MFO Ratings Updated Through August 2019

All fund risk and return metrics, ratings, and analytics have been uploaded to MFO Premium, reflecting performance through August 2019.

We went live Saturday evening. Lipper drops the full month-ending data about 5am Pacific the first Saturday following the last day of the month. It takes about 12 hours to prepare the data, crunch the ratings, and refresh our site.

Some brief background on Lipper Analytical Services, according to Wikipedia and NYT

It was founded in 1973 by securities analyst A. Michael Lipper. (He publishes a weekly blog.) Reuters acquired the firm in 1998. Thomson and Reuters merged in 2008. Last year, Blackstone Group bought a 55% stake and Thomson Reuters was renamed Refinitiv.

Last month, the London Stock Exchange Group agreed to buy Refinitiv outright for $27B, a 35% increase over last year’s valuation.

A couple highlights in this month’s data:


  • Equity funds were generally off a few percent in August (SPY -1.6, QQQ -1.9, IWV -2.1, VEU -2.3, EEM -5.0) … SPY is up 18.2% YTD.

  • Bond funds enjoyed a great month (AGG +2.6, LQD +3.7, TLT +10.9) … TLT is up 23.3% YTD.

  • Morningstar’s new fund family is off to just a so-so start … from a performance perspective. (As an asset gatherer, it’s off to a great start … $2.4B!) Six of its nine funds launched nine months ago are trailing their peers, placing the fund family “Lower” on MFO’s Scorecard. Two funds, however, have strong performance out-of-the-gate: Global Income (MSTGX) and Total Return Bond (MSTRX).

We’ve added the long-awaited Portfolio Analysis tool, which enables users to determine risk and return metrics at rolled-up portfolio levels. We’ve also added Calendar Year and Fixed Period Return headers to the MultiSearch Results table and a blog post on the WisdomTree Fund Family.

As always, if you see anything amiss or have suggestions for improvement, let us know and we will respond soonest.

Please enjoy the latest data and site features.