Joan, Insane. But, having worked at load fund companies, I know where the brokers are coming from. The customers need to be bowled over before they will part with that cash. Any broker who tries to sell using my contrarian approach to the market is going to starve. <g>
In order to crank up the sales on the funds I managed, I put out a performance sheet to my wholesalers every week. I ranked my funds against their competiors by total return for a week, a month, a quarter, a year, since inception and by yield. And though we were always near the top in each category, I always picked the one that made us number one. For example, if Franklin Govt. beat my total return one week, I would show the monthly number as the ranking, not the weekly. As silly as it sounded, this sort of stuff, plus consistently good returns, took us from zero to just over $10 billion in a little more than 2 years. The brokers always want to sell the fund in first place. They only look at who is in first place on the list and never really think much about what the list represents. <g> |
