Scout International Fund – UMBWX
Lee Munson and Lorn Davis interview James L. Moffett
In the world of mutual funds, only a handful of names stand out and James L. Moffett, CFA stands tall among them. Running the Scout International Fund (Ticker: UMBWX) since its inception in 1993, Mr. Moffett has garnered a reputation for running a [...]

Prices as of 12.01.2009
Matthews Pacific Tiger (MAPTX)  hold 19.08
PIMCO Total Return D (PTTDX) hold 11.02
T. Rowe Price New Era (PRNEX) hold 44.04
Loomis Sayles Bond Retail (LSBRX) buy 13.22
Gateway A (GATEX) buy 25.12
AQR Diversified Arbitrage (ADANX) buy 10.70
Matthews Asia Pacific Equity Income  (MAPIX) buy 12.20
Eaton Vance Floating Rate A (EVBLX) hold 8.72
JP Morgan Alerian (AMJ) buy [...]

By Grant Thayer
A closed end fund represents a portfolio of investments that is run by a professional fund manager.  Different from an open end (mutual) fund, which issues and redeems its shares directly, closed end funds have a set number of shares that trade like shares of stock.  The purpose of the closed end fund [...]

Quarterly Report: Really, what is everyone else saying???
Not since my time rocking with the dot.com bubble has the rest of the world’s opinion mattered so much. Ok, maybe the emerging market boom earlier this decade, but I was on board for that one. Rather than tell you things you already know, like the economy is [...]

Lee Munson and Lorn Owen Davis provide independent fund research on Matthews Pacific Tiger (MAPTX).
Investors looking to recuperate losses from last year’s painful descent in the equity and fixed-income markets have been quick to jump on the BRIC bandwagon as it started rolling quickly in March. However when dipping their toes into the volatile and [...]

Lee Munson and Lorn Davis write on MLP’s. Published on Seeking Alpha
When most people talk about master-limited partnerships (MLPs) they concentrate on the tax issue. We at Portfolio Asset Management look at MLPs more as cash flow producers that are uncorrelated with the stock and bond markets. In our opinion the tax issue is, [...]

Lee Munson and Lorn Owen Davis provide independent fund research on Natixis Gateway Fund (GATEX).
An investor doesn’t need to look any further than the performance of Dodge & Cox’s stock fund (DODGX) last year to realize that the investment environment has been turned upside down. Even the professionals can make big mistakes that cost money [...]

Lee Munson and Lorn Owen Davis provide an update on our independent fund research on Oppenheimer Rochester Municipal Funds (ORNAX).
Listening to the Oppenheimer Rochester Municipal Funds Conference Call on June 24, 2009 we got a chance to hear the thoughts of the experts on the municipal bond markets. The fund managers were extremely upbeat about [...]

Lee Munson and Lorn Owen Davis provide independent fund research on Rydex Managed Futures Strategy Fund (RYMFX).
Alternative strategies and assets in mutual funds can provide relief from the US equity markets for investors’ portfolios. The Rydex/SGI Managed Futures Strategy Fund (RYMFX) is an opportunity for investors to take part in that relief by adding exposure [...]

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Lee Munson and Lorn Owen Davis provide independent fund research on AQR Diversified Arbitrage Fund (ADANX, ADAIX).
In this post-Madoff world, investors are not seeking hedge fund styled over-leveraging and high risk/return strategies. But this doesn’t mean that some of the classic strategies used by hedge funds aren’t useful for other investment vehicles, like mutual funds. [...]

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Lee Munson comments on underemployment. Published on Seeking Alpha
All I have to say is wow! I knew we had a problem with the underemployed, which in my opinion is a more serious concern than the unemployed. Why? It’s like having a society of the walking dead, without the social safety nets of Europe. Now, [...]

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Lee Munson and Patrick Kirts comment the S&P 500 price-to-earnings ratio. Part two of two. Published on Seeking Alpha
In part I we reviewed Standard and Poor’s earning estimates for 2009-10. They expect corporate earnings to continue with a slow climb throughout 2009, leading to a significant rebound in the trailing P/E in the [...]

Lee Munson and Patrick Kirts comment the S&P 500 price-to-earnings ratio. Part one of two. Published on Seeking Alpha
Standard and Poor’s is predicting that, for the first time, the S&P 500 will have a negative twelve-month trailing price-to-earnings ratio in the third quarter of 2009. The following chart compares five sets of data [...]

Lee Munson and Patrick Kirts comment on the market. Published on Seeking Alpha
We were not pleased to hear the unemployment comments from the Fed this week, and the love-fest with tech and financials are giving us a headache. However, before you think all we see is doom and gloom, keep reading for some signs [...]

Lee Munson comment on market myths. Published on Seeking Alpha
In the Sunday Wall Street Journal, at least the part they sell to my local paper, the Albuquerque Journal, Dave Kansas furthered the already atrocious myths of Wall Street (see “You Still Need to Be in the Market “). The writer, and author of “The [...]

Lee Eugene Munson and Patrick Kirts comment on the U.S. currency. Published on Seeking Alpha
I don’t quite remember when, sometime in the past year, I first began hearing average people say that the government ultimately has the power to fix the economy, because it can just ‘print money,’ but, in a few short months, [...]

Lee Eugene Munson and Patrick Kirts comment on the market. Published on Seeking Alpha
Again and again, the cacophony of bottom-callers serves to lure the overly optimistic and the just plain ignorant onto the rocks of a sucker’s rally with their siren song. This is not to say that serious money cannot be made trading [...]

Lee Eugene Munson comments on Packaging Corporation of America. Published on Seeking Alpha
After taking a position in cardboard box maker Packaging Corporation of America (NYSE: PKG), a few things happened that surprised us. The first was a fast turnaround in management’s decision concerning the dividend. We saw the balance sheet was so-so, but over [...]

By Lorraine Ell
The dramatic loss of value in 401(k) plans has prompted a fresh look at how the plans are managed and how much they cost. With the reduction in traditional pension plans since the Tax Reform Act of 1978, which established the savings plan known as the 401(k), more than half [...]

Lee Eugene Munson comments on mark-to-market accounting. Published on Seeking Alpha
Yesterday the house Financial Services Subcommittee run by Paul E. Kanjorski (D-PA) discussed mark-to-market accounting.
Why do you care? Some misguided wicks out there (i.e. Warren Buffett and Steve Forbes) have asked for the M2M (yes, we have a silly text friendly symbol for mark-to-market [...]

Lee Eugene Munson and Patrick Kirts present an economic outlook. Published on Seeking Alpha
Thomas Lee, US Equity Strategy at JPMorgan, generated some buzz in the past few days when he noticed that the twelve-year-low reached by the Dow last week had only happened two other times in history. The others occurred on April 3, [...]

Lee Eugene Munson and Patrick Kirts analyze Ford Convertible Preferred Stock. Published on Seeking Alpha
Last fall Portfolio Asset Management discussed the merits of the 6.50% Cumulative Convertible Trust Preferred Security (F-PS). This trust was also known as Ford Motor Company Capital Trust II. The idea was simple, get paid while you wait for Ford [...]

Lee Eugene Munson and Patrick Kirts analyze paper companies. Published on Seeking Alpha
At Portfolio Asset Management, we love a good fire sale. However, we don’t want to get stuck holding the bag for an industry that is going broke. Remember, you can’t live under a worthless stock certificate. Last week on CNBC we were [...]

Lee Eugene Munson and Lorraine Ell create a balanced investment strategy in oil. Published on Seeking Alpha
The energy sector has a role in any portfolio. At Portfolio Asset Management, since the majority of our clients are retired and cash flow oriented, an investment in energy needed to balance appreciation with a stream of income. [...]

Lee Eugene Munson and Lorraine Ell analyze Citigroup. Published on Seeking Alpha
We recently published a report entitled Citigroup: Too Big to Fail or Succeed. It turns out that nothing has changed. Now that we have news of the Smith Barney merger with Morgan Stanley (MS), more information is coming out about how bad it [...]

Lee Eugene Munson and Lorraine Ell analyze the value of ETFs. Published on Seeking Alpha
When ETFs came on the scene 15 years ago, they brought a brave new world of efficient markets with low operating expenses and minimal tax liability. While the largest funds like DIA and SPY are designed in the spirit of [...]

Lee Eugene Munson and Patrick Kirtz analyze Dow’s Rohm & Haas Acquisition. Published on Seeking Alpha
Facing fierce domestic opposition, the Kuwaiti government this weekend scuttled a deal, first unveiled a year ago, between state-owned Petrochemical Industries and Dow Chemical (DOW) to create K-Dow Petrochemicals. Wall Street reacted on Monday by sending not only DOW [...]

Lee Eugene Munson and Lorraine Ell analyze Citigroup Preferred stock. Published on Seeking Alpha
As active conservative money managers, we at Portfolio Asset Management sought a way to capture appreciation from devastated financial stocks and yet have an increased chance of dependable high yields. With a focus on cash flow, an outgrowth of the demographics [...]

Lee Eugene Munson comments on the economy. Published on Seeking Alpha
Last week I spent two days in Boston engaging the best minds on Wall Street. Most of them, however, don’t live anywhere near Wall Street or the studios of CNBC. This may explain why there was a coherent consensus among bulls, bears, and everyone [...]

Lee Eugene Munson and Lorraine Ell provide independent fund research on the Oppenheimer Rochester National Municipal Fund (ORNAX, ORMBX, ORNCX).
At the most basic level, most analysts simply lack an understanding of the Oppenheimer Rochester National Municipal Fund (ORNAX, ORMBX, ORNCX) managed by Ronald Fielding. Most analysis of ORNAX highlights parts of the portfolio without context [...]

Lee Eugene Munson and Patrick Kirtz analyze Ford Convertible Preferred stock. Published on Seeking Alpha
The news is horrible for the auto industry. In October, J.D. Power and Associates published a study that suggested a potential collapse in the global auto industry in 2009. We love to buy panic, but this time it seems real. [...]

Lee Munson and Patrick Kirts analyze Unilever’s financial performance. Published on Seeking Alpha
Part of constructing Portfolio Asset Management’s core retirement portfolio includes looking at companies that are going through some type of corporate change that will act as a catalyst for future growth in profitability. We started searching for a staple that could sustain [...]

Lee Munson and Patrick Kirts assess volatility in energy markets. Published on Seeking Alpha.
After seeing the historic volatility in oil over the last year we at Portfolio Asset Management asked a simple question: How should we take on risk in the energy markets? Warren Buffett once said, “Risk is not knowing what you’re doing.” [...]

Lee Munson and Patrick Kirts analyze Nucor’s financial performance. Published on Seeking Alpha
Recently the financial media has made much to do about all things related to commodities. We doubt that most investors or advisors understand how to approach investing in commodities outside of the ever increasing and complex ETF’s sold to them. The historic [...]