An article on TheStreet.com notes that many funds launched right before the Great Depression have stood the test of time:
Wouldn't it be nice to own a fund that had survived all the way since before the Great Depression? Wouldn't you think it might do pretty well during this time of volatility?
Things are different this time, of course -- or so they say.
In investing, things are almost always different, which keeps us on our toes and prevents the trend followers from inheriting the universe.
But at the same time, seldom are things overwhelmingly and permanently different from anything that has happened before...
...It might be comforting to know that some investment funds have survived and prospered through many 'different' environments over the years. Sponsors, managers and even their names have changed. Some have experienced mergers and investment objective redirections. But the funds have endured "different" environments as extreme as the Great Depression of the 1930s, the World War that followed and the subsequent Cold War, not to mention the Internet boom and bust and myriad other cyclical events."
Don't be impressed. Fund companies buy and sell funds and flip managers throughout the years. It's irrelevant how a fund did decades ago when it was run by a different fund company with different managers, often with a different strategies. What we don't see on this list is all the funds launched in the late 1920s that went bust. The real takeaway is funds tend to launch tons of new funds shortly before markets tank. Someday we'll look back at funds launched in 1999 and 2000 that stood the test of time.
Depression Era Funds A Good Bet?
An article on TheStreet.com notes that many funds launched right before the Great Depression have stood the test of time:
Wouldn't it be nice to own a fund that had survived all the way since before the Great Depression? Wouldn't you think it might do pretty well during this time of volatility?
Things are different this time, of course -- or so they say.
In investing, things are almost always different, which keeps us on our toes and prevents the trend followers from inheriting the universe.
But at the same time, seldom are things overwhelmingly and permanently different from anything that has happened before...
...It might be comforting to know that some investment funds have survived and prospered through many 'different' environments over the years. Sponsors, managers and even their names have changed. Some have experienced mergers and investment objective redirections. But the funds have endured "different" environments as extreme as the Great Depression of the 1930s, the World War that followed and the subsequent Cold War, not to mention the Internet boom and bust and myriad other cyclical events."
Don't be impressed. Fund companies buy and sell funds and flip managers throughout the years. It's irrelevant how a fund did decades ago when it was run by a different fund company with different managers, often with a different strategies. What we don't see on this list is all the funds launched in the late 1920s that went bust. The real takeaway is funds tend to launch tons of new funds shortly before markets tank. Someday we'll look back at funds launched in 1999 and 2000 that stood the test of time.
LINK