Stock Funds Besting S&P

It was 17 years ago that the (LMVTX)Legg Mason Value Trust (LMVTX), with legendary fund manager Bill Miller at the helm, took the first steps in a journey that would produce 15 consecutive years of annual performance numbers of greater magnitude than those of the S&P 500 total-return index.

It made the financial headlines in early 2001, when Miller had bested the S&P for the 10th consecutive year. Now with so many more funds in existence than there were in early 1991, you might expect there would be more that had reached this milestone.

With one highly debatable exception that we will discuss shortly, it won't happen before the final bell of 2008.

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