Turkeys: 20 Big Funds Down in the Dumps

For most people, Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season. But for some of us at SmartMoney this week is also the time when we begin to focus in on which mutual funds had a good year and which ones brought up the rear. And on that note, it is tradition here to start with the worst performers. We’ll follow up with our best performers list in early January.

We call this week’s fund screen the Turkeys list. The equity funds that made the cut are in the bottom 15% of their respective Lipper categories over the trailing one-, three-, five- and 10-year time periods. In addition, we relaxed some of our usual criteria for inclusion. Since we are strictly looking at performance, we included offerings that charge loads or levy large minimums and annual expense ratios. We were left with 64 funds and share classes. The 20 largest (by asset size) are on the table below. Click here to see the complete list.

If one of your funds is on this list, it's time to dust off your account statements and do a little research. It is common for mutual funds to have bad years. After all, stock pickers don’t always get it right. One rough 12-month period can skew a three-year track record. Similarly, two or three down years can impact performance over longer time periods. In other words, it pays to look at individual years to glean exactly why a fund is down in the dumps.

Also, consider we are in extraordinary times. It may be helpful to look at mutual fund performance as two book ends. On the one side, you have the tech bust and bear market that occurred earlier this decade. More recently investors endured the epic downturn that happened last year. A fund may have had a few good years in between those two events, but it would be hard to negate them over the long run. In that case, it is easy to see how a fund could wind up with such a disappointing track record.

Investors also need to evaluate some other factors, too. If a mutual fund has had several managers over a short time period — and they each use a different style — that could easily impact performance. In some cases, well-respected fund managers have such conviction in the stocks they pick that they hold them through thick and thin until the market turns around. Finally, we judged funds based on their percentage ranking in their individual category. Being in the bottom 15% of, say, the large-cap growth world doesn’t necessarily mean the fund is in the red. A fund in a hot category could have positive results, but just not as highflying as its competitors. In that case, investors should compare the fund’s annual results to that of a benchmark like the S&P 500. The Vanguard 500 (VFINX) index fund has returned 32.9%, -5.4%, .8% and -.7% over the trailing 1-, 3-, 5- and 10-year time periods, respectively, through Wednesday.

Being on this list doesn’t mean the end of the world for a fund. Funds can get back on track. Featured on last year’s list was Ariel (ARGFX), a midcap core fund highly regarded for its patient investing style that takes the long view. The fund’s year-to-date return of 55.5% through Wednesday puts it in the top 5% of its category and has lifted it out of the basement during the 1-, 3- and 10-year time periods. It no longer makes the Turkeys cut.

The criteria: The equity funds on our list are in the bottom 15% of their respective Lipper categories over the trailing one-, three-, five- and 10-year time periods. We usually disqualify funds that charge sales loads or high minimums and annual expense ratios. But this week, since we are just concentrating on performance, we included them. Sixty-three funds made our cut. The largest 20 are on the table below.

Fund Type = *
Annualized 1-Year Return (%) = Display Only
Rank in Classification (%) (3 year performance) >= 85
Annualized 3-Year Return (%) = Display Only
Rank in Classification (%) (3 year performance) >= 85
Annualized 5-Year Return (%) = Display Only
Rank in Classification (%) (5 year performance) >= 85
Annualized 10-Year Return (%) = Display Only
Rank in Classification (%) (3 year performance) >= 85
Expense Ratio = Display Only
Load Fund (type) = Display Only
Open to New Investors = Yes

* Screen only focuses on equity mutual funds