When the current bear market hit -5%, the lion kingdom took a conservative foray into SWPPX instead of the people's ETF, VOO.  The mane idea was a slightly lower expense ratio of .02% instead of .03%.  The mane problem is it's only traded once per day.  That's why we always see stonk prices suddenly rise at the end of the day.  You place an order, then discover the price paid after hours.  You're not going to get the best price in the short term so it takes smaller moves.

Another problem is many believe mutual funds have higher tax penalties than ETF's because ETF's trade creation units at discrete intervals while mutual funds constantly trade individual shares as animals move in & out.  All the mutual fund owners have to pay a capital gains tax regardless of their personal disposition if 1 owner makes money trading the mutual fund.  The rules all sound a bit manufactured.

1 thing that sounds manufactured is the current bear market.  Unlike past bear markets, we're in an era of threats of tariffs that conveniently get deferred at the last minute & attempts to shrink the government.  Suspect Trump is manipulating the market in order to create a buying opportunity for someone.  Normal bear markets are caused by factors which are out of anyone's control. 

 

 This kind of economic manipulation normally led to the opposite in the past.  What they're doing now is nothing compared to shutting the economy down in 2020 & a lot less likely to create long term damage.  Either way, investing in the Trump economy & not believing most of the pessimism from the media is probably a good idea.

  The fundamentals are still dominated by falling interest rates.  The lion kingdom's money market interest rate continued its free fall when the analysts were proclaiming future interest rate hikes.  Interest rates are a dead lion walking.

  Lions made 2 small purchases over 2 weeks, roughly 5 & 7% below the all time high instead of 1 big purchase at -5%.  That puts the next tranche at -10% & so forth until lions run out of money.  Lions are close enough to a desired asset allocation to slow the pace. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There's been a lot of news on Warren Buffet selling a lot of stonk in the last 2 years & stonk prices to GDP being at a record high.  All lions can say is it costs capital gains tax to constantly trade in & out like that.  The analysts are always a step behind Warren.  He still has a lot of money in stonks & buys during dips.  The analysts announce it 3 months later.  He's still very much a stonk fund instead of a bond fund.

Lions believe the stonk market has become so essential to the modern retirement system, if it really did crash for a long time there would be a lot of deflation & the government couldn't allow the deflation.  They would have to lower interest rates & print money like crazy.

They have the same problem with tariffs.  They can't really impose any tariffs which are going to adversely affect stonks in the long term. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bringing back the 80's.  It's about as bland as it always was.  The buttery part was always the highlight.  Besides the nostalgic odor, lions remember not enjoying it but just getting it down in the darkness before school.  1/2 cup of wheat with 2 cups of water is about all lions can stand.  There is now a choc flavor.