Oct 31 2005
Russel Kinnel, a writer for Morningstar.com, spotlights six of the most interesting mutual funds the firm has placed under analyst coverage recently. Highlighted funds include four no-load funds: TrendStar Small Cap (TRESX), Royce Value (RYVFX), Schwab YieldPlus (SWYPX), and Constellation Sands Capital Select Growth (PTSGX), and two others with loads, Schneider Value (SCMLX 1% deferred sales load), and Nuveen NWQ International Value (NAIGX 5.75% front end sales load). See the article at JewishWorldReview.com for the full fund profiles.
Oct 28 2005
Malcolm Berko profiles and evaluates four no-load mutual funds for a reader in this article from the Sun Hearld. The fund list includes The Fairholme Fund (FAIRX), TCW Galileo Dividend Focused Fund (TGIGX), Jensen Fund (JENSX), Marsico Focus Fund (MFOCX). Noting that "the average mutual fund has between 150 and 185 issues in their portfolios, while each of these funds invests in less than 50 stocks," Berko rates Fairholme Fund a buy, and finds TCW Galileo Dividend Focused Fund "reasonable."
Oct 27 2005
This year is on track to be the second straight year that the energy sector has been the best performing sector, so it is no surprise that energy mutual funds and those with significant energy holdings have outperformend those with lesser energy holdings. Mutual fund investors looking for performance beyond energy may be interested in three funds profiled by Kai Wiecking of Morningstar.com in this article via Yahoo Finance. Wiecking has uncovered "a handful of funds [that] managed to deliver strong returns despite being underweight in the market's strongest sector," including: Hotchkis and Wiley Core Value (HWCAX), and no-load funds, Oakmark International (OAKIX) , and Marsico Focus (MFOCX).
Oct 26 2005
Meg Richards, AP Business Writer, provides tips and insights from investment professionals on mutual funds asset allocation in this AP article from the Star Tribune. She warns that "...sometimes people confuse the idea of diversity with owning many different funds, and they wind up with a hodgepodge of investments that don't perform in harmony with one another." Interviewed in the article, Robert R. Johnson, managing director of the CFA program division at the CFA Institute, a nonprofit group that certifies financial analysts, said "...asset allocation "is the second-most important decision investors make," adding "the most important decision is to invest in the first place.''
Oct 25 2005
Four Price Funds Earn Morningstar "A" in Stewardship
Four T. Rowe Price funds now earn an Morningstar grade of A in stewardship because "the manager investment information was good enough to merit a bump up to the highest overall grade," according to this Morningstar article by Russel Kinnel (via Yahoo Finance). Kinnel names and profiles the four Price funds which include: T. Rowe Price High-Yield (Nasdaq:PRHYX), T. Rowe Price Real Estate (Nasdaq:TRREX), T. Rowe Price Spectrum Income (Nasdaq:RPSIX), and T. Rowe Price Tax-Free Income Fund. To determine a fund's Stewardship Grade, Morningstar looks at "the fund company's track record with regulators, corporate culture, manager compensation and other incentives, board accountability, and fees."
Oct 24 2005
An academic study from INSEAD Department of Finance, Mutual Funds and Bubbles: The Surprising Role of Contractual Incentives, explores "one of the potential causes of the financial market bubble of the late 1990s: herding behavior of mutual funds." The study found that found that performance incentives had a strong positive influence on fund managers' performance. From the abstract: "We argue that the incentives embedded in the compensation induce managers to overcome their tendency to herd. We explain that investing in bubble stocks amounts to herding, and in this case, contracts with high incentives induce managers to diverge from the pack, thus reducing their holding of bubble stocks." The complete study can be downloaded from the web site.
Oct 21 2005
Actively Managed Large-cap Mutual Funds Outperform S&P 500
Standard & Poor's recently announced that actively managed large-cap funds have outperformed the S&P 500 in 2005 with 55.8% of the funds outperforming the index. "In 2005, energy, utilities and real estate issues led market returns," says Rosanne Pane, Mutual Fund Strategist at Standard & Poor's. "Actively managed large-cap funds benefited from their overweight in those segments relative to the S&P 500. Active sector funds were helped by their ability to invest globally, including investments in emerging markets." Longer-term results continue to find indices outperforming a majority of active funds. Over the past three years, the S&P 500 has outperformed 69.4% of large-cap funds, the S&P MidCap 400 has outperformed 69.1% of mid-cap funds, and the S&P SmallCap 600 has outperformed 71.7% of small-cap funds. Read the full article here.
Oct 10 2005
Jack Sirard, Staff Writer, focues on a little-known sector of mutual funds which is currently providing relatively high returns with relative low risk -- bank loan mutual funds -- in this article from The Sacramento Bee. Sirard spoke with Jack Bowers, publisher of the investment newsletter Fidelity Monitor, who "describes this fund niche as a lot like junk bond funds without nearly as much risk. However, junk bond funds have loans that extend five to 10 years, he said, but the bank loan funds have short terms that leave less time for something to go wrong and have corporate assets that secure them." And, he mentioned two no-load funds in this niche, Fidelity's Floating Rate High Income Fund (FFRHX) and Eaton Vance Floating Rate and High Income Fund (EAFHX).
Oct 07 2005
Christine Benz details "How to Find the Best Fund Supermarket" in this article from Morningstar.com via Yahoo Finance. Benz covers "some of the key steps to take when deciding among various supermarkets," including (1) Check up on the quality of the no-transaction-fee investments, (2) Don't dismiss the non-NTF lineup, (3) Investigate other fees, (4) Watch where your cash will be going, (5) Find out about trading limits, and (6) Get the skinny on transfers.
Oct 06 2005
3rd Quarter Review of U.S. Mutual Funds
Standard & Poor's Third Quarter Review of U.S. Mutual Funds shows that all fund categories finished in positive territory. Mid-cap growth funds gained the most, returning 6.1% for the quarter while large-cap value portfolios showed the smallest increase, rising 3.6%. The S&P 500, the world's most followed index, was up 3.6% during this time period. Growth-oriented funds outperformed their value counterparts over the past three months. The average growth fund advanced 5.6% for the three months ending September 30, versus a 4.5% gain for the average value fund. However, value funds still reign supreme so far this year, gaining 5.4% versus a gain of 4.5% for the average growth fund.
Oct 05 2005
S&P Reports September Index Returns
Standard & Poor's has released its Index Returns for September 2005 which shows the S&P Latin America 40 index leading all indicies with a 15.69 percent return. Other double digit index performers included: S&P/TOPIX 150 (YEN) (13.19 percent), S&P Japan 500 (YEN) (12.53 percent), and S&P/TOPIX 150 (US$) (11.35 percent). S&P US Indices for the month were led by S&P SmallCap 600/Barra Growth (1.49 percent) and S&P 500/Barra Value (1.04 percent). The S&P Report also includes three-month, year-to-date, 12 Months, 3 Years, 5 Years, and 10 Years performance summaries for both US Indices and Global Indices.
Oct 04 2005
In today's improved environment for mergers and acquisitions, Gregg Greenberg, staff reporter for TheStreet.com, spoke with John Orrico, portfolio manager for the no-load Arbitrage fund, who described his strategy and recent performance, "our goals are fairly simple: capital preservation and consistent positive returns which are noncorrelated to equity or fixed income markets. Over the past five years we are up about 7% annualized, vs. negative 2% for the S&P 500." Greenberg also got Orrico's views on interest rates, international deals, and more in this three-page article from TheStreet.com.
Oct 03 2005
Yale Investment Manager Criticizes Mutual Funds
Personal finance columnist Susan Morris reports on the investment views of David Swenson, chief investment officer of Yale University's endowment fund, and author of a new book, "Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment." in this article from The Tribune-Review. Noting that Swenson has achieved net investment average annual returns of 16.1 percent, Morris says, "Swenson slams the mutual fund industry for not protecting the interests of the investor. He uses as an example the high turnover rate of many mutual fund portfolios. Even though a significant portion of assets in mutual funds is taxable, Swenson contends that the majority of funds are managed with complete indifference to the tax consequences." In addition, she reports that he also eschews high management fees, particularly 12(b) fees, and favors index funds, particularly "those run by nonprofit companies, such as Vanguard."
More articles from BestNoLoadFunds.com:
December '05 | November '05 | October '05 | September '05 | August '05 | July '05
Mutual Fund Resources:
Mutual Fund Reference: