Vice is beating the market, but the two Social Funds in my portfolio have either been beating or matching it in performance.  What I find more striking is that all three funds are kicking the ass of the big Fidelity monsters that I'm getting through my 401k.  It's apparently more profitable to go to extremes these days than to hug the middle ground.

Also, it's a little disappointing to see that the Fund is stuck in the mental trap of defining "Vice" as something politically incorrect to liberals.  I didn't see any investment in Indian gaming in their prospectus, even though that market has much more national growth potential than properties stuck in Nevada or the Mississippi.  Nor are they investing in any construction companies known to employ undocumented immigrant labor instead of their full-price competitors.  And investment in sex is virtually nonexistent--only a bit of money thrown towards Playboy, and nothing for birth control manufacturers.  Could this be the start of a class-action lawsuit by shareholders that aren't seeing their money go into sufficiently profitable vices?

(is 3fingerspointback)

Tonight I went to see "The Departed" a film which is a shoe-in for Best Picture, and a bunch of other "Best" awards come Academy time. The theater I saw this masterpience at promised unlimited refills of both popcorn and soda providing the consumer bought the large version.

Who was I to refuse?

If only gluttony were somehow sinful...one could almost see where the Vice Fund could make a case for investing in Movie Theater chains.  Which of course brings me to Vice Funds "market beating" return. Kinda odd that the focus in the writeup is for a 3 year return (20.74) when the fund is 4 years old don't you think? Almost makes someone who has just drank a large soda and ate a crapload of popcorn (not to mention popable snickers) peruse the prospectus while contemplate whether patience is really a virtue if one has to pee and the bathroom is occupied.

And so what do I find..instead of 20%, we are now at (since inception) 16.6% return. Still nice..still respectable. Wait though..forgot to pay taxes...and oh yea withdrawal costs. Now we're down to 14.48 return. Not too shabby. Oh wait..forgot the funds expenses...after all the managers need to be paid. Thats uh 1.75%. Final answer: 12.73

But here's a question. What did the broader market as measured by the S&P 500 do in that period? ...11.71%. So basically the Vice Fund outperforms the broader -safer- market by 1%.

Seems to me that Vice, much like the large soda and popcorn deal, just isn't worth it.

Memory is a strange bell, jubilee and knell.

Every time I get back from Vegas I think, man, I should invest in some "gaming" stocks.  Then I look at their performance and it sucks.  Must be the overhead on all those fancy hotels.

I don't see why these funds wouldn't be popular.  Its a way of diversifying that works to almost everyone's advantage.  If you like alcohol, smokes, and gambling.. hey, these stocks do well, and you make money.  Who hooo.  If for some reason you are one of those crazy people that doesn't like those things, well, you invest in this.  If they do poorly, hey, you should be happy, you don't like those things.  If they do well, hey you made money, you can now give this money to efforts to keep people from smoking / drinking / gambling / having fun.  Sounds like a win-win.

include "Dallas-based" before 1st mention of "The Vice Fund"...otherwise nice sub, run it...I'm not crazy about cross-linking w/ Plastic, let's break the umbilical now...

For instance, I don't want to invest in all tobacco companies, just the one that makes the smokes I like, and I don't want one more of my pennies going to making the bombs. Well, you get the idea.

Oh, yeah, I'd need $2,000.00 USD, first, too.

----- The earth may fail, but we will quiver