Fair- and Foul-Weather Fund Picks
From Wall Street Journal
T he paper identifies eight fund firms that have perfomed well throughout the various market environments. The funds it picks topped the market in 1999 and early 2000 as Internet-related technology stocks soared and avoided the subsequent Internet plunge. Named in the article are: Fidelity Small Cap Stock Fund, Hartford Capital Appreciation Fund, Vanguard Capital Opportunity, Vanguard Primecap, Brandywine Fund, Growth Fund of America, Smith Barney Aggressive Growth Fund.

Review of Fund Prospectus Creative Writing
From Wall Street Journal
C hallenging. Interesting. Difficult. Horrendous. These are words that fund executives should be using, but aren't, to describe 2000 in shareholder reports, according to the article. Instead, it writes that "investors are getting a blizzard of eloquent explanations." Some excerpts: Thomas Bailey of Janus, "No two ways about it, this has been a difficult year for our shareholders. I assure you, we feel your frustration ... although we'll never use it as an excuse, the reality, of course, is that the stock market doesn't go straight up." Vanguard Group's John Brennan, the fund "made a poor showing during its 1999 fiscal year. The bulk of our shortfall ... stemmed from the inferior performance of stocks selected by our investment advisers." Clipper Fund, "We are not as smart as we looked last year, nor were we as dumb as we looked the year before. We are rational, patient value investors watching the Age of Irrational Exuberance become less of both. ... The most important part of making money is not losing it." The Internet Fund, "We could discuss the decline in the context of the equally obvious decline in the capital market of the sector in which we invest."

"Don't Panic!" advises Motown Paper
From Detroit News
T he paper recommends that 401(k) investors do some research before they react to the negative news contained in the year-end statements that should now be hitting their mailboxes.

More on the Capital Gains Gut Punch
From San Francisco Chronicle
T he ever-unfolding story on the pain caused by the bigger-than-normal capital gains distributions of 2000 is picked up again. This article also picks up on the reintroduced bill H.R. 168 sponsored by Rep. Jim Saxton (R-N.J.) now in Congress that would enable investors to defer taxes on up to $3,000 per year ($6,000 for couples) in capital gains distributions, as long as the distributions are reinvested in additional shares.

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