With more mutual funds available than stocks on the New York Stock Exchange, selecting a mutual fund is not a simple task. Although there is a lot of media coverage for mutual funds and especially new mutual funds, the quality of the information is usually questionable since there is usually an ulterior motive for providing the information. Magazines, newspapers, the public library and the internet are the major sources of this information and if you have the time and patience you can usually find information on virtually any investment offered.
And although obtaining the information is important, you must also evaluate the quality of the information as well as what to do with it once you have obtained it. This is really the work you need to do to make a buy/sell decision for your investments and can take a great deal of time.
Recognizing this, we have developed a mutual fund evaluation tool that analyzes and evaluates over 400 different mutual funds and exchange traded funds(ETFs) to identify good candidates for use in an investment portfolio. This tool consists of a proprietary data base that uses Morningstar data to select mutual funds that will fit a particular client portfolio, given an investment goal and risk profile.
The selection criteria used in this data base consists of:
- Morningstar risk rating
- Total return performance over the last three, five and ten years
- Expense ratio
- Manager performance rating
- Investment style consistency
- Performance compared to the peer group
- Performance compared to an applicable index over the last three, five and ten years.
- Market capitalization and sector weightings
- Cash position
- Volatility as measured by beta and standard deviation
By analyzing these ten key characteristics of a mutual fund and selecting the best performers using our rating criteria, we derive a best fit for your investment needs based upon your financial goals and risk tolerance. Throughout the year, this data base is updated to keep our ratings current.
|
