In This Story

· View tables below
The 2003 Year-End Fund-Screen Recipe

For today's screen, each equity category was run as a separate screen. Two recipes were used, depending on the fund category.
For global international, emerging markets, large-caps, midcaps, multicaps and small caps, the following recipe was used:

· Fund Type = global international, emerging markets, large-caps, midcaps, multicaps or small caps (each category was run as a separate screen)
· Load Fund (type) = no load
· Minimum Initial Investment = less than or equal to $25,000
· The following criteria was Display Only = YTD Return (%); Expense Ratio.

For the gold-oriented, science and technology, telecom and balanced funds, the following recipe was used:

· Fund Classification = gold-oriented, science and technology, telecom or balanced funds (each category was run as a separate screen)
· Load Fund (type) = no load
· Minimum Initial Investment = less than or equal to $25,000
· The following criteria was Display Only = YTD Return (%); Expense Ratio.

The information for the three bond-fund categories — short-term, intermediate and long-term — was provided by Lipper. Please note these are preliminary figures.
User Options

· View Archive
· Send Us Your Comments
· Email This Story
· Print This Story
· Save This
Advertisement
· Visit Ameritrade to learn about ETFs.
Today on SmartMoney

Common Sense
· Intel Outside
One-Day Wonder
· Silicon Rally
Consumer Action
· Breaking Down Medicare Reform
Stock Screen
· Growth Stocks at Bargain Prices
Decision 2004
· New Hampshire Dreamin'


By Stephanie AuWerter
January 2, 2004
Note: This column was originally published on SmartMoney Select, our premium, subscription-based website. To access this and other content from SmartMoney Select on a daily basis, click here to start your FREE TRIAL now!

WELL IT TOOK long enough. Despite a year rocked by the ongoing fund scandals, 2003 was finally a very good year for mutual fund investors. With the average U.S. diversified equity fund racking up returns of 32.4%, according to Lipper, a little bit of the "fun" has been put back in fund investing.

Leading the pack in terms of stellar average domestic returns are two unlikely bedfellows: Gold-Oriented funds (with an average gain of 58.2%) and Science & Technology funds (with an average gain of 55.7%). Gold funds — which typically do well during bearish (or inflationary) environments — soared to the top of the charts based largely on weakness in the U.S. dollar and consolidation within the mining industry, explains Don Cassidy, senior research analyst at Lipper. On the flip side, it was the most speculative of tech funds that shot to the nosebleed section of fund-return tables, with those with heavy (or exclusive) weighting in Internet stocks performing the best. For example, the Profunds Internet fund (INPIX), which provides leveraged exposure to the Dow Jones Internet Index, was one of the year's best performers, gaining 129.1%

International funds also performed well, with the average world fund gaining 39.5%. according to Lipper. Leading the way were China funds, which gained an average of 63.1%. (For more on this fund group, click here.)

Below we've detailed the top five best-performing funds across 13 broad categories. Remember, though, one year's top performer may not be the next's. That's why we are such firm believers in proper asset allocation. Click here for assistance in determining the right allocation for you.

The Criteria
For today's fund screen, we went looking for the best performers across 13 categories, covering six broad equity groups, four fixed-income groups (including balanced funds which can hold both stocks and bonds) and the top three sector groups of 2003, namely gold-oriented funds, science and technology funds and telecom funds. For each category, we've listed the top five performers.

Each category was run as its own screen, using the criteria that the funds must be no-load and have minimum initial investments of $25,000 or less. The equity screens (including the balanced fund category) were run using our Fund Screener. (For more details on this, see our "recipe" on the right hand side of the screen.) The bond information was provided by Lipper directly.