Mungofitch wrote:

a fund with a bit of a sanity filter, or tilt towards actual value (not to be confused with the "value" factor as sold which is often just slow growth), might not be such a terrible thing.

My best effort to find one of these for my LTBH money led me to SPGP, a self-describe "GARP" ("growth at reasonable prices") fund. It describes itself as seeking

"growth stocks that also contain quality and value traits, or growth at a reasonable price. Starting from the S&P 500, the underlying index selects 150 names with the highest growth score, derived from trailing 3-year earnings to price growth and sales to price growth. It then picks the top half of these based on a quality and value score, using financial leverage ratio, return on equity and earnings to price. The resulting 75 names are weighted by the growth score."

SPGP is obviously related to the emergence of "quality" funds, as distinct from "value." This seems to me a generally good development, though it will be hard to judge until the next bear/sideways market shows up.

I would be glad to know about suggested alternatives to SPGP, from those with a surer eye for such things than I have.

Baltassar