Nemesis, you probably know that very soon, you will be able to get in on OAKEX.

i personally bought OAKLX in about Sep 07. The fund returned nearly 10% pretty fast, and I thought it was going to turn around. then, of course, the subprime thing hit, and Wamu was near the epicenter. I bailed. frankly, it was a bit of an emotional decision.

that said, I believe that Nygren is over-invested in Wamu. he is still devoting a very large chunk of OAKLX to WM, and he still thinks that it's a good pick, although he did note that its intrinsic value had suffered a material decline. personally ... I wonder if he's been blinded to WM's downside, because it has generated a lot of wealth for him in the past. 

Nygren has too much ego tied up in Wamu.  He has been touting the stock for years, and he can't come to saying that he was wrong.  I don't want a manager who has his ego tied to his stock picks.

Charles

Weiwentg,

Yep, I plan buying OAKEX very soon.I'm just trying to wait and see if I can buy it at a cheaper price.

 Nemesis

When deciding on whether to bail on this fund, would you want to own any of the stocks in this portfolio? Do you want Pulte Homes or Wamu? Do you want MCD at 39 times earnings? With all the bad feelings created by the television writers strike, do you fancy holding Liberty Media, Time Warner, Viacom, or Discovery Holdings? Looking to pick up some of H&R Block's mortgage exposure? Do you like Sprint's customer service? (Google "Sprint sucks" for more on this) Like the big banks? JP Morgan? Have you called Dell lately and asked for help with a problem? What did they say?

With the possible exception of BMY, I can't see many stocks I'd like to own.  Truth be told, this looks like a pretty ugly collection of securities. With more downside to come as he starts selling to meet shareholder redemptions. Gonna be a good buy in about a year or two, though. Then it really will be a value fund.
 

 Cheers, Steve

The merit of oaklx lies in its out-performance during the 2000-2002stretch, a very difficult time for most other domestic equity investors. The same team and manager are managing oaklx today. I have to ask was that stretch of outperformance a lucky break, or value added? If it was luck, then what's happening now is just reversion to the means. If it was skill, then we have to ask what went wrong with the skill since mid 2007? And are the mistakes going to keep oaklx a bad investment going forward from today on? I don't know. In hindsight, it would have been wise to sell oaklx 6 months ago. But that shouldn't determine our answer today whether we should sell today at today's price. That question should be determined by whether 3-5 years down the road, in hindsight then, will it have been wise to hold on or let go oaklx.

autobotalex

Morningstar has changed its teaser line on the snapshot page for OAXLX; it now states: "This mutual fund should be able to recover." Note the conditional language. Take a look at its chart: OAKLX's death spiral tracks the discovery of WaMu's subprime mortgage exposure and subsequent revelations.

Performance  more
Growth of $10,000	12-31-07

When deciding on whether to bail on this fund, would you want to own any of the stocks in this portfolio?

I have came to the conclusion that it would pay us all to study what is in the funds we own or think of buying.  I bought a fund and it hasn't done well.  I was looking at what is in it.   I would not have purchased many of the stocks in it, for various reasons.  I know they are not up to date on what is shown that they own, but they don't change what they have often.

I am considering starting my own baskets of stocks, that I would like to own.  Fidelity has a way to buy them in groups like that, so you have your own self made equity funds and you can mix bonds, etc.

I am going to make a list of what to look for in each stock and do research. Serious times requires serious efforts.

I can't help with OAKLX, I have never owned it.

You have to go WAY BACK to see when OAKLX did great.

It's in the bottom 2-2% of it's peers short term, last 5 years, and everything in between.

If you look at 10 year performance, though, it's in the top 4% of its peers (I also recall morningstar changing it's category from a mid-cap value to a large-cap blend a few years back, which makes this type of comparison a little more hazy).

I try to think long term, but I cannot and will not ignore 5 continuous years of poor performance. I also don't know that good performance during the last bear indicates good performance in the next bear.

Then again, maybe I'm just justifying my getting out of OAKLX last year.

//mjs