2002

December 30 - Trade triggered in Fidelity Select Model Portfolio from Energy Service (FSESX) to Gold (FSAGX)

December 20 - Trade Triggered in the Single and Multi-Fund Portfolios on 12/20 from RS Information Age RSIFX to The Icon Energy Fund - ICENX.

December 12 -  Correction to Fund-Track Single Fund Model Portfolio -  A mistake was found in the trading record of this portfolio which has altered returns YTD. On 6/21 a trade should have been made into the Potomac US Short fund (PSPSX) instead of BTTTX. The model portfolio will be corrected for this and be posted on Friday's (12/13) update. Thanks to Nervous Newbie for spotting this!

December 06 -  Vanguard Utilities Income (VGSUX) - has become the Vanguard Dividend Income (VDIGX)

December 06 -  Trade in Fidelity Select Model Portfolio triggered. - Sell Software/Computer Systems (FSCSX) and Buy Energy Service (FSESX). Software/Computer Systems was held for 45 days for a gain of 11.9%.

November 29 -  Trade in Multi-Fund Model Portfolio triggered. - Sell Pimco RCM BioTech (DRBNX) and Buy Wasatch Ultra Growth (WAMCX) DRBNX was held for 42 days fro a 3.9% gain.

November 27 -  What's New Page Added - What's new? Well this What's New page is. Actually it is the old "Fund-Track News" section within the Weekly Update page (where no one seem to notice it).

November 26 -  Brokers page added - A “Brokers” page has been added to Fund-Track. This page evaluates major discount brokers on 2 fronts. 1. A chart that compares their fee structures, and 2. A list that exhibits which Fund-Track funds are offered with what broker. Note that this list is for the 198 funds that will be followed for 2003. The Nasdaq index and the Fund-Track Money market fund (see post below) to round the total up to 200. This information was collected from Morningstar via one stop shopping on their “purchase information” tab, for each fund, which I believe to be somewhat up-to-date. If anyone wants to verify this list and/or add to it for brokers that have not been included it would be welcomed. I will try to add more brokers in the future. All the information on this page is of course subject to change, and updates to it will be made accordingly. I could use help If anyone sees any corrections to this information. Thanks.

November 26 -  The initial list of new funds for 2003 is out - I have compiled a list of funds that will be dropped for 2003 and those replacing them. Replacement Funds for 2003. In summary, There will be an exchange of 36 funds primarily for reasons of closures and excessive redemption fees. A few funds are also being replaced because of poor performance. Two funds will also be added, one called the Fund-Track Money Market Fund. This is a hypothetical fund that I will peg with constant value of $1 and thus a constant price strength of 0% to serve as a proxy for cash. If this fund ever reaches the top of the ranks it will serve as a pretty good indication to get out of all funds and switch to cash via the money market account with your broker. Of note you may notice that I have dropped all the Gold funds. If you want to trade gold, it is being tracked over on the Fidelity Select System, and will probably be part of an ETF system when it comes out. Funds dumped because of “excessive” early redemption fees were those with any fees of 2% or more with minimum a hold time of 90 days or more. This follows Fund-Track policy as outlined on the About page. You will note that a few funds added have redemption fees under this threshold. The total % of funds with early redemption fees (not including the discount brokers) will be 15%. Overall I have pared some of the balance funds and added funds to the small and mid cap categories. All new funds added can be found on most major discount brokerages and were required to be on Scottrade, which seems to be a favorite among Fund-Trackers.

November 23 -  Transaction costs of Multi-fund Model Portfolio spreadsheet created - Having been asked how early redemption fees and transaction costs would affect the Model portfolio I added these to the Model portfolio spreadsheet which shows all trading costs (including any short-term redemption fees for the Model Portfolio to date for the year. Se the following PDF file: Multi-Fund Model Portfolio with Trading Costs. In summary, total trading costs have subtracted 1.5% from the total gain (14.2%) for the year-to-date.

November 21 -  Discount Brokers table Created. This table shows the popular discount brokerage out there and their fee policies. This spreadsheet table an be seen as an attachment in the Fund-Track MSN discussion area under the discussion "Redemption Fee Column Added" it will be part of new page titled "Brokers" which will be created in the next couple of weeks.

November 02 -  Redemption Fee Column Added to Rank. This column shows what the redemption fees for a fund are if any or if the fund is closed to new investors. It will be updated twice a year. Check yourself with your own broker before deciding to trade a fund or not.

October 31 - UAM FBR Crescent Institutional FPACX - has changed its name to UAM Crescent Institutional.

October 28 - Correction to Model Portfolio Returns made -  In adding a new column "why Traded" I uncovered an error made near the close of 2000 where distributions were not added to ranking system for funds being held then. Correcting this improved returns for this year, and very slightly for 2001 and 2002 YTD, and increased overall returns. See The note on the MSN community for details.

October 22 - Fund-Track Top 40 Funds now updated Tuesdays in addition to Friday's -  With the market being very turbulent these days and with some users calling for it I have decided to update the Fund-Track general rank on most Tuesday evenings in addition to the end of week updates. Nothing has changed at all for those users who review once a week and wish to remain doing that. They just now have the opportunity to look to see what is happening twice a week now to get a more up-to-date picture of what is moving in the rank.

October 15 - Fund-Track Single Fund Model Portfolio Unveiled -  A new Model portfolio to follow has been created that holds just one fund at a time and like the 3 fund portfolio trades according to the recommended rules, Link: HERE

October 14 - Fund-Track vs. MSN Strategy Lab Performance Final results Posted: -  The most recent round (7th) for the MSN Strategy lab has concluded. I have been tracking Fund-Track's performance against the performance of the "experts" in this investment contest. See the results on the Performance Page, Link: HERE

October 07- 3rd Quarter 2002 Fund-Track review completed - This review of a dismal quarter with reports, analysis an some links has been posted on the performance page. Link - HERE
October 4 - Fidelity Select Fun-Track Rank, Up and Running -  This new Fund-Track ranks Fidelity's family of Select Funds on a daily basis. Back testing this system produced gains averaging 49.9% a year for the last 5 years (1997 - 2001)

August 20 - Deutsche European Equity Invm (MEUVX) - has changed its name to Scudder European
Equity Investment.

August 16 - Added Site Map Page - As this site has grown, this new page can be helpful to find certain items in this site and to understand the hierarchical structure of information here. Hope it helps.

August 14 - Updated "How To Use" Section -  This section has been rewritten. After adding the Rules-Based Recommendation column to the Fund-Track ranks on August 02 (as described below) I thought it appropriate to rewrite this section to reflect the new Buy, Sell, and Hold recommendations that now appear with each fund. This section explains in detail the logic behind the recommendations. That logic has not changed from prior to adding new "down market" rules. New trading rules have just been added concerning when Fund-Track is experiencing a declining market.

August 09 - New Funds and New Fund Categories Added.- In light of the current market conditions six more funds were added to Fund-Track this week. I have always waited until the end of the year to do this as it takes some work, but I thought the market conditions justified the addition of a couple more Bear market funds and a few international bond funds, asset classes that have been doing relatively well this year. These funds are:
1. Prudent Bear - BEARX
2. Prudent Safe Harbor - PSAFX
3. Hussman Strategic Growth - HSGFX
4. T Rowe Price International Bond – RPIBX
5. American Century International Bond – BEGBX
6. Loomis Sayles Global Bond - LSGBX
The Hussman Strategic Growth Fund is not a "Bear Market" fund but is not afraid to short the market, and has been doing very well since its inception. With the addition of them funds 2 new Fund-Track fund categories have been created. 1. Bear Market funds, and 2. International Bond Funds. These new funds can be seen on the Fund List Page and near the top in this week's rank. See the recent postings in the Fund-Track group discussion for details of these new funds and why they were added. Fund-Track Discussion and/or the "New Funds" section of the 2002 Fund Changes Page

August 02 - New Rules Based Recommendations Column and Top 20% Short Term Average Strength Added to Ranks -  Based on research and analysis that was recently posted, some new items have been added to the Fund-Track ranks. A column has been added that shows a Buy, Sell, or Hold signal that is based on all Fund-Track mechanical trading recommendations. This simplifies the rules for those that want to follow them for trading. As part of this, the top 20% Short Term Average Strength is now being calculated and shown on each rank and on the Top Funds page every week along with the Top 20% Average Strength. These indicators have been recalculated removing all funds usually track counter to the "stock" market direction (i.e. The short fund, bond funds and gold funds)

For details concerning these new additional trading recommendations in down market conditions see the postings in the Fund-Track discussion group Link: Fund-Track Discussion

July 26 - Links added for each fund on Top 20% List (7/26/02) - Links have been added to each fund's ticker symbol on the top 20% rank within the "Top Funds" page. Selecting the ticker symbol will take you to Morningstar's analysis page for each fund where all kinds of detailed information about each fund can be reviewed.

July 20 - New Scottrade PDF spreadsheet - Exhibits for Scottrade what funds are not offered or are closed. Thanks to Jane for this information! This spreadsheet can be seen within the Fund-List page

July 17 - Boston Partners Small Cap Value (BPSCX) has re-opened to new investors. - This fund which is not on the rank this year did very well last year and closed to new investors late in the year and was thus dropped from Fund-Track. It is on the list to add for next year.

July 17 - Buffalo Small Cap (BUFFS) has re-opened to new investors. - This fund was recently reported closed in February. Its return YTD is a horrid -24.7%. With still over 1 billion in assets, this fund is still rather large for a small cap growth fund.

July 12 - Check Out The New Fund-Track "What To Expect" Section. - Link: "What to Expect" section on the About page.

July 12 - Credit Suisse Global Technology Comm (WPGTX) has closed to new investors. - This Telecom Sector fund is down 31.5% YTD as of July 12. Its total assets hover just above $100 Million, dropped over 38% in 2000, and 28% in 2001 and is down -31% this year. Why close with these numbers? It will be dropped from Fund-Track if it remains closed at the end of the year.

June 28 - Wasatch Ultra Growth Fund (WAMCX) has closed to new investors. - This fund is down -18% for the year to date and currently has assets worth about $375 million (as of 6/28/02). It will be dropped from Fund-Track if it remains closed at the end of the year.

June 28 - Scudder Latin American Fund (SLAFX) has closed to new investors - It will be dropped from Fund-Track if it remains closed at the end of the year.

June 10 - Regent Eastern European (EUROX) has changed its name to US Global Investors Eastern Europe. - This revision is a result of the recent change of the sub-adviser's name from Regent Fund Management Limited to Charlemagne Capital Limited. will continue to be managed by Stefan Bottcher and Andrew Wiles. The investment strategy will remain the same, focusing on dynamic companies that have most favorable currency rates, GDP growth, interest rates and political stability in the emerging markets of Eastern Europe, including Russia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

May 24 - ABN AMRO Latin America Fund (RLAEX) - folded and liquidated all assets. This actually happened a couple of weeks ago. It has been dropped from the Fund-Track ranks.

May 17 - Artisian MidCap (ARTMX) has closed to new investors. - This fund is down -3.96% YTD, asset size = $1.7 Billion. This fund should have closed long ago and has suffered because of its size. It will be dropped from Fund-Track if it remains closed at the end of the year.

May 06 - Oakmark International Small Cap I (OAKEX) has closed to new investors. - This good international small cap fund was good to Its managements word of closing when assets hit the 500 million mark. It will be dropped from Fund-Track if it remains closed at the end of the year.

May 01 - Bjurman Micro Cap Growth (BMCFX) re-opened to new investors. - It had closed late last year after a very successful run. As a result of its closure it was dropped from Fund-Track. If still open at the end of the year it will be included back into Fund-Track.

April 30 - American Gas Index (GASFX) has changed its name to FBR American Gas Index

March 03 - T Rowe Price Latin America (PRALX) has implemented a 2% redemption fee on it if sold within 365 days. Given the volatile nature of these country funds and the likelihood that one will rarely hold these funds for that length of time, I would stay away from this one. Per my policy (as seen on the About page) I will drop this fund at the end of the year.

March 03 - Montgomery Emerging Markets (MNEFX) has closed to new investors. -  It will be dropped from Fund-Track if it remains closed at the end of the year.

March 01 - Fund-Track website is born -  Fund-Track is up and running. For those that I have emailed these ranks to for years, it is your turn to "come and get it". Creating a website is something completely new to me but was (and is) a real learning experience. Please let me know what you think.