Value funds and fixed income were front and center at Banc One's luncheon today at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. This is an annual event designed for the firm to show its best side and to tell the media what it plans to do with its investment products for the coming year. Several executives from One Group Mutual Funds (which are managed by Banc One) expressed their opinions on the positions they are holding and possible investment strategies for the future.

Banc One, like the rest of the industry, recognizes that value is the hot investment style du jour. The executives' pitch emphasized diversified portfolios, the need to lower performance expectations, and the abundance of solid investment ideas. "We're doing very well with positive cash flows," Mark Beeson, president of the One Group Mutual Funds, told the MutualFundWire. "And we're emphasizing our money market and value fund offerings.

The speakers at the luncheon included:

• Gary Madich, cio of fixed income securities, introduced the panel of speakers and said that the fixed income side of the business had a good run over the past year and, for the first time, beat the equity side in terms of performance.
• Rick Jandrain, cio of equity securities, stated that the markets in the past year had a violent reaction to "valuation vertigo".
• Kathy Dodd, value team leader, was cautious as she explained that her analysts could not determine one best idea to evaluate where the markets are going to go in the future. So, they were hedging between aggressive and conservative ideas in investing.
• Mike Weiner, balanced team leader, contended that the days of the "quick fix" were over. He observed that 90% of the people who are investing only started four years ago. Weiner added that markets frequently have short memories and that experience always wins out.
• Larry Baumgartner, small cap value manager, told the MFWire.com, "A number of value managers were so badly burned in the past few years that they want to have at least a neutral position in traditional growth sectors like technology."

One Group Mutual Funds has approximately $70 billion in assets under management. 

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