The PRF appears to give almost no diversification from the Qs http://stockcharts.com/charts/performance/perf.html?QQQQ,PRF However, there may be a pairs trade in there somewhere for traders...
Go back to school it will help you become a better communicator ( always good ) and more logical and reasonable in your thought patterns. I'm dead serious. Let me repeat my point again. Nobody makes 20% a year on conservative investments. This is not an opinion this is a fact. May I suggest maybe part of your problem is you don't understand the term "conservative". That would mean company bonds at or close to "junk bond" status do not count. Hope this helps.
As of yesterday, which is his closing "year", he is up 13.25%. He reallocated a while back into the stocks vs bonds 71:29. His timing hasn't been perfect, but it has been very good, and best of all,when he goes into stocks vs bonds 30:70, the bonds have been holding the losses in the stock portfolio well, just what you want. I suggested the decision pivot for % allocation for him should be which side of 1172 the market (SPX) is in, and with what outlook people expect, unless the market sells off too hard (< 1042) , in which case go back to an aggressive stance. So if the market crosses from above below 1172 with a bad prognosis, he goes conservative, and if the market crosses from below above 1042, he goes aggressive. Otherwise he stays aggressive. Mostly sell when everyone wants to buy, mostly buy when everyone wants to sell.
It is really educational to compare the two funds to see how investments react to underlying causes, especially in the last three months since the debt crisis began to take hold and QEII was coming to and end: http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=...=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined Remember that OCGCX is composed in large part of OBOCX.
It is amazing how many people needed consolation yesterday, my father included. He was close to being on the verge of exiting markets forever. I had to spend an hour++ talking him out of it, at least in regards to the timing. I play Bridge online, and the same thing there - the talk was all about markets being a mirage with mostly risk and little gains over the last ten years++. Younger people don't realize that as one gets older, your capacity to take hardship goes way down. On the train today, there was a distinct feel that people are afraid, to the point where a fight almost broke out over two clearly over stressed people. The greatest tragedy is that perhaps we put so much emphasis on our retirement on the back of the stock market. It is probably too huge a burden.
This advisor he seem to know how to protect from big loss. Look at his strategy nitro. What do you think? http://www.theetfbully.com/2011/08/thoughts-on-hedging-the-permanent-portfolio-fund-prpfx/
Trendlover, Thanks! That is very very interesting. It appears to do better than both of the funds given here, and over a longer term as well: http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=...=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined Whether that continues remains to be seen. I have to understand the underlying holdings and drill down to see where it gets its alpha.