Tweet Starting in January of 2007, I began highlighting various mutual funds and provided a brief analysis and review of each. Some of the funds are very well-known, while others are small and go practically unnoticed by the investing community. I don’t claim to be an expert fund selector, and none of these funds are […]

Tweet On January 14th, 2008 Royce reopened a number of funds, including the Royce Micro-Cap Fund (RYOTX). I’ve always been a fan of the Royce family of funds, and I’m thrilled to see this fund opening to new investors once again. This fund is a true micro-cap fund with over 75% of its holdings falling […]

Tweet Once you have built a core portfolio that adequately diversifies your holdings across the broad market, it’s time to begin thinking about accenting your portfolio with some specialty funds. While specialty funds shouldn’t make up a large portion of your portfolio, they can certainly help your returns if you find favorable industries/sectors to invest […]

Tweet With the recent market volatility there has been more people becoming interested in bonds and bond funds. Well, I have some bad news for you. If you wait until the market already makes its move down and then decide to get into bonds, you’re too late. Nevertheless, this market activity reinforces the importance of […]

Tweet Everyone seems to be striving for some level of diversification within their portfolio but that typically means adding some bonds with your stock or introducing some specific equity category to go along with the significant percentage of large-cap holdings. One area that is often overlooked is real estate. Most people think of real estate […]

Tweet With value stocks and funds outperforming most of the market over the past few years very little attention has been given to the growth sector. While it makes sense to stick with what is working the best it still is a good idea to keep your asset allocation in check and that includes some […]

Tweet Are you looking to add some fixed income to your portfolio? Unhappy with bond volatility? You may want to look into a fund that focuses on floating rate bank loans. Today we take a look at the Fidelity Floating Rate High Income Fund (FFRHX). While a fund like this won’t set your portfolio on […]

Tweet Can you make money by investing in companies that most investors and money managers are not? Of course you can. It may not seem like a very good idea but a contrarian approach can prove to be very profitable. The Janus Contrarian Fund (JSVAX) does just that–it invests in companies that are actually out-of-favor […]

Tweet One of the more common things I hear from people is that they want to obtain average returns of equities but do not want the volatility that comes with it. The obvious answer would be to utilize some sort of asset allocation by introducing more stable fixed-income investments, but then you have the argument […]

Tweet In the past two installments of fund reviews I have profiled specialty funds. This week I take a look at a relatively common looking fund style with an interesting twist. What makes the Amana Trust Income Fund (AMANX) different is the philosophy behind it. The Amana Funds invest according to Islamic principles, or Sharia. […]