Wal-Mart article

I wanted to link to a a great little article called "The Wal-Mart Flap" about Wal-Mart's positioning, written by Jack Trout in Forbes. I agree with Mr. Trout - Wal-Mart needs to realize it is the low-cost leader and position itself so. It even reaffirmed this fact with its $4 prescription drug-plan. If Wallieworld grasps this and rolls, the stock will probably head up because, let's face it, the company still has alot going for it. It is earning above its cost of capital and that is after years of deteriorated returns and their distribution system is still quite a competitive advantage. Could the release of this marketing exec be signal the start of some needed change at WMT?

RVBXX checkup

So I bragged about my Value and Income Fund (RVBVI) reaching the 99th percentile at Marketocracy, but I didn't touch on the other fund. To be fair, I've got to talk about both!

RVBXX, My "Smart Buys" fund, hasn't fared as well. For the past year, the fund was in the 49th percentile of all funds. As a result, it has undergone some serious changes and you can see that in the performance.

RVBVX

What you used to see is a very volatile, high beta, fund. This summer, I've focused more on limiting this - it was simply too risky, and though it outperformed to a degree, it didn't compensate for the additional risk.

Lately, I've gone defensive. Thus, you see recently the market has been moving, but RVBXX has not been moving higher at the same pace. If you read my previous post about RVBVI, this is my stance - I'm a believer in the yield curve at this time.