Top-Performing Funds Fail to Maintain Status

Standard & Poor's released its latest mutual fund scorecard, which measures the consistency of top mutual fund performers over time. Through June 30, 2006, S&P's scorecard shows very few funds manage to consistently repeat top-half or top-quartile performance.

Over five-years ending June 30, only 58 (10.8%) large-cap funds,

12 (7.9%) mid-cap funds, and 19 (7.7%) small-cap funds maintained a top-half ranking over the period. A total of three large-cap funds (1.12%), zero mid-cap funds and one small-cap fund (0.81%) maintained a top-quartile ranking over the same period.

Fourth-quartile funds continue to have a higher probability of disappearing. The five-year transition matrix notes that 41.9% of large-cap, 41.9% of mid-cap, and 39.2% of small-cap fourth-quartile funds disappeared due to mergers or liquidations.