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This Saturday in Personal Finance Focus

David Landis

If you're a regular reader of TSC you probably know to take mutual fund advertising claims with a grain of salt. But some less sophisticated investors could be misled by impressive-looking short-term results -- and an Securities and Exchange Commission rule is partly to blame.

In Saturday's Personal Finance Focus, Mercer Bullard, a former SEC assistant chief counsel and occasional TSC contributor, explains how SEC reporting requirements sometimes permit -- actually, require -- fund companies to advertise their latest 12-month returns, even when they might prove misleading.

Also coming Saturday:

• Jim Cramer reveals the list of funds into which he promised last Saturday to sink $100,000 of his own money.

• Ian McDonald turns up a collection of bargain-priced growth stocks favored by mutual fund managers in The Big Screen.

• Tracy Byrnes explains whether Roth IRA distributions can count toward the alternative minimum tax in Tax Forum.

• Ilana Polyak profiles a Web investing site that bundles free portfolio advice with its mutual funds.

We'll also have Mark Ingebretsen's Tools of the Trade column, Options Forum and more. See you Saturday.