Biotech has a second calling
From The Wall Street Journal
After eight years of declines, biotechnology stocks are starting to see a comeback. This year, the Dow Jones Global Industry Groups Index of the biotech sector has gone up 27.20% world-wide and 30.56% in the U.S., where most of the largest companies are located. Fund managers say the difference between biotech and Internet stocks is the timing of the profit streams. While Internet stocks are expected to produce earnings in years to come, biotech stocks are already turning a profit.

A lesson in supply and demand
From The Wall Street Journal
Once a fund closes its doors to new investors, obtaining a single share can make all the difference. A single share of a closed fund from another investor can often buy the right to purchase more. The Internet has changed the game by enabling single-share seekers to broadcast their entreaties by using message boards such as those at Morningstar.com and Brill's Mutual Funds Interactive. Some investors are willing to pay up to four times the current value of a share. As they say ... nothing begets demand like the lack of supply!

Leaving out Uncle Sam
From The Boston Herald
Tax-managed mutual funds are for those who prefer a long-term investing style - and pocketing investment gains instead of sharing them with Uncle Sam. In this genre of investing a manager will buy stocks that he can hold for at least five years. The average growth fund changes 30% of its stocks every year, according to Morningstar Inc. Holding stocks to avoid capital gains, managers will also periodically sell losing stocks, to take losses that can offset capital gains on winning stocks.

Old is not better
From Investor's Business Daily
Conventional wisdom says veteran mutual fund managers post better returns than newcomers do. False, says a study by three finance professors in the Journal of Financial Planning's August issue. The study showed that short-term managers edged senior managers by 38 basis points in the three-year period. However, the long-term managers topped the short-term managers by 51 basis points in the five-year period and 40 basis points over 10 years.  

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