(January 5) – “If you are one of the individual investors who recently stampeded into technology mutual funds, the following might give you pause: Some of the savviest professional stock pickers have been doing just the opposite of you,” writes Pui-Wing Tam in today’s Wall Street Journal.
“An array of well-known managers who run diversified U.S. mutual funds – including Garrett Van Wagoner of Van Wagoner Funds, Robert Stansky of the giant Fidelity Magellan Fund, Drew Cupps of Strong Enterprise Fund and Bob Smith of T. Rowe Price Growth Fund – recently pared back their tech holdings or began deploying new cash into nontech stocks.
“Whew! It couldn’t have been better timing for these managers. Tuesday, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index plummeted 229.46 points to 3901.69, the biggest one-day point decline in its history.
“Even some managers at Janus Funds, the Denver fund firm that has generated red-hot performance through adroit selection of the best-performing of the long-soaring tech stocks, have spent more time exploring the prospects of the non-tech companies.