Mutual Fund Observer

By David Snowball Dear friends, It felt passing strange to be in the old familiar queue yet again, lined up near the ticket booth. The folks in front of me in line were cheerful and bouncy and anxious, much less me. As each got to the booth they held out a cell phone and a QR code which earned a quick smile and a quicker green flash. And me?

By David Snowball You think I went down a rabbit hole. I prefer to consider it an archaeological dig. Reader Kevin Maas (thank you, sir!) shared the heads-up that iShares was liquidating eight ETFs, including some ESG-screened allocation funds. The linked announcement, though, also included the full list of iShares liquidations. It was irresistible. Sorry. The iShares table of closed ETFs is a fascinating archaeological artifact.

By Charles Lynn Bolin Financial planning hinges on controlling the variables you can adjust. But let’s be real. There are huge uncontrollable factors that massively outweigh modifiable variables. With this in mind, here is a cheeky short summary of financial planning for Gen Z: Be born in a favorable year, so that you have a good sequence of positive returns while you save (like Boomers).

By Anoushka Shah Last month I looked through #FinTok to see which videos TikTok’s algorithm was pushing — first on my own account, then on a brand new one seeded with a 17-year-old’s birthday. I went looking for a circus and found a library instead: Roth IRAs, index funds, and other stable financial advice. Riskier advice existed if I looked long enough, but it wasn’t the first thing that appeared. What I couldn’t tell from watching those videos alone was what was actually landing.

By David Snowball I always prefer optimism. Mark Headley gives me reason for some. Mr. Headley is Executive Chairman and Portfolio Manager at Matthews. He joined the firm first in 1995, left, and rejoined in April 2025. In the interim, Matthews suffered a series of serious setbacks, which we detailed a year ago in Mark Headley, once and again CEO: “there’s good bones there” (July 2025). He had returned with a plan to see the firm aright.

By Chip There I was, humming along happily, pulling together fodder for Briefly Noted. Registration statements, name changes, the usual liquidations. Coffee in hand. Life is good. Then the needle scratched across the record. Four filings. Nine ETFs. All of them promising exposure to, and I am not making this up, the hourly rental price of graphics cards.

By David Snowball On May 29, 2026, LS Opportunity Fund effectively reinvented itself when shareholders approved Grantham, Mayo, VanOtterloo & Company (GMO) as their fund’s new sub-adviser. The new portfolio managers are Tom Hancock, GMO’s head of Focused Equity, and Lucas White, lead manager of the firm’s Quality Spectrum strategy.

By TheShadow Updates . . . Franklin Templeton is preparing to place tokenized assets inside traditional investment funds. The firm plans to use its Franklin Onchain U.S. Government Money Fund (aka BENJI) as a holding or collateral inside ETFs and mutual funds. This could begin as early as the fourth quarter, provided approval is received from both boards. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. announced an agreement to acquire F/m Investments LLC. The acquisition is expected to expand T.

By David Snowball Welcome to the August MFO, the last of the summer-lite editions! Two things to know about the annual celebration of “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer.” First, it’s a German song. Who knew? “Du spielst ‘ne tolle Rolle”, composed by Hans Carste with lyrics by Hans Bradtke. It debuted in Europe in ’62 and with English lyrics here in ’63. The song was the title track to a Nat King Cole album that year.

By Charles Lynn Bolin I have concerns that the markets are overvalued, the national debt will keep intermediate and long-term rates elevated, and long-term trends of slow economic growth. This puts me in the tribe of the Permabear. In this article, I review from a Permabear’s perspective lessons learned from previous bubbles and portfolio performance relative to interest rates over the past sixty-five years.