Fund of the Week: DVY iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index

The best performing fund from the funds I track last week was DVY iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index, an ETF I hold in my IRA. It was up 3.06%.

Small caps, Mid caps, Bonds and Finance companies held up last week as well.


International Funds took a beating. DLS WisdomTree International Small Cap fell the most down -2.5%.

Next WylieMoney Slowly fund Category is Emerging Markets

When I first researched no load no fee mutual funds available through Etrade and was looking for an Emerging Markets fund, I choose SSEMX SSgA Emerging Mkt My Post.

SSEMX closed to new investors but even though Etrade does not know it yet (see above), it has reopened:


So I added it in with the other funds available through Etrade and there are 4 options:


SSEMX has the lowest expenses, but DREGX Driehaus Emerging Markets Growth has 5 stars. Unfortunately it looks like DREGX also has a new manager so past performance was acheived by someone else.

DREGX has outperformed SSEMX over the 3 year and 5 year periods, but is lagging a bit recently.


DREGX has much higher turnover meaning the tax hit is likley to be higher:


Also, DREGX has a $10,000 minimum initial investment which is above my cutoff for this experiment.

So even if it did not have high turnover and a new manager, I would not pick it.

SSEMX is the pick and I'll add it to the WylieMoney Slowly portfolio the first day that markets tank in August.

Portfolio Update 8/1/08: Changes

Morningstar has made Changes (thought you were going to get Bowie?) to its portfolio tool. Recent market activity has chased all color out of the portfolio interface as you'll see in the portfolios below.

Also, Morningstar's attempt to look more web 2.0 has made it very very tedious to copy and past the weekly updates into excel.

I'm a sad blogger dude.

The market has also undergone some changes. Instead of plummeting sharply, it is now rising gently.

I suppose I should adjust this graph in excel to account for the S&P 500 going under $43,000.

My portfolio list has also seen changes. My IRAs pulled ahead of the ETF 20 portfolio.

WylieMoney 20 Mostly Managed


WylieMoney Slowly


Lazy 20 Mostly Index


Three Fund Index


ETF 20


S&P 500

Fund of the Week: BRSIX Bridgeway Ultra-Small Company

For the second week in a row, small cap stocks are gaining ground. Some believe that in an economic turnaround, small cap stocks will lead the way. Does that mean we've hit bottom? No- it might mean a number of people believe that we have and are buying small cap stocks.

If so, maybe they're right. Then again, maybe not.

The best fund performance of all the funds I track was BRSIX Bridgeway Ultra-Small Company a fund I hold in my brokerage. With the exception of JAGLX Janus Global Life Science, the number one fund last week, and Janus Overseas, the remaining top 10 funds were all small cap funds.

The biggest loser was PNRZX Jennison Natural Resources, also a fund I hold in my brokerage, with the energy funds from other portfolios rounding out the bottom.

Portfolio Update 7/25/08: Heavy Cloud No Rain

Despite an ugly decline on Thursday, the mutual fund portfolios I track posted only small declines for the week. I guess it was all Heavy Cloud, No Rain in the end.

And with the addition of JMCVX Janus Mid Cap Value fund to the WylieMoney Slowly Portfolio, the total % return for that portfolio improved over the Lazy 20 Mostly Index portfolio pushing the Lazy 20 back into 4th place.

The portfolio of ETFs is still posting terrible returns since I hypothetically invested, despite the best year to date performance of any of the portfolios.

Hopefully the markets will turn around so we can make some money so we can pay taxes on that money so we can help all the people who bought more house than they can afford stay in their houses and avoid having to downsize to something more reasonable.

WylieMoney 20 Mostly Managed

WylieMoney Slowly

Lazy 20 Mostly Index

Three Fund Index

ETF 20

S&P 500

Today is the day I'm adding JMCVX Janus Mid Cap Value

Today is the day I'm adding JMCVX Janus Mid Cap Value to the WylieMoney Slowly Mutual Fund Portfolio.

Fund of the Week: SWFFX Schwab Financial Services

I first wrote about SWFFX Schwab Financial Services back in December of 2007. Well one of my brothers and I had some IRA cash that needed investing so we decided to put a little money into this fund in April.

This fund gained 6.24% this week which is sweet. It is still down 9.76% since I bought it which is lame.

The other big winner this week was Real Estate.

Bonds, Oil, and some international investments had a bad week with DJP iPath Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index Total Return ETN (Broad Commodities), another fund I first mentioned back in December 08, leading the decline.