Leading Academic Research Identifies 5 Top Mutual Funds For Investors

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Arlington, Virginia (PRWEB) April 20, 2009 -

MUTUALdecision, the definitive online source for predictive mutual fund models has launched Fund Rank - a new, easy-to-use online tool that forecasts tomorrow's top performing funds based on research developed by professors at leading universities.

MUTUALdecision enables investors to see how more than 3,000 equity mutual funds rank based on leading mutual fund academic research. With the availability of the new Fund Rank tool, investors can view which mutual funds rank highest across all four of the site's academic models - Return Gap, Active Share, Judging Fund Managers, and Forecasting Alphas.

MUTUALdecision.com academic models leverage pioneering academic research by the nation's leading mutual fund academicians. Each model focuses on one or more unique variables that researchers found to be statistically significant in predicting fund performance. Very few U.S. equity mutual funds rank at or near the top across all four models, below are five funds that do and are predicted to have positive future performance:

1. Waddell & Reed Advisors Tax Managed Eq A (WTEAX) - Large Growth    

2. American Independence FDS Stock (ISISX) - Large Value

3. Hennessy Focus 30 (HFTFX) - Mid-Cap Growth

4. API TR Efficient Frontier Value (YCVTX) - Mid-Cap Blend

5. Royce 100 Fund Service Class (RYOHX) - Small-Cap Value        

"On the heels of a market like the one experienced in 2008 where nearly every mutual fund category experienced a significant decline, investors are looking for new and better ways to research mutual funds," said William G. Byrnes, founder and chief executive officer at MUTUALdecision. "With our unique predictive fund rank tool, investors can identify the handful of top mutual funds that outperform fund peers across all of our site's academic models - arming investors with a critical edge in a challenging climate."

Overview of MUTUALdecision's academic models:

•     Forecasting Alphas - generates a better alpha measure so investors can identify mutual funds most likely to deliver positive risk-adjusted returns in the future. The authors find strong evidence that the funds in the top decile generate consistent positive abnormal returns of over 4% annually.
•     Judging Fund Managers - finds fund managers who use similar techniques to top performing managers and are likely to deliver similar performance in the future. The risk-adjusted returns of top decile funds in this model outperform the bottom decile by at least 5.9%.
•     Return Gap Model - analyzes the difference between a fund's actual return and the return it would have earned by following a buy and hold strategy. The top mutual funds in this study beat the market by 1.2% annually over 20 years.
•     Active Share Model - measures the extent to which a mutual fund's portfolio holdings differ from the portfolio's benchmark index - and if the fund outperforms its benchmark. Funds with the highest Active Share outperformed their benchmarks on a risk-adjusted basis by 1.5% annually.

About MUTUALdecision
Based in Arlington, Va., MUTUALdecision is the only Web site for predictive mutual fund models based on academic research. The site also features mutual fund rankings, academic research, mutual fund related commentary, and tools for investors to make better mutual fund investment decisions and easily identify top mutual funds. MUTUALdecision is the first to bring leading mutual fund academic research models directly to investors and financial advisors so that they can easily identify tomorrow's best mutual funds. For additional information, please visit http://www.MUTUALdecision.com.

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