Today’s S&P 500 Fix

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LATEST NEWS:

Mar. 10, 2006 –

PMF1 has now been selected as a Marketocracy Top Ten fund for 12 months in a row. PEF is currently the #31-ranked fund based on the last two years’ performance.

Aug. 23, 2005 –

PMF1 has just been selected as a Marketocracy Top Ten fund for the 6th month in a row..

.PEF closed the fiscal year (June 30) as the #30 ranked fund for the most recent quarter, #36 for the year, and #61 for the previous 2-year period (out of over 70,000 funds)...

POF, the newest Pettit Fund, closed on June 30 as the #66 best-performing fund for the quarter (out of more than 70,000 funds)...

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        I'll say it again: "Past performance is not a guarantee of future results." My two flagship funds, Pettit Mutual Fund #1 and Pettit Energy Fund, have done exceedingly well since inception, but, frankly, I don't believe that they will sustain the kind of annual return that they have had--approaching 50% per annum over the last 2 l/2 years. Nobody is likely to do that.

        I do believe that I can continue to beat the market--but I could be completely wrong. Only time will tell.

        I've only been investing with this particular methodology for 5 years--less than 3 with Marketocracy. While these results are encouraging, this is still a relatively brief period of time.

        And I HAVE had one experiment that has NOT done well. Here's the chart for my Pettit Health Care Fund:

Pettit Health Care Fund
Should Have Just Said "No"...

        I strayed from my "value" approach with this fund, which specializes in the drug company sector. The stocks this fund "purchased" had high price/earnings ratios, unlike the stocks in the rest of my more value-oriented funds. It has finally made some money, but has underperformed the market as a whole. This fund taught me to stick with my strengths. Consequently, there will be no more "experimenting with drugs"...

        The stock market is very volatile, and some of my funds have been even more volatile than the market as a whole. Almost any system of investing in stocks is going to be a bit of a roller coaster ride, and not for the overly-faint of heart. I can pretty much guarantee that every year will see some period of time when my funds (and just about any fund) will drop at least 10% from their peak.  If you'll look at the charts on the Home Page, you'll see that happen several times.

      If you are someone who is intolerant of this kind of risk, stocks are perhaps not for you (although I certainly urge you to read and study this issue--I personally think that almost everyone should have some stock holdings in their portfolio. Some will disagree.)

        Stocks in general are going to go up and down, sometimes dizzyingly. Over the long haul, they have returned in excess of 10% per annum, but...there have been some pretty medium-long hauls when you would have done much better investing in something else. October 27, 1987, the market dropped over 20% in one day!

        But...it came back. So far, it always has.