1 Stock Mutual Fund is Positive in America... ok... WAS Positive

Well this story is a few days old now but it appears for a minute last week we had 1 stock fund in America that did not lose money. One. Now that's a bear market. By the time the article was written on Nov 9th, it was back down to zero. But in a world where -10% means you outperform most of your peers and even the "best and brightest" in hedge fund world, -5% would be fine too. As of yesterday's close Forester Value (FVALX) was only down 3% year to date - so hopefully my blog entry (ok ok, maybe the CBSMarketwatch article) drives some business his way - he only has $40M in assets after being around since 1999. Always rooting for the small guy .... actually it appears he has the same back office administrator that I've been working with.

Looks like he is a large cap value guy with average market cap at $42 Billion; here are top 10 holdings - lots of healthcare which is also the only area I like as an overweight right now (along with companies whose #1, #2, and #3 customer is the federal government). Looks like he is carrying about 15% cash to boot which in mutual fund world is akin to an individual holding 80% cash.

Top 10 Holdings

Security	Net Assets
H.J. Heinz Company (HNZ)	3.94%
Kraft Foods, Inc. (KFT)	3.73%
Wyeth (WYE)	3.65%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)	3.38%
Cardinal Health, Inc. (CAH)	3.36%
General Dynamics (GD)	3.32%
Schering-Plough Corporation (SGP)	3.19%
United Healthcare	3.10%
Allstate Corporation (ALL)	2.99%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE)	2.95%

From the CBSMarketwatch article

• For one brief, shining moment last week, Tom Forester ran the only stock mutual fund with a positive return for the year. It's best not to judge fund managers on short-term results, but in this harrowing market climate, anyone who can even approach breakeven is probably worth a closer look.
• Forester's eponymous Forester Value Fund lost 2.9% this year as of Nov. 6, according to fund-tracker Lipper Inc. By comparison, its average large-cap value rival slumped 38.1%.
• "It's been one of those years where you just can't buy and hold," Forester said. "You have to be opportunistic."
• Perhaps Forester's best opportunity this year came because of what he didn't own: financial stocks. He sidestepped the big landmines in that troubled sector, while investing heavily in defensive consumer-staples and pharmaceutical stocks to support the portfolio.
• Lately though, the fund manager's view of the U.S. market has been improving. Consequently he's taking risk in companies that others might still be wary about, but where he sees greater appreciation potential. "I've been buying the stuff that's gotten hit the most," he said. "I'm now transitioning into stocks that are a little more risky but have more upside as a result."
• "I'm basically a low P/E buyer," he said. "Low-valuation stocks generally get the best performance over a full market cycle. After they're beaten up they don't go down as much, and when the market goes up they tend to go up more."

The rest of the article goes into 3 of his picks - Valero (VLO), Daimler (DAI), and Symantec (SYMC). I think I prefer his top 10 holdings to this new group of additions :)