Picking from the multitude of style mutual funds is a daunting task. In any given style there may be as many as 949 different mutual funds, and there are at least 6,260 mutual funds across all styles.
No fund style earns better than a Neutral rating going into 4Q13. My style ratings are based on the aggregation of my fund ratings for every ETF and mutual fund in each style.
Why are there so many mutual funds? The answer is because mutual fund providers are making lots of money selling them. The number of mutual funds has little to do with serving investors’ best interests.
The All Cap Growth style ranks fifth out of the twelve fund styles as detailed in my Style Rankings for ETFs and Mutual Funds report. It gets my Neutral rating, which is based on aggregation of ratings of both ETFs and 449 mutual funds in the All Cap Growth style as of July 16, 2013.
The Large Cap Growth style ranks fourth out of the twelve fund styles as detailed in my Style Rankings for ETFs and Mutual Funds report. It gets my Neutral rating, which is based on aggregation of ratings of 23 ETFs and 685 mutual funds in the Large Cap Growth style as of July 12, 2013.
The All Cap Blend style ranks third out of the twelve fund styles as detailed in my Style Rankings for ETFs and Mutual Funds report. It gets my Neutral rating, which is based on aggregation of ratings of 36 ETFs and 704 mutual funds in the All Cap Blend style as of July 12, 2013.
This report identifies the “best” ETFs and mutual funds based on the quality of their holdings and their costs. As detailed in “Low-Cost Funds Dupe Investors”, there are few funds that have both good holdings and low costs. While there are lots of cheap funds, there are very few with high-quality holdings.