Yeah except the design and that 1% outperformance only worked for a few years, they seem to be lagging everything real bad.

I’m still using Symmetry (a portfolio builder of DFA funds). They are doing ok. Through November, their 100% equity portfolio is still beating the S&P (including my 1% fee and the custodian’s .2% fee) for their 5 and 10 year numbers.  The 1 and 3 yr numbers are lagging, but they have never claimed to beat the market in the short term (or in the long term for that matter).

They just got burned by Van Kampen this year??? They have been hanging on for dear life with both hands for a lot of years based off their internet number(Anyone remember VanKampen Strategic Growth??- Fund got so bad they closed it xfered assets to another fund and renamed that one too.)

The thing about DFA, is that they expect you to push the Buy & Hold strategy, which is certainly working well in this market…if you’re looking for more losses. I got the impression that if there were too many redemptions by me, the RIA, that they’d unapprove me for their funds. - Based on that attitude, I decided to not pursue getting approved to sell their funds. - Maybe they should have sent the kool-ade to me chlled!

Any opinions on DFA’s new tax aware core funds (TA US Core Equity Portfolio DFTCX) and (TA World ex US Core Equity Portfolio DFTWX). Apparently DFA considers these there best and most efficiently designed products.

Any opinions on DFA’s new tax aware core funds (TA US Core Equity Portfolio DFTCX) and (TA World ex US Core Equity Portfolio DFTWX). Apparently DFA considers these there best and most efficiently designed products.

Snaggletooth:



Interesting response…Is that all you’ve got or can you back up your opinion with actual facts?

Snaggletooth:

Interesting response…Is that all you’ve got or can you back up your opinion with actual facts?

Snaggletooth



Well now. My first day on this forum and I come across a senior member who calls himself “snaggletooth” He claims that “DFA Blows”, hold on…it gets better. He than claims he can back up his statement with facts but he doesn’t want to because it would be a waist of his time. Let me guess, Mr. snaggletooth is an advisor that was not approved for access to DFA funds and is now on a mission to disparage one of the most highly regarded mutual fund families in existence. Of course he could defend himself by posting the facts he claims to have, but something tells me that he wont.

Being "approved" to sell a particular investment or "invited" to invest doesn't seem to carry the same weight as it used to.  Thanks Bernie.

I hope you are not serious regarding the “most highly regarded mutual fund family”… This stuff is terrible… nice idea, worked for a bit, terrible now… The guys who headed this fund company screwed up somewhere else(Hedge fund or something) DFA was the most overrated stuff ever…

[quote=Squash1]I hope you are not serious regarding the “most highly regarded mutual fund family”… This stuff is terrible… nice idea, worked for a bit, terrible now… The guys who headed this fund company screwed up somewhere else(Hedge fund or something) DFA was the most overrated stuff ever…[/quote]
Do your homework.  Google "Long Term capital Management."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-Term_Capital_Management

This was a failure of unprecedented proportions (at the time - pre TARP).  Check out the principals & board members of LTCM & the principals/board members of DFA.  Many of the same “geniuses,”  with their Nobel Prizes and all.  They thought their sh*t didn’t stink back then; they think the same thing now. Geniuses?

“Approved” to sell their funds?!  “Approved!?!”  That’s sort of like the politicians saying they “approved” this message.  So bleeping what?!  Wake up, sheeple!

Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.

Snaggletooth

Well now. My first day on this forum and I come across a senior member who calls himself “snaggletooth” He claims that “DFA Blows”, hold on…it gets better. He than claims he can back up his statement with facts but he doesn’t want to because it would be a waist of his time. Let me guess, Mr. snaggletooth is an advisor that was not approved for access to DFA funds and is now on a mission to disparage one of the most highly regarded mutual fund families in existence. Of course he could defend himself by posting the facts he claims to have, but something tells me that he wont.

Long Term Capitol Management was a highly leveraged hedge fund that used trading strategy that bare no similarity what so ever to any DFA funds especially the Core funds referenced earlier.



But hay…you don’t to drink the Kool-Aid or agree with financial experts on the caliber of William J. Bernstein who believes that DFA will deliver the performance of capital markets and increase returns through state-of-the-art portfolio design and trading.



Ok…so how do you invest? How do you and the others on this forum capture or beat the market’s returns. Are you stock pickers, active traders, use ETF’s or low cost Vanguard Funds?

Ok…so how do you invest? How do you and the others on this forum capture or beat the market’s returns. Are you stock pickers, active traders, use ETF’s or low cost Vanguard Funds?

[quote=Harry]Long Term Capitol Management was a highly leveraged hedge fund that used trading strategy that bare no similarity what so ever to any DFA funds especially the Core funds referenced earlier.
[/quote]
Oh, that’s entirely different then, is it?  Except that it’s run by the same geniuses that ran LTCM into the ground at 120 mph.  You will probably be first in line to throw your clients’ money at Bernie Madoff when he gets out of jail too, when he sayshe’ll adopt a less “highly leveraged” strategy then, too. 


[quote=Harry]But hay…you don’t to drink the Kool-Aid or agree with financial experts on the caliber of William J. Bernstein who believes that DFA will deliver the performance of capital markets and increase returns through state-of-the-art portfolio design and trading.
[/quote]
The “caliber” of Bernstein?  Still drinking the “financial experts” kool-aid?  What cave have you been living in the last year or so?  If all these smart “experts” say the DFA PhDs can consistently outperform the markets, who are we morons to argue with them?    We are not worthy!!

Have you checked out the DFA perfomance lately, Einstein?  I’m sure all their shareholders who have lost so much money are so relieved to know what William J. Bernstein thinks, or that the people who were losing them money had higher IQs than them. 


Keep your eye on the ball, lad.

www.beaconinvesting.com

Great stuff. Thanks.

To get an idea of how great the dfa funds work in various allocation models visit www.indexfunds.com - it’s a DFA approved firm (IFA) that lost their clients about 45% last year.  The problem isn’t the funds - it’s the flawed concept of buy and hold.  Using the DFA funds bactested data and selling out each month end that they fall below their 200 day SMA would increase the returns by nearly 2% while decreasing the standard deviation by 1/3.  This can be backtested nearly 75 years with data from the indexfunds.com site.  I think Snaggle is right - maybe they should name a prestigous university after him:

DFA should be used with and active strategy, if you are at an independent B/D this can be done using 2 a/c’s.

Maybe you blow???