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From: dgh@sun.uucp (David Hough)
Newsgroups: net.invest
Subject: Re: investing in small companies
Message-ID: <2083@sun.uucp>
Date: Tue, 26-Mar-85 23:05:33 EST
Article-I.D.: sun.2083
Posted: Tue Mar 26 23:05:33 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 2-Apr-85 20:33:06 EST
References: <338@lcuxc.UUCP>
Reply-To: dgh@sun.UUCP (David Hough)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Lines: 27
Summary: 

In article <338@lcuxc.UUCP> wjm@lcuxc.UUCP (B. Mitchell) writes:
>To get information on no-load funds, look at Wiesenberger's "Investment
>Companies" at your public library.  They will provide the address and
>phone # of the fund, who will send you a prospectus and other pertinent
>data on request.  With no-loads, you have to contact the fund, but many of
>them have 800 numbers, so even the phone call is free.
>2)  Look at the track record of the fund.  Wiesenberger, "Forbes", and "Money"
>publish performance statistics for mutual funds and how they do in up and
>down markets.  The best measure is a fund's long-term (10 years or more)
>performance record.

Additional sources of useful information include The NoLoad Fund Investor,
a quarterly newsletter and annual handbook, and the American Association
of Individual Investors, which publishes a monthly journal and an annual
handbook on noloads.  The AAII stuff is interesting because they adjust
return for risk.  

As to track record, most of the funds that have excellent ten year records
are too large to perform much differently from an index fund.  A puzzling
exception seems to be Fidelity Magellan, which is a half-load fund,
charging 3%.  The stuff I have read indicates that funds with over
$100,000,000 in assets are generally unlikely to be able to outperform the
market.

David Hough