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Is Direxion Monthly NASDAQ-100 Bull 2X Investor (DXQLX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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Any investors hoping to find an Index fund could think about starting with Direxion Monthly NASDAQ-100 Bull 2X Investor (DXQLX - Free Report) . DXQLX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

DXQLX is a part of the Direxion Funds family of funds, a company based out of Newton, MA. Direxion Monthly NASDAQ-100 Bull 2X Investor made its debut in May of 2006, and since then, DXQLX has accumulated about $594.81 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. Tony Ng is the fund's current manager and has held that role since May of 2006.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. DXQLX has a 5-year annualized total return of 52.9% and it sits in the top third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 50.98%, which places it in the top third during this time-frame.

When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. Over the past three years, DXQLX's standard deviation comes in at 40.46%, compared to the category average of 37.96%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 33.62% compared to the category average of 31.99%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

With a 5-year beta of 2.05, the fund is likely to be more volatile than the market average. Because alpha represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which is the S&P 500 in this case, one should pay attention to this metric as well. The fund has produced a positive alpha over the past 5 years of 14.31, which shows that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Expenses

For investors, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is key, since costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing. Competition is heating up in this space, and a lower cost product will likely outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, all things being equal. In terms of fees, DXQLX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.15% compared to the category average of 0.79%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, DXQLX is actually more expensive than its peers.

While the minimum initial investment for the product is $25,000, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $500.

Bottom Line

Overall, Direxion Monthly NASDAQ-100 Bull 2X Investor ( DXQLX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and higher fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

Want even more information about DXQLX? Then go over to Zacks.com and check out our mutual fund comparison tool, and all of the other great features that we have to help you with your mutual fund analysis for additional information. Want to learn even more? We have a full suite of tools on stocks that you can use to find the best choices for your portfolio too, no matter what kind of investor you are.


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