Vanguard Balanced Index Fund Admiral Shares VBIAX

Balanced mutual fund is one of the most popular mutual funds for long term investor. This hybrid fund invests its assets in bond and stock. One of the top rated balanced funds is Vanguard Balanced Index Fund. More details about the fund review is described below.

Vanguard Balanced Index Fund Admiral Shares (VBIAX)

The investment objective of this Vanguard Balanced Index Fund is to track the performance of a broad, market-weighted bond index and a benchmark index that measures the investment return of the overall U.S. stock market. With about 60% of assets, it seeks to track the investment performance of the MSCI US Broad Market Index. The fund also seeks to track the investment performance of the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Float Adjusted Index with 40% of assets.

Fund Details

Vanguard Balanced Index fund

• Fund Inception Date: November 13, 2000
• Ticker Symbol: VBIAX (Admiral Shares)
• CUSIP: 921931200
• Beta (3yr): 0.95
• Rank in category (YTD): 8 %
• Category: Moderate Allocation
• Distribution: 2.39%
• Capital Gains: 0%
• Expense Ratio: 0.12%  
• Net Assets: $ 11.12 billion
• Number of Years Up: 7 years
• Number of Years Down: 3 years
• Average Duration: 7.3 years
• Average Maturity: 5.1 years

Updated on 12/5/2011

Harding Loevner International Equity Portfolio Inv HLMNX

This next mutual fund is also the Top S&P Mutual Fund for 2011. The Harding Loevner International Equity Portfolio is an international stock fund which invests in foreign companies in term of common stocks, preferred, warrants, convertibles, derivative, etc. You can find the fund’s review below.

Harding Loevner International Equity Portfolio, Investor (HLMNX)

The investment objective of Harding Loevner International Equity Portfolio fund is to provide long-term capital appreciation. This top foreign large growth fund invests in companies based in developed markets outside the U.S., and in established companies in emerging or frontier markets.

It generally invests majority of net assets in common stocks, preferred stock, rights and warrants issued by companies that are based outside the United States, securities convertible into such securities (including Depositary Receipts), and investment companies that invest in the types of securities in which the fund would normally invest. The fund may also invest in derivatives. This fund typically holds 35-75 investments across at least 15 countries.

Fund Details

Harding Loevner International Equity Portfolio

• Fund Inception Date: 09/30/2005
• Ticker Symbol: HLMNX
• CUSIP: 412295503
• Beta (3yr): 0.96
• Rank in category (YTD): 30%
• Category: Foreign Large Growth
• Distribution: 0.17%
• Capital Gains: 0%
• Expense Ratio: 1.25%  
• Net Assets: $ 1.16 billion
• Number of Years Up: 4 years
• Number of Years Down: 1 year

Updated on 11/27/2011

Dreyfus Appreciation Fund (DGAGX)

The following fund is another top rated Morningstar and top S&P mutual fund. This Dreyfus Appreciation Fund is part of large blend US Domestic Stock fund. More details about this fund review can be found below.

Dreyfus Appreciation Fund (DGAGX)

This Dreyfus Appreciation fund seeks long-term growth consistent with the capital preservation. It also tries to provide current income as secondary objective. This US Stock fund invests >80% of net assets in common stock. It focuses on blue chip companies with total market capitalizations of >$5 billion at the time of purchase, including multi-national companies.

Fund Details

• Fund Inception Date: January 18, 1984
• Ticker Symbol: DGAGX
• CUSIP: 261970-10-7
• Beta (3yr): 0.85
• Rank in category (YTD): 88%
• Category: Large Blend
• Yield: 1.69%
• Capital Gains: 0%
• Expense Ratio: 0.97%
• Net Assets: $ 4.8 billion
• Number of Years Up: 23 years
• Number of Years Down: 4 years
• Annual Turnover Rate: 2.59%

Updated on 5/26/2012

This domestic stock fund employs a "buy-and-hold" investment strategy, which is an investment strategy characterized by a low portfolio turnover rate, which helps reduce the fund's trading costs and minimizes tax liability by limiting the distribution of capital gains.

This DGAGX fund has been managed by Fayez Sarofim since its inception in January 18, 1984. This fund is in the Large Blend category. It has dividend yield of 1.16%.  The total net assets of this Dreyfus fund are $3.6 billion. The annual expense ratio of this fund is lower (0.99%) compared to the average in the Large Blend category (1.14%).

YTD Top Performer Non Leveraged ETF of Nov 2011

In my previous article, I have provided the list of the YTD Top Performer Mutual Funds of 2011. This list includes non-leverage and leverage Exchange Traded Funds. These non-leverage YTD top performer ETFs may be more desirable for regular investor. The top performers are PIMCO 25+ Year Zero Coupon U.S. Treasury Index, Vanguard Extended Duration Treasury Index ETF, iPath US Treasury 10-year Bull ETN, and more. From this list, bond funds and volatility funds are among the top performer for year 2011.

The 10 YTD Top Performer Non Leveraged ETFs of Nov 2011 are:

Top Performer ETF

1. PIMCO 25+ Year Zero Coupon U.S. Treasury Index ETF (ZROZ)
2. Vanguard Extended Duration Treasury Index ETF (EDV)
3. iPath US Treasury 10-year Bull ETN (DTYL)
4. iPath US Treasury Long Bond Bull ETN (DLBL)
5. iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT)
6. iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX)
7. SPDR Barclays Capital Long Term Treasury (TLO)
8. VelocityShares Long VIX Short Term ETN (VIIX)
9. Vanguard Long-Term Government Bond Index ETF (VGLT)
10. PIMCO 15+ Year US TIPS Index ETF (LTPZ)

Note: There is no leverage fund and bear fund in this list. YTD = Year-To-Date

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