American Funds High Income Trust Fund (AHITX) Class A

With $15 billion total asset, this American Funds American High Income Trust is one of the most popular taxable high yield bond funds. This fund also has a high distribution rate of 8.54%. You can find the fund review below.

American Funds American High Income Trust A (AHITX)

This American Funds American High Income Trust fund objective is to provide a high level of current income. The fund’s secondary investment objective is to achieve capital appreciation. This fund invests primarily in higher yielding and generally lower quality debt including corporate loan obligations. It may also invest a portion of its assets in securities of foreign issuers.

Fund Details

The American High Income Trust A

• Fund Inception Date: February 19, 1988
• Ticker Symbol: AHITX
• CUSIP: 026547109
• Beta (3yr): 0.71
• Rank in category (YTD): 61%
• Category: High Yield Bond
• Distribution: 8.54%
• Capital Gains: 0%
• Expense Ratio: 0.68%  
• Net Assets: $ 15.98 billion
• Number of Years Up: 18 years
• Number of Years Down: 4 years
• Average Duration: 3.7 years
• Average Life: 5.9 years
• Annual Turnover Rate: 47.0%

Updated on 11/13/2011

YTD Top Performer Exchange Traded Funds of Nov 2011 ETF

The following is the list of the YTD top performer ETFs for 2011. The top performers include PowerShares DB 3x Lonng 25+ Year Treasury Bond ETN (LBND), Direxion Daily 20+ Year Treasury Bull 3X Shares (TMF), ProShares Ultra 20+ Year Treasury (UBT), and more. Most of these top performer funds are part of bond funds, bear market, and gold commodity funds (leverage and non-leverage). I also provide the details of fund’s review below. If you are interested in top performer mutual fund, you can check my article of YTD Top Performer Mutual Funds of November 2011.

Note: This list includes leveraged and non-leveraged ETFs / ETNs. ETFs or Exchange Traded Funds are traded like stock in stock exchanges like NYSE, Nasdaq, AMEX, etc. ETN = Exchange Traded Notes.

The 10 YTD Top Performer Exchange Traded Funds of November 2011 are:

YTD Top Performer ETFs

1. PowerShares DB 3x Long 25+ Year Treasury Bond ETN (LBND)
2. Direxion Daily 20+ Year Treasury Bull 3X Shares (TMF)
3. ProShares Ultra 20+ Year Treasury (UBT)
4. Direxion Daily India Bear 2X Shares (INDZ)
5. PIMCO 25+ Year Zero Coupon U.S. Treasury Index ETF (ZROZ)
6. Vanguard Extended Duration Treasury Index ETF (EDV)
7. iPath Short Extended Russell 2000 TR ETN (RTSA)
8. iPath Short Enhanced MSCI Emerging Markets ETN (EMSA)
9. ProShares UltraShort MSCI Brazil (BZQ)
10. Direxion Daily 7-10 Year Treasury Bull 3X Shares (TYD)

USAA World Growth Fund (USAWX)

As one of the top S&P mutual funds, this USAA World Growth Fund is classified as world stock fund. This fund focuses on investing in U.S. domestic and foreign companies. Details about this best fund review can be found below.

USAA World Growth Fund (Ticker: USAWX)

This USAA World Growth fund objective is to seek capital appreciation. This world stock fund invests assets mainly in equity securities of both foreign and domestic companies. It may invest in companies of any size or capitalization.

This top fund will prioritize on companies with large market capitalizations. It may invest a relatively large percentage of its assets in a single country, a small number of countries, or a particular geographic region. Investments are selected primarily based on fundamental analysis of issuers by the fund’s management.

Fund Details

• Fund Inception Date: 10/1/1992
• Ticker Symbol: USAWX
• CUSIP: 903287704
• Beta (3yr): 0.85
• Rank in category (YTD): 28%
• Category: World Stock
• Distribution: 0.61%
• Capital Gains: 0%
• Expense Ratio: 1.29% 
• Net Assets: $ 587.74 million
• Number of Years Up: 14 years
• Number of Years Down: 4 years

Updated on 04/26/2012

Top Mutual Funds of 2011 by S&P Capital IQ

On October 2011, S&P Capital IQ announced its U.S. Mutual Fund Excellence Awards Program for year 2011 (ending August 31st). This list includes USAA World Growth Fund (USAWX), Harding Loevner International Equity Portfolio Investor, Dreyfus Appreciation Fund, T. Rowe Price Retirement Income Fund, and more. More details about this list can be found in Financial Advisor Magazine.

Top S&P Mutual Funds 2011

The S&P Top Mutual Funds of 2011 are:

• U.S. Domestic Large Cap: Dreyfus Appreciation
• U.S. Domestic Mid Cap:  Vanguard Selected Value Fund
• U.S. Domestic Small Cap: Homestead Small Company Fund
• U.S. Domestic Multicap: Sequoia Fund
• International Equity: Harding Loevner International Equity Portfolio Investor
• Global Equity: USAA World Growth Fund
• Taxable Fixed Income: DWS GNMA Fund
• Balanced Individual Securities: Vanguard Balanced Index Fund Admiral Shares
• Balanced Fund of Funds: T. Rowe Price Retirement Income Fund
• New Fund: T. Rowe Price U.S. Large-Cap Core

Updated on 11/25/2011

Vanguard Intermediate Term Investment Grade Fund (VFICX)

Vanguard Intermediate-Term Investment-Grade fund is considered as one of the top rated taxable bond mutual fund. This Vanguard fund invests in US bond market. This intermediate term bond fund invests in a diversified portfolio of debt securities. This Vanguard fund is actively managed and has low expense ratio.

Details about this fund can be found below. You can also fund other best rated fund in my MEPB Financial website.

Vanguard Intermediate-Term Investment-Grade Investor (VFICX)

This Vanguard Intermediate-Term Investment-Grade fund (investor class) seeks to provide a moderate and sustainable level of current income. This Vanguard fund invests in a variety of high-quality and, to a lesser extent, medium-quality fixed income securities, <80% of which will be short- and intermediate-term investment-grade securities. This bond fund will keep a dollar-weighted average maturity of 5 to 10 years.

Fund Details

• Fund Inception Date: November 1, 1993
• Ticker Symbol: VFICX
• CUSIP: 922031885
• Beta (3yr): 1.35
• Rank in category (YTD): 8%
• Category: Intermediate-Term Bond
• Distribution Rate / Yield: 2.77%
• Capital Gains: 0%
• Expense Ratio: 0.20%  
• Net Assets: $27.2 billion
• Number of Years Up: 14 years
• Number of Years Down: 3 years
• Average Duration: 5.4 years
• Average Maturity: 6.6 years
• Annual Turnover Rate: 68.0%

Updated May 2017

YTD Top Performer Mutual Funds Nov 2011

The following is the list of the Year-To-Date top performer mutual funds of 2011. The list includes Vanguard Extended Duration Treasury Index Institutional, PIMCO Extended Duration Institutional, Wasatch-Hoisington US Treasury, and more. Most of these top performers are bond funds especially Treasury bond and long term government bond.

YTD Top Performer Funds 2011

The 10 YTD Top Performer Funds 2011 include:

1. Vanguard Extended Duration Treasury Index Institutional
2. PIMCO Extended Duration Institutional
3. ProFunds US Government Plus Inv
4. Rydex Govt Long Bond 1.2x Strategy Inv
5. Wasatch-Hoisington US Treasury
6. American Century Zero Coupon 2025 Inv
7. Fidelity Spartan Long Term Treasury Bond Index Inv
8. Direxion Monthly 10 Year Note Bull 2X
9. Vanguard Long-Term Treasury Inv
10. Vanguard Long-Term Government Bond Index Institutional

Updated on 11/22/2011

JPMorgan Core Bond Fund (PGBOX) Class A

This next bond fund invests primarily in investment grade bonds including corporate bond, US Treasuries, Mortgage based bond, etc. This JPMorgan Core Bond A is also one of the most popular fixed income fund hence it has $21 Billion total assets. Details review can be viewed below.

JPMorgan Core Bond A (PGBOX)

The investment objective of JPMorgan Core Bond fund is to maximize total return. This JPM fund is designed to maximize total return by investing in a portfolio of investment grade intermediate- and long-term bonds. This popular bond fund will invest at majority of assets (>80%) in bonds. The fund’s average weighted maturity will ordinarily range between 4 and 12 years.

Fund Details

JPMorgan Core Bond A fund

• Fund Inception Date: May 1, 1992
• Ticker Symbol: PGBOX
• CUSIP: 4812C0357
• Beta (3yr): 0.73
• Rank in category (YTD): 25%
• Category: Intermediate-Term Bond
• Distribution Rate: 3.50%
• Capital Gains: 0%
• Expense Ratio: 0.74%  
• Net Assets: $ 21.14 billion
• Number of Years Up: 16 years
• Number of Years Down: 2 years
• Average Duration: 4.33 years
• Average Maturity: 5.68 years
• Annual Turnover Rate: 24.0%

Updated on 11/15/2011