| New Blood Dominates Top Funds for September | |
|
|
Monthly Mutuals Analysis
Dateline:
October 19, 2000
|
A mixed bag of mutual funds came out on top in September, but the month was clearly a retreat from the advances of the summer. The Top 25 Funds as charted at the Vancouver Sun website ranged in performance from 6.86% for the C.I. American Managers Sector Fund to a high of 15.35% for the First Capital Income & Growth Fund.
But what is most interesting is that twelve of the top 25 funds for September were new funds that have been around for less than a year. And six more have been around less than three years. If you consider only long term track records, you miss out on some of the new funds that are continuously cropping up.
Of the top 25, there were six growth funds, four health sciences funds, six calling themselves focus or focused funds (read financial services funds) and the rest include a Japan fund, a hedge fund, two oil & gas limited partnerships and a smattering of others.
Here are the Top Ten Funds for September:
| Rank | Fund | Type | 1 Month | 3 Month | 1 Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | First Capital Income & Growth Fund | Growth | 15.36% | 30.83% | 50.23% |
| 2 | Cambridge Growth Fund | Growth | 10.88% | -6.69% | 6.43% |
| 3 | Cambridge Special Equity Fund | Growth | 9.91% | -7.56% | 20.76% |
| 4 | Altamira Health Sciences Fund | Health | 9.63% | 22.84% | 155.53% |
| 5 | Investors U.S. Growth Fund | Growth | 8.30% | 10.98% | 18.36% |
| 6 | IG/GWL U.S. Growth Segregated Fund | Growth | 8.28% | 11.04% | n/a |
| 7 | Investors U.S. Growth RSP Fund | Growth | 8.28% | 10.83% | 17.50% |
| 8 | Navigator Japan Fund | Japan | 8.28% | 8.87% | -5.58% |
| 9 | AIM Global Health Sciences Class | Health | 8.27% | 14.78% | 49.38% |
| 10 | AIM Global Health Sciences Fund | Health | 8.25% | 14.58% | 49.56% |
Power Performers
| Definitions |
| Power
Performers Those mutual funds returning better than 20% for each of the 1 year, 3 year and 5 year periods. |
Super Power Performers |
The weakness of the market in September was reflected in a shrinking of the number of Power Performers to 53 from 70 in August. Of these, 18 were Super Power Performers compared to 26 for August.
All but three of them had negative one month performance. The exceptions - the C.I. Global and Spectrum European Growth funds, each of which returned less than a half percent for the month, and the AIM Global Health Sciences Fund which returned 8.25% and was tenth overall for the month of all mutual funds.
Twenty Power Performers had negative three month performance - surviving as Power Performers on the exceptional strength of previous performance.
October has also been a checkered month so far. But it is only half over and it remains to be seen whether a bottom has been reached and a strong rebound is in the offing or not. Certainly Paul Martin's mini-budget will help boost the Canadian market. And let's not forget the traditional positive effect of a US Presidential election on the markets.
Colleague Mike Griffis, About's Stocks Guide, has been fairly bearish for a while now. There is a lot of bearish sentiment in the financial press. And the current issue of the Hulbert Financial Digest points out that Bob Brinker of Bob Brinker's Marketimer newsletter, who had been bullish without interruption for the entire past decade until January 2000, remains bearish now.
On the other hand, such analysts as James Dines, Pat McKeough and the Lutzes père et fils of the Cabot Market Letter all remain solidly bullish. Me? I'm an optimist by nature and cautiously bullish.
ZZZNEWSLETTERSIGNUP1ZZZ