Comments on: What’s driving the Total Return ETF?

By: timothydh

timothydh — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Two things – there is no mention of the BarCap Agg’s performance during this time period, which both fund and ETF have dominated. Also, getting a quote from Doubleline, arguably PIMCO’s biggest up and coming competitor in the core bond space, on how PIMCO is too big seems a bit biased, no?

By: marketguru

marketguru — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 23:41:41 +0000

To me the issue is this: Is PIMCO keeping the best investment opportunities for the ETF (while it is still small) at the expense of the Total Return mutual fund. These small but profitable opportunities are useful for building the track record at the ETF, but matter little to the goliath mutual fund…

By: Hippopotamax

Hippopotamax — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 17:35:50 +0000

PTTRX, the institutional share class of the Total Return mutual fund, has an expense ration of .46%. The ETF charges .55%. The three individual share classes of the Total Return fund, on the other hand, charge a load of 3.75% and has an expense ratio of .90%; an ER of 1.65% (if held for more than 12 months); or an ER of .75% (if bought through a qualified adviser).

This is to say, the fee structure would have to change before qualified investors (the large stakes in the Total Return fund) are going to move from the mutual fund to the ETF. For them, it would cost more money.