This page contains answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Fund-Track.

1. What makes Fund-Track unique?

2. Is Fund-Track right for me?

3. Why just no-load mutual funds?

4. Why all the Sector funds?

5. How does a fund get selected for the Fund-Track rankings?

6. How is Fund-Track performance measured?

7. What about funds within the ranks that close during the year ?

8. Why can't I find some Fund-Track funds in the newspaper listings for Mutual Funds? (Why are some of the funds not listed by Nasdaq?)

9. When is the best time to review the ranks and how often?

10. What is a good brokerage to invest in mutual funds where I can utilize Fund-Track?

11. What about Mutual fund distributions?

12. Why Fund upgrading can be a superior investing strategy to Buy-n-Hold?

13. Can Asset Allocation be practiced utilizing Fund-Track?

14. What is Short Term Strength and Average Strength?

15. What are the benefits of Fund-Track membership?

16. Where is Fund-Track physically located?

17. What if I have more questions?
     

Fund-Track Member Questions

18. How can I become a Fund-Track member?

19. I never received my new username and password? 

20. I forgot my membership user name and/or password?

21. How do I cancel my membership?

2. Is Fund-Track right for me? (What kind of Investors would Fund-Track be most useful for?)         
   See the Is Fund-Track Right For You .

3. Why just no-load mutual funds ?
   The historical performance of no-load mutual funds has equaled that of load funds over the past history of the mutual fund industry. According to Morningstar for 7,870 US stock funds through the end of April 2002, The annualized performance gain was 7.42% for load funds and 8.85% for no-load. Over 10 years it was 10.51% for loads and 11.55% for no-loads.   So why pay load fees (sometimes as much as 7%) when you can get similar or superior performance from a no-load? There is a wide variety of superior no-load funds available. They lack entry and exit fees and so lend themselves more to trading if performance suffers. If invested in a load fund and you want to trade into a better fund because your performance is lagging, there is no sense to paying a 3 – 7% load penalty when this can easily be avoided. All no-load funds selected to be included in the Fund-Track rankings are highly rated.

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4. Why all the Sector funds ?
   An economy can be divided up into smaller groups of closely related industries known as sectors.  Mutual funds that specialize in these industries or economic sectors are known as sector funds. In the last few years the overall best performing funds for each year have all been sector funds. Although the same can be said for the worst performing funds. Sector funds have been the most consistent overachievers since their inception in the mid 1980s. According to Morningstar, over a 10 year period ending in the summer of 2001, 13 of 15 best performing domestic stock mutual funds were sector funds. They seek extra returns by taking the extra risks of specialization within a particular industry. 

Different economic conditions affect certain industrial sectors differently. some favorably, some not. The key is to track the sector funds closely and make changes as the economic situation changes. These changes are seen as the sector funds move up and down in the Fund-Track ranks. By constantly measuring price strength Fund-Track is able to uncover what sectors are performing well and what funds are well positioned within that sector.   As Peter Lynch put it in his best selling book: Beat The Market: "If you are in the right sector at the right time you can make a lot of money very fast".  Sector descriptions can be seen on the Fund Type Definitions page.

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5. How does a fund get selected for the Fund-Track rankings?
   At the end of each year all Fund-Track funds are evaluated, with some being replaced for new year.  We are always searching for new "undiscovered" funds showing good potential, some of which do not get much press and are not even listed by Nasdaq.  Currently a mutual fund needs over 25 million in assets and over 1,000 investors to get listed by Nasdaq.   Funds selected for Fund-Track are screened for the following 10 criteria:

   1. No-load
   2. Open to new investors
   3. No or minimal back-end redemption fees (No funds with a redemption fee > then 2% if held less then 60 days)
   4. Minimum initial investment requirement less then or equal to $10,000
   5. Widely available on most mutual fund trading brokerages (required on Scottrade and Schwab)
   6. Superior (better then category average) 1 and 3 year average returns. (if in existence 3 + years)
   7. Morningstar rating of greater then 3 stars. Except where fund is too new to be rated
   8. Considered "best-in-class" by various mutual fund rating services
   9. Smaller funds preferred over larger funds
   10. NTF (No Transaction Fee) funds preferred

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6. How is Fund-Track performance measured ?
   Model portfolios were created to track the ability of Fund-Track to compare and identify superior mutual funds at any time under any market conditions.  This ability to maintain a successful mutual fund timing system is gauged by the returns of the model portfolios.  These model portfolios are hypothetical.   For details see the Performance page. 

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7. What about funds within the ranks that close during the year ?  
   Fund-Track contains many successful funds.  By that very nature a handful of funds within the ranks close during the year to new investors as other find out about their success and assets swell.  The Fund-Track policy regarding closed funds is when a fund closes it will remain in the weekly Fund-Track ranks until it exhibits a "Sell" at which point it will be dropped, and /or replaced with another fund..  There is no sense in including a fund within Fund-Track that is not open to new investors, and when it drops out of the top 20% investors still tracking it should trade out of it to a fund that is ranked higher, according to recommended rules. If the model portfolio is holding a closed fund, it to will trade out of it when it if/when it drops from the top 20%.

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8. Why can't I find some Fund-Track funds in the newspaper listings for Mutual Funds? (Why are some of the funds not listed by Nasdaq?)
   Nasdaq doesn't list funds on Its ticker (those that appear in the newspaper listings) until they have more then $25 million in assets or 1,000 investors. These are small new funds on the scene. Fund-Track incorporates number of these funds. More often then not they are at the top of the rankings. It has been well documented that smaller, and newer funds outperform larger funds and category indexes on average. This is because they tend to be nimbler. Unlike large funds these funds can easily take positions in promising small and/or new companies without driving their stocks through the ceiling. When successful, these investments can give funds with small portfolios a huge boost. Not suffering from "asset bloat" as the large funds do, these small funds can also move in and out of positions much quicker letting them capitalize on changing economic conditions much more effectively then their larger brethren. 

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9. When is the best time to review the ranks and how often ?
   It depends upon which ranking system you are using and whether you are a member or not.   For members,  Fidelity ranks are updated nightly, and the regular Fund-Track on Tuesdays and Fridays, after the market closes.   Thus members can see the latest ranking information.  if following the Fidelity System ranks should be reviewed at least a couple of times a week, while those utilizing the regular Fund-Track Once a week is sufficient (soon after one of the 2 updates).    The ETF Fund-track system is also updated on Tiesdays and Fridays after the market closes.  

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10. What is a good brokerage to invest in mutual funds where I can utilize Fund-Track ?
    A number of different brokerage houses have large mutual fund market places where an investor can trade between no load funds of different families without having to open specific accounts in those families.  Examples are Scottrade, Schwab and Fidelity. There are pluses and minuses to each brokerage.  Schwab has all Fund-Track funds within its market place but has much higher trading costs then others.  Scottrade, a favorite among Fund-Track followers is missing a few funds but has much lower trading costs.  The Brokers page can be of help in selecting a broker.  For those planning to utilize the Fidelity Select Fund-Track, it is recommended that you utilize Fidelity as your brokerage or open an additional account with them to utilize this system with. Why? See the Fidelity Select page for details on trading with Fidelity.

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11. What abut Mutual fund distributions ?
    Any mutual fund distributions (dividends and/or capital gains) are collected each week concurrently with the collection of fund prices. These distributions are factored into the % price gained or lost for that week.  The model portfolios do not currently contain any fund distributions as part of returns.  

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12. Why fund upgrading can be a superior investing strategy to Buy-n-Hold?
    For Investors that want to "park" their money and not have to look at it for years, buy-and-hold is definitely an appropriate strategy.  But for those that want to be a little more aggressive upgrading can reap larger rewards. The key is having an appropriate tool to use that will help one determine when and where to invest..  The US economy and market moves in up and down cycles. And these cycles within our economy do not necessarily match those of other regions around the world (e.g.,. Eastern Europe could be up while, Asia and the US could be down).  By infrequently rotating funds within a portfolio to take advantage of US and world economic conditions superior investment performance can be achieved.  The key is to constantly keep track of a wide variety of top mutual funds from various industrial sectors and the worlds regions thus being able to see when conditions are changing.  In 2001 Small Cap value. Gold and the Real Estate sector were the places to be at different times. The key was just investing in these fund types as they rose to the top of the Fund-Track ranks.  Check the return of the Fund-Track model portfolios over the last 4 years on the Performance page to see what funds it was in during the year. 

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13. Can asset allocation be practiced within Fund-Track ?
    Fund-Track identifies those mutual funds that are currently performing and trending well.  As explained previously, depending upon the economic conditions present, funds of the same "fund type" (within the same industrial sectors/asset classes or regions around the world) tend to move up and down the ranks together, and can be observed often.  If you are utilizing multi-fund portfolio and want to diversify your assets it is suggested that when it comes time to "Buy" a fund, you consider selecting a recommended "buy" fund that is of a different "fund type" then those you are already holding.   The Down Side -   Although this approach would most probably serve to mitigate risk should one sector or region take a sudden tumble, it might also compromise returns and result more frequent trading then normal.  When looking for funds within different "fund-types" one will have to select ones not ranked the highest and thus have less to fall in the ranks before they trigger a "Sell".   Another suggestion concerning asset allocation is to just use Fund-Track for a portion of your investment portfolio, that portion aiming for growth and/or aggressive growth.

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14. What is Short term Strength and Average Strength ?
    Short Term Strength - A Fund-Track proprietary algorithm that calculates the strength of trend for a fund over the short term. This percentage represents how far above or below the current fund's price is to its calculated average. It is the primary trend calculation for Fund-Track.
    Average Strength - Key indicator in which all funds in Fund-Track are ranked in order of.   A Proprietary smoothing algorithm performed on the short term strength.  It gauges the average strength of the fund's price trend over he medium term. This strength of trend measure helps to estimate how the fund will perform going forward. 

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16. What if I have more questions?
    Feel free to contact me for any questions you might have.   An even better method is to post your question on the Fund-Track discussion board, where not only will try to answer them, but input from other users may be added which can be very valuable. 

17. Where is Fund-Track Physically located?
    Tough Question.   Fund-Track the website actually sits on a server in Irvine California, but is run and managed out of St. Petersburg Florida.   Address: P.O Box 1674 St. Petersburg Florida 33731-1674.   

18. How Can I become a Fund-Track member?
    Go to the Join Fund-Track page and determine what subscription cost option you want, then link on the appropriate payment option for you, and follow the instructions.  For the preferred on-line option you will sign up via paypal, a secure, safe and easy payment method.   After completing sign up you will be immediately sent a username and password for your new membership.          

19. I never received my username and password?
    Remember that your username and password will be sent to the email that you used within Paypal.  So check that email.  preferably use the same email for joining fund-track as you have in paypal.   J       

20. I forgot my membership user name and/or password?
    Try to Log in, and when getting to the login screen , enter your email address.  (the same email address you used in the payment procedure with Paypal).   Your password will be shortly emailed to you (at this same email address).  

21. How do I cancel my membership?
    Please see the directions on how to cancel your free trial or regular subscription.  Cancel Subscription.