When investing, it's critical to pay attention to details. Take ticker symbols, for example. Believe it or not, plenty of people have accidentally bought stock in the telecommunications firm Inter-Tel (NASDAQ:INTL), thinking that its ticker would get them shares of Intel (NASDAQ:INTC). Similarly, some would-be Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) shareholders have probably become shareholders of a penny stock called "Appell Pete." Those who want Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HDI) stock should be careful not to buy Home Depot (NYSE:HD) stock, and vice versa.
Details matter in the mutual fund world, too. Consider a fund I read about at Roy Weitz's fundalarm.com website -- Berkshire Focus (FUND:BFOCX). Its name made me think that someone who wasn't paying attention might assume that it was Warren Buffett's enterprise, which is really Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A). That would be a shame, since the two securities have rather ... um ... different performance records.
Berkshire Hathaway, over the past 41 years, has increased its book value an average of 21.5% per year, turning $19 into almost $60,000 of value. Meanwhile, see what Mr. Weitz had to say about Berkshire Focus: "Conventional wisdom holds that you can never lose all your money in a mutual fund, but for a couple of years it looked like Berkshire Focus was going to give it a try: From September 2000 through September 2002, Berkshire Focus lost just over 95% of its value." Yikes!
I looked it up, and the fund does have a varied record. It gained an astounding 143% in 1999, only to lose 16% in 2000, 72% in 2001, and 59% in 2002. (It did gain 67% in 2003.) Volatility, thy name is Berkshire Focus!
Here's another amusing detail -- the fund's manager is Malcolm Fobes. Inattentive readers might assume that business mogul Malcolm Forbes was at the helm, but they'd be wrong. Fobes it is. Weitz pointed out that "as of last May (the date of the most recent SEC filing), Fobes didn't own even $10,000 worth of his own fund." That's a terrific lesson for mutual fund investors -- check to see how much of a fund its managers own. If they're heavily invested in their fund, they have greater incentive to do well for you. Berkshire Focus' expense ratio (annual fee) has been around 2%, meaning that even when the fund does poorly, its management is taking a big cut. (And even when it does well, shareholders are losing a full 2% to management.)
Select your mutual funds carefully. Don't jump into a fund just because it had a wonderful year -- that might be an anomaly. Check out how high its fees are. Read things written by its managers, and get a sense of how much you like their thinking.
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Learn much more in these Zimmerman articles:
- The Case for Mutual Funds
- Mutual Fund Market Beaters
- Mutual Funds for Cheapskates
- Three Reasons to Sell
Home Depot and Intel are Inside Value picks.
Longtime Fool contributor Selena Maranjian owns shares of Berkshire Hathaway and Home Depot. The Fool's disclosure policy is unmistakable.
