tse Dec11 Xtks 7.50% 3yr Australian Tbond Futures Dec11 Xsfe 4.22% 10yr Us Treasury Note Futures Mar12 Xcbt 3.41% German Euro Bund Futures Dec11 Xeur 2.81% Uk Long Gilt Bond Futures Mar12 Xlif 2.76% German Euro Bobl Futures Dec11 Xeur 2.28% Msci Taiwan Index Futures Dec11 Xses 1.10% 10yr Govt Of Canada Bond Ftrs Mar12 Xmon 1.04% As...

This morning I tuned in to Consuelo Mack Wealthtrack. It is one of my favorite shows to listen to with respect to personal finance, but more tuned in on the investing side. I think that the subject matter is quite fascinating, although not as titillating as say the Suze Orman show (which I also happen to like). On this week's show, Consuelo interviewed Phil DeMuth, author of the little book on alternative investments. I found that this was a very interesting author and he seemed like a down-to-earth kind of guy, which is a nice, refreshing change compared to many guests that appear on the show who sometimes seem like they are a little bit divorced from the plight of everyman. Her other guest was John Hathaway, founder of the Tocqueville Gold Fund. During an interesting interchange, there was a comparison of a large sum of gold versus an equal amount of the assets of Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway, and the preference seemed to be Berkshire for Phil. However, John Hathaway wa...