If this year has been a wake-up call for growth fund investors, this past week's selloff was like having an air-horn blaring under your pillow.
Things were already bad when we got out of bed Monday morning, with many of last year's tech-heavy highflying funds well underwater. But another round of earnings warnings and violence in the Middle East have made a tough year even worse. From last Thursday to this Thursday, the average large-, mid-, and small-cap growth fund lost more than 8%, according to Lipper. The average telecommunications fund tumbled 12.7%; the average tech fund fell 11.8%. No one could blame you for ignoring the market these days or starting to investigate lower-octane, core bond funds. But what if you're still a growth investor at heart? This week's Big Screen is for you. This week, we sifted the large-, mid-, and small-cap growth fund categories for successful funds that have weathered market dips in the past. We screened each category for funds that have beaten their average peer since Jan. 1, as well as over the last one-, three-, and five-year periods, according to Morningstar. Then we removed the funds that fared worse than their average peer in significant market dips -- defined by Morningstar as months in which the S&P 500
lost more than 3%. We've singled out the top-five funds in each pack, ranked by their year-to-date return, and we'll consider how they did in 1998's third quarter -- the toughest calendar quarter for growth funds in the last five years. | Living Large These big-cap growth funds have posted strong returns in good times, and held up in tough years. | ||
| Fund | YTD Return | 5-Year Annualized Return |
| (SHRAX Quote)Smith Barney Aggressive Growth | 14.9% | 29% |
| (EAGYX Quote)Evergreen Aggresssive Growth | 10.5 | 21.9 |
| (BSSPX Quote)Bear Stearns S&P Stars | 9 | 26.4 |
| (AGWFX Quote)AIM Select Growth | 8.4 | 22.5 |
| (AGTHX Quote)Growth Fund of America | 7.8 | 25 |
| Avg. Large-Cap Growth Fund | -7.7 | 20.4 |
| Source: Morningstar. Performance figures through Oct. 12. | ||
| Mighty Middles These mid-cap growth funds notched strong results this choppy year, and in better times. | ||
| Fund | YTD Return | 5-Year Annualized Return |
| (CVGRX Quote)Calamos Growth | 29.2% | 38.9% |
| (SCFIX Quote)Seligman Capital | 23.3 | 28.8 |
| (BRAGX Quote)Bridgeway Aggressive Growth | 22.9 | 40.5 |
| (FMCSX Quote)Fidelity Mid-Cap Stock | 22.3 | 25 |
| (SNTNX Quote)Sentinel Mid-Cap Growth | 21.4 | 26.8 |
| Avg. Mid-Cap Growth Fund | 0.7 | 20.9 |
| Source: Morningstar. Performance figures through Oct. 12. | ||
| Small-Cap Stalwarts These small-cap growth funds have posted outsize returns through thick and thin. | ||
| Fund | YTD Return | 5-Year Annualized Return |
| (GCBLX Quote)Green Century Balanced | 24.1% | 24.9% |
| (WMICX Quote)Wasatch Micro Cap | 23.8 | 26.7 |
| (TEGAX Quote)Touchstone Emerging Growth | 15.4 | 20.5 |
| (FRMPX Quote)Firstar MicroCap | 13.9 | 38.2 |
| (WAAEX Quote)Wasatch Small Cap Growth | 9.1 | 17.2 |
| Avg. Small-Cap Growth Fund | -3.1 | 16.2 |
| Source: Morningstar. Performance figures through Oct. 12. | ||




