The Individual Investor's Guide to The Top Mutual Funds 2012
Mutual fund assets totaled more than $11.6 trillion on November 30, 2011, according to the Investment Company Institute. This is a slight decrease from December 2010, when assets totaled $11.8 trillion.
The total amount of assets shows the important role mutual funds continue to play in portfolios. Mutual fund assets exceeded exchange-traded fund (ETF) assets last year by a margin of 10 to one. A key reason for the continued popularity of mutual funds is that they give individual investors low-cost access to professional money managers. Mutual funds provide instant exposure to a wide variety of assets and investment strategies, including growth, value and income.
In this article
- How to Use This Guide
- Which Funds Were Included
- A Key to Terms and Statistics
- Performance Tables
- More on Mutual Funds
- Category & Style Definitions
- Mutual Fund Contact Information
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Mutual funds also remain a top choice for investors who want to mimic the performance of an index, a strategy known as passive investing. Though most ETFs follow passive strategies, Vanguard’s Total Stock Index (VTSMX) continues to be the largest index fund, exceeding even the popular SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) in size.
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Both mutual funds and ETFs can have a role in your portfolio. The choice depends on what investment vehicle best serves your needs. The key to deciding is to first determine the type of assets you want to own (large-cap stocks, small-cap stocks, corporate bonds, etc.). After this decision is made, you can then seek out the best way to get exposure to those assets. In many cases, a mutual fund is the best investment option.
This 31st edition of our Guide to the Top Mutual Funds will help you sort though the large number of mutual funds and find the right one for your portfolio needs. More than 730 no-load and low-load funds are covered on the following pages. On AAII.com, you will find expanded information on more than 1,520 funds. (Visit www.aaii.com/guides/mfguide to see the online data.) Each mutual fund is classified into a useful category of similar funds to make comparisons of alternatives more efficient and effective.
To read more, please become an AAII Registered User or CLICK HERE.
Discussion
The "Fund Downloads" files are linked to files from 2011, not 2012.
posted about 1 year ago by Mark from California
Great wealth of data here. Will take some time to digest. One possible suggestion for the future - could you put the "ticker" sysmbol in its own column.
Thanks for all the work in putting this together!
posted about 1 year ago by Dave from Washington
Thanks for your comments, Dave. Ticker symbols do appear in their own column in the Expanded Fund Listings downloadable spreadsheet. Jean from AAII
posted about 1 year ago by Jean from Illinois
When will the expanded spread sheet have the 2011 data incorporated for our use?
posted about 1 year ago by Mark from California
Hi Mark, the issue with the spreadsheets has been resolved and they do include the 2011 figures. -Charles Rotblut, AAII
posted about 1 year ago by Charles from Illinois
I made a good faith effort to find the reference, but I could not find out what the heading "DFC" means. Any definition would be appreciated.
posted about 1 year ago by Anne from Ohio
DFC stands for difference from category. See the Field Definitions file in the Fund Downloads box for an explanation of all the column heads used in the expanded spreadsheet. Jean, AAII
posted about 1 year ago by Jean from Illinois
Will "hard copies" of the Mutual Fund Guide be mailed to members?
posted about 1 year ago by William from Alabama
William, yes. The February Journal, which contains the mutual fund guide, is in the mail. - Charles Rotblut, AAII
posted about 1 year ago by Charles from Illinois
You really do a diservice to your readers by automatically excluding funds with loads, especially in the section on most widely held funds. I feel like you are the government and you must watch out for me in case I make the wrong decision. There are some load funds that perform very well and some that don't, just like the vast category of funds that have no load. I wish you would reconsider your view on this.
posted about 1 year ago by David from Minnesota
The summary of these files is: over the last few years, and last year especially, bonds have outperformed stocks. People have been risk adverse, so have tended toward bonds or if in stocks at all, very "secure" categories like large cap, healthcare, and utilities. Gold has also done well.
The question really is, do we expect the next year or two to be just as scary as the last year or two? Personally, I think so. We are seeing a bullish environment right now, but with low participation. That to me creates an illusion of a bull market when really we still are in a bearish market. For buy-and-hold, I'd keep betting on the conservative investments for the next 1-2 years, though those who want to trade the market for short term gains are certainly making money so far this year and probably for a few more months.
posted about 1 year ago by Indigo from California
On page 30/31 of Feb 2012 AAII Journal I
see two numbers that don't make sense.
For MGIDX "% of portfolio in foreign issues" is -3.2%. How can this be a negative number?
For PGNDX "% of portfolio in top 10 holdings" is
124.2%. How can this be more than 100%?
posted about 1 year ago by Geri from California
Hi Geri, if a fund is using leverage or is shorting certain assets, its holdings can be above 100% or be listed as a negative number. -Charles Rotblut, AAII
posted about 1 year ago by Charles from Illinois
I would like to know if it is possible to order this guide in book form, and if so how? Thanks, Tom Savage
posted 9 months ago by Thomas from New Mexico
Tom, this guide was sent to all members as the February issue of the AAII Journal. If you weren't a member then, contact AAII Member Services to order the issue 800-428-2244, members@aaii.com. Alternatively, you can print out the guide yourself from the PDF file linked toward the beginning of the article on this page on the left side. - Jean, AAII
posted 9 months ago by Jean from Illinois
