Market Black Hole Creates New Mutual Fund Stars

Volatile markets are shaking up the idea of what makes a star manager, and previous giants are falling to the wayside as new talent with new ideas moves in to fill their place.

"Clearly, we will see some new players," Geoff Bobroff, head of Bobroff Consulting, recently told Reuters.

At a time when everything seems to be hemorrhaging money, a manager who loses less money than his or her peers is attracting notice.

Some managers who could come out on top include veteran fund manager Dan Fuss of Loomis Sayles in Boston, though Bobroff said the flagship Loomis Sayles Bond Fund has a 14% loss this year, and PIMCO’s Bill Gross, whose $130 billion Total Return Fund has had a 0.5% rise so far this year.

"Bill Gross is an old star who is still doing quite well," said Russel Kinnel, director of fund research at Morningstar Inc.

The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.