[Ice]

Adios

There is no question they have more advanced models and forecasting tools.Yet i know of very few of these firms that have individuals/employees that have good long term track records. I think most of these firms are in the business of SELLING information or generating FEES.

Also,if any these employees are good at researching and uncovering undervalued companies their opening their own hedge fund or mutual fund pretty quickly.

IMO one of the big reasons so many funds don't do well is they have so many FEES. There is a 5% front end load and their mgmt fee etc which is a real handicap to performance.In addition,so many of these funds have so many stocks in their portfolios they begin to look like index funds but their FEES are so much higher.

I think if an individual investor wants to beat the market he/she is going to have te get an expertise in an area and CONCENTRATE their holdings.IMO 10 stocks should be enough and if your really good less stocks. I know it is contrary to everything you hear but i have followed many of the great invetors over the last 20 years and most have CONCENTRATED their holdings.

Another thing most of these great investors do is their buying stocks that have been hammered or stocks that have not been disovered yet by the rest of the street therefore,they are getting them cheaper.There are so many examples of this it would make your head spin but i'll give you a couple.Warren Buffetts purchase of Moodys when it got spun off from D&B,Fairholme funds purchase of MCI after it came out of bankruptcy,Longleaf partners purchase of Disney during all the problems with ABC and Eisner,Clipper funds purchase of El Paso after the energy trading scandal hammered the stock to 4 or David Dremans fund purchase of UST after they got hit with a monoply lawsuit and drove the price to 15 about 5 years ago and is now trading at 50.

Those are are examples of hammered stocks except for Moodys but there are many examples of companies that investors overlook that are doing well.Probably, many of the small caps are an area where there are not as many analysts following them thus bargains are better. Good Luck to all.
Ice