The Meanest Fund Screeners

With the new year comes a new slew of "top funds right now" stories, surrounded by fresh fund-performance ads. But those funds aren't necessarily right for you. Fund screeners and other online funds tools can help you create a portfolio that is.

Fund Screens

Let's start off with fund screens. Like stock screens, fund screens are database mining tools that sift through reams of financial data, then cough up a list of funds that meet your criteria. You simply list what you want or don't want in a fund. Do you want a broadly diversified fund with a slow and steady growth rate? Should the fund's manager have a lengthy tenure? Or would you prefer an aggressive newcomer with a two-year killer track record? What's more important to you, consistent gains over the past 10 years, or the fund's performance during the 2000 bear market? And how large should the fund be: $1 billion, $500 million or really tiny?

Answering questions like these can prove even more valuable to you than the list of funds you get from screening. The questions themselves force you to define a set of rules -- a strategy, if you will -- for your mutual fund portfolio. ...