What Does the Law Require
By law, mutual funds are required to release complete portfolio holdings only twice a year. For actively managed funds, in the interim of 6 months, their holdings could have been turned over many times and the information at investors’ hands can never be real time, live feeds, considering today’s online technology has made instant exchange of information nothing but possible. In fact, the decades-old securities law enacted such a rule because of the concern that fund companies couldn’t afford to mail out a report every day.

Objection to Frequent Portfolio Disclosure
Chief concern among mutual fund companies is that timely portfolio updates of fund holdings can tip off their intentions to the market. It may cause potential front run on a fund where other traders can buy shares ahead of the fund and drive up prices, while the fund is still taking the time to build up positions in a stock. But supporters of full, on-time publication of portfolio holdings argue that the hidden reason why funds are reluctant to do anything beyond what the law requires is that managers might be concerned about revealing questionable trading practice in any disclosure. Funds do a lot of window-dressing trading close to quarter end to boost performance and increase management compensation.

Other Concerns by Financial Advisers
Some financial advisory don’t think that requiring more disclosures of a fund’s holdings is a good idea. They contend that overwhelming information can lead investors to losing their long-term focus and becoming obsessed with fund trading. The advantage of having accessible information as claimed by some investors may be overblown. They also observe that people who are trading stocks and looking for ideas are more interested in getting a first look at a fund’s holdings.

Amid all the conflicting viewpoints, some mutual fund companies are stepping up to make more frequent disclosures on their portfolio holdings. More quarterly updates are now available, with monthly reports on top holdings. To the delight of some investors, a fund named OpenFund lets investors view active trading on its website, while others post weekly trading commentaries by fund managers. A standard monthly reporting ought to be possible if the idea of leaving out sensible trading information is made to consensus.

What happened to the stock market today?

To get back on my original thought, It seems that the media is talking about how this rally is “real”, I don’t think so. How can it when you have sales down in many business’ and people are still losing their jobs. Look before you leap back into any stocks at this time. Yes, I know the markets have corrected themselves in the last week or so, but isn’t that what we were saying a year and a half ago? History has shown us that there is always a second bounce. It’s my opinion that we will see the second bounce some time in the first half of this year.

I’ve been sitting on the sidelines for the last few months when it comes to actively trading on a day-by-day basis. I did make some acquisitions of some stocks like Ford (NYSE: F), as well as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). Those trades were made for the long haul since I do have confidence in those companies and the people running them. I’m going to continue to wait for the other shoe to fall before I get back into the day trading. My advice to you is to do the same, but then again who am I?

Do what you may ,but consider yourself warned.
Happy Trading.

P.S. If you’re looking for some help in the stock market, Try out a free trial of Jim Cramer‘s Action Alerts from The Street.

That wasn’t even the most worthy news of the day, that honor goes to the price of gold, which went above $1000 for the first time in quite some time. The U.S. Dollar lost value today and with that going on, the Commodity sector gained throughout the day.

This week will be a very telling sign of things to come in the near and distance future. Just to be on the safe side, I will be treading very carefully through it all. For those of you that want to try out a different trading technique but are afraid to do it in such trying times, here is a free fantasy stock market game that you can find out if those ideas will pan out.
.
What can you lose? It’s FREE.