HOW TO SELECT GOOD MUTUAL FUNDS

Financial scholars have been studying mutual fund performance for at least a half century and they are virtually unanimous on several points :

• The average fund does not pick stocks well enough to overcome its cost of researching and trading them 

• The higher a fund's expenses , the lower it's returns 

• The more frequently a fund trades its stocks , the less it tends to earn 

• Highly volatile funds , which bounce up and down more than average  are likely to stay volatile 

• Funds with high past returns are unlikely to remain winners for long