In Wednesday's Wall Street Journal Fund Track column, Jennifer Hoyt puts the spotlight on Anne Gudefin and Charles Lahr, co-managers of Franklin Templeton's $11 billion Mutual Discovery Fund. The fund's cash levels ballooned from 5 percent in early 2007 to the mid-40s at present, an all-time high for the fund.

"Extraordinary times, extraordinary measures," Gudefin told Hoyt.

There have been temptations to make use of the cash over the past 18 months, Gudefin said, but she and Lahr didn't think the values were right.

The strategy has paid off, as the fund is in the unique position of having lots of cash amid the credit crisis.

The fund is down 1.8 percent year-to-date, compared with an 8.7 percent drop in its benchmark Morgan Stanley Capital International Europe, Australia and Far East index. The index fell 43.4 percent last year, while the fund was down 26.7 percent. 

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