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Friday, June 30, 2006

Mutual Fund Fees Lower

John Spence, of MarkekWatch, reviews fund fees and other mutual fund industry trends in a new MarketWatch article via Yahoo Finance. Spence said, "According to a report released earlier this month from the Investment Company Institute, the total cost of investing in stock funds fell in 2005 for the third consecutive year," and added Morningstar analysts' views that "some fund companies are getting their acts together after the damaging trading scandal, but more managers need to invest money in their own funds to better align interests with shareholders." See article for more details.
(permalink) -- Posted by KenW

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Profile: Columbia Small Cap Index Fund

Murray Coleman, of Investor's Business Daily, interviews Vikram Kuriyan, manager of the $1.56 billion, no-load Columbia Small Cap Index Fund (NMSCX) in this IBD article via Yahoo Finance. Referring to the common belief that when it comes to smaller stocks, index funds don't have as much of a chance to beat their active rivals, Kuriyan said, "That's a complete myth." He believes odds will increase in favor of Columbia Small Cap Index, over time, citing the fund's low-cost structure and well-constructed benchmark, the S&P SmallCap 600 index.
(permalink) -- Posted by KenW

Monday, June 26, 2006

Evaluating No-Load Mutual Funds

Harry Domash, publisher of the Winning Investing newsletter, follows up on his recent column on how to search for worthwhile mutual funds using Morningstar's free mutual fund screening program, with this SFGate.com article on suggestions about how to research the resulting mutual fund candidates. Domash describes about a dozen of what he considers to be the most important factors for evaluating funds.
(permalink) -- Posted by KenW

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Profile: Bridgeway Funds

Warren Boroson, Daily Record (Morris County, NJ), spotlights one of the lesser known, higher quality no-load fund families, Bridgeway, in this article from the Ithaca Journal. He said, "Not only do the funds in this family have glorious records, but they are also no-load. They have low expenses. They promptly close a fund if the managers think too much money is coming in. And are you ready for this? Half of the Bridgeway management company's profits go to charity." In addition to his profile, Boroson also interviewed Richard Cancelmo, manager of the Bridgeway Balanced Fund.
(permalink) -- Posted by KenW

Monday, June 19, 2006

Emerging MarketsBubble?

Ellen Simon, Associated Press Business Writer, reports that, "U.S. investors have poured so much money into emerging markets, some on Wall Street are comparing it to the tech-stock bubble of the 1990s." Citing data from the Investment Company Institute, the mutual fund industry's trade group, Simon said, "Mutual fund investors have held little back as they chased international growth. For the first four months of this year, world equity mutual funds had inflows of $79.70 billion, dwarfing U.S. domestic fund inflows of $39.89 billion." For more details, see the AP article via Yahoo Finance.
(permalink) -- Posted by KenW

Friday, June 16, 2006

Schwab Viewpoints Fund Restructured

Charles Schwab announced yesterday that it has restructured the Laudus Balanced MarketMasters Fund, renaming it the Schwab Viewpoints Fund (SWOBX and SWMBX). According to the firm's press release, "The new name underscores the fund's strategy of incorporating Schwab's market expertise in one actively-managed mutual fund. To implement the new strategy, the fund has added international, small-cap and additional large-cap equity investments. The moves align the Schwab Viewpoints Fund with the recommendations of Schwab's Investment Strategy Council, which develops asset allocation guidelines for Schwab clients." Fund manager is Jeff Mortimer, chief investment officer for equities at Charles Schwab Investment Management.
(permalink) -- Posted by KenW

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Five Step Midyear Portfolio Review

Christine Benz, of Morningstar.com, says, "The lazy investor is often more successful than the hard-working one," and adds, "Because it is possible to shoot yourself in the foot with overzealous trading, I'm a big proponent of conducting a portfolio review just a few times a year... to systematically troubleshoot problem spots and identify changes you may want to make as part of your rebalancing program." She identifies five steps to conduct a review of your portfolio in this article from Morningstar via Yahoo Finance.
(permalink) -- Posted by KenW

Monday, June 12, 2006

Strategies for a Volatile Stock Market

Writing about the recently volatile equities markets, Linda Stern says, "...tempting as it might be, pulling out of stocks is exactly what not to do when the market gets volatile. You'll only end up selling low." In her three-page Reuters article, she also offers several strategies that "might help you use some of the volatility to make money," including two for mutual fund investing: Dollar-cost-averaging and value-cost-averaging.
(permalink) -- Posted by KenW

Friday, June 09, 2006

Spotlight on Quantitative Mutual Funds

Jonathan Burton, of MarketWatch, takes a look at quantitative, or "quant," funds which, he says, "are bought, sold and analyzed according to the stony regimen of a computer." Burton adds, "One appeal of quant funds is that emotion doesn't play a part in influencing their investment decisions. Computers don't play favorites or worry about year-end bonuses, and they don't chase hot markets." Quant funds featured in the article include some from the Vanguard Group, Charles Schwab, and Janus mutual fund firms.
(permalink) -- Posted by KenW

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Small-Cap Mutual Funds Lag

Is the reign of small-cap fund dominance over? Citing Morningstar data, Stan Choe, of the Associated Press, reports that, "Small-cap growth funds posted a negative 4.2 percent return for the month ended June 1, compared with a 3.9 percent loss for mid-cap growth funds and a 3 percent loss for large-cap growth funds. Among value funds, meanwhile, small-cap funds fell 2.2 percent over the month, compared with a 1.5 percent loss for mid-cap value funds and a 1.2 percent loss for large-cap values." For more details see th El Paso Times article.
(permalink) -- Posted by KenW

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

All Sector Fund Classes Off in May

As previously noted, May was a tough month for mutual funds, and sector funds fared no better. Paul Katzeff, Investor's Business Daily, reports that, "All sector-fund groups lost ground in May..." Utilities funds fared "best," losing 0.09% on average, according to data from Lipper, while gold funds fared worst losing 9.1% on average. For other sector funds and more details, see the IBD article here, via Yahoo Finance.
(permalink) -- Posted by KenW

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Stock Funds Dip in May; First Loss in 2006

Citing the Federal Reserve's propensity to continue raising interest rates, and the high price of oil, Ken Hoover, of Investor's Business Daily, reports that stock mutual funds suffered their worst monthly losses in nearly two years, in this IBD article via Yahoo Finance. The sharp last half-month decline offset first half-month gains to make May the first losing month of the year. Hoover said, "For the month, the average U.S. diversified stock fund lost 4.07%, according to Lipper. That was the worst since July 2004's 4.78% decline. The Dow Jones industrial average shed 1.75%. The S&P 500 gave up 3.1%. The Nasdaq dropped 6.19%. And the small-cap S&P 600, the market leader for the past several years, surrendered 4.63%." And, he added, "Value outperformed growth, as it typically does in falling markets. Large cap did better than small. Large-cap value was the best performing style, down 2.52%. Small-cap growth was the worst, off 6.48%."
(permalink) -- Posted by KenW

Monday, June 05, 2006

Mutual Fund Redemptions

Jonathan Burton, of Dow Jones & Company, reports that, "Investors' pessimism continued to rattle mutual funds as shareholders pulled an estimated $1 billion from U.S. stock funds in the five trading days through [last] Wednesday, following an exodus of $4.4 billion a week earlier," according to TrimTabs Investment Research. He added, "... international stock funds reversed a downward course, adding $453 million after being hit in the previous week with outflow of $2.8 billion." For more details see the article, via SmartMoney.
(permalink) -- Posted by KenW