The Wall Street Journal ran an instructive profile Monday on the investment strategy employed by Peter Hill, manager of the HighMark International Opportunities Fund. Hill and his team at Foster City, California-based Baillard Inc., which manages the $218 million fund for San Francisco-based HighMark, take advantage of the increased disclosure that exists among fund companies today, analyzing the international investment choices of rivals in order to take a route perhaps similar, but not identical.

As the Journal points out, the tendency to amplify what others are doing can leave HighMark's fund open to bigger losses, and the fund may even be working on outdated information at times. But Hill says that keeping tabs on competitors helps him sleep at night, and the Journal says the fund has gone from the bottom half of international offerings to the top 4 percent over the five years ended May 31 in Morningstar rankings -- suggesting there may be such thing as a healthy obsession.  

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