he worst performers even in the best years it becomes obvious that there is always a bear market somewhere as well. So it is vitally important to have a plan that helps to select the good funds while getting out of the bad funds.

Fund s

Do you look at the mutual fund rankings that magazines publish every year? The performances can often be very impressive. Have your ever seen a year that the best performing mutual funds had a loss? Of course not, there's always funds that have a good year, even in the bear market years. It might be energy sector or medical services, or foreign countries that have a good year.

For example, let's examine the Fidelity family of funds. Since 1988, Fidelity has always had equity funds that were positive for the year. The worst year was 2002, when both the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000 were down over 20% for the year. Even then, Fidelity still had 6 of 94 equity funds with positive returns. A challenging environment to be sure, but there were still opportunities.

If you study the years 2000-2002, they were pretty tough on the market overall, yet the returns of the top 3 mutual funds were good each of those years.

Conversely, if you look at the worst performers even in the best years it becomes obvious that there is always a bear market somewhere as well. So it is vitally important to have a plan that helps to select the good funds while getting out of the bad funds.

Fund se

ave a good year, even in the bear market years. It might be energy sector or medical services, or foreign countries that have a good year.

For example, let's examine the Fidelity family of funds. Since 1988, Fidelity has always had equity funds that were positive for the year. The worst year was 2002, when both the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000 were down over 20% for the year. Even then, Fidelity still had 6 of 94 equity funds with positive returns. A challenging environment to be sure, but there were still opportunities.

If you study the years 2000-2002, they were pretty tough on the market overall, yet the returns of the top 3 mutual funds were good each of those years.

Conversely, if you look at the worst performers even in the best years it becomes obvious that there is always a bear market somewhere as well. So it is vitally important to have a plan that helps to select the good funds while getting out of the bad funds.

Fund s

y funds that were positive for the year. The worst year was 2002, when both the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000 were down over 20% for the year. Even then, Fidelity still had 6 of 94 equity funds with positive returns. A challenging environment to be sure, but there were still opportunities.

If you study the years 2000-2002, they were pretty tough on the market overall, yet the returns of the top 3 mutual funds were good each of those years.

Conversely, if you look at the worst performers even in the best years it becomes obvious that there is always a bear market somewhere as well. So it is vitally important to have a plan that helps to select the good funds while getting out of the bad funds.

Fund s

t to be sure, but there were still opportunities.

If you study the years 2000-2002, they were pretty tough on the market overall, yet the returns of the top 3 mutual funds were good each of those years.

Conversely, if you look at the worst performers even in the best years it becomes obvious that there is always a bear market somewhere as well. So it is vitally important to have a plan that helps to select the good funds while getting out of the bad funds.

Fund s

he worst performers even in the best years it becomes obvious that there is always a bear market somewhere as well. So it is vitally important to have a plan that helps to select the good funds while getting out of the bad funds.

Fund selection plays an important role in crafting your portfolio’s performance. Even though “rising tide lifts all ships” there is a big difference between the best and the worst, regardless of the overall market’s return for a given year.

The fact is, given the so-so performance of the market over the last several years, the only real tool available to the average investor to create real wealth has been fund selection.

The trick of course is finding those high performing funds before they are finished going up. Fundamental analysis works well for many people, but it's hard to back test for historical performance, and it can take a lot of work, more than your average investor has available to devote to his portfolio. So, how do we increase the odds that the average investor like us can find funds that will increase in value after we buy.

The one real advantage that the small investor has is that he can be quite nimble, moving his assets from o