Does Somebody Up There Favor This Fund?

BusinessWeek ^ | 10/31/2003 | STREET WISE

[Murtyo]

Religious or "morally responsible" mutual funds are known more for leaving investors with a clean conscience than for producing heavenly returns. One exception may be the Ave Maria Catholic Values Fund (AVEMX ), which invests only in companies whose policies don't conflict with Catholic Church teachings. This year, Ave Maria has risen 21.7% as of Sept. 30, outperforming the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index by 6.9 percentage points and the fund's peer group of midcap-blend portfolios by 4.3 percentage points.

[Murtyo]

It Pays to be Good

[Drammach]

Yes, but now that you have the attention of the IRS,...

Goodbye fund, hello bancrupcy..

[catonsville]

On the other hand in the battle of good versus evil. we have this fund dedicated to the hedonist in all of us. In the battle of YTD returns, the good guys are still winning.

"The one-year-old VICE Fund (Nasdaq:VICEX - News), managed by MUTUALS.com, has returned 17.18% so far this year, beating the S&P 500 at 14.72%, and Dow Jones Industrials at 13.13%. The so-called "socially irresponsible" fund specializes in sin stocks of the alcohol, gaming, tobacco, and defense industries.

According to Eric McDonald, Co-Portfolio Manager, "We've always said that no matter what the economy's doing, people drink, smoke, and gamble; and unfortunately, there's always a need for defense contractors. Many of the stocks we own had solid, positive returns through 2000, 2001, and 2002 while the overall market was losing money. The fact that we're beating the S&P and Dow in 2003 is a testament to just how solid these industries are in both good times and bad."

Now who is looking out for THIS fund?