I want to know how others pick their funds and what they place as a priority, management tenure? Load type? Expense ratio? Perhaps past performance? What do you think is more important along with any ideas or thoughts on whats best at this time? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Definitely go with no-load funds (most of which perform at least as well as their load counterparts). In general, unless you're planning to actively track fund performance, going with an index find is probably your best bet. If you're going for something more aggressive (managed funds), take a look at both past performance as well as the tenure of the fund manager. Low turnover within the fund is another good indicator.
You're right on. I would add that expense ratio is important. High costs, just zap away at your total return. Check out Vanguard or T.Rowe Price.
Consumer Reports actually studies and evaluates mutual funds and recommends a few certain funds. I wish I could find that article....
I found several articles from CR on the Gale Database. Most public libraries should be able to find something--for copyright and access reasons, I can't give a link here. But check out March 2005, Vol. 70, Issue, 3 p. 28.
I'd like to add a quick addendum to this. Obviously energy and housing stocks have been the market leaders for the first 2Qs of 2005; and thus mutual funds heavy in those stocks will show the best performance recently. What you have to weight is what sectors you feel confident in and pick a fund that corresponds to them. If you pick one of the top performing funds from the 1st half of 2005 and oil goes down to $50 (I know, not a chance) you'll take a massive hit as many of the stocks will likely move with it to a degree. Personally when I'm looking for a fund I look for a beat down sector (i.e. I went into a tech fund early 2Q this year) and find a fund that is heavily weighted in that sector. Actually ETFs are a better and more flexible way of doing this, but thats a whole other topic. I guess the moral is past performance can be decieving as it indicates many of the equities held have already experienced a healthy appreciation and will be more likely to face resistance moving forward.