Smarter Money: Funds' Reports Should Be Updated Online

There is no reason for these documents to be as stale as they often are.
By Jim Cramer ,

The stability in tech that you see can probably be related to the movement back into tech by the biggest Fidelity fund, the (FMAGX) - Get Report Magellan fund.

We have just learned about the foray back into tech from the filings made by the fund. I, as a shareholder of Magellan, am thrilled that Magellan picked the bottom in tech. But as a believer in full disclosure I am tortured by the discovery of this foray. You see, just when it was made, the Magellan Fund sent out its report and in it Magellan's manager expressed great caution about tech.

I even wrote about it. Just as he was expressing that caution, he seems to have been buying it hand over fist.

My problem is not with Bob Stansky, Magellan's manager. He does what he has to. My problem is with a system that allows reports to go out and be received by shareholders that are completely out-of-date and irrelevant at a time when we know, via the Web, we can communicate instantaneously with no lead time. I understand that magazines have to have lead times. They need to be printed and mailed and sent and those things all take time. I don't understand why a report to shareholders has to have this kind of lead time.

Simple suggestion: Send out the report in the mail. If it is out-of-date by the time it gets to shareholders, do a supplement on the Web. There is nothing wrong with telling us what is happening with our money in a timely fashion. I am not asking for a Webcam to be strapped onto Stansky's head. But I would like to know if he decides to get back into tech -- particularly if he said he didn't like tech in the latest report. That's more courtesy than anything else.

James J. Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made. While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send comments on his column to

jjcletters@thestreet.com.

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