sonki,
i guess you can call your broker to find out how to buy these funds rather going direct. I heard Jack white has either potomac or profund
waterhouse has rydex and rydex soon will offer sector funds.
Ahead of the Pack: Still Keen on the Hot
Hand? Read on ...
By TSC Funds Staff
3/17/98 5:05 PM ET
If you read Jim Cramer's column Tuesday about hot funds,
then you know the funds that top the charts at each quarter's
end get plenty of media attention. And that's often followed by
lots of new investor dollars -- for better or, as Jim points out,
sometimes for worse.
But if you're still curious about who's ahead as we approach
the end of Q1, read on.
The five top-performing general equity funds near the end of Q1
have plenty in common. They're all small, tech heavy and new:
None has a full year behind it.
Two of the funds are a new breed of aggressive index portfolios
that try to tie their performance to the Nasdaq 100 by
investing in futures and options. The stakes are high. When
the Nasdaq soars these funds are poised to fly even higher,
but if the index tanks, the funds will likely fall harder, passing
the index on the way down.
So who's managing all this hot money?
TOP FIVE GENERAL STOCK FUNDS YTD
Fund Name
Fund
Manager
YTD
Return
thru' 3/12
Assets
($
millions)
Expense
Ratio
Profunds
UltraOTC
William
Seale
35.9%
$21
million
1.33%
Berger Select
Pat
Adams
34.7%
$22
million
1.75%
Berger Midcap
Amy
Selner
22.5
$3
million
1.79%
Transamerica
Premier
Aggressive
Growth
Philip
Treick
20.9%
$23
million
1.4%
Potomac OTC
Plus
James T.
"Terry"
Apple
20.7%
$20
million
1.5%
Source: Lipper Analytical Services
ProFunds OTC
Leading the pack so far this year is a hybrid index fund that
attempts to double the daily return of the Nasdaq 100 by
investing in options and futures.
The fund is one of six started in November by ProFunds -- a
new fund family launched by an ex-Rydex employee. (As
originally published, this story erroneously said
"ex-employees.") Rydex is the originator of using options and
futures to create bull and bear funds.
William Seale, a Ph.D. in economics and a specialist in
derivatives, oversees ProFundsOTC. He created the
company's model for buying options and futures of the Nasdaq
100 and is responsible for ensuring that the strategy is
executed properly.
While he has never run a fund before, Seale has more than 25
years of experience working with futures and options. In
addition to working as a consultant training institutional
investors in the use of derivatives, Seale also served as a
commissioner of the Commodities & Futures Trading
Commission from 1983 to 1988.
|
