From: gs38@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Gopalakrishnan Subramaniam)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Mutual Funds
Date: 27 Jan 93 17:19:00 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Columbia University

Due to lot or requests I am posting these articles again

I screened the mutual funds based on the last year and last 5 years
returns. The following information may be of good use to you in
making your investment decisions.

[Fund types are designated as follows:- G = Growth GI = Growth & Income
FS = financial S = target sector SG = small company growth TK = technology
CV = convertible securities]


CATEGORY I
---------

FUNDS WHICH RETURNED AN AVERAGE OF 20% OVER THE LAST YEAR AND THE PAST 5 YEARS 

Only NO LOAD funds are given here.

FUND NAME	TYPE	1 yr	5yr	RECOM.	800 number	min. inv.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Century shares	FS	27	20	yes	321-1928	500

FAM Value fund	GI	25	23	yes	don't know

Financial-Invesco
	financial FS	27	27	yes	525-8085	250*
	leisure	  S	23	24	yes	525-8085	250*

Skyline sp. eq.	 SG	42	25	yes	458-5222	1000**

* may be 1000 in 1993.
** closed for new investors but a similar fund will be offered to new
investors from Feb 1993. Recommendation is not for the new fund.


CATEGORY II
-----------

FUNDS WHICH RETURNED AN AVERAGE OF 20% OVER THE PAST 5 YEARS BUT THEIR

1 YR RETURN IS BETWEEN 10% AND 20%

Only NO LOAD funds are considered here.

FUND NAME		TYPE	1 yr	5 yr	RECOM.	800 number
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Brandywine		G	16	22		338-1579

CGM cap. dev.		G	18	23	yes	343-7104

Fidelity Advisor EqPG I	G	10	27		544-8888

Financial-Invesco tech.	TK	19	26	yes	525-8085

Kaufman			SG	11	34	yes	237-0132

Meridian		G	16	22		don't know

Nicholas-NicholasII	SG	17	20		414-272-6133

Price Funds (T.Rowe Price)				638-5660
	New Am.		G	10	21
	Sci. Tech.	TK	19	25	yes

20th Century Gift-trust	G	18	25 	yes	345-2021


CATEGORY III
------------

FUNDS WHICH RETURNED AN AVERAGE OF 30% OVER THE PAST 5 YEARS.

FUND NAME               TYPE    1 yr    5 yr    RECOM.	800-num.	Load
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaufman			SG	11	34	yes	237-0132	0%

Vista - Growth&inc.	GI	15	32	yes	348-4782	5%

Financial-Invesco Health	-14	31	no	525-8085	0%


CATEGORY IV
----------

BEST FUNDS IN 1992:- FUNDS WHOSE RETURNS WERE MORE THAN 30%

FUND NAME               TYPE    1 yr    5 yr    800number  Sales Load
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fidelity Select
	auto		S	42	18	544-8888	3%
	finan		FS	43	19	544-8888	3%
	reg.Banks	FS	49	26	544-8888	3%
	S&L		FS	58	23	544-8888	3%
	software	TK	36	20	544-8888	3%

GT Global Amer.		G	32	20	548-9995	5%

John Hancock Spcl Eq.	SG	30	28	225-5291	5%

John Hancock Freedom
	reg banks	FS	47	24	225-5291	n.a.

Mainst.			GI	31	--			5%

Oakmark			G	49	--	GROW-OAK	0%

PaineWebber Reg.fin.	FS	39	23	647-1568	n.a.
	reg. banks	FS	38	-			n.a.

Parnsus			G	37	19	999-3505	3%

Regis Fund ICMSC	SG	32	--	----		0%

Rochester Funds- Conv.	CV	31	14	716-383-1300	3%

SIFE Trust		FS	34	17			n.a.

Skyline Spcl. Eq.	SG	42	25	458-5222	0%

Venture RPFGl.		FS	34	-	279-0279	5%

Note: n.a. not available. May not be available to new investors Or may be
available through some special susbcriptions. 

CATEGORY V
---------

Best fund groups

1. Janus Funds. Best funds are Janus Fund and Janus twenty. Janus twenty

is closed for new investors. Janus Fund is conservative and perform well
in a bear market. Fund's objective is growth. Telephone transfer facilities
available for switching between funds or to safe money-market accounts.
Minimum investment is 0 if you invoke automatic monthly investments of atleast
50 dollars. Otherwise min. invt. is 1000. All the funds are NO LOAD funds. 
Janus Fund has good rating in a bear market (Forbes)
Tel. No.800-525-3713

2. Financial-Invesco.
	Probably the best NO Load fund group. Telephone switching possible.
Minimum investment is 250 (may have changed to 1000 in 1993) per fund.
They have sector funds like Health, technology, leisure, as well as other
conservative funds to suit to every one's needs.
My recommendations are financial, leisure, and technology sector funds.
Conservative investors consider Industrial Income fund which invests mainly
in dividend producing stocks. Also they have balanced funds and money market
funds for safety.
Tel. No. 800-525-8085

3. Fidelity Group.
	This group offers the large variey of funds. Some have load while some
don't. Best funds are ContraFund (Contrarian Investing), OTC portfolio, and
Low-Priced Stock fund. In the select sectors they have a wider spectrum of funds.
There were four sector funds in the financial sector which appear in the previous
category tables. Other sectors include energy, auto, env, communicatins, comp,
etc. If you can predict which sector would do the best this group would suit
very well as you can keep changing between various sectors as many times as you
want. Sales load is 3%, but exchanging between funds is free except for a
nominal charge (it is 7.50 per exchange if shares are held for 30 days, otherwise
0.75% of the exchange amount). minimum investment is usually is 2500, but 1000
will keep your fund in operation (i.e. if your balance in the fund falls below
1000 they will close your fund and send the cash proceeds to you).
Tel. No. 800-544-8888

GENERAL COMMENTS.
----------------


Among the growth funds, I like Oakmark. They have 3 funds. Oakmark fund, Oakmark
international, and money market. New funds with 150 to 200 million in assets they
have lot of room to grow. I looked at their holdings and I am quite impressed.
The fund does not limit to just small company stocks. minimum is 1000 per fund.
no sales load.	Tel. No. 800-GROW-OAK

Best small company growth fund: Two funds stand out. Kaufman fund and Skyline
spcl. equity. However read their prospectuses to see how they performed each
year. Minimum for Kaufman fund is 1500. Skyline is closed for new investors
but a new fund is in the offering.

The following funds perform very well in bull and bear markets (Forbes)
Century Shares 800-321-1928
CGM capital dev. 800-343-7104
Janus Fund fund  800-525-3713

Nicholas -nicholas fund a conservative fund (ave. return 10% for 5 yrs)
is a very low risk stock fund(source: Forbes). 414-272-6133.  The small
growth fund appearing in Category II is also administered by them.

I prefer No Load funds. If you buy the funds directly you do not pay
Broker commissions. For funds with huge sales loads it may or may not
make a difference going through a broker For the broker may derive his
commissions from the upfront sales load.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Verify the accuracy of the information before investing.
Always read the prospectus carefully for hidden charges, turnover rate
(prefer less than 100%), etc. Total expenses for the fund should be less
than 2%.

Comments welcome

gs38@cunixf.columbia.edu
or
subram@cuhhca.hhmi.columbia.edu


Mutual fund sales loads and expenses

Not every fund charge heavy sales load on investments.

Look at my earlier posting on no load mutual funds with excellent returns.
if you did not see it, let me know and i shall post it again.

Expenses: Usually for a big fund (assets over 1 billion) expenses should be
1% or less. For small funds it can be as much as 2.5%. However, when the
fund reports its yearly returns it includes the expenses but excludes the
sales load. Expenses cover market research, advertisement, admin., etc.

Turnover rate: This is another important factor to be considered in mutual
fund investing. It measures the amount of trading the fund manager does each
year. A turnover rate of 100% is equivalent to selling all the fund's assets
and buying an equal amount of assets in the same or different stocks. More
trading means the fund manager changes his opinions on the stocks too often
OR he is generating commissions for his brokerage. Either way it is bad for
the fund holders. Good funds have turnover rates less than 100%. However,
adverse market conditions can force higher turnover rates.

Sales load, expenses, and turnover rates play a major role in bear markets
and a lesser but still a significant role in bull markets.

Look at the fund's performance in 1987 and 1990 to get an idea of the bear
market performance of the fund. Be sure to deduct any upfront sales load.

Turnover Rates

Turnover rates of 100% or less is a good sign for a high yielding fund.
That coupled with low expenses differentiates a fund from the rest in that
group. However higher turnover rates does not necessarily mean something
is bad. If the fund manager has too much cash but could not find suitable
investment opportuinities he/she parks the money in some short term maturities
thereby contributing to a higher turnover rate. Options, short seling also
contribute to higher turnover rates.
	The lesson is lower turnover rates
coupled with lower expenses and an above average yield speaks better of the
fund manager. A conservative investor should look for these qualities. On the
other hand, higher turnover rates, higher expenses, and sales load should be
justifiable by the fund's returns!!
Newsgroups: misc.invest