(PUB) Investing 2015

3

November 2015

Morningstar FundInvestor

Morningstar Rating Overall

Total Ret Annlzd 10-Yr (Mo-End) Base Currency

Total Ret % Rank Cat 10-Yr (Mo-End)

Sortino Ratio 10-Yr (Mo-End) Risk Currency

Morningstar Analyst Rating

Prospectus Net Expense Ratio %

Name/Ticker

Amana Growth Investor AMAGX

7.77

28

1.08

0.78

•

QQQ

American Funds New Economy ANEFX

8.49

14

0.79

0.73

Œ

QQQQ

Fidelity Blue Chip Growth FBGRX

8.91

9

0.89

0.77

´ • • ´ ´ Œ Œ • ´ ´ Œ

QQQQQ

Fidelity Contrafund FCNTX

8.45

16

0.64

0.81

QQQQQ QQQQQ QQQQQ QQQQQ QQQQQ QQQQQ QQQQQ QQQQQ QQQQ

*Fidelity Growth Company FDGRX

10.01

3

0.82

0.84

Fidelity OTC Portfolio FOCPX

10.95

1

0.83

0.84

Harbor Capital Appreciation HACAX

8.16

20

0.66

0.73

Laudus US Large Cap Growth LGILX

9.54

4

0.77

0.83

PRIMECAP Odyssey Growth POGRX

9.06

7

0.63

0.81

*Sequoia SEQUX

9.55

4

1.03

0.96

T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth TRBCX

8.76

11

0.72

0.74

T. Rowe Price New America Growth PRWAX

8.89

9

0.79

0.76

TIAA-CREF Growth & Income TIGRX

8.74

11

0.42

0.82

QQQQ

*Vanguard Capital Opportunity VHCOX

9.31

5

0.47

0.77

Œ Œ Œ

QQQQQ QQQQQ

*Vanguard PRIMECAP Core VPCCX

8.91

9

0.50

0.85

*Vanguard PRIMECAP VPMCX

9.02

8

0.44

0.83

QQQQQ

Data as of 09/30/2015. *Closed to new investors.

fund from the 17 to leave us with 16 impressive funds. You can see them in the table above.

While any total market index fund will have market- cap weightings, they will be less extreme than those in a large-growth index. Note that in Vanguard Total Stock Market, Apple is a more modest 3% and only nine holdings represent more than 1% of assets. You also get greater sector diversification as the broad market indexes are not so heavily tilted toward healthcare and technology. K

Even among this elite group, quite a few are in modest redemptions, though none are seeing a major exodus like that of some other large-growth funds. So, how should you pick from among the 16 funds that passed the test? Four are closed to new investors. After that, I would use the Morningstar Analyst Ratings as my guide. If an open Gold-rated fund fits your portfolio, go with that. If not, then check out the Silvers and then on to Bronze. While you could select the highest return or Sortino ratio, I think it wiser to use the one with the best fundamentals as judged by our analysts, as that is a better path to success than relying solely on returns. Passive Lessons The wild swings in performance also tell me some- thing about index funds. It is better to have a broad market fund like Vanguard Total Stock Market Index VTSAX than a large-growth index fund.