A Contrarian Manager Bets on Growth

Green isn't alone in his view, incidentally. Other top managers, such as Oakmark's Bill Nygren, have been talking about the value among growth stocks for some time. Recent trends, Green says, suggest that "the anticipated change in leadership (from 'value' to 'growth') may be taking place."

His current top 10 holdings include six international stocks listed on the NYSE and easily available to ordinary U.S. investors: the former British Telecom, BT Group (BT); natural gas company El Paso (EP); gold mining giant Barrick(ABX); pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline(GSK) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY); and Italian car company Fiat(FIA).

Green is also bullish on Japan. In 2006, Tokyo once again had a horrendous boom-and-bust that swung the Nikkei 225 index between 17,563 and 14,045. U.S. investors who want to follow his footsteps might look at Daiwa Securities' broadly based $135 million closed-end (JEQ)Japan Equity Fund. At last count it traded at a useful 4.2% discount to net assets. Hey, it's not much -- but every bit counts.

Green says that now he's keeping his eye on inflation and is holding a decent chunk of cash, but he's "cautiously optimistic" about markets for 2007. Intriguingly, that includes the U.S. He has long argued that U.S. shares are too expensive in relation to their overseas counterparts. And he still holds just 14% of his fund in dollar-denominated assets. However, after years of underperformance, he obviously now believes Wall Street is looking reasonable again, because he says he is gradually buying more shares here.

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