100 Best Mutual Funds You Can Buy 2004 [Paperback]

Gordon K. Williamson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2003 | Series: 100 Best Mutual Funds You Can Buy

National bestseller offers specific mutual fund recommendations for 2004.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Adams Media Corporation (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158062927X
• ISBN-13: 978-1580629270
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,263,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Uses old data, poor labels and tables would be better, April 8, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: 100 Best Mutual Funds You Can Buy 2004 (Paperback)

The 2003 edition of The 100 Best Mutual Funds uses data through December 31, 2001.
The book is primarily a collection of two page profiles on each fund. The profiles start with a 5 star ranking system to grade Total Return, Risk Reduction, Management, Current Income and Expense Control. Next the author uses 5 category grades to evaluate up-market performance, down-market performance and predictablility of returns. The grades are excellent, very good, good, fair and poor. I have two problems with these grading systems. First, the categories are too broad, second the author does not specify which time period or periods he used to determine the up and down market performance.
Finally, the two page profiles should be replaced with tables. Tables would make it easier to compare the mutuals funds in each category to one another. Tables would also eliminate the "same words but different numbers" monotony of the text.
I would recommend using Standard & Poor's Net Advantage database if it is available at your local library. If not the American Association of Individual Investors www.aaii.com provides a quarterly mutual fund data table, focusing on low load funds, at a reasonable price. The table can be downloaded into an Excel Worksheet so you can use Excel's filter feature to produce a list of funds with specific criteria.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth the money, November 13, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: 100 Best Mutual Funds You Can Buy 2004 (Paperback)

general information about mutual fund, something you can easily find on the internet.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 100 Best Mutual Funds You Can Buy in 2004 by Williamson, March 10, 2004

By 

Joseph S. Maresca "Dr. Joseph S. Maresca CPA,... (Bronxville, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 100 Best Mutual Funds You Can Buy 2004 (Paperback)

A mutual fund is essentially held by shareholders and managed
for an investment fee. This book discusses some of the top
mutual funds in the market together with the considerable
returns. Top funds are American Century Global Gold,
Vanguard Health, Longleaf Partners, Clipper and Calamos Growth.
These funds all have a double digit yearly rate of return.
Aggressive growth funds tend to have the maximal capital gains.
These funds can turn downward in a faltering economy so it is
critical to invest coincidentally with an upturn. If you catch
the bottom of a recession and invest, it is possible to
have three to four times your money in just a few years.
Many of these funds have good investment newsletters which
are important to read carefully. The key is to diversify risk
by placing your portfolio in a managed risk mix of investments.
i.e. safe returns, intermediate risk and aggressive funds