Bill Miller Again Lags the S&P -- and Himself

The really miserable news: Most mutual funds are structured just like Value Trust. The fund company charges you high fees to pay an expert manager to run the fund. Then they don't leave him free to run the fund.

Athridge insists, "We believe that both strategies continue to be very relevant and important," whatever that means.

And she adds: "Given each's distinct investment discipline, it's not unusual to have one outperform the other over short periods of time."

Ahem.

"Short periods of time"?

Opportunity Trust was launched in late 1999. So for six calendar years, Bill Miller has run the two alongside each other.

Guess the number of years that Opportunity Fund has beaten Value Trust? That would be ... six.

Opportunity proved safer on the way down, losing just 15.5% during dismal 2002 while Value Trust lost nearly 19%. And Opportunity proved more exciting on the way up, gaining 68% in booming 2003 while Value gained 44%.

In total, Opportunity has outperformed Value by a massive margin. Over the last five years alone, according to data from Lipper, it is up more than 100% while Value Trust has risen 60%.

The latest public filings from both funds tell an interesting story.

It turns out the Opportunity Fund is making its money right now from a handful of big, high-conviction bets. Three are steel companies: U.S. Steel (X Quote) has soared 39% this year, AK Steel (AKS Quote) is up 81%, and Arcelor Mittal (MT Quote) has climbed 73%.