MutualFundWire.com: Odd Lots, September 24, 1999

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Friday, September 24, 1999

Odd Lots, September 24, 1999

Fabian yells sell
From The Los Angeles Times
Fabian Investment Resources, a stock market timing newsletter with thousands of readers, waved the sell flag this week for domestic stock mutual funds. Editor Doug Fabian said, "Our indicators point to lower stock prices ahead. Most investors should view this change in direction as a signal to raise cash by dumping under-performing funds."

Stocks wane, mutual funds gain
From The Los Angeles Times Investor enthusiasm for the stock market is on the wane but total inflows to mutual funds had a slight gain. Of the estimated $25 billion of net new money invested into mutual funds last month, $21.5 billion, or 86%, went into money market funds, New York fund tracker Lipper Inc. said Thursday. Meanwhile, investors put less than $7 billion in net new money into stock funds. And long-term bond funds saw net outflows in August, Lipper estimates.

Market timers welcomed here
From The Wall Street Journal
Mutual fund market timers are making their presence felt in the market, according to the Wall Street Journal. Tell-tale signs include the increase in assets in unit investment trusts and other exchange-traded mutual fund alternatives priced throughout the day to more than $20 billion in just a few short years. Barclays Global Investors is set to roll out another 51 exchange-traded funds next spring. Lastly, the American Stock Exchange, where these products trade, has big plans for further expansion into the mutual fund arena. Hard-liners like Vanguard are still actively discouraging market-timers from joining their funds, but the families that court the timers like Rydex and ProFunds are even considering the idea of pricing their funds more than once a day.

More Wall Street Journal news: Paribas's Internet supermarket, called e-cortal, will begin trading 100 funds from eight asset-management companies on Monday. E-cortal plans to increase the number of funds to 200 in November.

Former treasurer faces time in the can
From The Wall Street Journal
A former Connecticut state treasurer, Paul J. Silvester, admitted in federal court to steering state pension money to certain investment funds in return for kickbacks and other favors. He could face a prison sentence ranging from four years and eight months to nearly six years after pleading guilty Thursday to racketeering and conspiring to launder money. The state invested about $100 million in one PaineWebber mutual fund and another $100 million in a PaineWebber real-estate fund while Mr. Silvester was in office.

Other related stories:

The New York Times

Funds in the Press

The portfolio managers at Putnam funds have bought more stock in AT&T, Liberty Media and Microsoft, but sold a big chunk of America Online in recent months, according to Investor's Business Daily.
Bill Miller, manager of the the Legg Mason Value Trust, is highlighted in TheStreet.com. He's the only diversified fund pro around to beat the S&P 500 every year since 1990, and is taking another close look at Amazon.com for his next move.