Cash Flows Rebound, But Few Win
From The Los Angeles Times
The ICI is expected to announce that March cash flows into funds jumped to $27 billion. Word has it that April cash flows are running at the same pace. This compares to a total of $42 billion in the entire first quarter. The bad news from the Financial Research Corp. is that 96% of this money is flowing into the 25 best selling funds leaving the other 10,000 or so funds in the cold. In 1998's first quarter the 25 best selling funds accounted for just 35% of fund flows. Just five fund complexes --Vanguard Group, Janus, Fidelity, Pimco and Alliance Fund Distributors -- accounted for nearly all net cash flows. Meanwhile, half of fund complexes report net cash outflows.

How Scudder Kemper Won Web Traffic
From The Boston Globe
How did Scudder Kemper drive the number of visitors to its web site to 12,000 a day from 2,000 a day? Last January the firm turned to a web consulting firm, Mainspring, to rebuild its website. The consulting firm built in higher levels of interactivity. Included among the changes was the addition of the capability of allowing Scudder reps to access personal information fund investors store on the web site. This allows better customer service.

Are Fund Investors Overly Optimistic?
From The Wall Street Journal
Are fund investors too optimistic? A recent survey by three leading experts on behavorial finance suggests that they may be. Investors visiting Morningstar.Net said in a survey that they are more likely to focus on the potential gains in an investment than the potential losses. Forty percent said that they spend "much more time" focusing on potential gains and only 1% said they spend much more time focusing on potential losses. Even more interesting, thirty-five percent of respondents said that there is no chance that stocks will lag bonds over the next ten years. One potential problem with the survey: it was not random. Visitors to Morningstar.net filling out the survey were more likely to be male, and are more likely to invest in stocks. By the nature of the site and the web they are also more likely to be self-reliant investors than the typical person.

Short Takes
Morningstar.Net's Fund Spy reports on Steve DuFour, the new star at Fidelity and manager of Fidelity Balanced. Smart Money profiles IPO Plus Aftermarket (IPOSX) which is up more than 47% since its December 1997 launch. Third Avenue Value and Small Cap funds are the subject of today's interview on Worldly Investor. Bankers Trust shareholders have approved the bank's takeover by Deutsche Bank. 

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