How many mutual funds are passing test of time?

A third of the mutual funds in business for more than three years brought profit to investors during the 2007-2010 period, with the strongest performance, of 43%, being registered by the ones investing in bonds and banking deposits. The rest of over 20 funds are in the red.

The past three years’ returns reveal that a good year for a mutual fund does not necessarily mean the investors of that fund will reap profit in the next two years. Few of last year’s performers managed to gain a top position in terms of the past three years’ yields.
Certinvest Obligațiuni mutual fund reported the biggest yield of the past three years, of almost 43%. Its yield tops the 35% profit a banking deposit would have brought and the 20.2% inflation rate.
At the opposite end are equity funds with losses of above 60%, which have not yet recovered from the stock market’s 2008 collapse.
“The past yields of a fund do not guarantee future performances. They can, however, offer investors information about the quality of management and investment strategy,” said Horia Gustă, general manager of Certinvest management company, with over 92m RON worth of assets under management.