intercst
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I’m not a subscriber, so it’s paywalled - which ETF specifically are they talking about?
{{ State Street STT -1.22%decrease; red down pointing trianglelast month slashed the fee on its cheapest S&P 500 exchange-traded fund, known by ticker symbol SPLG, to 0.02%—making it less than a quarter of the cost of its popular SPY fund that tracks the same stocks. It is now the cheapest index fund in its class. A $1,000 investment in SPLG costs investors just 20 cents a year in fees. }}
intercst
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FXAIX, Fidelity’s S&P 500 fund has been 0.015 for years. 0.02 is 30% more expensive. 
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The Fidelity fund isn’t an ETF. But if I had money at Fidelity, that’s the fund I’d have it in, or one of their 0.00% expense ratio funds.
intercst
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A couple of years ago I “thought” I’d place some money into a Fidelity fund and chose FBGRX. I put $500 a month into it for a year. FBGRX is the worst investment I ever made other than the silver I bought 40 or 50 years ago. My advice stay clear of it. A real dog. It’s been down since day one.
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What relevance does Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund have to do with Fidelity S&P 500 fund?
Perhaps your problem was you invested in a long term investment with a short term horizon.
Have you taken a look at FBGRX this year? Up 33%. 10 yr average return is over 15%. Ranked in the top 4% of all funds of this category for the last 10 years.
Hawkwin
Not advocating for Fidelity but finds it very interesting that someone would judge any actively managed fund based on a single year of performance.
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The original poster suggested what fund he would place his money in. I responded by letting him and the group know where I placed my money. What’s wrong with that?
Yes. I look at it daily and it’s been down ever since I bought it.
Regards,
ImAGolfer
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Interesting - its chart shows up 31% for the past 12 months; up 37% YTD; and up 20% for the past six months.
Pete
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**Interesting - its chart shows up 31% for the past 12 months; up 37% YTD; and up 20% for the past six months.
What can I say Pete. I placed $500/mo from 1/21 through 12/21 into FBGRX. My total cost basis is $6,446.99 and the current value is $5,378.57. To me I’m down $1,068.42.
I own 36.006 shares times current price $149.38 or $5,378.57.
Maybe if Fidelity used my time period instead of theirs it would paint a different picture. I again suggest FBGRX is a dog.
ImAGolfer (retired 2003)
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Well for one thing FBGRX has an expense ratio of 0.76%. That’s disqualifying for me. “Minimizing the Skim” – the key to retiring early. The Fidelity funds I mentioned had 0% to near zero percent expense ratios.
intercst
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I really don’t have any comment on the original post - the author’s position is on this subject should be well know anybody who even follows this board sporadically.
But I find complaints about FBGRX over recent months amazing.
This fund holds big, growth companies in tech. Apple, Microsoft, NVIDA. Google, etc. Just these companies are well over 10% of the S&P500. Apple’s growth in the last 5 years has been over 20% compound growth and it is 7.1% of the S&P today.
Stock prices are about future earnings growth. FBGRX holdings grew disproportionally in the last 5 years. History says the probability of that type of performance in the next five to ten years is low.
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Wait, you invested $500 a month for 12 months, right? $6000 in total, right? If correct, I hope you realize that quoting your cost basis is not relevant. Your cost basis is adjusted up (or down) based on dividends and capital gains/losses. Your not down $1000+, you are down only the difference between what you invested ($6000) and the current value, or $600+.
Not sure I would call that a dog, especially based on your admitted Recentcy bias. You stated that you intended to be invested in this fund for just a year - then why did you not get out after that year? If you had, you would have walked away with a nice profit. This fund was up 21% in 2021. Seems like you are blaming the fund making the wrong decision to change your investment timeline.
I’ve made ridiculous amounts of money over the last decade by being invested in QLD (2x the Nasdaq) but when it loses money for me as it did all last year, that doesn’t make it a dog, that just reflects on my poor decisions to hold out to it when it would be wise to change my strategy.
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When did I say that?
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Perhaps I incorrectly inferred your timeline based on the fact that you only actively invested in it for a year.
So, I wonder how many other funds did well in 2021 and then fell in 2022 to recover somewhat in 2023? Wasn’t 2021 (October 2021 specifically) just about the historical market high?
If the investment was made e.g. in 2020 instead, how would that have been different (rhetorical question). The issue is the narrow, market high period of investment and not so much the precise fund.
Pete
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This story is a great example of the conundrum of “just buy and be invested” vs “buy the dip”.
And “past returns are no guarantee of future returns”, etc.
Some experts say to “just buy, don’t worry about the price”.
Others caution to wait for a “value” entry.
There are pros n cons to both methods.
Volatility and risk are harsh mistresses.
@ImAGolfer got burned cause the buy price was at the high.
Kicking his balls into the sand trap doesn’t make us a better investor.
ralph has managed to buy at the high on several occasions.
NVDA in Feb 2017 comes to mind.
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ImAGolfer:
$500 a month since January 2021 to today looks pretty good. It kept pace with Fidelity’s S&P 500…
https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio?s=y&sl=5tJXA7Y93OZDJ5nBcrJyW9
BB
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