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The article discusses alternative-energy stocks and why there are many choices to choose from. The author explains that a good way to invest in alternative energy is to put your money in a mutual fund or an exchange-traded fund (ETF) where they invest in renewable-energy. The article also explains that the best way to invest in alternative energy is through ETF's because they trade based on exchanges.

The article explores the significance of consistency in selecting and managing a mutual fund. It explains the significance of consistency to mutual fund managers and offers a guide for measuring a fund's consistency. It also offers a look at some funds that have consistently beaten their own benchmarks on a calendar-year basis from December 31, 1989 through December 1, 2007, which covers a wide range of market conditions such as the bear markets of 1990 and 2000-02 and the speculative frenzy of the late 1990s. INSETS: Index beaters;Index beaters 2;10% or bust;In the black

The article profiles seven new mutual funds that are run by skilled managers at reputable fund companies. It explains the benefits to investors of investing in newly launched funds. It offers a look at the performance of some new mutual funds in the U.S., including WHG Large Cap Value, Harbor Large Cap Value, Marsico Flexible Capital and Artisan Opportunistic Value. It also advises investors to look for new funds that invest in small-company stocks and which have seasoned managers with good track records. INSET: Dividends from abroad.

The article discusses ways to measure the performance of stock funds in the U.S. market, based on Morningstar data. Morningstar analyst Paul Herbert suggests that investors should combine consistency with other factors, such as low expenses, experienced management and a reasonable strategy. But funds that deliver consistently good results deserve a bit of extra consideration. Selected funds that have beaten their benchmarks in at least 85% of calendar years since 1990 include Driehaus Emerging Markets, Oakmark Global and Templeton World.

The article focuses on investments on newly launched mutual funds. Managers of fresh funds can invest in their picks without having to contend with the baggage of existing holdings. Moreover, new funds are usually small, and smaller funds are more nimble and flexible, which allows them to enter and exit positions without tipping off the market. Richard Evans, a finance professor at Boston College and his colleagues found that large funds have twice the impact when they buy and sell.

This article focuses on some of the best broker-sold mutual funds in the U.S. They include Quaker Strategic Growth, Ivy Asset Strategy, Keeley Small Cap Value, Legg Mason Partners Aggressive Growth, Calvert Large Cap Growth, Pioneer Cullen Value, Thornburg Value and Thornburg International Value. It explains the reasons for the attractiveness of these types of mutual funds. It presents information on the performance of these funds and the people who manage them.

This article looks at the 20 biggest no-load stock funds in the U.S. It explains that the factors considered by this periodical in ranking the 20 biggest no-load stock funds. It says that biggest does not mean better in the mutual funds world, but the stock funds selected in this article are proven champions. They include Dodge & Cox Stock, Vanguard Windsor, Fidelity Low-Priced Stock, Fidelity Magellan, Vanguard Primecap, Fidelity Growth & Income and Fidelity Growth Company.

This article features 15 mutual funds that are best for investments. The mutual funds are Dodge & Cox International Stock, Excelsior Value & Restructuring, Fidelity Floating-Rate High Income, Harbor Bond, Hodges, Homestead Value, Loomis Sayless Bond, Marsico Growth, Merger, Medidian Growth, Oakmark International, Selected American Shares, Skyline Special Equities, T. Rowe Price Growth Stocks and T. Rowe Price Rea Estate. It presents information on the performance of the funds.

The article offers information on the top 10 best commission-charging stock funds in 2006. Since its 1993 launch, Keeley Smell Cap Value has delivered big gains by investing in an unusual niche: businesses undergoing a metamorphosis. At heart, Keeley is a bargain hunter. Legg Mason Partners Aggressive Growth has returned an annualized 14% over the past 23 years. In Victory Diversified Stock's 17-year history, it lost money only one year, 2002, when it fell 23%. INSET: NO-LOAD clones of load funds.

Presents a list of the top U.S. international and global stock funds for the year 2005. Trimark Small Cos.; Allegiant Small Cap Value; Balanced Wealth Strat. INSET: TAILOR this data to your needs.

Interviews David Winters, chief executive officer chief investment officer of Mutual Series, about the Mutual Series funds. Favorite stock of Winters; Mistake committed by Winters as chief investment officer; Description of the Mutual Recovery fund.

Features the 25 best stock funds in the U.S. business sector as of May 1, 2004. Oakmark Fund; T. Rowe Price Growth Stock; TCW Galileo Select Equity; Aegis Value. INSETS: When your goal is LONG TERM;For a MEDIUM TERM goal;When you've already RETIRED;Our funds WHIP the market

Interviews Edward Owens, manager of the Vanguard Health Care fund in the U.S. Views on the difficulties faced by health companies in generating profit growth; Reasons behind the growth of the fund managed by Owens; Investments strategies used by the company.

Presents an interview with mutual fund manager Chris Davis. Description of Davis as one of the most compelling mutual fund managers of his generation; Davis' background and his family history of investment banking; Davis' approach to evaluating and analyzing companies; How Davis decides upon investments.

An interview with financial expert Jim Ross is presented. When asked if exchange-traded funds (ETF) could eliminate the market for mutual funds, he says the will compete, but neither one will eliminate the other. When asked how ETFs are often misunderstood, he says people trade them too much instead of holding them for the long term. He adds that ETFs will probably begin expanding into fixed-income financial portfolios.

The article discusses the benefits and drawbacks of exchange-traded funds (ETF). ETFs are similar to mutual funds, but they are publicly traded. They allow individual investors to buy diversified stock indexes through a single investment. This saves money on management and record-keeping fees, and also allows investors to control when they pay taxes on their gains. The biggest drawback to ETFs is that they make people less likely to buy and hold their investments for long periods.

This article presents an analysis of so-called target-date mutual funds, premixed portfolios based on an investor's anticipated retirement date that gradually grow more conservative. Comments are offered from Geoff Considine, a strategic adviser to Vienna, Virginia-based brokerage firm Foliofn, who reflects on the importance of diversified portfolios.

This article focuses on personal finance and investing for the future. The article stresses starting to invest early because of the positive effects of compounding. The article explains that young investors should have three groups of money for spending, medium-term goals, and retirement. Detailed is how to build a portfolio with mutual funds and stocks. INSETS: The Set-It-and-Forget-lt Portfolio;FUNDS FOR A SHOESTRING BUDGET.

Discusses whether the Growth Funds of America, a family of funds run by Capital Research and Management, can avoid the curse of big business. Background on America Funds; Statement issued by Capital Research spokesman Chuck Freadhoff regarding the ability of the fund company to manage its finances; Initiative taken by Capital Research to combat groupthink among its fund managers; Attributes of the stocks held by American funds.

Presents information on promising new funds as of November 2004. Buffalo Micro Cap; Fidelity International Real Estate; Wasatch Heritage Growth.

The article provides advice on investing strategies that involve exchange traded funds (ETF). ETFs are gaining in popularity and offer some advantages over traditional mutual funds. Many actively managed mutual funds actually underperform the market. ETFs have no management fees and allow individual investors to have control over when they buy and sell. Financial expert Tom Lydon recommends making investment changes during the 2008 financial crisis.

The article reports on investing in flexible funds run by experts in the stock market. The flexible funds are named all-cap or multicap because of their flexibility in allowing managers to invest in companies of any size. An example of one manager is Bill Miller of Legg Mason who invests in many different sectors including online retailers, home builders and private-equity firms.

The article focuses on several hedge-like funds including Caldwell & Orkin Market Opportunity (COAGX), Hussman Strategic Growth (HSGFX) and James Market Neutral (JAMNX). It states that these funds operate by implementing hedging strategies that can produce returns which move out of step with the stock and bond markets. These funds may go up and may go the other way around when regular stock funds are going down.

Several charts that lists the major natural resources funds and stock mutual funds are presented including Fidelity Select Energy Service, Vanguard 500 Index Inv and Davis New York Venture A.

The article assesses the effectiveness of selected online brokers in providing services to investors interested in investing in mutual funds. Among online brokers, Siebert and Fidelity Muriel Siebert & Co., the firm founded 32 years ago by the first woman to hold a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, and Fidelity Brokerage, a unit of the fund company, stand out. In terms of perks for big customers, both Siebert and Fidelity are at the top. Other online brokers considered in this assessment include E*Trade, Firstrade and OptionXpress. INSET: How other brokers STACK UP.

The article features Cambriar Opportunity, a mutual fund in the U.S. Brian Barish, who runs the fund, is seeking low-risk stocks with big appreciation potential. To fulfill the low-risk requirement, Barish first pinpoints stocks that look cheap relative to their own operating history, using measures such as price-earnings and price-sales ratios. With a return of 6%, Opportunity trailed the market by three percentage points in the first five months of 2007.

The article deals with the effect of employing hedging strategies on investments. The author mentions that the strategies of hedge-fund-like mutual funds vary, but their basic mission is to try to defend against market declines and still deliver decent returns. If implemented effectively, hedging strategies can produce steady returns that move out of step with the stock and bond markets.

The article recommends several no-load stock funds that require $1000 or less as an initial investment in the U.S. Just $250 gets an investor into the Hodges fund. Father-and-son team Don and Craig Hodges steer this fund toward firms of all sizes that have increasing profits. A fine choice with a $500 minimum investment is Excelsior Value & Restructuring. This fund invests in undervalued companies that are restructuring or are in industries that are consolidating. Selected American Shares' portfolio is made up of large companies and financial stocks account for about half of the fund's holdings.

The article informs about the new funds from Fidelity Investments and Vanguard Group Inc. The Income Replacement funds of Fidelity combine features of target-date retirement funds and annuities. It contains a portfolio of Fidelity stock and bond funds that becomes more conservative over time and gradually return investors' money via monthly payouts and are depleted by the horizon date. Vanguard's Managed Payout funds generate monthly payouts without consuming principal.

The article offers information on stock funds. For just $250, people can invest in the Hodges fund, which holds all sizes of companies with strong growth prospects. Its record is one of the best for any stock fund. If investors are looking for cheaply priced stocks, they should consider Homestead Value. Homestead Value has delivered an annualized 10% over the past decade. The minimum is $500, and the expense ratio is just 0.71%.

The article presents an outlook on the rate of return of utility funds. Robert Becker, manager of Cohen & Steers Utility fund, shares that the substantial earnings growth in utilities can be attributed to catch-up investments being made. Mergers are also boosting returns in the utilities sector. Over the past year to May 14, 2007, the average utility fund gained 32%. Cohen & Steers expects the industry's earnings to grow 11% in 2007.

The article offers a look at the religion-related investments made by mutual funds Amana Income and Timothy Plan Large/Mid-Cap Value. Timothy Plan invests in companies with Christian beliefs and avoids those that facilitate abortions, gay marriage and sponsor violent television programs. On the other hand, Amana invests based on Islamic principles and avoids companies involved in gambling, pornography and sell pork.

The article presents information on three low-cost dividend-growth funds, namely Fidelity Dividend Growth, T. Rowe Price Dividend Growth, and iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index (DVY). Investors will find large helpings of financial, industrial and health-care companies in Fidelity Dividend Growth. A by-the-book rising-dividend fund is T. Rowe Price Dividend Growth. In addition to increasing dividends year after year, companies in this fund typically generate annual earnings growth of 8% to 10%.

The article offers investment guidelines for 2007. Certificates of deposit remain a good place to park one's money early in 2007, especially if one is willing to shop around rather than settle for what the neighborhood bank is paying. One should invest now in a high-yielding money-market fund. For investors in a high tax bracket, it makes a lot of sense to put the bulk of their bond money in a solid, tax-free municipal-bond fund.

The article gives investment advice concerning fund distributions. The script goes like this: Funds must pay out essentially all of the past year's net realized gains. For example, T. Rowe Price New Asia expects to make a distribution amounting to 13% of net asset value per share. However, payouts boost the tax basis if one reinvest the distributions. For example, if one have $10,000 in a fund and it pays out a $1,000 capital-gains distribution, the new tax basis is $11,000 if one reinvest.

The article explores the similarities between Metropolitan West Asset Management and Pimco, the bigger bond house. Long-term results of the firms' flagship funds are almost indistinguishable. Despite the similar results, Met West insists that it has an edge over Pimco: It is much smaller. Pimco runs $642 billion, and Met West controls $18 billion. Metropolitan West is a reasonable choice for investors seeking conservatively managed bond funds. Total Return's annual expenses of 0.65% are below average.

The article offers investment information for mutual fund company Long Leaf Partners International as of 2006. Long Leafs' annualized return of 14 percent over the past three years to September 1, 2006 places it in the bottom 10 percent of diversified foreign funds. The company, which buys cheap stocks, lagged by an average of eight percentage points per year as compared to other mutual fund companies.

The article focuses on the investment strategy of the Herzfeld Caribbean Basin fund. Herzfeld invests in companies poised to benefit once the U.S. lifts its trade embargo with Cuba. Miami money manager Thomas Herzfeld launched the closed-end fund in 1994 as a backdoor way to invest in Cuba. Among the fund's holdings are Florida East Coast Industries and Royal Caribbean Cruises.

The article deals with the success of Scott Offen in the world of mutual fund management. After dropping out of college, he landed a temporary job as a file clerk in Fidelity Investments' research library. Offen showed enough spunk and smarts to eventually win a promotion to stock analyst. Since December 2002 he has been in charge of a diversified stock fund that has handily outpaced the overall market.

The article discusses inverse bond funds also known as anti-bond funds. They are bonds designed to succeed in the market where bond prices are experiencing a decline. Inverse bond funds only prosper when traditional bond funds are weakening. Between June 13, 2003 and September 3, 2003, anti-bond fund Rydex Juno gained 17% while the average taxable bond fund lost 3%.

The article describes how mutual-fund manager Manu Daftary has led Quaker Strategic Growth to victory over Standard & Poor's 500-stock index for eight consecutive years. Daftary's arsenal includes the ability to sell stocks short and hold large cash stakes. He hunts for reasonably valued stocks, but jumps rapidly from sector to sector. Between the fund's inception in 1996 and the end of 2005, the A shares returned an annualized 19%, 12 percentage points a year.

This article reports on the appointment of Christopher Davis and Kenneth Feinberg as fund managers of Clipper, as of February 2006. Both Davis and Feinberg manage Selected American Shares. The fund holds just 15 to 20 stocks, compared with about 70 for Selected. Clipper's fees are expected to drop from 0.70 percent to 0.80 percent.

The article features the market condition of FundX Upgrader, a mutual fund, in 2005. So far, the fund's short-term strategy has produced relatively long-term gratification. Upgrader returned an annualized 14% over the past three years to November 1, four percentage points per year ahead of Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. Buying this portfolio in a ready-made fund of funds is more convenient than following Janet Brown's letter and assembling one's own fund portfolio.

Features fund manager Bob Torray and the investment strategy he employs for his Torray fund. Selection of stocks of large companies; Effectiveness of his buy-and-hold strategy; Components of his fund.

Answers several questions about mutual funds in the U.S. Actions to be taken by an investor if a fund manager left; Background on the fund ratings of Morningstar; Investment in a sector fund.

Provides information on the five best bond funds to own when interest rates rise in the U.S. Harbor Bond; Loomis Sayles Bond; Fidelity Floating Rate High Income; Vanguard Intermediate-Term Tax-Exempt.

Deals with the fondness of Jensen Portfolio and ABN Amro/Montag & Caldwell Growth of investing in blue chip companies, the large businesses that generate steady profits. Price of blue chip stocks; Outlook of the investment managers of Jensen and Montag & Caldwell on investing; Investment criteria of the mutual funds.

Presents an outlook on mutual funds in the U.S. for 2004. Suggestions on investing in mutual funds; Recommended bond funds.

Provides solutions to several financial problems on improving investment. Suggestions in purchasing mutual funds and stocks; Importance of making a policy statement according to Jeffrey Rattiner, president of JR Financial Group; Tips on managing pension plan.