Categories: Mutual Funds

Should Bond Powerhouse Pimco Jump into Stocks?

Posted by: Lauren Young on October 19

News reports from Bloomberg and Pensions & Investments say that fixed-income giant Pacific Investment Management Co. is considering a move into equity investing. Pimco may hire an existing management team...

2009 Performance: Hedge Funds vs. Mutual Funds

Posted by: Tara Kalwarski on September 09

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index returned 15% year to date through Aug. 31. For the same period, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 10.8%, the Russel 2000 +15.8%,...

Olstein: Pick Stocks, Not Sectors

Posted by: Karyn McCormack on August 25

Stocks have had a rocking good time this summer, giving the S&P 500 index a 13.5% gain for the year (through Aug. 24). The Nasdaq Composite index has surged 28%...

Target-Date Fund Hearings on Thursday

Posted by: Amy Feldman on June 17

Whither the target-date fund? Washington will be looking at target-date funds tomorrow in a hearing sponsored by the Department of Labor and Securities and Exchange Commission. These funds, which were...

Active Mutual Fund Managers Still Can't Beat Indexes

Posted by: Lauren Young on April 20

To paraphrase Joan Baez, where have all the active managers gone? During the five-year market cycle from 2004 to 2008, the S&P 500 outperformed 72% of actively managed large-cap funds,...

Money Market Yields Swallowed by Fees

Posted by: Ben Steverman on January 15

It's a sign of the times: The fees you're paying to your tax-free money market fund's managers are likely higher -- a lot higher -- than the mere pennies you're...

2008: A Weird Year to Be Fund Manager of the Year

Posted by: Lauren Young on January 06

Fundtracker Morningstar unveiled its mutual fund managers of the year today. This is no popularity contest. The fund managers that win are consistent, long-term performers. But considering that 2008 is...

Fidelity To Reopen Contrafund and Low-Priced Stock

Posted by: Lauren Young on December 02

I've said it before and I'll say it again: It's a dismal year for mutual funds. Hence, the onslaught of fund reopenings. Now Fidelity is reopening two of its most...

Vanguard Multi-Manager Approach Redux

Posted by: Amy Feldman on December 02

In the Dec. 1, 2008 issue, I wrote about Scottish manager Baillie Gifford, which runs pieces of four Vanguard portfolios, and the way in which Vanguard uses a multi-manager approach...

Every Stock Mutual Fund Has Lost Money in 2008, Except One

Posted by: Lauren Young on November 21

Out of the 11,585 U.S. and international stock mutual funds tracked by Morningstar Inc., 11,584 have lost money in 2008, according to fund data through Nov. 20. In other words,...

Putnam Ends Mutual Fund Manager Teams

Posted by: Lauren Young on November 17

The Larry Lasser era has officially ended at Putnam Investments. Sure, Lasser left Boston-based Putnam way back in 2003. But the team-based mutual fund manager system he championed ended today...

Another Bear Roars

Posted by: Lauren Young on October 14

Update: An earlier version of this post said Wallis was buying stocks in his personal account. Wallis says he was adding to some existing positions in the mutual fund he...

Bill Miller Gets Fired From Masters funds

Posted by: Lauren Young on October 07

This item was written by Lewis Braham, who recently authored a piece on focused funds for BusinessWeek Has the master lost his touch? Legendary value manager Bill Miller of Legg...

Oakmark Boots WaMu: Too Late?

Posted by: Lauren Young on September 26

This item was written by Lewis Braham, who recently authored a piece on focused funds for BusinessWeek In a surprisingly anti-climactic turn of events Oakmark Funds' manager Bill Nygren issued...

Legg Mason Value Trust Rises Briefly

Posted by: Lauren Young on September 09

It could have been worse. Legg Mason fund manager Bill Miller, who is known for quirky and contrarian picks, bet heavily on Freddie Mac earlier this year, and with the...

It's Official: Vanguard Passes the Baton To McNabb

Posted by: Lauren Young on August 01

It's official: Vanguard has named William McNabb as its next leader. Today Vanguard's board of directors elected McNabb as CEO. He will handle day-to-day operations at the mutual fund giant,...

Da Bears: Is the Bottom Coming or Going with the Prudent Bear Fund sale?

Posted by: Lauren Young on July 15

David Tice, manager of the $1.2 billion Prudent Bear Fund, used to be one of the fund industry’s biggest outliers. In fact, just a few weeks ago he told BusinessWeek...

New First Eagle manager to replace Eveillard draws blank stares

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on July 10

A couple of weeks ago, super-star mutual fund manager Jean-Marie Eveillard of First Eagle funds mentioned that he'd hired a successor but couldn't name the name yet. Well, now the...

First Eagle's Eveillard will soon name his successor

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on June 29

Jean-Marie Eveillard, he of the thick French accent and incredible multi-decade investing record, is almost ready to retire -- again. Eveillard, who managed the First Eagle Global Fund (SGENX) among...

Stunning mutual fund hire: Fidelity's Reynolds to ailing Putnam

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on June 12

I had to check and see if it was April Fool's Day as I sifted through the morning email today and read a release from slowly dying on the vine...

You need to check your fund holdings more often

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on May 02

Investment manager Roger Nusbaum has an excellent post today reviewing what he did after reading this Bloomberg News article on Argentina's shaky finances. Bond investors seem to think the country...

Leverage of 130/30 funds can burn

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on April 22

Christopher Holt, who used to work in the hedge fund industry, takes a stab at critiquing the critique of 130/30 mutual funds on his blog today. I'm deeply saddened he...

How much do you love your manager? 130/30 or bust!

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on April 10

The market stinks, your IRA gets smaller every day, what's a poor investor to do? Aren't there ways to make money from falling stocks -- right -- shorting. Sounds risky...

Have You Bought a Fund That Reopened Recently?

Posted by: Lauren Young on March 27

I just got word that the Schneider Small Cap Value Fund will briefly reopen to new investors on April 8. This is yet another example of funds reopening amid a...

Bear Bites Star Fund Managers

Posted by: Lauren Young on March 17

Two venerable mutual funds are smarting big-time now that JP Morgan Chase is buying Bear Stearns in a fire sale. Legg Mason Value and Vanguard Windsor II are two of...

Two Great Wasatch Funds Reopen

Posted by: Lauren Young on March 10

You thank the rocky market for the recent slew of fund reopenings. Here are two more to add to the list: Wasatch Small Cap Growth and Wasatch Core Growth. Today...

SEC dings Peter Lynch over gifts from brokers

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on March 05

Fidelity Investments has suffered three years of embarrassing revelations of bachelor parties gone wrong (the dwarf denied being tossed, if you recall) and free Super Bowl tickets in a federal...

A Rockier Road for Muni Money Market Funds

Posted by: Lauren Young on February 01

Standard & Poor's just announced that that it has changed the fund credit quality ratings on the Van Kampen California Insured Tax Free Fund and the Van Kampen Insured Tax...

Souring on International Funds?

Posted by: Ben Steverman on January 23

Here's a new trend: Investors seem to be just as worried about their international investments as their U.S. holdings. (This is another observation from the TrimTabs data mentioned below.) Almost...

Fund Investors Are Stressing Out

Posted by: Ben Steverman on January 23

One way of tracking how individual investors are feeling about the stock market is to watch the flows into and out of mutual funds. TrimTabs Investment Research keeps an eye...

It's not too late for Fidelity's Magellan Fund

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on January 14

It's been just over two years since Fidelity put veteran fund manager Harry Lange in charge of its most famous offering, the Magellan Fund (Symbol: FMAGX). As we wrote at...

Magellan Reopens...Do You Care?

Posted by: Lauren Young on January 14

It's hard to believe an entire decade has passed since Fidelity Investments closed its flagship Magellan Fund to new investors. But times, they are 'a changing. Fido will reopen Magellan...

Say goodbye to mutual funds?

Posted by: Lauren Young on December 07

Are darker days ahead for the mutual fund industry? Mutual funds are expected to suffer declines in the product mix used by financial advisers by more than 10% by 2009,...

The Pacific Century?

Posted by: Lauren Young on November 08

You can call him self-serving, but Anthony Cragg, manager of the Wells Fargo Advantage Asia Pacific Fund, isn't worried about a correction in the Asian markets--although he thinks one in...

Bill Miller has some new ideas

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on November 02

As 2007 winds to a close, Legg Mason Value Trust (Symbol: LMVTX) manager Bill Miller finds himself trailing the S&P 500 for the second consecutive year after his 15-year streak...

The End of the Star System at Fido?

Posted by: Lauren Young on October 25

Are the final days of star managers at Fidelity upon us? Today's Wall Street Journal reports that Fidelity Investments is rolling out some team-managed funds which will rely on a...

Janus Loses ANOTHER Star

Posted by: Lauren Young on October 19

On the heels of a story in the Wall Street Journal about the hot performance of Janus Capital Group stock comes word that star fund manager David Corkins is resigning...

New research confirms hedge-like mutual funds work

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on October 19

On a crummy day in the stock market, it's another good time to think again about hedge-fund like opportunities for ordinary folks who can't qualify for "real" hedge funds. Via...

Harvard's top investor heading back to PIMCO

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on September 11

Surprising news out of Harvard University today that Mohamed El-Erian will step down as head of the school's $35 billion endowment investment company. El-Erian is going back to Bill Gross...

Big Fido News!

Posted by: Lauren Young on August 07

Whoa. That's what I said when I read this this email from Jim Lowell of Fidelity Investor: "In a surprise and surprising announcement, Ellyn McColgan announced she is leaving Fidelity...

Magellan Awakens

Posted by: Lauren Young on August 03

I must be under a rock. Apparently, Fidelity Magallen is showing signs of life again. Somehow this escaped my astute eye, but luckily I bumped into Jim Lowell of the...

Decoding Fund Outflows

Posted by: Lauren Young on July 26

A few weeks ago, I wrote a story for the magazine about the ways investors can use mutual fund flow data to gauge where the market is headed. Well, Tuesday’s...

A hedge fund for mutual fund investors

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on June 01

The other day I mentioned two public companies that offered exposure to hedge fund-like strategies but there are also some mutual funds in this game. The always excellent Fundalarm Annex...

Changes at Fidelity clarifying succession picture

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on April 19

The news out of mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments today that Chief Operating Officer Bob Reynolds is retiring marks the most significant management development at the Boston firm since Reynolds...

Surprise change at top value shop First Eagle

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on March 26

Jean-Marie Eveillard was one of the most impressive mutual fund managers of all time when he left the stage at the end of 2004. At that point, his little shop...

Attention Fund Investors: Bs are OK

Posted by: Lauren Young on January 11

Back in high school, my father used to tell that Bs are for truck drivers, but when it comes to fund investing, I disagree. While my story in the current...

TCW's Gundlach sticks to his knitting, sews up another award

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on January 03

Jeffrey Gundlach, co-manager of the TCW Total Return Bond Fund (TGLMX) with Philip Barach, just won Morningstar's bond fund manager of the year award. He was also named one of...

Overlooked story of 2006: American Funds Didn't Crash

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on January 02

It's that time of year when all manner of predictions are made whilst last year's are graded. For example, most commentators got small caps wrong in 2006. Defying predictions that...

Contrafund's Confounding Price Drop

Posted by: Adrienne Carter on December 28

There's been a bit of chatter of late about Contrafund's recent price drop. In late December, the price (also known as the net asset value) of the fund, which has...

A big crowd to get Miller's market-beater crown

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on November 03

The popular stereotype of the wacky, opinionated and brilliant fund manager is about to take a serious hit. After Peter Lynch retired, there was a short-term deficit of WOB's. Thankfully...

InvestStrong

Posted by: Adrienne Carter on August 01

Philanthropy and mutual fund investing don't exactly seem to go hand in hand. But back in May, American Century Investments announced a partnership with the Lance Armstrong Foundation (well...

Is the SEC looking for a needle in a mutual-fund haystack?

Posted by: Lauren Young on June 29

One of the good things about my job covering mutual funds at BusinessWeek is that I get to meet with a lot of fund managers. One of the bad things...

Apples to indexes still favors indexes

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on June 16

Barry Ritholtz, who I genuinely admired and liked when I worked at TheStreet.com, has an anti-indexing post up that just cries out to be debated. He's citing some Vanguard data...

Socially responsible fund gets responsible

Posted by: Lauren Young on June 02

Back in the 1990s, when I was a mere cub mutual fund reporter, I was assigned the task of covering socially responsible investing. My mandate was to break news on...

Tour de Funds: Part III

Posted by: Lauren Young on May 09

I just got a look under the hood (or should I say bike seat?) of the new Livestrong Funds, which will be launched on May 15. Some folks from American...

Look, but don't touch

Posted by: Adrienne Carter on May 01

In a number of recent entries, I've railed against mutual fund companies for letting funds get too big. The case in point: Fidelity's Contrafund. Now, for investors in such funds,...

Following Fidelity or Whales Redux

Posted by: Adrienne Carter on April 17

On the heels of Fidelity's announcement that it would close Contrafund, the Boston behemoth says it's going to close two more of its (bloated) funds: Fidelity Growth Company and Fidelity...

Another Whale: Is Fidelity Contrafund the next Magellan?

Posted by: Adrienne Carter on April 03

I always applaud a fund company when it makes the shareholder-friendly move to close a portfolio. So I have to give props to Fidelity for closing the doors of one...

Fundalarm gets on the new, small funds bandwagon

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on April 03

Roy Weitz's web site, Fundalarm.com, provides a lot of useful info for fund investors, especially on the message boards where generally insightful folk discuss the latest goings on at funds...

Protests everywhere!

Posted by: Lauren Young on March 28

The immigration protests across the country are grabbing lots of attention. But something you might not have heard about is a protest launched today by social investors. More than 38,000...

Another Hot New Fund Alternative

Posted by: Lauren Young on March 23

I've been a longtime advocate of social investing, much to the dismay of friends who think it's best to simply make money in the market and give it away to...

Bond Banter: ARM in ARM

Posted by: Lauren Young on March 16

I've been covering fixed-income for a long time. And while I'm the first to admit it can be a snoozy topic, lately it's a little more interesting to write about....

New Funds: The Value Meal Sequel

Posted by: Lauren Young on March 09

New mutual funds used to be quite the rage back in the latter part of the 1990s. In 1998, more than 303 new funds were launched. But last year, far...

A fund gem in Pressman's coal pile

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on March 08

I came in to work this morning to find the dreaded "mailbox over size limit" warning in my in-box. Actually, about 10 copies of the warning - IT department, you...

The PRIMECAP diet

Posted by: Lauren Young on March 02

Dan Wiener, editor of the Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors, just published an interesting round-up of the buying habits of Vanguard's fund managers. According to Wiener, few Vanguard managers actually...

Fidelity: now famous enough for email scammers

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on March 01

Fidelity Investments has suffered a few embarrassments over the past couple of years as its traders got caught taking expensive gifts, it had to replace managers on several of its...

Bye Bye to the Best Japan Fund

Posted by: Lauren Young on February 23

New investors can say “Sayanora” to one of the best Japan funds out there. Fidelity Investments is closing Fidelity Japan Smaller Companies (FJSCX) to new accounts as of the close...

Tour de Funds--Part II

Posted by: Lauren Young on February 09

American Century and Lance Armstrong’s new LIVESTRONG mutual funds may mark the next wave in socially responsible funds. Perhaps Bono and Vanguard will team up to launch a line of funds that relieve world debt.

Tour de Funds

Posted by: Lauren Young on February 09

Here's something new and different: Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor, is teaming up with American Century to roll out a new line of mutual...

Few discounts on yesterday's fund picks

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on February 01

I forgot that it’s pretty easy to use Morningstar to check where funds are available for purchase without loads or other transaction fees. When I checked yesterday’s picks, though, only...

Uncovering small gems in the fund industry's coal pile

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on January 31

There are a zillion ways to screen for mutual funds, some backed by academic research and empirical evidence, others less so. But one flaw I often notice in these automated...

Magellan comes out of the closet

Posted by: Lauren Young on January 20

For the past decade, Fidelity Magellan was accused of being a closet index fund under the management of Bob Stansky. Now Magellan, which is Fidelity's flagship mutual fund, has come...

In Praise of Ron Muhlenkamp

Posted by: Roben Farzad on January 19

The market timing scandal, brain drain to hedge funds and deluge of new ETFs coming to market have combined to make the traditional mutual fund manager look downright buggywhippish these...

Mutual Funds: Green Eggs and Ham?

Posted by: Lauren Young on January 19

Every week I make a regular appearance on CN8, a station for Comcast cable subscribers that reaches much of the East Coast. Since it is a morning show, the mood...

A Tale of Two Stocks

Posted by: Adrienne Carter on January 12

A recent chat with mutual fund manager, James Wiess of Putnam Investors, yielded two stock ideas that couldn't be more different: General Motors and Google.