MFO Premium

On Thursday, 8 June, all fund risk and return metrics, ratings, and analytics were uploaded to MFO Premium, reflecting performance through May 2021.

Today, Saturday, 3 July, a new MultiSearch Column Selection interface went live. It enables quick-and-easy customization of metric groups and individual metrics, resulting in a much more responsive tool. For those of you that want to tailor your searches to specific metrics, say just 20 or 50 or 100 of the more than 600 data columns available, this upgrade satisfies.

Tomorrow, Independence Day, Sunday, 4 July, month-ending June data will be uploaded, enabling review of mid-year performance.

Here’s a preview of the new Column Group selection menu:

Finally, the next MFO Premium webinars will occur Thursday, July 15th. In addition to the recent upgrades, the webinars will highlight fund performance for the first half of 2021. You can see a bit more and sign-up here.

As always, if you see anything amiss or have suggestions for improvement, let us know and we will respond soonest.

Please enjoy a very welcomed Independence Day 2021.

On May Day all fund risk and return metrics, ratings, and analytics were uploaded to MFO Premium, reflecting performance through April 2021.

This month, several new features are running live in MultiSearch, the site’s main screening tool. Most of these upgrades were encouraged by our subscribers with whom I’ve enjoyed several Zoom sessions.

First is the ability to store viewing preferences, as described in this month’s MFO piece Introducing MFO Premium’s Saved Preferences Feature. David notes: “You just have to choose once how many of our 600 data columns you want, by default, to see.”

Here’s a summary of the other significant upgrades:

• Lipper Leaders. Ratings for Total Return, Consistent Return, Expense, and Tax Efficiency of funds versus their category peers, as well as a fund’s Preservation rating, which is relative to type peers [e.g., Equity, Bond]. Scale:  5  is top;  1  is bottom. Ratings are provided for the past 3, 5, and 10-year periods, as applicable. An “Overall Rating” is a simple average of the applicable periods. A more detailed description is available on the Definitions page or here. You can screen for any or all of the Lipper Leaders and in combination with all other MultiSearch screening criteria.

 

• Debt & Currency Holdings. MultiSearch uniquely provides ability to screen funds based on specific holding names, tickers, countries, and sectors found in a fund’s top 10 holdings. This month we’ve added currency and debt type. So, now for example, users can screen on say MultiSector Income bond funds that hold Mortgage Backed Security (MBS), Home Equity Lines of Credit, and Collateralized Mortgage Obligation (CMO).

 

• Equity Portfolio Ratings. These new ratings complement the existing equity portfolio screening options, which were value-based for metrics like Price To Book (P/B), Return on Assets (ROA), or Sales Growth. Now, instead of selecting specific value thresholds, users can request simply the lowest quintile P/B funds in category. These new ratings can help you decipher, for example, if a fund with “value” in its name is really a value fund. I find them quite satisfactory.

 

• Smart Beta. Users can now screen exchange traded funds (ETFs) for any of these factors: Dividend, Beta, Growth, Liquidity, Momentum, Quality, Size, Value, Volatility, ESG, Multifactor, Credit Quality, Yield, and Commodity.

Other MultiSearch improvements include options to overwrite and nickname during export of WatchLists, Searches, and Preferences to user profile; added Mixed Asset, Alternative, Commodity, and Money Market subtypes to Exclude Categories options; and, ability to set threshold return screening levels against key reference indexes, like S&P 500. Finally, there is a simple highlight search tool on the Definitions page.

As always, if you see anything amiss or have suggestions for improvement, let us know and we will respond soonest.

On Sunday, 4 April all fund risk and return metrics, ratings, and analytics were uploaded to MFO Premium, reflecting performance through March 2021.

David mentions numerous “100 Club” funds in his April commentary. He coined the term “100 Club” for funds doubling investor returns these past 12 months. Some funds even exceeded 200% return.

“These past 12 months” began April 2020, omitting last March’s sudden, if short-lived, CV-19 induced drawdowns. If you only look at risk and performance since April 2020 (please don’t), fund investing appears utterly safe (it’s not) and highly rewarding (it can be).

To see for yourself, MultiSearch now includes “100 Club” and “200 Club” options under Annualized Percent Return (APR) criteria in the Period Metrics group. Set Display Period to “1 Year,” and hit: Search. Then, for contrast and due diligence, evaluate a longer period.

Another new feature: Expanded Ferguson Metrics includes a “Life” period, or more specifically “relevant life,” which according to CFA Brad Ferguson is not younger than 3 years but not older than period beginning CY 2008, start of the Great Financial Crisis. The “Life” addition helps ensure nothing falls through the cracks between the 3, 5, and 10 year metrics.

Finally, next Thursday, 15 April, we will host our next webinar, which will review the site’s latest features. If you can join us, please register here.

As always, if you see anything amiss or have suggestions for improvement, let us know and we will respond soonest.

On Sunday, 7 March all fund risk and return metrics, ratings, and analytics were uploaded to MFO Premium, reflecting performance through February 2021.

On Wednesday, 17 March MultiSearch received three new enhancements …

• Exclude Categories. Users can now select, for example, US Equity Funds subtype, while excluding funds in the Specialized Diversity Equity, S&P 500 Index, and S&P Midcap 400 Index categories.
• Socially Conscious “Plus.” Last month, we introduced the “Plus” option for fundname, manager, and adviser criteria, which enables searches of all funds meeting these criteria in addition to funds meeting a combination of other criteria. This option is now also available with the Socially Conscious metric.
• Long Life Rolling Averages. 30, 40, and 50-year rolling periods were added to the Analyze tool, which is particularly interesting when analyzing long life funds, like DODBX, as well is the Allocation Indices in Pre-Set Screens. SP500 and LGovBnd date back to 1926!

Today, Friday 26 March, a redesigned MultiSearch user interface was introduced, with the hope of making it easier for users to explore and select from the nearly 200 criteria available to customize searches.

Continue reading “Redesigned MultiSearch User Interface”