Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Iron Mountain 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009




The Iron Mountain plan was not helped by company stock IRM which has been down 3 of the last 5 years. The plan Balanced portfolio however has a nice 5yr return APR = 5.31% with a Sharpe ratio of 1.44 thanks to the stable value fund and PTTRX. The employee portfolio does not have much money in company stock only 1.1% but their asset allocation produced much more volatility than the Balanced portfolio.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Questar 401k (EIP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009



Another energy company plan helped by company stock STR. The Balanced portfolio invested 5.7% of the plan in the stock and the employee portfolio had 58.5% of that portfolio in the stock. Compared to last year the plan has improved incrementally and the 3D scan shows the performance improvement. As usual I think 58.5% in company stock is way to much for a retiree but with the stock up 20.5% YTD that will not be very popular.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

XCEL Energy 401k (SP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009



This plan continues to be helped by company stock XEL and by the funds that rebounded in 2009. The Balanced portfolio invested 7.6% of the plan in company stock and the 3D scan image shows improvement year over year with 10 investment options now in the Balanced portfolio. The employee portfolio invested 19.0% of their money in company stock which more than doubled their volatility risk compared to the Balanced portfolio without improving relative performance.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Owens-Illinois 401k (LTSP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009



The Owens-Illinois 401k plan uses Harbor Funds for almost all of their invetment options. The plan has a GIC and it is the largest holding of the Balanced portfolio at 57.4% of the plan. Harbor Target Retirement Funds do not have 5yr data yet and they are not in the scan. The employee portfolio has 24.9% of their money in company stock OI which is very volatile. That increased their volatility risk STD = 20.61% and added little to their 5y return APR = 4.03%. All in all a good plan but in my opinion one that needs a little more diversification.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

MarketWatch Portfolio PSDS Scan Yesterday



To conclude this weeks look at Mr. Markets "largest" fund portfolios I did a scan of the 25 largest funds according to MarketWatch as of 8-25-2010. The big difference with the USA list is the inclusion of 8 money market funds that held 673 Billion dollars yesterday. Two of these did not have 5yr data so the scan has only 23 funds. The Balanced portfolio has a slightly smaller APR and slightly larger Sharpe ratio than the USA funds because of the money market funds. The conclusion is the same, Mr. Market has made more money with less risk the last 5 years than any target date retirement fund. The gold ETF helped a bit.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Disney 401k (SIP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009



Disney had a good 2009 and the stock DIS is in the Balanced portfolio this year. The plan has made incremental gains over last year and the employee portfolio now has 25.3% of their portfolio invested in company stock. That is more than I think prudent for a retiree. The Fidelity US Equity Index Commingled Pool is FC5024 in the scan.

USA Yesterday Portfolio PSDS Scan 12-31-2009



The USA Today is read at airports, hotels and coffee shops everywhere. It is not the WSJ or an academic journal and the data are not without a few errors but it is an interesting sample of where Mr. Market had most of his 401k money as of yesterday 8-24-2010. There are only 14 funds in the scan because PTTRX and PTRAX are the same fund which held 239 Billion dollars of Mr. Markets money yesterday. The scan shows that Mr. Market on a 5yr basis is making money even though as of year-to-date yesterday 8-24-2010 all but two of the funds are losing money. Keeping things in context is important.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Campbell Soup 401k (SPP) PSDS Scan 12-31-2009



The Campbell Soup plan trustee is Fidelity and all the investment options in the scan are Fidelity funds. The Balanced portfolio invested 64.8% of the money in the stable value fund FMIP2 in the scan and 16.7% in FSICX. The plan does not have a bond fund and it should. The employee portfolio has 32.4% of their money in company stock CPB and a bit more in the stable value fund. The plan could use a basic international fund and a bond index fund of which Fidelity has several. That could easily raise the 5yr APR and Sharpe ratio.

Monday, August 23, 2010

HCC Insurance Holdings 401k PSDS Scan 12-31-2009



The trustee for this plan is MassMutal and the investment options include several I have not seen before but the Balanced portfolio is all too familar. The capital market line is inverted and the largest holdings in the Balanced portfolio are the GIC and two bond funds. The employee portfolio is conservative and quite close to the Balanced portfolio with only 5.1% of the portfolio in company stock HCC.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Alliant Techsystems 401k PSDS Scan 12-31-2009



The Balanced portfolio is a lot better "balanced" than last years and now has less than 50% of the portfolio in the stable value fund FMIP2 in the scan. The employee portfolio has 12.2% of their portfolio in company stock ATK which increased their volatility risk but still produced a postive 5yr APR = 3.62% and a positive Sharpe ratio = 0.22. The largest holding in both portfolios is the stable value fund.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Newmont Mining 401k (RSP) PSDS Scan 12-31-2009



This mining company stock NEM now has a small positive 5yr APR = 2.18% but not a positive 5yr Sharpe ratio and it is still not in the Balanced portfolio. The employee portfolio has 17.8% of their portfolio in the stock which did not help their 5yr return. Year over year improvement can be seen in the 3D scan image but I would still rather own GLD than NEM stock.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Piper Jaffray 401k (RP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009



The Piper Jaffray Balanced portfolio has improved over last year and now has a 5yr APR = 6.23% with a Sharpe ratio of 1.11. The employee portfolio has 10.7% invested in company stock PJC which still does not have a positive 5yr Sharpe ratio but it is close. All things considered this is a good plan that got incrementally better in 2009.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

20 World ETF Portfolio PSDS Scan 6-30-2009,10,11


 About the only big change this year 2011 was the viewing angle which I did not write down last year.

This Balanced portfolio has changed little since the last scan 6-30-2009 and still has a double digit 5yr return APR = 12.91% with a Sharpe ratio of 1.08. The biggest change was in EWM the Malaysia ETF which is now the largest holding at 19% of the portfolio. The other large change was EWP the Spanish ETF which dropped out of the Balanced portfolio for lack of a positive 5yr Sharpe ratio. That leaves only 12 of the 20 ETFs in the Balanced portfolio and I own a few of them in my Roth. Another year of double digit returns and I just might own a few more.

Agilent Technologies 401k PSDS Scan 12-31-2009



Agilent Technologies company stock A had a very good 2009 but the stock volatility is so high the Balanced portfolio invested only 0.8% of the plan in the stock. The employee portfolio has 5.1% of their portfolio in the stock. As the 3D scan image shows there are now 12 investment options in the Balanced portfolio including one Vanguard target date retirement fund.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Sempra Energy 401k (SP) PSDS Scan 12-31-2009




Last years scan did not include the stable value fund and the Balanced fund put 100% of the plan in company stock SRE. This years scan includes the stable value fund SVF.hpx in the scan and the Balanced fund has 84.4% of the plan in the stable value fund and the stock which did well again in 2009 has 12.7%. It made a huge difference in the 3D scan image. The employee portfolio has 45.5% of the postfolio in company stock about the same as last year. This bipoloar behavior happens a lot in energy companies that have strongly outperfomed the market for more that 5 years. Only investment options with 5% or more of the plan are in the scan.

Friday, August 13, 2010

XTO Energy 401k Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009



A lot has happened since the scan last year. The company XTO Energy is now owned by Exxon Mobile and the company stock in the scan is XOM. Today 8-13-2010 was the last day the old stock was listed. The Balanced portfolio invested 6.6% of the plan in XOM stock and 75.1% of the plan in the Wells Fargo stable value fund DSVG1 in the scan. The employee portfolio investment in company stock was 75.2% of the portfolio using 12-31-2009 asset allocation data. That is way too much even for Exxon Mobile stock in my opinion especially for a retiree.

Kohl's 401k (SP) Plan PSDS Scan 12-31-2009



The Kohl's 401k plan added a couple of funds and one of them BPRAX is in the Balanced portfolio. That portfolio has improved year over year but the stable value fund SVF.put in the scan is still the largest holding. The employee portfolio has 14.3% of the portfolio in company stock KSS and that reduced their 5yr return and increased their volatility risk. A familar story.