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Avoid These 3 Mutual Fund Misfires - February 28, 2020

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If your advisor has you invested in any of these "Mutual Fund Misfires of the Market" with high fees and low returns, you need to rethink your advisor.

High fees plus poor performance: It's a pretty simple formula for a bad mutual fund. Some are worse than others - and some are so bad that they have earned a "Strong Sell" on the Zacks Rank, the lowest ranking of the nearly 19,000 mutual funds we rank daily.

Below, you'll read about some of the funds included in our current list of "Mutual Fund Misfires of the Market." And if by chance you're invested in any of these misfires, we'll help and review some of our highest Zacks Ranked mutual funds.

3 Mutual Fund Misfires

Now, let's take a look at three market misfires.

Victory INCORE Low Duration Bond K : Expense ratio: 1.27%. Management fee: 0.45%. After expenses, the 5 year return is 1.15%, meaning your fees are far higher than the fund's returns.

Gabelli Focus Five Fund I (GWSIX - Free Report) . Expense ratio: 1.39%. Management fee: 0.45%. Over the last 5 years, this fund has generated annual returns of -0.19%.

MainStay International Opportunities Investor (MYINX - Free Report) - 1.93% expense ratio, 1.1% management fee. MYINX is a Non US - Equity option, focusing their investments acoss emerging and developed markets, and can often extend across cap levels too. MYINX has generated annual returns of -0.31% over the last five years. Ouch!

3 Top Ranked Mutual Funds

There you have it: some prime examples of truly bad mutual funds. In contrast, here are a few funds that have achieved high Zacks Ranks and have low fees.

Janus Henderson Global Technology D (JNGTX - Free Report) is a fund that has an expense ratio of 0.83%, and a management fee of 0.64%. JNGTX is a Sector - Tech mutual fund, allowing investors to own a stake in a notoriously volatile sector with a much more diversified approach. With yearly returns of 20.3% over the last five years, this fund clearly wins.

MFS Mass Investors Growth Stock B (MIGBX - Free Report) has an expense ratio of 1.47% and management fee of 0.33%. MIGBX is a Large Cap Growth mutual fund, and these funds invest in many large U.S. firms that are projected to grow at a faster rate than their large-cap peers. Thanks to yearly returns of 12.69% over the last five years, MIGBX is an effectively diversified fund with a long reputation of solidly positive performance.

PIMCO StocksPLUS Institutional (PSTKX - Free Report) is an attractive fund with a five-year annualized return of 11.64% and an expense ratio of just 0.5%. PSTKX is classified as an Allocation Balanced fund, which seeks to invest in a balance of asset types, like stocks, bonds, and cash, and including precious metals or commodities is not unusual.

Bottom Line

So, there you have it - if your advisor has you invested in any of our "Mutual Fund Misfires of the Market," there is a good probability that they are either asleep at the wheel, incompetent, or (most likely) lining their pockets with high fee commissions at your financial expense.

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