by Shefali Anand
Monday, July 6, 2009
provided by wall street journal
Small investors, afraid of being left behind in a big rally, are piling into mutual funds that invest in emerging markets, junk bonds and volatile energy businesses.
It’s amazing the difference a rally can make in investors’ appetite for risk.
A few months ago, mutual-fund investors were yanking money out of stocks and high-quality corporate-bond funds and parking it in safer places, like money-market funds and U.S. Treasurys. Lately, however, as stock and bond markets have rebounded, mutual-fund investors have had a split personality.
They’re back to buying relatively safe investments like high-quality corporate bonds. But they’re also pouring money into the riskiest investments. They’re lukewarm toward U.S. stocks but plunging into high-octane vehicles like emerging-market companies, commodities and junk bonds—making these among the 10 best-selling mutual-fund categories this year.
“Some have said, ‘Well, if we’re going back in [the market], let’s take a real risk,’ ” says Iain Clark, chief investment officer of Henderson Global Investors.
a-taste-for-risk-again.html: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance
A Taste for Risk -- Again
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