New feature on MEPB Financial

I added the World Market Snapshot Index to my main blog. These indexes are located on the right side of this blog. The indexes will be updated automatically. The market indexes include:

America
1. Dow Jones Industrial Average (USA)
2. S&P 500 Index (USA)
3. NASDAQ Composite (USA)
4. S&P/TSX Composite (Canada)

Europe
5. EURO STOXX 50 Index (Europe)
6. FTSE 100 Index (UK)

Asia
7. Nikkei 225 Index (Japan)
8. Hang Seng Index (Hong Kong)
9. S&P/ASX 200 Index (Australia)

More update in near future, please check back often. As of 2012, I moved this feature to about me page

15 Top Performer Large Cap Growth Mutual Funds May 2011

Investing can be done through several ways such as mutual fund, exchange traded fund (ETF), closed end fund (CEF), individual stock or bond, certificate of deposit (CD), money market etc.

Large Growth Fund

Some may be riskier than the others. Investing in CD or money market is safer, though the return is limited. Investing in foreign stock may be riskier, though the return can be enormous. Individual investor need to pick and choose the right combination for better investment portfolio. This can be done through diversification into several different classes such as bonds or stocks.

The simplest way to invest is by investing in mutual fund. Mutual fund consists of variety of holdings whether it is stock fund or bond fund or balanced fund (i.e. hybrid fund). Large portion of stock fund usually invest large cap companies fund. This large cap fund is part of US domestic stock fund; it can be divided into three categories such as large growth, large blend, and large value. This article will look into large growth fund.

Large growth fund is a fund whose objective is to achieve appreciation of capital by investing in growth stocks of large capitalization companies. These growth companies usually have significant earnings and revenue growth. The list is compiled from variety of financial websites and magazines such as Morningstar, yahoo finance, Kiplinger, msn money, etc.

Top Performing Mutual Funds

The 15 Top Performer Large Cap Growth Mutual Funds up to May 23th, 2011.

1. Dynamic US Growth I (DWUGX)
2. Smith Group Large Cap Core Growth I (BSLGX)
3. First Investors Select Growth A (FICGX)
4. GMO US Growth M (GMWMX)
5. Wells Fargo Advantage Growth Inv (SGROX)
6. BlackRock Large Cap Growth Inv A (MDLHX)
7. Biondo Focus Investor
8. ING BlackRock Large Cap Growth Adv
9. Geneva Advisors All Cap Growth Retail
10. Columbia Select Large Cap Growth A
11. Fidelity Advisor Growth Opportunities A
12. Legg Mason ClearBridge Aggressive Growth A
13. Eaton Vance Atlanta Capital Focused Growth A
14. Fidelity Growth Company
15. Value Line Larger Companies

Details about the funds information can be found in below table.

Dynamic US Growth I (DWUGX)

As part of DundeeWealth Funds, the Dynamic US Growth fund is the top performing fund in Large Growth category with 13.25% YTD return. This Dynamic US Growth investment seeks long term appreciation of capital. The fund invest most of assets (>80%) in US growth companies equity securities. It may invest in companies of any size such as small and mid capitalization companies. It may have large exposure in one or more economy sectors such as information technology sector.

This large growth stock mutual fund is managed by Noah Blackstein since 2009. This DundeeWealth fund is rather small with $54 million total net assets. As part of no load fund, this fund doesn’t have any front end sales load and deferred sales load. The fund’s expense ratio is 0.90% per year. The fund does charge a 2% fee for redemption or exchanges within 90 days of purchase.

Top Growth Stock Mutual Funds 2012

As of April 2011, the fund has 26 holdings. The fund benchmark is Russell 1000 growth index. The top 4 fund sectors are information technology (49.1%), consumer discretionary (32.6%), health care (10.8%), and consumer staples (7.6%). Top 10 holdings of Dynamic US Growth fund are priceline.com Inc (5.59%), Informatica Corp (5.18%), Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc (5.07%), Juniper Networks Inc (4.95%), Acme Packet Inc (4.88%), EMC Corp (4.87%), Aruba Networks Inc (4.80%), Riverbed Technology Inc (4.28%), Fortinet Inc (4.27%), and Under Armour Inc (4.24%).

Smith Group Large Cap Core Growth I

This Smith Group Large Cap Core Growth fund is another DundeeWealth Funds. This fund’s aim is to provide long term capital appreciation. The fund usually invest majority of assets in US common stocks and other large capitalization companies equity securities with high earning growth rate based on sub advisor judgment.

John D Brim is the current fund manager. This fund is sub advised by Smith Asset Management Group. The fund annual expense ratio is 0.79%. There is no management fee (12b1 fee) and no sales load fee. Investor may need $10,000 initial investment to invest in this fund. This top performer mutual fund has YTD return of 11.15%. Over the past year, it has returned 26.39%. The fund also has 2 stars rating from Morningstar. The fund’s beta (3 years) is 0.92. This fund can be bought from several brokerages such as Pershing FundCenter, JPMorgan, Schwab, Scottrade, TD Ameritrade, Matrix Financial Solutions, etc.

The top 10 industries of this large growth equity fund as of April 2011 are software (7.7%), oil gas & consumable fuels, specialty retail, machinery, energy equipment & services, pharmaceuticals, internet software & services, consumer finance, capital markets, and health care providers & services. The fund weighted average market capitalization of $48.3 billion. The top 10 holdings include Whole Foods Market Inc (3%), MetroPCS Communication Inc (2.8$%), TIBCO Software Inc, Helmerich & Payne Inc, priceline.com Inc, Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc, Check Point Software Technologies Ltd, Limited Brands Inc, Halliburton Co, and Corn Products International Inc.

First Investors Select Growth A (FICGX)

First Investors Select Growth fund is seeking long term capital growth. This fund invests in a portfolio of approximately 40-45 common equities that offers the best potential for earnings growth with the lowest risk of negative earnings surprises according to its fund’s subadviser. This fund is suitable for long term investor with moderate investment risk.

The fund has been managed by Eivind Michelle Olsen since March 2009. The expense ratio of this First Investors fund is 1.56% per year and is higher than 1.31% category average. This fund also charges a front end sales load of 5.75%. If you are interested in low fee of this First Investors fund, you can invest in other fund classes include FICGX.lw (load waived class) and FIGBX (Class B). These classes may offer lower fee and slightly higher performance.

Based on load adjusted return, the fund performance is as follow

• 1 year: 19.95%
• 3 year: -3.05%
• 5 year: -1.71%
• 10 year: 1.21%

The fund best 1 year return occurred in 2003 with 32% return. The worst performance is -41.77% in 2008.
As April 2011, the top sectors of this fund include information technology (23.2%), consumer discretionary (15.9%), health care, financials, energy, industrials, materials, consumer staples, telecommunication service (2.7%), etc. The top 10 security holdings are Apple Inc, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, Express Scripts Inc, Whole Foods Market Inc, BMC Software Inc, Ross Stores Inc, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc, International Business Machines Corp (IBM), Parker Hannafin Corp, and Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc.

GMO US Growth M (GMWMX)

As one of the smallest fund in this Top Performers list, GMO US Growth fund objective is to seek long term growth of capital. The fund will try to outperform its benchmark index, the Russell 100 Growth Index. The fund will invest directly or indirectly in equity investments. Since 2005, Sam Wilderman has been the lead manager of this GMO fund.

Best US Domestic Stock Mutual Funds 2011

This large growth fund has net expense ratio of 0.76% per year. As part of no load fund, there is no sales load. The fund also has a yield of 0.67%. The fund annual holdings turnover is 61%. It also receives 4 stars rating from Morningstar. The fund has returned 5.66% over the past 3 year, and 3.37% over the past 5 year. Only limited brokerages offer this fund such as CommonWealth PPS, Fidelity Institutional FundsNetwork, Thrivent Advisory Eligible, etc.
As November 2010, the fund top 8 holdings include Apple Inc (6.49%), GMO US Treasury (4.43%), Exxon Mobil Corp, PepsiCo Inc, Johnson & Johnson, Google Inc, International Business Machines, Microsoft Corp, and Procter & Gamble Co.

Wells Fargo Advantage Growth Inv (SGROX)

This is one of two highest rated funds in this Top Performing Funds list, Wells Fargo Advantage Growth fund received 5 stars rating from Morningstar. This Wells Fargo Advantage Growth fund seeks long term appreciation of capital. The fund usually invest more than 80% of total assets in equity securities and <25% of total assets in foreign issuers equity securities (ADRs). The fund will invest in companies with prospect for robust and sustainable growth of revenues & earnings. This fund may use futures, options or swap agreement, and derivatives to enhance return and to manage investment risk.

This large growth stock fund is managed by Thomas Ognar since 2002. The fund total net asset is $4.66 billion. It also has an annual expense ratio of 1.36%. This investor class fund doesn’t have any load fee. Other classes of this fund are Class A (SGRAX), Class A with Waived load (SGRAX.LW), Class C (WGFCX) , Institutional Class (SGRNX), and Administrator Class (SGRKX). Some of these classes may charge lower expense fee, please check with your fund brokerage for details.

To invest in this Wells Fargo Advantage fund, you will need $2,500 minimum initial investment for brokerage account. The fund YTD return is 10.39%. The fund has returned 35.77% over the past year, and 12.51% over the past 3 year. This fund also has an outstanding performance over the long term period. The fund returned 5.98% over the past decade. The best performance was achieved in 1999 with 75.06%.

The fund top 10 holdings are Apple Inc (5.23%), Praxair Inc (2.64%), NII Holdings Inc (2.25%), CarMax Inc (2.21%), Alexion Pharmaceutical Inc (2.19%), St Jude Medical Inc, priceline.com Inc, Tractor Supply Co, Agilent Technologies Inc, and Pioneer Natural Resources Co (1.73%). The top 6 sectors include information technology (36.11%), consumer discretionary (19.47%), health care (13.01%), industrials (7.67%), energy (7.45%), and financials (4.40%).

BlackRock Large Cap Growth Inv A (MDLHX)

BlackRock Large Cap Growth investment objective is to achieve capital growth over long term period. The majority of fund assets are invested in equity securities included in the Russell 1000 Growth Index. This fund is a feeder fund that invests all of its assets in Master Growth Portfolio, a series of Master Large Cap Series llc having the same investment objective and strategy as the fund.

Since October 2010, the fund manager is Peter Stournaras. This Class A fund does charge a front end sales load of 5.25%. The annual expense ratio of this fund is 1.31%. The fund has returned 3.76% over the past three years and 2.93% over the past decade.
You can also invest in other classes of this BlackRock fund:

• Investor B: MBLHX
• Investor C: MCLHX
• Class R: MRLHX
• Institutional Class: MALHX
• Service Class: MSLHX
• Retirement K Class: MKLHX

As of May 2011, the fund top holdings are Exxon Mobil Corp, Philip Morris International Inc, Apple Inc, Intel Corp, DirecTV, Dell Inc, Applied Materials Inc, Lockheed Martin Corp, Altera Corp, and Amerisourcebergen Corp. The top 8 sectors of this BlackRock fund are information technology (36.1%), consumer discretionary (15.&%), health care, industrials, energy, materials, consumer staples, and telecommunication (2%).

Columbia Select Large Cap Growth A (ELGAX)

The Columbia Select Large Cap Growth fund is seeking long-term appreciation of capital. The fund most of the time invests >80% of net assets in common stocks of U.S. and foreign companies with market capitalizations in the range of companies in the Russell 1000 Growth Index at the time of purchase. The fund may not concentrate its assets in any single industry but may invest >25% of assets in companies in the health care and technology sectors, respectively. It may invest in derivatives, futures, options, forwards, swap contract to enhance the portfolio value.

This domestic stock fund is managed by Thomas Galvin since February 2003. You will need $2,000 initial investment to invest in this Columbia fund. The expense ratio of this Columbia Select Large Cap Growth fund is 1.26%. It also charges 5.75% front end sales load. To invest in no load fund of this fund, please check other classes such as Class C (ELGCX), Class R (URLGX), Class Z (UMLGX), Inst Class (CSPIX), and Other Class (CSLWX).

Morningstar rated 3 stars rating for this Columbia fund. Based on load adjusted return, the fund has returned 23.90% over the past one year, and 6.27% over the past 5 year.

As of May 2011, the fund top 15 holdings include Amazon, Baidu, Salesforce, Franklin Resources, Cognizant Techonolgy Solutions, Allergan, EMC, Medco Health, Qualcomm, Precision Castparts, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc, Priceline, F5 networks, Novo Nordisk A/S, and Celgene.

Fidelity Growth Company (FDGRX)

This fund may be closed to new investor. If you have invested in this fund, you can continue investing as usual. The Fidelity Growth Company fund seeks capital appreciation. The fund invests primarily in common stocks such as domestic and foreign companies. It usually invests in above-average growth potential companies. The fund is managed by Steven S. Wymer since 1997. The annual expense ratio is 0.89%. This fund has total net assets of 41.8 billion.

The fund has returned 25.11% over the past year and 6.94% over the past 5 years. There is no Front End Sales Load and no 12b1 fee for this actively managed fund. The fund has its best 1 year return in 1999 with 79.48%. Morningstar awards 4 stars rating for this Fidelity fund.

As of April 2011, the top 6 largest major market sectors include Information Technology, Health Care, Consumer Discretionary, Energy, Industrials, and Consumer Staples sector. Top 10 largest equity holdings of this fund are Apple Inc, Salesforce.com Inc, Exxon Mobil Corp, Google Inc, Red Hat Inc, Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc, Discover Financial Services, Lululemon Athletica Inc, Qualcomm Inc, and Schlumberger Ltd.

Disclosure: No Position

Fund Information

No	Fund Name	Ticker	YTD Return	Rating	Net Assets (mil)	Expense Ratio	Load	Min to Invest
1	Dynamic US Growth I	DWUGX	13.25%	N/A	$54	0.90%	0.00%	$10,000
2	Smith Group Large Cap Core Gr I	BSLGX	11.15%	2	$48	0.79%	0.00%	$10,000
3	First Investors Select Growth A	FICGX	10.84%	1	$246	1.56%	5.75%	$1,000
4	GMO US Growth M	GMWMX	10.51%	4	$3	0.76%	0.00%	N/A
5	Wells Fargo Advantage Growth Inv	SGROX	10.39%	5	$4,800	1.40%	0.00%	$2,500
6	BlackRock Large Cap Growth Inv A	MDLHX	10.30%	3	$804	1.31%	5.25%	$1,000
7	Biondo Focus Investor	BFONX	9.95%	N/A	$28	3.05%	0.00%	$1,000
8	ING BlackRock Large Cap Growth Adv	IMLGX	9.63%	3	$392	1.40%	0.00%	N/A
9	Geneva Advisors All Cap Growth Retail	GNVRX	9.38%	5	$129	1.50%	0.00%	$1,000
10	Columbia Select Large Cap Growth A	ELGAX	9.34%	3	$5,311	1.26%	5.75%	$2,000
11	Fidelity Advisor Growth Opportunities A	FAGAX	8.41%	1	$1,900	0.90%	5.75%	$2,500
12	Legg Mason ClearBridge Aggressive Gr A	SHRAX	8.40%	2	$5,500	1.29%	5.75%	$1,000
13	Eaton Vance Atlanta Capital Focused Gr A	EAALX	8.20%	3	$71	1.25%	5.75%	$1,000
14	Fidelity Growth Company	FDGRX	8.12%	4	$41,800	0.89%	0.00%	$2,500
15	Value Line Larger Companies	VALLX	7.73%	3	$212	0.92%	0.00%	$1,000

PRIMECAP Odyssey Growth Fund (POGRX)

PRIMECAP Odyssey Growth fund (POGRX) is a best domestic stock mutual fund. This growth fund objective is to provide long term capital appreciation.

PRIMECAP Odyssey Growth (Ticker: POGRX)

The Primecap Odyssey Growth fund is seeking for long term capital appreciation. The majority of fund assets are invested in stocks of U.S. companies. The fund investment priority is to invest in the companies with above average earnings growth potential that is not reflected in their current market prices even though they provide little current income. The majority of the portfolio is dominated by mid- cap stocks (1/3 of portfolio) and large-cap stocks and as well foreign companies’ stocks.

POGRX Fund Details

• Fund Inception Date: November 2004
• Ticker Symbol: POGRX
• CUSIP: 74160Q103
• Total Assets: $8.4 billion
• Beta (3yr): 1.02
• Rank in category: 4
• Category: Large Growth
• Yield: 0.42%
• Expense fee: 0.65%
• Capital Gains: check fund
• Number of Years Up: 5 years

LowTrades Brokerage Review

LowTrades is another online internet stock broker with low commission fee, $4.95 per trade. Investor can trade ETFs (exchange traded fund), stocks, mutual funds, and options. Several reasons to choose LowTrades are:

• LowTrades’ commission rates are among the lowest among its brokerage competitors.
• It provides quality executions for your trading experience.
• It offers variety of trading tools including Level 2 quote, logical orders, streaming quote, etc
• It offers account protection since it is a member of SIPC and FINRA. It also provides additional protection through its clearing firm, Legent Clearing under Lloyd’s of London for securities and cash in addition of SIPC coverage. Also, it provides 100% encryption technology for your account information, trading, etc.

LowTrades Logo

Cons of LowTrades:

• It charges semiannual inactivity fee
• Doesn’t have any software platform or mobile platform
• Doesn’t offer future or forex tradings
• Mutual fund trades can only be done through broker

Details about LowTrades review and products on Best Brokerages Review 2011 page.

Top Performer Moderate Allocation Balanced Funds 2011

If you are interested in set and forget it mutual fund (i.e. buy and hold fund), you should considered the following balanced funds. Balanced funds or hybrid funds are investment vehicle which invest in stocks (equities), bonds (fixed incomes), preferred stocks, convertible bonds, and money market.

Top Performer Moderate Allocation funds 2011

These balanced funds can be classified into several categories such as conservative allocation (higher bond component), moderate allocation (higher stock component), and world allocation (include foreign stock/bond component). These hybrid funds are suitable to investors who are looking for a mixture of income, safety, and some capital appreciation.

This article will look into the top performer moderate allocation balanced funds up to May 2011. The fund is sorted based on its performance up to May 2011. These moderate allocation balanced funds usually have about 30-50% fixed income component and 50%-70% equity component. Most of the stock portions are invested in large cap company with dividend yield.

Top Performer Moderate Allocation Balanced Mutual Funds 2011 (up to May 2011) - Part 1:

1. JHancock3 Leveraged Companies A (JVCAX)
2. Bruce fund (BRUFX)
3. PIMCO All Asset A (PASAX)
4. Transamerica Balanced A (IBALX)
5. SAAT Defensive Strategy Allc A (STDAX)
6. The Montecito (MONAX)
7. America First Quantitative Strategies A (AFIAX)
8. Intrepid Capital (ICMBX)
9. RiverNorth Core Opportunity
10. Columbia Thermostat A
11. Arrow DWA Balanced A
12. Vanguard Asset Allocation Inv
13. DWS Select Alternative Allocation A

No	Fund Description	Ticker	Yield	Morningstar Rating	Net Assets (Mil)	Expense Ratio	Min to Invest
1	JHancock3 Leveraged Companies A	JVCAX	0.98%	N/A	$2	1.35%	$2,500
2	Bruce	BRUFX	3.86%	5	$299	0.88%	$1,000
3	PIMCO All Asset A	PASAX	6.93%	5	$22,520	0.83%	$1,000
4	Transamerica Balanced A	IBALX	2.12%	3	$411	1.56%	$1,000
5	SAAT Defensive Strategy Allc A	STDAX	4.00%	3	$10	0.10%	$100,000
6	The Montecito	MONAX	2.26%	2	$14	1.19%	$2,500
7	America First Quantitative Strategies A	AFIAX	2.54%	1	$61	1.59%	$1,000
8	Intrepid Capital	ICMBX	1.12%	5	$358	1.45%	$2,500

updated on May 17th, 2011

Note: For funds performance, please check table below. If you are interested in conservative allocation balanced fund, please check my previous article.

Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX) Fund

Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX) Fund is a popular stock mutual fund. It invests mainly in US companies.

This next fund, Fidelity Contrafund, is part of growth fund and one of Kiplinger’s 25 best funds. Growth funds can be classified into Large Growth, Mid Growth, Small Growth, and Foreign Growth. Fidelity Contrafund is part of Large Growth fund. Large growth fund usually invests in large capitalization companies (i.e. company with $10 billion or higher capitalization).

Rule of thumb is to invest about 20-30% of asset in this large cap fund. This type of fund is suitable for investor seeking capital growth, moderate investor, conservative investor, aggressive investor, etc.

Fidelity Contrafund (Ticker: FCNTX)

Fidelity Contrafund fund objective is to achieve the capital appreciation. This Fidelity fund will invest most of its net assets in common stocks either domestic or foreign issuers. It may invest in companies that pass the qualification of Fidelity Management & Research Company (FMR) even though those companies are not fully recognized by the public. The fund management team has few criteria in selecting which investments to be made, such as the issuers’ financial condition, their industry position, and market & economic conditions. This FCNTX fund may invest in either growth stocks or value stocks or both of them.

FCNTX Fund Details

• Fund Inception Date: May 1967
• Ticker Symbol: FCNTX
• CUSIP: 316071109
• Net Assets: $110.7 billion
• Beta: 0.85
• Rank in category (YTD): check web
• Category: Large Growth
• Yield: 0.26%
• Expense Fee: 0.68%
• Capital Gains: 0.0%

Fidelity Intermediate Municipal Income Fund (FLTMX)

Fidelity Intermediate Municipal Income Fund (FLTMX) is a top rated muni bond mutual fund. This municipal bond fund provides tax free yield for investors.

Fidelity Intermediate Municipal Income (Ticker: FLTMX)

The investment in Fidelity Intermediate Municipal Income is seeking for a high level of current income exempt from federal income tax consistent with capital preservation. The majority net asset is invested in investment-grade municipal securities (at least 80% asset). The interest of these securities is exempt from federal income tax.

This fund maintains a dollar-weighted average maturity between 3 and 10 years. The fund also allocates the assets across different market sectors and maturities and potentially invests more than a quarter of its assets in municipal securities that finance similar types of objects.

FLTMX Fund Details

• Fund Inception Date: April 1977
• Ticker Symbol: FLTMX
• CUSIP: 31638R204
• Beta (3yr): 0.64
• Rank in category: 63
• Category: Muni National Intermediate
• Yield: 2.58%
• Tax Equivalent Yield: 3.44% (based on 25% income tax rate)
• Capital Gains: N/A
• Number of Years Up: 28 years
• Number of Years Down: 5 years
• Weighted Average Maturity: 5.5 years
• Option Adjusted Duration: 5.3 years